Jesus Asks a Question: “Do you want to leave Me as well?”
Jesus Asks a Question: “Do you want to leave Me as well?”
“Have I been with all of you for so long a time and you still do not know who I am? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say then, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me?” (Jesus asking three straight questions of His disciples in John 14:9-10).
Messiah Jesus was a Master of asking questions: some were open-ended, others were very pointed; some were out of curiosity, others were challenging; some seemed rhetorical, others seemed painfully obvious; some were to reveal Himself, others were to guide the other into self-understanding; some were intentionally provocative, others were to kick-start a conversation; some questions were asked to explore a topic to deepen understanding and stretch toward the truth; some were leading questions that He designed to suggest a particular answer, and others were questions in response to questions asked of Him; some were hypotheticals to stimulate the imagination, other questions were used by Him as stepping stones to think logically from one point to the next. Jesus used questions to dignify the listener, letting that person know that He is taking that person seriously and listening carefully. Many of His questions were acts of friendship and used to pursue a more profound intimacy with someone. Jesus asked very few yes-no questions, and since time was usually irrelevant for Him when He was with people, He rarely asked a “when” question. Several biblical scholars have studied the gospels with Christ’s questions in mind, and they have literally counted a total of 307 questions in His various conversations. It seems that a worthy spiritual exercise when considering the many questions of Jesus is that we should take them personally, as if He was asking us that question right now.
“When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.” (Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners).
The Question. “Do you want to leave Me as well? (John 6:67).
Context in John 6. Soon after Jesus’ astounding feeding of the 5,000 and His walking on the turbulent Sea, He was surrounded in the synagogue by a few of the people who had been fed so miraculously earlier. Jesus saw this as a teachable moment for His audience, especially after someone in His audience said to Him, We’ll believe you if you can show us another miracle, another sign. After all, (this person continued), Moses fed our ancestors with manna in the wilderness all those years (Exodus 16). If you’re the long-awaited Prophet to replace Him, what sign can you do for us? Jesus couldn’t wait to dignify this awkward question with a self-revelation that is profound and puzzling. Jesus decided to mix the spiritual and the physical in an interesting way. He told them, Are you looking for bread from heaven? Are you seeking a sign like manna in the desert? Didn’t you just get fed out in the middle of nowhere? Well, think of this, then. I AM the Bread of Life. Think about that manna with Moses. I am like that, only I AM the living bread that came down from heaven to give His life to feed the world. Come to me and you will never be spiritually hungry again. Come to me, take me into your innermost being, into your deepest self, and you will live forever. The living Bread I give you is Myself, my own body, which I will offer as a sacrifice so that all may live. My body is real food for the soul, and my blood is real drink. Unless you eat my body and take me into yourself, and drink my blood while you’re at it, you will not have eternal life. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him. I am the Bread, the living Manna, that comes from heaven to feed you unto eternal life. Think of me as spiritual manna for your souls. (read John 6:26-58).
Come & Dine (feat. Alex Vitug) (Live)
I AM. Jesus began this rather puzzling teaching about bread and flesh and blood with what must have looked like an outlandish claim. He said I AM, a hint of the personal Name of Yahweh given to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3). I AM is an abbreviated version of the Great I AM, I AM WHAT I AM, I AM HE WHO EXISTS. Jesus here claimed to be divine, to be co-equal to the God of Israel. This is a bombshell of self-revelation, that He is at one with Yahweh, a Son of the Father in heaven. Jesus smoothly transitions from His I AM claim to that of being the Bread of Life. And He goes from there to asking the people to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Many in His audience at the synagogue were understandably perplexed, or put off by His words, to the point of walking away from Jesus by the time His teaching was finished.
“When many of His disciples heard His words, they said, ‘This is a difficult message; who can listen to it”’ But Jesus knew that His disciples were grumbling and said to them, ‘Are you offended by my words?’… After this exchange, many of His disciples turned away from Jesus and no longer walked with Him.” (John 6:60, 61, 66).
Too Tough to Swallow. (John 6:60) What did Jesus say during this extended time with various followers that was so difficult to accept, no less understand? Was it when He claimed to be kin to the Great I AM in His words “I Am the Bread of Life” (6:35, 48) Was it when He claimed to have “come down from heaven” (6:38)? Was it when He said that He would soon “ascend to where He was before” (6:62)? These words were hardly user-friendly. But He became even more graphic when He claimed that one would have to “eat His flesh and drink His blood” to have eternal life, that His flesh is “real food” and His blood is “real drink.” Any observant Jews listening to this would be scandalized with the cannibalistic overtones and the repugnant idea of drinking human blood, which was specifically forbidden in the Torah (Lev. 17:14). Since so many listeners took Jesus so literally, it’s no wonder many of those walking with Jesus decided this was the time to back away from Him amidst all His offensive and shocking words. Jesus could have stated here that, after all, He is only speaking symbolically, in metaphor. But He didn’t try to clarify things in that way. The listening audience knew this, and they walked away from Him.
Not as Difficult for Us. It’s easy for Bible readers now to have an easier time taking Jesus’ words spiritually and not literally as his audience did. We can point, for instance, to the statement in Leviticus 17:11 and 13, “The life of all flesh is in its blood. The life is in the blood.” And simply say that Jesus is simply applying that physical truth from Torah to the underlying spiritual truth of the Gospel. It’s not that difficult for us to accept that the tangible reality of human blood suggests the sanctity of blood in the spiritual world, and that we thus depend on human blood for our physical survival, and we depend on Christ’s blood for our spiritual survival. Or, too, take His words about His flesh as we now consider eating our spiritual food. We can think of the spiritual life’s three main food groups: Digesting the Scripture; Feeding on Christ through His Holy Spirit; Feasting on the Eucharist. One cannot in good conscience ever accuse the Lord of providing a bland diet! In all three spiritual foodstuffs, we swallow the Truth, thereby inviting that Truth to become a part of our very self… body, soul and spirit. By receiving Him in our obedience, we take Him into our lives in a trusting commitment, and assimilate His very Being into our beings, His Spirit in union with ours. But how would we have handled at face value His unexpected and rather brash words without the fuller knowledge of Christ that we are afforded now? Even so, of course, Christ’s message here in John 6 is well beyond our full understanding. We are still, as Job said, only on the borders of His ways.
“You do not want to leave me too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message that gives eternal life! We have learned to trust in you and have come to know that you surely are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:67-69).
Where Else Can I Go – Anchor Hymns (Live)
Commitment. The question Jesus asked His disciples ripples out to Christ-followers even now. In the midst of the desertion of many disciples, He wanted then, and He wants now, for us to clarify our position of faith with Him, our level of trust in Him. Can we find our way to trusting in His character even when we don’t completely understand what He is saying and doing? Have we found our way to become reliant on His life and message? Can we remain loyal to Jesus even when others turn away, when the momentum seems to be moving away from Him? He is faithful to us in our covenant relationship with Him, so can we remain faithful to Him?
Where Else Would We Go? Peter was once again the spokesman for the Twelve as he referred to them in his remarkable confession in John 6:68-69. In one of the most dramatic and poignant scenes in Scripture, Peter’s words that represented the Twelve also continue to represent all those who follow Jesus to this day, and his confession remains one of Scripture’s greatest, most succinct statements of faith. Peter is confessing that only the words of Jesus lead to eternal life, that Jesus is the true Messiah, the Son of God, the official heavenly representative of the Holy One of Israel. God-fearing Jews are well-acquainted with that title for Yahweh. Isaiah, overwhelmed with God’s holiness after seeing Him high and lifted up and the attending angels singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” referred to Yahweh as the Holy One almost 30 times in his book. “The great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.” (Is. 12:6); “I am Yahweh, your Holy One, Creator of Israel, your king.” (Is. 43:15). When Peter called Jesus the Holy One, he is claiming that Jesus is co-equal with Yahweh, the authentic Son of God. Since the word “saint” means “holy one,” one could say that Jesus, God in the flesh, is the ultimate Saint, the One who is perfectly saintly and completely holy.
Holy = Hebrew, Kadosh; to be set apart from the common or the ordinary; to be separate from the profane or impure; to be distinctive in character and life purpose; to have attributes that are uniquely sacred; to possess blameless integrity and innocence.
The Holy One= When we read “the Holy One,” especially in Isaiah, the literal translation is “The Holy,” and the “One” is assumed. Yahweh God, the Lord of the universe, was called The Holy in Scripture, and now it is Jesus’ turn. God the Father and God the Son are utterly distinctive in this world, set apart in every imaginable way. The Father and Son are both worthy to receive one-of-a-kind honor, respect, reverence, and adoration. They are completely separate from any taint of sin, any meager hint of evil, and have perfect freedom from anything that would compromise their character. God is Truth in spirit, Jesus is Truth in the flesh. They are both high and lifted up, above and beyond comprehension and imagination. Yahweh God had no personal shape or form, and yet remained a Person, Someone in whose image we are all made. God the Son did indeed have shape and form, and was 100% human while being 100% divine. With Jesus, He was somehow 200%… one of the factors that sets Jesus apart.
Eucharist: (also known as Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Breaking the Bread, the Table of the Lord) is the Greek word for “thanksgiving,” containing the word for grace, “charis.” The bread and wine of this sacrament is considered spiritual food, necessary for our life and growth in the Christian faith. It can be described as a physical point of contact with spiritual reality, or material matter that is a channel of God’s grace to the believer. In this great mystery, the bread and wine are offered to God, and the Holy Spirit transforms those elements to the presence of Jesus, His flesh and blood. The outer, visible substance of the bread and wine are unchanged, but the inner reality, the “essence,” is transformed into the spiritual substance of the glorified Christ. Physical food is transformed into spiritual food. The Eucharist is a celebration instituted by Christ at His last Supper, and Christians have been instructed to “remember” His death in this way in the Church. Eucharist is a memorial to remember in the biblical sense, which is “to make present,” to literally participate in the memory that is being represented. To partake of the elements in this way requires faith in the words of Jesus and early Christian tradition, because the believer is unable to perceive the natural elements literally changing into spiritual matter. The mystery of the Eucharist defies the laws of nature and so cannot be fully understood. The bread and wine are the physical channels of God’s spiritual grace and blessing to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink, real food and real drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. The one who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58). What a wonderful mystery of mysteries… The life that the Father gives to the Son passes onward to us through the Eucharist! The mystery of the mutual indwelling… We have Christ dwelling in us, as we are dwelling in Christ. A Holy Communion.
A Postcommunion Prayer. “Almighty God, we thank you that in your great love you have fed us with the spiritual food and drink of the Body and Blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, and have given to us a foretaste of your heavenly banquet. Grant that this Sacrament may be for us a comfort in affliction, and a pledge of our inheritance in that kingdom where there is no death, neither sorrow nor crying, but the fullness of joy with all your saints; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. (BCP).