Bible Study series: John 6:60-71. Where else could the twelve disciples go? They would never cease following Jesus. They believed and knew that he was the Holy One of God.
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Scripture: John 6:60-71
60 Then many of his disciples who heard him said, “This message is hard. Who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, since he knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man going up to heaven where he was before? 63 The Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning that there were some who did not believe and who would betray him.) 65 He was saying to them, “For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him by the Father.”
66 After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t wish to go away too, do you?” 68 Simon Peter replied to him, “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 And we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus replied to them, “Have I not selected you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” 71 He was saying this about Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, for this man, one of the twelve, was about to betray him. (John 6:60-71)
Comments
60:
The English verbs “listen” and “hear” are the same very common Greek verb, and it carries in it the connotation of “obey” or “heed.” So the peripheral disciples were questioning whether they could follow and obey this teaching about being in union with the Son, as the Son is in union with the Father.
Carson lists four features which insulted the Jews: (1) they were interested in food, political messianism (vv. 14-15) and manipulative miracles (vv. 30-31) than in the spiritual realities which feeding the five thousand pointed. (2) They refused to relinquish their own sovereignty over spiritual matters, which blocked their first steps of faith. (3) Jesus advanced the claim that he was greater than Moses (vv. 32ff, 58). (4) they did not like extending the metaphor of eating bread to eating flesh and drinking blood, which was taboo in their culture (comments on v. 60).
61:
John clearly teaches us that Jesus has supernatural knowledge about their inner thoughts. John 5:19 shows the Son’s close connection to the Father and his listening to his Father’s instructions, as Jesus moved forward in his ministry. The Son was unable to work his powerful ministry without his Father and the power and anointing of the Spirit, but he needed both the Father and the Spirit’s anointing (Acts 10:38). What the Father does, the Son does in like manner. So we see the First and Third Persons of the Trinity in cooperation with the Second Person of the Trinity, now in human form. This is why we can never abandon the doctrine of the Trinity. It’s the fullest revelation of who God truly is. The Son knew their thoughts by the Father’s will and by the Spirit. We call this supernatural knowledge.
Then the Son uses the verb “offend.” They were shocked by his words, so they “drew back” or “went away.”
62:
If the disciples are offended when Jesus is still with them, would they fall away after he ascended on high? The professional grammarians tell us that we are supposed to supply the answer: Would you fall away then?
63:
Once again, see this post for an exegesis of v. 63:
John 6 and Partaking of His Body and Blood
64:
Jesus shocks them with the statement that some of them do not believe in him, who will be revealed in v. 66. He then reveals that someone, unnamed until v. 71, will betray him or hand him over. Let’s wait until then.
For now, Klink writes: “It is strange that the narrator inserts here the future betrayal of Jesus by one of his disciples. Just as Jesus knew in the past that some disciples would not believe in the present, so also he knows in the present that a certain disciple will reveal his unbelief in the future. The allusion to Judas here also serves as an allusion to the cross, the very thing ‘some of’ these disciples are rejecting” (Klink, comment on v. 64).
65:
This verse parallels v. 37: “Everyone whom my Father gives to me will come to me, and I will in no way throw out the one coming to me.” Verse 39: “This is the will of the one who sent me: That everyone whom he gives me I will not lose any of them.” And v. 44: “No one can come to me unless the one who sent me draws him.”
The spiritual road is rough, for his sayings are hard and his geographical travels require stamina and loss of comfort. So unless the Father grants people the capacity and ability to follow his Son, they will not make it. In this small context, he is referring to his disciples right there, just before many of them depart from him (v. 66). Does this mean that the invitation of the gospel goes out to a limited number and only a limited number? No, the call goes out to everyone, and then everyone who hears and believe it is welcome to follow Jesus. What happens after that depends on the cooperation of the disciple and the Father. The Father is willing—even eager—to sustain the disciple, but the disciple must do his part and remain in union with Christ Jesus.
Remaining a Christian or Falling Away?
Possible Apostasy or Eternal Security?
66:
And here is the (sad) result of their hearing his hard words. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood? Really? These words were too symbolic for their dull minds. They were taking him literally.
“After this” can also be translated “as a result of this” (Novakovic, p. 228).
“walk with him”: that is a literally translation, but another translation could read “follow him.” A disciple literally walked behind his master-teacher.
“What they wanted, he would not give; what he offered, they would not receive. So, like many of his Jerusalem followers earlier (John 2:23-25), many of his Galilean followers now failed to stand the test of unreserved allegiance. To be attracted by the signs is one thing, to appreciate and embrace their inward significance is another; and it only those who do the latter who can be counted as true disciples (Bruce, comments on v. 66).
67-69:
The look of Jesus, that is, he looks at his twelve and asks the big question. In Greek, the professional grammarians teach us that the question expects a no or negative answer. So Jesus has confidence in the Father’s ability that he can keep the twelve (but see vv. 70-71), so he asks the question that demands a no answer. They will not leave him. But why did they not want to go? Verse 69 answers the question. Here in v. 68 Peter replies to Jesus’s question with words that have comforted people for many centuries. Where else would the twelve go away? Jesus alone has the words of eternal life (see v. 27 for more discussion of eternal life).
“Truth calls for commitment. It allows no place for what is false. To accept the truth is to forsake all attempts to find ultimate meaning in the vagaries of human existence” (Mounce, comment on vv. 67-69).
No religion can match Jesus. They pile up rules upon rules, while Jesus provides union with him and his Father.
Ten Big Differences between Christianity and Other Religions
“eternal life”: see v. 27 for more comments.
In v. 69, Peter says that the twelve (minus Judas) have believed and have known that he is the Holy One of God. When the going gets tough, their faith and knowledge will be so tested and stretched. Peter will eventually deny Jesus, so once again John is setting people up and testing them to find out how deep their faith and knowledge really goes. Of course this confession parallels the passages in which Peter professes that Jesus is the Messiah (Matt. 16:16; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20).
Borchert is right to see Peter’s confessions as separate, this one in v. 69 as later:
From this side of the resurrection the words “The Holy One of God” (6:69) undoubtedly carried for the evangelist, as they should for the reader of John, the full implications of an incarnational messianic confession. What those words could have meant for Peter at that earlier time is difficult to determine. At least they must have meant that the hope of Israel was tied up in Jesus. In the Johannine sense life was at stake, and Peter was at that stage not willing to abandon the possibility of that hope (6:68; cf. 20:31). Moreover, since holiness is an attribute of God, Peter was confessing at least a direct connection between Jesus and the God of the Patriarchs. (comments on vv. 67-69).
“The disciples had from early on been more than willing to Jesus as the Messiah (cf. 1:41, 45, 49), but now they see him and their understanding as something more. There are no parallels for this title in Judaism. Rather, rooted in the words of Jesus, ‘the Holy One of God’ is the emissary, the one who came descending and ascending, the ‘I AM,’ the ‘bread of life,’ the revelation of God, the Judge and the life, the Son of Man. Peter is confessing what he has been ‘given’ to see and believe. It is to all of this that the Gospel has been serving as witness. In Jesus is found everything God wants to do and is doing” (Klink, comment on v. 69).
70-71:
Jesus selected the twelve. He prayed before he did (Luke 6:12). And he listened to his Father, who told his Son whom to select. The Father ordained that Jesus would select Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, the one who was about to betray him. Luke also says that the devil entered Judas (22:3). So we need to take comfort with the fact that when Satan uses a human to attack us, God will see us through the attack. Jesus was resurrected and vindicated, and the resurrected Jesus restored Peter.
On the name Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, see this link:
The Meaning of the Names of the Twelve Apostles
Judas was one of the most common names in greater Palestine (one of Jesus’s brother was so named), so the Gospel authors distinguished between them with other markers like son of Simon Iscariot.
GrowApp for John 6:60-71
1. When the going gets tough, are you tempted to abandon him?
2. Do you believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life? What does this mean to you?
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 