Do You Take Offense At This?

Lesson #116

With this lesson we will begin the next section defined by John 6:59 – 65, but first let us go back to the beginning of this chapter where Jesus fed the five thousand. During the night he crosses the sea to Capernaum with the crowd following the next day. When they arrived they asked him how he got there, but Jesus did not answer and instead he says to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35 ESV). Jesus continues to challenge them by saying, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51 ESV). Jesus presses on and says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53 ESV). “Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum” (John 6:59 NET). I found this to be a very interesting and meaningful adventure working through this material. I pray that you did also.

The statements Jesus was making about himself being the true living bread that came down from heaven and whoever feeds on this bread will live forever caused his disciples to say, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60 ESV). It was hard saying because they were trying to interpret was Jesus was saying literally, which was impossible. It literally could not be done, was not done and has not ever been done. Jesus often used the physical as a way to teach spiritual truths. To eat the flesh of Jesus is done by trusting or believing in him, especially in his death for our sins. This connection is made in John 6:35 when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty” (NET). “To drink his blood” means to trust in his atoning death. “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 ESV).

Throughout the Bible we encounter many “hard statements” we might grumble about or take offense at, but instead we should stop and seek to understand the best we can what they mean. Jesus knew his disciples were grumbling over what he was saying and he said to them, “Do you take offense at this?” (John 6:61 ESV). Part of the problem is that Jesus stood before his disciples as a man not so different than other men, which prevented them from submitting to his Divine power. Jesus says, “Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (John 6:62 ESV). What if Jesus were to pull back the veil of flesh and reveal his heavenly glory. Jesus “who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3 – 4 ESV). Seeing Jesus as he really is, fully man and fully God, allows one to think differently about what Jesus has been saying.

Prayer

Father, as I prayerfully work my way through this material I often think of how different the western church would be today and as a result how different our country would be if we truly believed the Scriptures and took time to learn them and apply what we learn to our lives. If we did we would reflect our heavenly citizenship and live lives quite different from the way we currently live. Father, forgive us for going astray and as a wayward child encourage us back to you.