Five-year Bible reading plan for 20 May 2024

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

John, Chapter 6, verses 60-71

³² declareth himself to be the Bread of life to believers, ⁶⁶ Many disciples depart from him, ⁶⁸ Peter confesseth him, ⁷⁰ Judas a devil

⁶⁰Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

⁶¹When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

⁶²What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?

⁶³It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

⁶⁴But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

⁶⁵And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

⁶⁶From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

⁶⁷Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

⁶⁸Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?

⁷¹He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Read more:John, Chapter 7

NOTES

Christ called Himself bread, and that alone was hard for His listeners to understand. But for those who remembered the unusual images characteristic of prophetic speeches, it would not have been hard to take the words about bread as one of those parables. Jesus says that...

What do the Savior's words mean about the impossibility of coming to Him unless the Father draws a person? Absolute predestination?...

What do the Savior's words mean about the impossibility of coming to Him unless the Father draws a person? Absolute predestination? The futility of any human effort when it comes to the Christian life? Or something else?

Of course, there is no question of absolute predestination when it comes to a person's destiny. After all, Jesus tells us nothing about what guides the Father when He brings one person or another to Jesus, or how far He takes that person's intentions and desires into account. And the whole biblical context compels us to think that God still takes a person's free choice into account, so that He will not drag anyone to Christ or after Christ by force. But He can certainly make use of the sincere desire of a seeker to find the living truth.

But the point may not be at all what criteria guide God as He directs a person along one spiritual path or another. Jesus Himself appears to be speaking about something else. People do not understand Him; many leave, troubled by His words. A minority remains. These people cannot leave because they have nowhere to go. In Christ they have found that very living truth, the very meaning of their own life without which this life is no longer needed by them, without which it is simply unthinkable for them.

This vividly felt and experienced uniqueness of the only possible spiritual path, this impossibility of leaving not because someone or something is holding them from outside, but because spiritually there is nowhere else to go - this is the action of God. Such a result cannot be achieved by human effort; human nature is not inclined to drive itself into a trap, into a psychological dead end from which there is only one exit. By nature, a person always tries to leave an alternative open. When it disappears, we are almost always facing the result of an external spiritual influence on the situation or on the human soul. A dark influence, if the absence of alternatives becomes hopelessness that dooms to death. A light-filled influence, if it points to the only path leading into the Kingdom.

Jesus understands perfectly well that what He says cannot be understood by human reason alone. The point here is not any special complexity in what is being discussed, but that such things cannot be explained purely theoretically. The matter is a new life, about which it is almost useless...

Jesus understands perfectly well that what He says cannot be understood by human reason alone. The point here is not any special complexity in what is being discussed, but that such things cannot be explained purely theoretically. The matter is a new life, about which it is almost useless to speak if a person has no practical experience at all of this life. In essence, everything Jesus said to His disciples during His earthly ministry was said in advance. So to speak, for growth.

With their further spiritual growth in view. For the time being they could only accept what was said on trust. But this is a voluntary matter, and therefore Jesus invites those who wish to leave to leave Him. He knows that He will be able to prove nothing to anyone. To show, yes, in due time. And then those who see will see something quite different from what they might have expected. And that will be the best proof. But that is in the future; for now there is only trust.

Still, not on empty ground. Peter does not speak of "words of eternal life" by chance. The disciples of Jesus had already seen something. They had seen clear signs of the presence of the Kingdom and the action of God's power. Signs that neither they nor anyone else had ever had to see before. And now their Teacher says something that cannot fit into consciousness at all. And each disciple finds himself before a choice: accept the Teacher as He is, or leave.

He speaks impossible, unbelievable words, sometimes sounding almost blasphemous. But the power of God is with Him, and the Kingdom too is with Him. One has to choose. To choose between God and the familiar boundaries and limits of human nature, human reason, human religiosity. Believing the impossible is always a matter of choice. And only readiness to follow God no matter what makes it possible to believe. That is why Jesus says that unless the Father draws a person, he cannot set out on such a path by himself.

Only God gives a person strength and confidence on the path along which faith in the impossible leads. Human nature is powerless here. But this was a necessary lesson, because one will have to enter the Kingdom in the same way. In an absolutely impossible way. Following the Risen One, and that is still less possible. On the way to the Kingdom everything around is constantly impossible, unbelievable, unable to fit into consciousness. And it is better to get used to this beforehand, so that later it will be easier to walk.

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