Taken for Granted

Rev. Steven D. Spencer, Pastor

John 6:60-70

60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" 61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 "What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 "Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

Our text today is really part of a larger dialog that started when Jesus fed the five thousand in John 6:10. Over the past few weeks we have been learning about Jesus as the bread of life come down from heaven. Now in John 6:60-70 we see how the crowds respond to this Bread of Life message Jesus delivered. Remember, we’re dealing with people who had followed Jesus for some time. These people had been enthusiastic about his teaching in the past. They had heard teaching like the Sermon on the Mount, they had come hungering and thirsting for more. They were now hearing Jesus tell them that they were helpless to approach God – there isn’t about anything they can do, to contribute to the work of the Father within. This week, we see two distinct responses from His crowd of followers: some deserted Jesus; but the true believers stayed with Him even when it got tough. 

First, notice that deserters grumble but believers trust. Verses 60-61: Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” 61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? The first question we should have is “What is this hard teaching?” It’s everything seen in chapter 6: It’s the truth that Jesus and Jesus alone is what satisfies! We can’t earn our way into God’s good graces, but God grants them by His good pleasure – our social status, our pedigree, our Lutheran heritage, our good works do nothing to improve our position before God. To use an image that we’ve explored before, Jesus is the bread of life, and we might as well admit this, we are nothing but poor beggars.

Secondly, we need to ask, “Why is this a hard teaching?” For the original audience this was a hard teaching because they had already risked so much to go out into the desert to hear Jesus. It was hard because they were longing for a political messiah who would restore the good fortunes of Israel, return them to power, make them a mighty nation; restore the Promised Land. It was hard because deep down they liked being special, and they had begun to think that they deserved it.

Why is it hard for us today? It is hard because we like control.  We have this idea that with enough hard work and elbow grease, God will have to accept us. It's hard because we define “good” as “being nice” rather than as “obeying God’s Law.” It’s easy to be nice – it’s hard to be good.  Notice that they didn’t try to refute this hard teaching. They didn’t shake their fists and proclaim Jesus as a madman. Rather, they grumbled and muttered and then in verse 66 they turned back – they skulked away, muttering and grumbling probably something like this: “Well, if He’d just be reasonable...” “Most of what He said was great, but He’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” “If he just learned to be a little more sensitive...” You see the essence of grumbling is to think that the problem is outside yourself rather than within. Grumbling seeks to put the blame elsewhere, to avoid personal responsibility, to point at someone or something else as the fault and to avoid the question “Is this true?”

In C.S. Lewis's book The Great Divorce, he tells of hell as a dismal town where people live. They can create houses at a whim, but the people there are so disagreeable that everyone keeps moving farther and farther away. Lewis tells about one person in hell who wanted to see somebody famous, but all the famous sinners had moved hundreds of miles away from anyone else. So, this person figured out where Napoleon lived and spent months traveling there. When he got there, he found a huge mansion filled with light.  And when he peeped in the window, he saw Napoleon marching up and down the halls muttering, “It was Josephine’s fault. It was Wellington’s fault. It was Lafayette’s fault...” “It can’t be me! The problem has to be out there!”

We might be able to play that game with other people, but we can’t play it with God. The grumblers ultimately desert, but the true believers trust. Look at the second half of Peter’s reply in verse 69: "We have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That’s enough – all we really can do is believe and know. This believing and knowing opens us to the inward work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then teaches us how to respond in faith, and He gives us strength. But it begins with the action of belief, belief that is granted from the outside and changes the inside.

Deserters' grumble and believers trust, but deserters rely on themselves while believers rely on Jesus. Look at Jesus’ response in verses 61-64. He pinpoints the offense that his hearers took. They were expecting an earthly messiah, who would usher in an earthly kingdom, but in verse 63 Jesus refutes that by saying: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." Jesus is saying that physical things are not sufficient for matters of salvation. It's not that the physical things are all bad while the spiritual are all good. Rather, when it comes to salvation our flesh, our earthly actions do nothing to add or contribute, for faith and salvation is granted by God.

Let's look more closely at verse 63 (NIV): “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” The Greek word for “flesh” is sarx. But the Greek word most often translated, as body is Soma. Sarx is flesh. Soma is body, referring to the physical body of man or woman, such as our bones and tendons, eyes, ears etc. This is important so please listen; John tends to use sarx not so much to indicate material things but to indicate the urges that arise from within us, those carnal urges that oppose the will of God. The “body” is the created physical thing; but the flesh is what desires to place creature above creator.

This distinction is important because the deserter is not just interested in bodily things; he is interested in putting his own priorities over God’s. Many of these people would have been willing to sacrifice their bodies to bring in a political kingdom. But Jesus’ priority was to magnify the Father’s praise throughout the whole world.

In putting his own priorities over those of God, the deserter trusts in himself. In effect, he says, “I know what is needed and necessary, I know better than God.” The deserter sees things in terms of what needs to be done rather than in terms of what has been done. The focus is all wrong, inwards rather than upwards.

The deserter tries to manufacture what he thinks is the right outcome; the true believer has trust in Jesus. Let's look at Peter’s words again: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” This is one of the few times Peter speaks without boasting. In chapter 13 he would say, “I will lay down my life for your sake.” In Matthew 14 he told Jesus to let him walk on the sea. Peter liked to talk about himself, but this time he didn't do it. Here, good old Peter got it right. He humbled himself before Jesus. Shouldn't that always be the way? When things are going well, we like to talk about what we will do for God. But when everybody is turning away, when things look bleak, the truth is revealed, and we can only talk about Jesus having the words of life.

So, deserters grumble while true believers trust. Deserters rely on themselves while true believers rely on Jesus. Something else to note, deserters start strong, believers finish strong. Notice that all the people who left were considered “disciples.” They had followed Jesus, but when things didn’t go the way they expected, the way they wanted they left. But the eleven of the twelve remained faithful. These were men would go on to be martyred for the faith.

Verses 70-71 remind us about Judas. Of the twelve, only he would later desert. This lets us know that deserters don’t all desert at the same time. Some wait longer and actually become traitors. All throughout history we see this pattern of starting strong and deserting later. King Saul started well, delivering the Israelites from the Philistines. But he thought that his way of doing things was better than God’s way, so he slipped into insanity and ultimately died with his kingdom in ruins. Joseph Stalin started out studying to be a priest – a good beginning. But he turned from that to become one of the most ruthless dictators history has ever seen. As he lay on his deathbed, he took a great final gasp, raised a clenched fist to heaven, and collapsed. A good start doesn’t guarantee a good finish.

But the rest of the twelve finished well: they carried the gospel around the Mediterranean; they witnessed the resurrection; they saw the tongues of fire at Pentecost; they watched the church grow throughout the Roman Empire; they paid the price of martyrdom for their faith. And as a result, their legacy lives on in the church today. They finished well.

Ultimately, deserters have no resources to draw upon but their own. This leaves them bitter, disappointed and frustrated. But the person of faith trusts and relies on Jesus. That trust, that faith comes from God. Jesus says in verse 65: “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”  Faith granted by the Father, faith from the outside of you, working it way in you. Faith granted from above. Faith granted not taken but often taken for granted. Faith that works its way of salvation in you! Faith that gives you the strength to finish strong! Faith that grants eternal life, granted by God for Jesus work and Jesus sake. In Jesus name, Amen!