Day 24-Friday, March 8th
John 6:60-71
Lord, to whom shall we go?

In the previous passage, we looked in depth at the statement of Jesus that His followers should “eat His flesh” and “drink His blood” and concluded that this statement was a metaphor for fully committing our lives to Christ, surrendering our all to Him.

In this passage, we will look at how the Jews responded to these statements from Jesus. In short, they found these statements difficult to swallow (pun intended).

On hearing it, many of His disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” John 6:60 NIV

Jesus, knowing their hearts, responds…

Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” John 6:61-65 NIV

Jesus clarifies that He was speaking of “spiritual matters” and that these followers are taking His words too literally. His call was and has always been for His followers to “believe” in Him and fully place their faith in Him. He once again reminds them that this belief comes from the Spirit of God working in their hearts, drawing them to salvation.

For many of these disciples, this level of commitment was too much to ask.

From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him. John 6:66 NIV

Instead of growing His popularity and increasing the number of His followers, Jesus affectively sinks His poll numbers as the crowd raised a dust cloud leaving looking for the breakfast they thought Jesus would provide that morning.

Turning to the original twelve disciples, Jesus asks the question that has echoed throughout the centuries

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. John 6:67 NIV
This is a question for our hearts today. When circumstances grow difficult, will we abandon our faith? When a loved one dies, will we turn our back on God? Or, with Peter can we respond…
Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69 NIV

Questions to consider:
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being fully committed), what is your commitment level to Jesus today? Why did you answer the way you did?
If you answered a lower number, why do you find it difficult to surrender and fully commit your life to Jesus?
Can you truly, with all your heart, make the same confession Peter makes in response to Jesus?

Scroll to Top