Many therefore of his disciples having heard [it] said, This word is hard; who can hear it?
Jesus had been teaching that He is the bread that came down from heaven, and that people must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Now His own followers, not just the crowd, call the teaching unbearable — which raises two questions: what was so hard about it, and why did He answer with something harder still?
The difficulty was not that the teaching was obscure. It was that it stripped away something they were counting on.
These remarkable teachings of our Lord tested and sifted His disciples, and many took offence. His saying was "hard" to them. But where did its hardness lie? It cut at the roots of their national religious pride. They could not bear to be told, "You have no life in you" unless there is this eating and drinking. They took it for granted that life was theirs as the nation owned by God. They had not given up that idea, even though they thought they had found the promised Messiah in Jesus.
Commentators differ on the exact sticking point. One reading separates the earlier objection of the Jews from this later one by the disciples.
Note this. The Jews murmured, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" But that is not what made the disciples say, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" They said it because He was the bread that came down from heaven. So our Lord's answer is, "Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?"
Others tie the offence to His death, and see the same refusal in every generation.
It was a hard saying to these Jews who gathered around Him and to some who professed to be His disciples. It is a hard saying today — it was never a harder saying than it is today... They don't like the death of Christ as the way of life and blessing. They would like Christ without a cross. They would like a gospel without blood. They will not admit that death lies on them because they are sinners. Only the death of the One who never sinned can lift it.
He did not soften the message. He pointed them to His ascension — and that offended them even more than His humiliation had.
If they found His coming down from heaven or His dying hard, what if they saw the Son of Man going up where He was before?... But the Jews had long set their will on Israel's hopes in their own land. They did not like a higher outlook any more than a lower one. The cross and heaven were both outside their field of vision... So when disciples murmured at His words of humiliation, He told them of His exaltation — and, sad to say, that offended them even more.
The thinning of the crowd showed the difference between two kinds of following.
It is one thing to profess to be a disciple of Christ. It is another thing altogether to stand with firm purpose of heart, publicly witnessing to His name, fully identified with a rejected Lord. It is one thing for people to flock to Christ because of the benefits He gives. It is quite another to hold to Him in the face of the world's scorn and contempt. Teaching the doctrine of the cross very quickly thins the ranks of those who merely profess.
The saying tested what these followers were really after.
But it was a test: did they have faith in Him Himself, or were they following for selfish reasons? True faith would say that, whether I understand or not, the Lord's wisdom is higher than mine.
Peter, who stayed, was no better informed than those who left. What held him was a Person, not a solved problem.
It is not that Peter understood the Lord's position much better than those who left. Much in His teaching puzzled him and disappointed his own expectations. But he at least recognised the good Shepherd's voice, and so he clung to Him through it all. He felt there was no one else in the whole universe of God to whom his heart could rightly turn.
- Hard, not unclear — they could not bear being told they had no life in themselves. It cut at the root of their religious pride.
- Hard, then harder — He did not soften His words. He pointed to the Son of Man going up where He was before, and both the cross and heaven were outside their view.
- Hard for the cross — they wanted Christ without a cross and a gospel without blood. That demand has never gone away.
- Hard sayings sift — teaching about the cross quickly thins the ranks. It divides those who follow for the benefits from those who stay with a rejected Lord.
- Hard, yet held — faith does not wait until it understands. Peter was as puzzled as the rest, but he knew the Shepherd's voice and had nowhere else to go.
But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmur concerning this, said to them, Does this offend you?
Jesus has just finished teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, and His words have cut deep. Even people who had been following Him are grumbling under their breath — and He hears what no one said out loud.
Their complaint was not about hard words. It was about what those words took away.
These remarkable teachings of our Lord tested and sifted His disciples, and many took offence. His saying was "hard" to them; but where did its hardness lie? In this — it cut at the roots of their national religious pride. To be told, "You have no life in you" unless there is this eating and drinking, was intolerable to them. They took it for granted that life was theirs, since they were the nation owned by God. They had not given up that idea, even though they thought they had found the promised Messiah in Jesus. Now He knew "in Himself" that these disciples were objecting under their breath, since He knew all things. So He set before them an even greater test.
The same offence outlives the synagogue.
It was a hard saying to these Jews who gathered around Him, and to some who professed to be His disciples. It is a hard saying today — it was never a harder saying than it is today. Many who profess to be His disciples still find it a hard saying. They don't like the death of Christ as the way of life and blessing. They would like Christ without a cross. They would like a gospel without blood.
No one told Him what was being said. The phrase "in Himself" points to the kind of knowledge at work.
His insight into people's hearts and motives is shown again and again — as it was said, "He heard men thinking." … In certain cases His knowledge is especially extraordinary. For example, when someone touched the fringe of His garment, He knew at once "in Himself" that power had gone out of Him (Mark 5:30). In the same way Mark 2:8 and John 6:61 prove that His knowledge was of no human order but divine. Scripture also says that He "knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him" (John 6:64).
He does not take back a word. He answers with a question instead.
Again His divine omniscience is clear in His answering this hidden murmuring. Did they not see His greatness and wisdom shown in this very thing? But spiritual blindness is unreasonable. He speaks firmly, "Do you take offense at this?" Surely only unbelief could stumble at the word of the Son of God.
The next verse does not lower the demand. It points them to the Son of Man going up where He was before.
If they found His coming down from heaven hard, or His dying, what if they saw the Son of Man going up where He was before? … Jewish will had long turned only to Israel's hopes in their land, and did not like a higher view any more than a lower one. The cross and heaven were equally outside their field of vision. So the Lord here confronts them with His own ascension as a most unwelcome truth. … But when disciples grumbled at His words of humiliation, He told them of His exaltation. Sadly, that offended them even more. Had they been true, had they known and loved the truth, it would have been their joy. But they valued the first man more than the Second, and were more and more offended.
Three things run through the chapter: He came down, He died, He goes up.
All these great truths are bound together. Refuse one, and all are lost. Faith in one will prepare the soul to believe in all.
The stumbling came from inside the circle of followers.
Such is the flesh even in disciples. It profits nothing. It is the Spirit who gives life, and this by and in Christ, never apart from Him. … Not to believe is fatal to anyone, and utterly inconsistent in a disciple. Christ must be all or nothing. If He is all, His words are no reproach to the believer but a delight. They have power all through — more and more, as He is better known. Jesus knew their unbelief, not by watching or by experience, but from the first. He is God, and no less God because He became man.
- Hard, not obscure. The saying was not confusing; it stripped them of a life they assumed they already had by birth and religion.
- Heard, not reported. He knew the murmuring "in Himself." That knowledge was divine, not human — the same knowledge that saw the unbeliever and the betrayer from the start.
- Exposed, not excused. "Do you take offense at this?" is not a concession. Only unbelief takes offence at the word of the Son of God.
- Raised, not lowered. They stumbled at His coming down and His dying, so He spoke of His going up. Refuse one truth and all are lost; believe one and the soul is ready for the rest.
- Spirit, not flesh. The flesh profits nothing, even in a disciple. The Spirit gives life, and to faith His words are no reproach but a delight.
If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?
The Lord has just called Himself the bread that came down from heaven. Now His own followers, not the crowd, call His words unbearable. He does not explain. He asks another question: if what He has said already offends them, what will they make of the Son of Man going back up?
One writer separates the two complaints. The crowd stumbled over the eating; the disciples stumbled over where He came from.
Note this. Though the Jews murmured, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" that was not what made the disciples say, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" What they stumbled at was that He was "the bread that came down from heaven." So our Lord's answer is, "Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?"
They could not accept that He had come down. So He points to the journey back. The ascent proves the descent.
The chapter has moved from His becoming man, to His death, to His going up. These are not three separate claims to sort through and accept in part.
Do they find it hard to believe that Christ became a man, and that He died? Then how much more will it offend them if the One who is going into death ascends into glory? The natural man, and even the flesh in disciples, cannot rise above earth and material blessings. Man cannot accept Christ coming down from heaven and becoming a man. Christ going into death offends his pride. Christ ascending into heaven is completely beyond what he can grasp. All these great truths hold together. Refuse one, and you lose them all. Faith in one will prepare the soul to believe them all.
Two details matter. It is the Son of Man who ascends. And He ascends to where He was before.
If they stumbled at the thought of the Son of God coming down, what would they say to the Son of Man going up?… Note that He ascends as Son of MAN. It was a wonder that God should descend to earth: it was no less a wonder that Man should ascend to heaven. Jesus of Nazareth is in heaven. And He is "where He was before." This is a striking witness that His Person is one and cannot be divided.
He goes back to a place He knew. But He does not go back as He came.
The Lord had said He was the "bread come down from heaven to give life to the world." Then He tells us, "Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you." This makes the realisation of His death essential to having life, for the blood separate from the flesh is the state of death. To this He adds, "Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?" … Here He presents Himself as the Object of faith — come as man, dead, and going back to heaven, only the last in a new state in which man never was before.
Their hopes were fixed on their own land. A cross below them and a heaven above them were both outside the frame.
Jewish hearts had long turned only to Israel's hopes in their land. They had no more taste for a higher view than for a lower one. The cross and heaven were equally out of their field of vision. So the Lord here confronts them with His own ascension as a most unwelcome truth. Yet it is a truth that rightly follows His death, and it fits with His coming down to be a man… It all hangs together here. In fact, it is while He is ascended on high that faith feeds on Him in life and death here below.
He asked it as a question. It has since happened.
What He only hints at to His disciples in our chapter has since become fact. It is one of the great foundation-facts of Christianity. Christ has gone up on high. The Son of Man has ascended to where He was before… Nor would He be there alone. "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." Heaven is now the revealed home and sphere of that eternal life.
- Down. The disciples stumbled at His coming down from heaven, not at the eating — so He answers the objection at its root.
- Death. His coming as man, His cross and His ascension form one chain. Drop one link and the rest go with it. Believe one, and the soul is ready to believe all.
- Up. He returns as Son of Man to where He was before — Man in heaven, in a state no man had ever been in.
- One. Coming down and going up, He is one undivided Person — God who came to earth, Man who went to heaven.
- Ours. He is not there alone; heaven is now the home of the life He gives, and faith feeds here below on the One who is up there.
It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.
Jesus has just spoken of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and many of His followers call it a hard saying. This verse is His own key to it: it tells us what "flesh" cannot do, who gives life, and how His words reach a person.
The word does not point first to gross sin. Commentators take it to mean all of natural human life, weighed against eternity.
The flesh, as the Lord speaks of it here, would involve the whole of man's existence in present things apart from God. Man's life naturally consists of the things that occupy him in this world. They profit him nothing, because death finishes them forever. His life is a life of flesh, a life of natural desires in which he seeks to gratify the nature into which sin has entered. The question here is not the evil of man's flesh. It is the whole course of human life that busies itself with present things instead of eternal things.
If flesh only meant the coarse and immoral, education might improve it. The verdict falls on the cultivated as much as the crude.
The unbelief of the flesh only proves that it profits nothing. It may be highly cultivated, as with Nicodemus or a Saul of Tarsus. Even so, it is completely unable to take in the things of God. It is the Spirit that quickens, through Christ and His words, which partake of the character of the Spirit. They are spiritual, and where the Spirit works they are life.
Nicodemus was a respected teacher who came to Jesus by night. Saul of Tarsus was a strict Pharisee before he became the apostle Paul.
This verse tells us how to read His earlier words about eating His flesh.
Verse 63 says, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." That makes it clear: we must not take the Lord's words you ask about in a material sense. The eating and the drinking He speaks of is not done with the mouth. It also has nothing at all to do with the Lord's Supper, where we eat bread and drink wine. Yet when we eat and drink these, we declare that we are among those who have eaten the Saviour's flesh and drunk His blood.
The same reasoning is set out at length elsewhere: the chapter speaks of One who came down from heaven, gave Himself for the life of the world, and would ascend up where He was before — none of which can be squeezed into an ordinance.
We take the words spiritually, as Christ in the chapter itself tells us to do (v. 63).
The older wording is "quickens." That word has one fixed sense.
In the New Testament the Greek word is zōopoieō. It always means making alive those who are in the state, or under the power, of death. So it is sometimes used to mean resurrection, but it is never used of the wicked dead. It is God's work: the term is used in connection with the Father (John 5:21), with the Son (John 5:21), and with the Spirit (John 6:63). The term itself carries the principle of divine sovereignty. God makes alive according to His will.
His words are the channel; the Spirit is the power.
Spiritual things were communicated by the word. Then, by the power and action of the Spirit, they become realities in the soul — living realities, a real part of our being.
Taken up by natural ability alone, the same words do the opposite work.
The bare letter of God's truth, apart from the Spirit's work in us, does not give us life. The word of God does not take root in our old fallen nature. Instead, that word only condemns our old and fallen nature, and teaches us the truth about ourselves. Apart from the Spirit of God, the letter kills. What more could it do? For the word tells us that we are in our sins and need life, and shows us that life is the gift of God.
If the life is in the words and the Spirit, the one who passes them on can stop leaning on technique.
If you are teaching passages of Scripture, you are like a person planting acorns. The manner of planting is not the chief thing, but whether there is a germ of life in the seed or not. The Lord said, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." So you may be sure that in teaching Scripture you are teaching words of life.
- Sentence. "The flesh is no help at all" is God's verdict on natural life taken up with present things. Death ends it.
- Source. Life is not self-produced. To quicken means to make alive those under the power of death, and it is God's work, done according to His will.
- Channel. The Spirit gives that life through Christ's words. By His action they become living realities in the soul, not just text.
- Safeguard. Christ tells us to take His words spiritually. The eating He speaks of is not done with the mouth.
- Confidence. The life is in His words. So teaching Scripture is planting seed that already holds life.