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.
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 deliver him up.
A crowd had followed Jesus across the lake to hear Him. Then He says something that empties the room: some of these listeners do not believe. He can say it because He has known all along who they were, and which one of them would hand Him over.
The words that exposed these hearers were about His death and His going back to heaven. One writer explains what they stumbled over, and what was missing in them:
To many of His disciples this was a hard saying, and they stumbled at it. They were thinking of the "Kingdom and glory," and wanted nothing of the "Kingdom and patience" that must come first. To eat and drink into His death, whatever it might mean, was not the fulfilment of their earthly expectations. They had no heart to ask further. They got no further than the bare words and the flesh... But some of them had no power to receive it — no faith. Here He spoke out of the awareness that had always been with Him. He knew who did not believe, and how their unbelief would end in falling away and betrayal.
Another writer names three truths these hearers had to receive. They stand or fall together:
Man cannot accept Christ coming down from heaven and becoming man. Christ going into death offends his pride. Christ ascending into heaven is completely beyond his understanding. All these great truths hold together. Refuse one, and you lose them all. Faith in one will prepare the soul to believe in all.
The verse says Jesus knew "from the beginning." He did not work these people out over time. He never had to.
But, sadly, "there are some of you who do not believe." Not to believe is fatal to anyone, and most inconsistent in a disciple. Christ must be all or nothing... Jesus knew their unbelief, not by observation or experience, but from the first. He is God, and none the less so because He became man; and this is our evangelist's constant theme.
Others place this alongside the rest of what John records about Him, and read it as evidence of who He is:
His knowledge was of no human order but divine. It is also stated that He "knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him" (John 6:64), and indeed "all things that should come upon Him" (John 18:4).
These listeners carry the name disciple. The name describes their place in the crowd, not the state of their hearts.
There were some who professed to be His disciples, but they did not believe. Men might indeed follow Him in the crowd for the sake of material benefits. But no one truly came to Christ unless the Father gave it to him. The Father draws; the Son speaks; and the Spirit gives life by applying His words in power to the soul.
The verse names two groups, and the second has only one member. Judas kept his place among the twelve disciples until the moment he acted:
Until Judas revealed himself by betraying the Lord, he had his place among the apostles. We learn later why he was counted among them — so that the scripture might be fulfilled (13:18; 17:12) — while the Lord knew all the time what he was, and the terrible sin he would be guilty of. No one could deceive Christ. He knew what was in man (2:25).
Another writer contrasts Judas with the rest of the disciples:
Satan now takes actual possession of the one who was truly his own, for Judas had never believed in Christ. Peter may deny Him, and the rest of the disciples may forsake their Lord, yet Satan could never enter into them, for they were saved, had life, and the power of God kept them. The Lord knew that wicked one among His disciples.
He could have kept silent and kept the crowd. He spoke instead.
They might come to Him outwardly and in the flesh, as they did here. But even here, when He was present in the flesh, they had to come to Him in reality... or else they came to Him only in the flesh and falsely, in denial of Him. This is why our Lord revealed as much as He did — so that He might have none but real followers.
He also drew a line between the unbelievers and the traitor, and no one could tell it from His conduct:
He did distinguish between those who did not believe and the one who would betray Him; but who ever learned it, except now from His own words? Who had ever seen grace falter in Him in His dealings with all? How solemn is the patience of Divine love!
- Knowledge — "From the beginning" means Jesus never learned who these people were. He knew their unbelief "not by observation or experience, but from the first," because He is God.
- Test — What exposed them was His death and ascension. They wanted the kingdom and glory, not "the Kingdom and patience," so a hard saying was enough to sift them.
- Profession — The unbelievers here carried the name disciple. Men can follow in the crowd "for the sake of material benefits" and still not believe.
- Patience — He carried the knowledge of the traitor in silence, and no one ever saw His grace falter toward anyone.
- Purpose — He said it on purpose, "so that He might have none but real followers." The word that empties the crowd leaves only the real ones.
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no one can come to me unless it be given to him from the Father.
Jesus had just spoken in the synagogue, and many of His own followers walked away. Here He gives the reason: coming to Him is not something a person achieves but something the Father gives.
The verse opens with "This is why". The Lord is explaining why they left. None of it surprised Him, and it left those who stayed with nothing to boast about.
Jesus knew their unbelief, not by watching or by experience, but from the start. He is God, and no less so because He became man... On the other hand, those who believed had nothing to boast about. They did hold on to Jesus, but no one could come to Him unless the Father had given it to him. It was sovereign grace in God.
The account pauses here to tell us what Jesus already knew as He spoke.
This chapter shows how dead man is. The Lord's words are spirit and life, yet they only made these people stumble. In verses 64 and 65 the Gospel writer breaks off his record to tell us that Jesus spoke knowing all this. He knew in Himself what they thought and said. From the very beginning He also knew who believed, who did not, and who would betray Him.
Crowds had followed Jesus all through this chapter. So the coming He speaks of must be more than that.
To come to Him truly, they had to believe that He really was the Son of God, the living God, and that He was Man from heaven. This was faith... So our Lord said that no one could come to Him unless the Father gave it to him. Real coming meant grasping in spirit who He was, and that understanding is the Father's gift alone. They could come in a merely outward, fleshly way, as they did here. But even while He stood among them in flesh, they had to come to Him in reality.
The Father's gift is not a lone act. One writer sets this verse beside what the Lord had already said in the chapter.
Some claimed to be His disciples, but they did not believe. People might follow Him in the crowd for the sake of material benefits. But no one truly came to Christ unless the Father gave it to him. The Father draws (verse 44). The Son speaks (verse 63). And the Spirit gives life by applying His words in power to the soul.
If the gift is necessary, then without it no one would have responded to Christ. Not even with love standing in front of them in person.
How humbling and heart-breaking for us! Life and love stood there in person, in the Son of God come in flesh. Yet no one would have come to Him, and no one would have been helped by His mission, if the Father had not given Him some. Their coming was something He could count on for certain. Every person's will would have held out against Christ, if the Father had not decided that His Son should have some as the trophies of His victory and the reward of His coming down from heaven.
The verse can sound like a locked door. Read the other way round, it becomes a test anyone can apply to themselves.
Notice this. If you come to Jesus, it is proof of two things. First, that the Father has given you to Him (v. 37); for "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (v. 44), and no one comes unless the Father grants it (v. 65). Second, that God has taught you (v. 45). If you have not come, is it not because you do not believe God? (v. 45)
This verse does not cancel out human responsibility. One writer urges us to hold on to both truths.
By the grace of God, let us hold firmly to both of these great facts. God is sovereign in the way He acts in grace. Man, though fallen, is a responsible creature, and God addresses him as one. Scripture states God's sovereignty plainly. Read passages such as John 6:37-44; Romans 9:10-24; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2. Man's responsibility is just as plain. Read passages such as John 3:16-18; Romans 2:6-16; 1 Peter 4:5-6. So let us accept both, even if for now we cannot see far enough to work out exactly how they fit together.
- Given — Coming to Christ is a gift, not an achievement. The Lord says so as His followers walk away.
- Given really — This coming is not walking in the crowd. It is seeing who He truly is, and only the Father gives that.
- Given fully — The Father draws, the Son speaks, the Spirit gives life. The whole coming is God's work from start to finish.
- Given to the unwilling — Left to himself, no one would ever have come, not even face to face with love in person. The Father decided otherwise, and that is the only reason anyone came.
- Given — and provable — If you have come to Jesus, that is proof the gift was yours. If you have not, Scripture still speaks to you as responsible.
From that [time] many of his disciples went away back and walked no more with him.
The teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum is over. This time the people walking away are not the religious leaders, but people already counted among His disciples. What in His teaching drove them off, and what does their departure reveal about them and about Him?
The problem was not that His words were unclear. They took away a status His hearers assumed they already had.
His saying was "hard" to them; but where did its hardness lie? In that it cut at the roots of their national religious pride. To be told, "You have no life in you" unless there was this eating and drinking, was intolerable to them. Why, 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.
There was a second disappointment behind the first. They had a picture of what the Messiah would do, and He was describing something else.
They had looked for a King, and there stood a carpenter's Son! In the synagogue discourse He had spoken of giving His flesh for the life of the world. Most of them completely failed to understand what this might mean. But the words made it plain enough that their cherished visions of earthly glory would never come true. And so they stumbled.
The word "disciple" here describes a following, not a new life.
And many of the disciples went away, and the branches of the vine were broken off. These were people who only professed to be His. So a man might be a disciple without having new life, as far as following after Him goes.
Their leaving did not destroy a faith they had; it showed what their faith had always been.
The seed had fallen on the rock. They had not understood the Word. When it came home to their unspiritual hearts in its true character, it set before them the cross as the only way of salvation. Then they discovered that the Word had never taken root, and so it withered away.
They left at the very moment He was offering the most, not the least.
He had brought out His incomparable grace. He had brought out a truth infinitely deeper than if He had brought in the kingdom and given them the seats at His right hand and His left. Suppose it had been possible for every one of them to have the best place. What was that compared with His coming down and dying for sinners, giving eternal life, and raising them up at the last day?
We are not told where these people ended up. We are told what they stopped doing in public.
Now we are not told what became of these deserters, or whether they were saved or not. No such question is raised. We are simply told that they abandoned Christ, and no longer stood in public with His name and His cause. It is one thing to profess to be a disciple of Christ. It is quite another to stand with firm purpose of heart on the ground of public testimony for His name, in full identification with a rejected Lord... Applying the teaching of the cross very quickly thins the ranks of those who only profess.
The Lord could have softened the message and kept the numbers. He did not.
His words are certainly meant to search and sift, to reveal who is really His and who is not. How different this pure faithfulness of the Lord of glory is from the smooth words of religious misleaders! He sought no mere followers, but only those true in heart.
The same words do opposite work in opposite hearts. And those who leave have only their own will to blame.
So the warnings of the Lord hasten the departure of unbelievers. At the same time they bind the faithful more closely to Himself, and bring out their sense of what He is to their souls. The cause lay in their own will, which gave Satan power.
The words that emptied the crowd were the very words the rest could not do without.
Faith in Simon Peter answered for the rest — there was no other to whom to go: it was, and so it has remained, Christ or none at all! And for those who find it so, there are "words of eternal life" with Him. They are His words all the more surely because unspiritual men find them unacceptable.
- Test. The teaching was "hard" because it denied them the life they assumed they had. It also buried their hopes of earthly glory.
- Exposure. The test did not break a real faith; it uncovered a shallow one — seed on rock, a following without new life.
- Cost. They walked away from more than a teacher. They walked away from the One who would die for sinners and raise them at the last day.
- Sifting. He let them go instead of softening His words. He wanted true hearts, not crowds.
- Anchor. The same words that drive unbelievers away bind believers closer. For those who stay, there is simply no one else to go to.