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.
Jesus therefore said to the twelve, Will ye also go away?
The crowd that ate the loaves has thinned. Many followers have walked away. The Lord turns to the twelve, the small group still with Him, and asks a question instead of pleading. What He asks reveals both the cost of following Him and the reason true disciples cannot leave.
The chapter has already sifted every other group. Only the twelve remain.
With the flesh exposed in its unbelief, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. The people, the Jews, and the disciples have all shown the truth of the Lord's words, "The flesh is no help at all." One circle is left — the twelve. And the Lord asks, "Do you want to go away as well?"
The way the question is put is not a request for information. It sets a possibility before them that can hardly be true.
In questions it is not only, as people usually say, that a "no" answer is expected. The question puts the thing forward as not so. Or it points to a situation that made the question likely to carry a doubt, or an unwanted, unpleasant possibility — one that can hardly be thought true, and so raises the question. It is not asking for information.
He does not argue them into staying. His confidence rests on the Father, and the way back stays open.
But whatever grief this may have been to His tender heart, His confidence in His Father remained unshaken. Already He had said: "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me," and He desires no more than these. Even now He tells the twelve who remain that He has closed no door behind them. He has given them the chance to go back to what they left in order to follow Him.
What broke the crowd was the mention of His death. It exposed two kinds of followers.
They were ready to follow a Christ who could give them bread to eat and make life easy for them. But following a rejected Christ who was about to die had no appeal for them. So "many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." There were, however, those who were true disciples, like Simon Peter... Peter and his fellow disciples were not drawn to the Lord by loaves and fishes, but to Himself and His words of eternal life.
Peter had no clearer grasp of the teaching than those who left. What held him was something else.
People falling away tests us all. Those who are not real have often slipped in among the people of God, only to turn away in time. Such sifting times show where all hearts really are... 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 did at least recognise the good Shepherd's voice, and so he clung to Him through it all.
Peter's reply is a question back — and it has no answer, because the alternatives are empty.
There was no one else to whom they could go. To turn back to the scribes, the teachers of the law, would have been to step out of the light of heaven into the darkness of a dungeon. He was the only one in the universe who had the slightest attraction for them.
Two short phrases in Peter's confession carry it — what Christ has, and what Christ is.
He saw in measure what He was and what He had. What He is forms the immovable resting-place of our souls as we rest in Him and His work. What He has becomes the everlasting supply to our souls in their many needs. Get those blessed words into your hearts: "You have," and "You are." Then all the need of your soul will find its full answer in Christ.
The Lord's next words show He was not resting on Peter's confidence. He knew the circle He addressed.
The Lord's reply showed that He knew better than Peter. The eleven were indeed sound. But one would turn out to be false, and He did not say then which one... No one could deceive Christ. He knew what was in man. He knew that some of the crowd which had followed Him across the water did not believe. He knew who would betray Him.
- Sifted — the crowd, the Jews and the wider disciples have each turned away. Only the twelve are left to be tested.
- Free — He closes no door behind them. He leaves the way back open, so what stays with Him is real.
- Searching — the question does not ask for information. It sets before them a possibility that can hardly be true.
- Held — Peter understood no more than those who left. He knew the Shepherd's voice, and there was no one else to go to.
- Satisfied — "You have" and "You are" answer every need. What Christ has supplies the soul; what Christ is steadies it.
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal;
Peter speaks at a low point. The crowd Jesus fed has thinned. Many followers have walked away. Jesus turns to the twelve — the disciples closest to Him — and asks if they will go too. His answer is not an argument but a question thrown back — and it settles where his heart is.
The same words emptied the room and held the few who stayed. One writer traces both results to the Lord's warnings, and to the will of those who walked out:
So the Lord's warnings 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 freer they are, the more they are bound. He alone is worthy.
Peter's question has a precise shape. He does not ask about a destination:
Peter did not say, Lord, where shall we go, but "Lord, to whom shall we go?" The Lord Himself, in all His attractiveness, filled Peter's vision. His words, words of eternal life, held his heart. Others might value the loaves and fishes, but Simon Peter prized the words of eternal life, infinite in spiritual value. Peter was learning in the company of his Lord that His words were the expression of Himself.
Peter's question came from more than loyalty. One writer traces it to conscience:
You get this desire of conscience here in Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" When the sifting comes, nothing else could replace Christ. There is nothing else that can. They knew that if they had not Christ there was nothing left. The heart and the conscience want Him, and that is eternal life. I might have every thought right as to truth without this. There is no true work where this is not done in the conscience. The heart is drawn to Jesus because the soul sees who He is.
Peter does not say Jesus has a message. He says Jesus has words. That plural carries weight for how Scripture itself came to us:
All writings are made up of words, and if these writings are inspired, the words are inspired. Many call this "verbal inspiration." Other passages also stress the importance of "words." Peter said, "To whom shall we go? You have the words (Greek: rhemata) of eternal life," John 6:68 — and we find those words in the Gospels.
Walking away from Jesus did not leave those disciples with nothing. It left them with everything except the one thing:
The Lord's teaching has exposed the unbelief of the flesh. It has also confirmed the faith of true believers. If such leave Him they might still keep an outward religion, present ease and honour in this world. But for ever they would leave behind life — eternal life — and all the heavenly and eternal blessing to which eternal life must lead.
Peter had no better grasp of the hard saying than the people who left. He stayed on a different basis:
It is not that Peter understood the Lord's position much better than those who withdrew. Much in His teaching puzzled him and disappointed his own expectations. But he at least recognised the good Shepherd's voice, and so clung to Him through all. He felt that there was no other in the universe of God to whom his heart could rightly turn.
One writer pairs what Christ has with what Christ is, and finds in the two everything a soul needs:
He saw in some measure what He was and what He had. What He is forms the immovable resting-place of our souls as we rest in Him and His work. What He has becomes the everlasting supply to our souls in their many needs. Get into your hearts those blessed words, "You have," and "You are." Then all the need of your soul will find its full answer in Christ. He loves to give what He is and what He has to the longing heart.
- Whom, tested. The Lord's hardest words hastened the unbelievers out. The same words bound the real disciples closer to Him.
- Whom, not where. Peter asks about a Person, not a destination — the Lord Himself, not the loaves and fishes, filled his vision.
- Whom, in conscience. Peter's certainty came from conscience. Nothing else could replace Christ. A person can hold every right thought about truth and still lack this.
- Whom, in His words. Peter clung to words, not to a vague message. If the writings are inspired, the words themselves are inspired.
- Whom, at cost. Those who left kept their outward religion, ease and honour. They lost eternal life and everything it leads to.
and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God.
A crowd of followers has just walked away from Jesus, and He asks the twelve — His closest disciples — if they want to leave too. Peter answers for them all, naming two things: what Christ has, and what Christ is.
One writer names the difference between the two kinds of followers this moment exposed.
It is one thing to claim to be a disciple of Christ. It is quite another to take a firm stand in public for His name, fully identified with a rejected Lord. It is one thing for people to flock to Christ for the benefits He gives. It is quite another to hold on to Him in the face of the world's scorn and contempt. Preaching the cross very quickly thins the ranks of those who only profess.
Older English Bibles read "the Christ, the Son of the living God" here. The earliest manuscripts give another title, and one writer asks where Peter may have found it.
Peter's reply was ready at once... The words of Christ had sunk deep into his soul. He had felt their power... And he was sure of the truth about Christ's person. He was the Holy One of God. Psalm 16:10 had spoken of God's Holy One. Was Peter thinking of that, when calling Him here, not "the Christ, the Son of the living God," but, as the best manuscripts read, "the Holy One of God"?
A demon had used this same title of Jesus. One writer shows why it means something completely different on Peter's lips.
Peter confesses Christ in the very same terms the demon used, but with the demon it was awful alarm... If we knew our Lord Jesus only as the gracious One, something would still be missing for our souls. He is the One who never allowed evil of any kind — He always refused it. And that is my comfort: the One who loves me best is the One who sees me through and through... But Peter shows the simplicity and growth of faith. He does not tremble. He does not grow weak. He does not go along with those who had left. Instead he confesses that Jesus is the Holy One of God at the very moment he says, "We have believed, and have come to know." There was no flinching and no hiding. There was no danger that this Holy One would find something in them that would make Him cast them out of His presence.
The tense of Peter's verbs carries weight.
Note the force of the perfect tense: "We have been believing." They had formed the habit in their hearts of thinking this of Him. For the disciples it was not a matter of mere opinion, and opinion has no lasting certainty... A necessary part of it is knowledge of the truth. The Apostle Paul says some are always learning but never reach it (2 Tim. 3:7).
Peter did not stay because he had grasped everything Jesus said.
It does not appear at all that Peter had understood what Jesus said. He did not know how to accept the sufferings of his Master... Still, the root was there with Peter. The need to have eternal life had woken up in him. He knew that this life was found only in Jesus, and that Jesus was the One sent by God, come from God. Jesus had the words of eternal life.
Peter says two things about Christ, and each one meets a different need.
He saw in some measure what He was and what He had. What He is forms the immovable resting-place of our souls as we rest in Him and His work. What He has becomes the everlasting supply to our souls in their many needs. Get into your hearts those blessed words, "You have," and "You are," and all the need of your soul will find its full answer in Christ.
Peter said "we." The Lord's reply showed that the word covered more than Peter knew.
So the Lord's warnings speed up 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... Yet the Lord does not hesitate to tell the twelve that one of them would betray Him — even while one confessed for all that He was the Holy One of God.
- Sifting. The same hard words that emptied the crowd bound the real disciples closer to Christ.
- Holding. Peter stayed without understanding it all. His need for eternal life was awake, and only Jesus met it.
- Believing. The perfect tense marks a settled habit of heart, not an opinion — and knowledge of the truth belongs to it.
- Holiness. A demon used this title in alarm. Peter uses it with none. The One who sees us through and through is the One who loves us best.
- Resting. "You have" supplies every need. "You are" is where the soul rests. Yet one confession spoken for all could not make every one of the twelve real.