In John 6:35-69 Jesus is walking with his disciples and really explaining who He is. He is walking with a large crew of people who He just did the very cool feed the masses thing with. Sure, they are all followers now that He has given them food to eat. And isn't this just like people to follow whoever is keeping them fed. We are just so empty like this. If you feed us we will follow. And Jesus, being Jesus, knows who is following for the food, and He knows who is following for the bread of life. See it's not the same and this is what Jesus is teaching on that fateful day when He reduces His crew from thousands back to just about the 12.
On that day He reminds them that He is the food and that He is the living water, "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." And there goes His mega church. The followers begin to look at each other and say, "This is a hard saying." Oh and how things never change with the unchanging God. Because at the end of the day He has so many hard sayings. This is His truth. He is all together unlike us. If His sayings are not hard we are probably not hearing Him.
And so what is the point? The point is in verse 67 and 68. Jesus looks at the 12 and He says, "Do you want to go away as well?" Such an important truth about Jesus. He is unafraid of these moments. In verse 64 Jesus says, "But there are some of you who do not believe." And then John explains that "Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe." Here is the hard word. There are those who follow but do not believe and Jesus knows it. In Matthew 22 and 23 we are told that many will prophesy, cast out demons and do good works in the name of Jesus. We are then told that He will say I never knew you. So Jesus is not afraid to ask if they want to leave as well because Jesus understands that when He reveals all of who He is, most will say no thank you. Oh, this Jesus we follow. Oh, to know more of who you are oh, to love you rightly.
But alas we arrive at verse 68 where Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and we have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Peter, who will make mistakes, knows the truth. There is no other one but this one. He gets so many things that we need to get. He gets that Jesus is Lord. He gets that believing and knowing are different and he gets that Jesus is God. Peter is witness to the truth that there must be more than this. Peter has seen followers come and go and what he knows is that believing in Jesus and knowing Him are way different. And what Peter knows is that believers will come and go and that there are no guarantees and he doesn't know much about once saved always saved but he knows that this Jesus is the eternal God and for Peter that is good enough. There is no turning back.
