Revd Paul Dunstan, Superintendent Minister for Tynedale Methodist Circuit comments on John 6 v 56 - 69

Are there any bits of the Bible you have difficulty with, I was asked.

Immediately I remembered Mark Twain’s words: “Most people are bothered by those passages in Scriptures which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always notice that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.”

The command to love God wholeheartedly, our neighbours as ourselves, to turn the other cheek – these are easy to understand but most difficult to do!

Our reading today tells of a time when many of Jesus’ followers rejected him.

“This is a hard teaching,” they said (v.60).

What did they find so hard?

It seems to be that Jesus was making unique claims: to be greater than Moses, and that ‘unless you eat of [my] flesh and drink [my] blood, you have no life in you’ (v.53). The first claim was challenging to Jews and the second may offend every human being.

Jesus’ words are often difficult, but we need them to be! His desire is not to drive us away but to lead us to life (John 6:37).

When Jesus saw people walking away he asked his disciples whether they wanted to leave, too.

Peter replied saying he knew that there was nowhere to go, that to walk out on Jesus is to walk out on life (v.68-69). This isn’t a counsel of despair; it’s a statement of faith.

Once we have heard Jesus and embarked on the life he gives, we realise that turning away from him is turning away from the most precious gift of all.