John 6: 66 – 67
As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”
Verse sixty-six tells us that many ceased to follow Jesus because of a difficult teaching. Do you realize which teaching it was that caused many to fall away? It was the one in which the Lord declared that he is the bread of life and that those who follow him must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood (John 6: 48 – 58).
Jesus had many followers. His disciples were considerably more than just the twelve apostles. We think so often of just the twelve but that was only his executive cabinet, if you will. People followed him everywhere he went trying to get in on all his teachings. Then he taught something difficult, something they didn’t want to hear, and they fell away. It is just as 2 Timothy 4: 3 – 4 warns, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
Jesus, knowing that people were choking on his words, turned also to the twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave as well. Peter answered wisely though. He had actually listened to and heard the word that Jesus had just spoken. Jesus had just told all of those people that his words were spirit and life and they immediately began to spit them out. Jesus’ preaching did not tickle their ears. Furthermore, he began to teach them the deeper things and they couldn’t handle it. They could only handle the milk when he was endeavoring to give them a little bread and meat.
But Peter and the twelve were wise. They had just heard Jesus say that his words were life. Even if they couldn’t understand the depth of all that Jesus was teaching, even if they couldn’t swallow it at that time, they had the good sense to just hang on until such a time that they could.
Many of us do the same thing that some of Jesus’ disciples did in this passage. When things get tough, when the Pastor steps on our toes, we leave. We might think the Pastor is wrong in what he is teaching but the reality is probably that we just aren’t mature enough to understand it yet. As more of our layers are peeled off and we become deeper people, we will have the ability to understand.
If nothing else, don’t be a quitter. Don’t be the modern version of these people who walked away from Jesus. Can you imagine such a thing? They had the opportunity that we would love to have; to sit at the feet of the master and yet they abandoned it because it got a little tough. For goodness sake! I don’t want to be one of those people and I hope you don’t either. Can you imagine what those folks will say when they face Christ one day? What would you say to him? I know what I want to be able to say, “For all my faults and short comings, I hung in there. I am still with you Jesus.”
Jesus said, “Blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me” (Matthew 11: 6). He was warning people that it wouldn’t always be easy following him. But he said that we would be blessed if we didn’t allow ourselves to fall away. So, let us not be tripped up by him or his word. Do not forsake Jesus or his teaching. That means you keep on pursuing him. You keep on partaking of his word. It doesn’t mean just showing up in church and warming a pew for an hour while all along not listening to a word that Jesus is ministering. Remember, God is sending alarm clocks into the body of Christ. They are going to shake up some folks. Just hang on. Pray for enlightenment and trust Jesus. You are his disciples, his beloved. Don’t withdraw from him.