Jesus goes too far for some of his students.

John 6.59-66.

The first time I heard this story, I thought, “Wait, some of Jesus’s students left him? I thought the Twelve always stayed with him.” And in fact John’s very next verses say the Twelve stuck with him. But somehow I had the idea Jesus only had the 12 followers. The fact he’d been teaching 5,000 followers in the beginning of this chapter, kinda skipped my notice; I didn’t think of these followers as students, but as fans. Fans love what you’re doing, and wear your merchandise, but you shouldn’t expect them on the training field with you. Same deal with “Christians” who love being Christian, and heartily approve of Jesus, but don’t obey him any, never plan to, and never produce good fruit.

And yeah, the people who followed Jesus to Capharnaum looking for him to give ’em more bread: A lot of them were nothing more than fans. Jesus starts talking about serious dedication with all his “living bread” talk, and they’re all, “Nope, I’m tapping out,” and the fans scatter. But apparently the living bread stuff was too much for some of his legitimate students, the ones he was teaching along with, and same as, the Twelve—the ones Jesus designated apostles. The ones we Christians usually call “disciples.”

In Acts, Luke identifies two of these students, who were nominated to take Judas Iscariot’s place in the Twelve after he died—Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias. Ac 1.21-26 These two guys, among others, had been with Jesus from his baptism to his rapture. No doubt there were others who joined them along the way, who were just as much disciples as Matthew—both men and women, ’cause Jesus had no problem with women students like Mary the Magdalene. We really don’t know how large Jesus’s class was.

Here’s where it gets smaller.

John 6.59-66 KWL

59Jesus says these things

while teaching in the Capharnaum synagogue.

60Upon hearing it, many of Jesus’s students

therefore say, “This is an outrageous lesson.

Who can listen to it?”

61Having known within himself

his students are bellyaching about these things,

Jesus tells them, “This trips you² up?

62So what’ll you do when you² see

the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

63The Spirit is making you alive.

The body benefits no one.

The sayings I spoke to you²

are of the Spirit, and are life.

64But there are some of you²

who don’t trust me.”

For Jesus knew from the beginning

some are unbelievers,

and some will betray him.

65Jesus says, “This is why I told you this:

No one can come to me

unless the Spirit was given to them¹

by {my} Father.”

66Because of this,

many of Jesus’s students are going back,

and are no longer walking with him.

Jesus doesn’t want casual followers.

First let me remind you Jesus is not sending you to hell if you’re a casual follower. You’re gonna find plenty of Christians who say so; who love to quote his statement in Revelation, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Rv 3.16 KJV It doesn’t mean what they think it does. Those who don’t obey his teachings will be the least in his kingdom Mt 5.19 —meaning they’ll still get in.

Yep, Jesus accepts even lousy Christians. He knows your heart, so he knows whether you legitimately belong in his kingdom or not. Me, all I can do is look at your fruit and make deductions, which might be right on the money, but of course I could be wrong. I’m really in no position to judge whether Jesus will save you. All I can tell you is, knowing him, he’s infinitely gracious.

But even though he’s gracious, he still doesn’t want casual followers. He does want us either hot or cold, i.e. useful, and not a breeding-ground for mosquitoes and cholera—metaphorically, for other things that’d eat us alive and destroy us. His whole spiel about living bread is to tell us so; he wants us to abide in him. His statement, “This trips you up?” in verse 61, implies this really shouldn’t scandalize his followers. Why should it? True believers should not only have no trouble with the idea of pursuing a deeper relationship with him, the Holy Spirit, and our Father; we came to Jesus because we eagerly want all that. We don’t want a casual relationship either!

I had to add the words “what’ll you do” to Jesus’s question, “So when you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” Because his devout students did eventually witness him getting raptured. Ac 1.6-11 If you’re struggling with any of Jesus’s other radical divine statements, it’s gonna really undo you when you see the Son of Man who came down from heaven, go back. He’s not kidding about who he is, and what he’s come to do. He really is trying to save the world. He wants us to be saved too. But it means we have to embrace him, not passively figure, “Jesus does all the work of salvation; therefore I needn’t do anything.” No, he has good works for us to do. Ep 2.9

If his tripped-up students were struggling with his statements about eating his body and drinking his blood, as it appears they were—’cause you know how some Christians get inordinately offended by some of the language people use, and can’t see beyond it to the intentions of their hearts—Jesus reminds them in verse 63 he’s not talking about literal bodies, but things of the Holy Spirit. You are a living soul not because of your flesh; dead corpses are also flesh. The meat chopped up and sold in the grocery store is flesh, and isn’t alive either. You’re alive because your flesh has your spirit within it. And you receive eternal life once your flesh has God’s Spirit within you. When we have the Holy Spirit, then we really have life. The Spirit brings everything to life.

But if you can’t accept Jesus’s Spirit-inspired teachings, it’s either because you’re not listening to the Spirit within you… or you don’t even have the Spirit within you, ’cause you never said the sinner’s prayer, or didn’t mean it when you said it; you aren’t saved.

This appears to be the case with Jesus’s would-be followers, who found this teaching so far beyond the pale, they couldn’t follow him anymore. They went back home, and waited for another Messiah to follow. One who wouldn’t expect so much of them, and give them everything they wanted regardless. One who’d overthrow the Romans like they wanted, and feed them bread like they wanted. No such Messiah exists, and these sorry people were probably killed by the Romans before any such Messiah could show himself.

Thanks to all the nationalists in the United States who make it feel unsafe to openly quit Jesus, most American Christians who don’t really care to follow Jesus anymore, simply pretend they’re still following him. Either it’s blatant hypocrisy, or they’ve joined a church which redefines Jesus till it’s really no longer Jesus they’re following; they’re following themselves instead. But more recently we’re seeing more people who publicly admit they’re not Christian anymore. While that’s sad, I gotta approve of their integrity. As his Two Sons Story implies, Jesus would likewise much rather have someone who says “No, sir” than someone who says “Yes, Lord” but is lying.

In every way, it’s much better that unbelievers just go their way. We’ll know we still have to share Jesus with them. Who knows; they might’ve quit because their church misrepresented Jesus; or they might’ve represented him just fine, but the rebellious ex-Christians might someday be ready to repent. Harder to minister to such people when they’re pretending to still be Christian. Easier for the fake Christians to poison their churches with their unbelief.

Jesus has very good reasons for driving out unsteady students with his radical statements—and we need to remember to follow his kind example when we likewise make radical statements about him.