John 6:41-70 Grumble Grumble

The Pharisees were fans of Grumbling. Jesus made one of the most audacious claims - He claimed to be the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven. *insert massive Pharisee eye roll. The facts they knew about Jesus were somehow contradicting the words Jesus was speaking before them. Here were the facts:

Jesus was from Nazareth.

Jesus had a mother Mary.

Jesus had a father Joseph.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Yet...Jesus is saying that He came down from Heaven...ok. Pharisees assume Jesus is from the loony bin.

Jesus regains some logical coherency with the Pharisees in verse 43 - 51. He starts describing the benefits of eating and partaking in the Bread of Life and eternal life. This sounds like a great deal! What a reward. I would love to eat bread and never hunger again. I would love to have all my needs met through eating delicious bread. I picture the Pharisees mentally coming back around after Jesus has spoken some of these persuasive and encouraging words. Jesus is leading them to eternal life, of course His words are going to sound amazing and are going to have that pull to follow! Who doesn't want eternal satisfaction and happiness?! 

However, Jesus did not come to Earth to win the biggest group of followers. He did not come to earth to stack up people around Him so that He could be the hypest man on earth. 

So in the second half of verse 51 Jesus says one of the weirdest things a person can say. The verse starts: "Whoever eats this bread will live forever." Pretty normal so far, but then the second half of the verse says, "This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the World."

Wait....WHAT?! Why did Jesus say this to the Pharisees? Was it meant to be taken literally? Is Jesus promoting cannibalisms? Did Jesus say this so people would listen and wake up? Did Jesus want to shock people? Jesus actually LOST followers because of his flesh eating comments. No surprise there. What is the deeper meaning for Jesus saying these words? He isn't a fool. He doesn't speak without purpose. What was His purpose? 

If I was trying to gain a following and have influencer status with that blue check next to my name, the first strategy I would use would NOT be telling people to eat my flesh....but...yet this is exactly what Jesus just did...! Ummmm...no thanks, I'll pass. I don't want to eat flesh, I'm good. 

I believe Jesus' purpose in this section was to expose people's heart and to make people uncomfortable. I get this picture in my mind about Jesus. Jesus was not a people pleaser. He did not speak words to try and get people to like him. He avoided cliché boring statements. He literally IS the truth, so everything He says is TRUE. I think Jesus said apparently bombastic statements so that people would question him. I think He spoke in surface level mystery so that people would press in. I believe Jesus said statements so that true believers would come closer to Jesus and ask Him to explain further. I think Jesus enjoyed weeding out his followers. He gave people a choice to follow Him and He forced people to chose: do I follow this man because He does cool miracles, or do I follow this man because I really believe He is the way to eternal life? Without controversy there can not be true growth. Jesus forced people to make a choice about Him. Do I keep following this man blindly, or do I reevaluate my reason for following him? Do I want to follow someone who says eating his flesh will lead to eternal life?