Rejected and Despised Or Accepted and Loved?

John 6:41-71

Rejected by His Own

41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"

53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."

59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

Many Disciples Turn Away

60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"

61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."

66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"

68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" 71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

Jesus was rejected and despised by men (Isaiah 53:3) as some turned away from committing themselves to Him.  This was especially among those where Jesus grew up and whose earthly parents they knew well.  These could not accept that Jesus had actually come down from heaven and that His real father was God and not Joseph.  Jesus told them to stop gossiping with secret discontented complaints about Himself because they were unable to understand who He is since God His Father had not been drawing them to Him.  He made it clear that nobody is able to accept whom He is or come to a saving knowledge of the Son of God and the anointed Christ unless God first chose and called them.  This demonstrates that our desire to pretend we have a free will to choose to come to Christ on our own is simply not true.  This is true theology and a correct biblical interpretation to understand salvation as God’s work alone apart from our orchestration to make ourselves believe and approach Him when we are born His enemies (Romans 5:8-10, Colossians 1:21-22) and only rescued by God’s calling to open our spiritual cadaver eyes and breathe life into our dead souls.  For those who are called and drawn to Him, we have a certain hope of resurrection to life with Him and not the default resurrection to our justice due us of recompense for rejecting Him and His word.  If God teaches us from His word by His Spirit, we the see and hear and receive Jesus with accepting wills renewed to live again.  We have this hope in Him and His work in which we trust as He gives us the spiritual understanding and ability to listen and heed His call.  This is everlasting life.  This is seeing God in Him.  This is partaking of the living bread which came down from heaven to us as sustaining manna in the wilderness of unbelief and disbelief of this present evil age.  Since this bread fell from heaven like the manna of old (Exodus 16:14-15, John 5:49, 58) to settle on and be gathered by us that we might live forever as we obediently receive what we are given from above out of love.  This bread then is Jesus Christ Himself who sacrificed His mortal body for us to eat in a figurative manner of receiving Him (John 1:12) and not rejecting His will of such unearned favor!  This is His body broken for us.  Jesus made it clear to all who argued with this truth spoken to them who also rejected His word and work for them that the requisite to salvation in Him was to eat His body and drink Hos blood as we do in our remembrance of His sacrificial suffering and death to pay for our sin once and for all (Hebrews 9:12, 10:10).  Many heard this and considered it too difficult a saying to accept and despised the idea as they rejected Him and His word.  Faith accepts the incomprehensible and difficult truth because God has left evidence in His word for us of its verity and His Spirit quickens our hearts to grasp it, leading to a rebirth and a new life through this believing and receiving Christ as Galatians 2:20 tells us.  He made it clear that life only comes by the working of His Spirit in us to believe or we will reject and disbelieve Him and remain in our lost state (John 3:18) inherited from Adam.  His words of the gospel are life!  Jesus knows who are His and who are will refuse to believe and receive Him; therefore, many left Him when they were exposed as religious without this transforming calling of faith.  When the true followers of the Lord were asked if they wanted to depart as well, Simon answered well with, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  So it is with all true believers called and chosen by God.  We know absolutely that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God and confess that with resolute trust and acceptance as true.  However, there are some who are like weeds among the wheat who mouth the words of faith but are not chosen and who will reject and betray Him in the end as Judas had done.  They answer to God and not us, for only He knows their heart, and they will eventually depart when exposed (1 John 2:19) and challenged with commitment to partake of His sufferings and sacrifice which we continually celebrate in spirit and truth of worship (John 4:23-24, 16:13) in the Lord’s Supper.  He is rejected and despised by those not called and chosen, but readily accepted and loved by those who are the sheep of the Great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20-21) who is the divine Son of God and man.  This is the crucial question then, is He Rejected and Despised Or Accepted and Loved?