John 6:60-71
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.) [1]
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What is success and what is failure in the kingdom of God? The end result of the bread of life teaching in John 6 is that Jesus’ own disciples were grumbling, many of them left Him, and He was aware that one of them was going to betray Him. He had spoken words of invitation, offering the bread of life to all, and His numbers went down. In fact you could say the opposition increased.
Was it failure? Did He mess up? Of course I’m going to say that he didn’t mess up. But it does challenge us to think about how we measure success and failure in the Kingdom of God.
Peter says that Jesus has the words of eternal life. But those words are rejected by some. This, as we know, is as true today as when this event took place. Many today reject identifying Jesus as “the bread of Life,” as very God. Many find His claim to be the exclusive source of eternal life and absolute truth as extremely narrow minded and offensive.
Is it failure when people reject the Gospel? When they walk away from Jesus? When they grumble against His teachings?
No it is not failure. Now, this is assuming that we are not providing excuses for people to walk away by living a non-Christian hypocritical life and being needlessly offensive in our witnessing. But the truth is that we may share Jesus by word and deed in the most winsome and caring manner, and it will still be rejected.
And when that happens we have not failed. As Jesus said, no one can come to Him unless the Father draws Him. And so my prayer today is for the people in my life who do not know Jesus as Savior, who reject His identity and claims. I pray that the Father draw them. And that they come to hear the words of Jesus not as offensive, but as the words of eternal life.
[1] The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984 (Jn 6:60–71). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.