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Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 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. 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." From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.
- John 6:60-71
The past several readings have taken us from the fourth sign in John's Gospel (the feeding of five thousand men, plus women and children), to their desire to forcefully make Him king, which He eluded (the fifth sign in the Gospel is Jesus walking on the water to His disciples). When the people found Him in Capernaum, He began to teach them that they must labor for the food which endures to everlasting life, not that which perishes. To work the works of God, said Jesus, is to have faith in Him. Jesus taught that He is the bread of life, and those who partake through faith He wishes to raise with Him to everlasting life. That bread that He will give is His flesh, which He will give for the life of the world. Therefore the local religious leaders quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" 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. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 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." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 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. Jesus has been speaking in a Eucharistic sense, teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, a hard saying so difficult for His disciples to grasp. He has taught about this food that gives everlasting life; it is a food of Himself that includes the reality of Christ's life, death, and Resurrection -- imparting that to us so that He abides in us, and we in Him. Here, He extend that spirit of Resurrection to something more: the words He speaks. And He teaches us about the Spirit, the root of all life; in His words (and in the words of an Orthodox prayer) the giver of life. Words spoken in spirit are words of life. St Paul has written about the word of God that it is "living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
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." From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Here again is reiterated the inseparability of God the Father with all of Jesus' work, and even from our faith in Christ.
Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve. Again, Peter's explanation comes back to the compelling nature of Christ, the rootedness in the faith he experiences, "You have the words of eternal life."
Christ's response to Peter is, to say the least, an intriguing one. It's a kind of important crossroads noted here. Peter's affirmation and confession of his faith, as he speaks for the twelve, is a turning point. He confesses that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." But Jesus' next words should make us all take note. It's not an expression of joy for the twelve, but one that stings and haunts, and gives us yet new questions: "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" How can Jesus choose one "who is a devil"? Whatever we might speculate about such a question, the facts are clear, as Jesus states them. There is a problem with one of His chosen twelve, and even at this point of great faith expressed in Peter's confession, we see a time of choice, a parting, a definite decision. One of them is going another way, and ultimately will not choose this faith. We know that he will, in fact, be Jesus' betrayer. Already the seeds are sown for what will come later. Jesus moves forward in His ministry, the tough choices beginning, losing disciples over His "hard sayings," difficult teachings, truths that comes with hurdles one way and another. But Judas isn't just one of the disciples who goes away. He's one who will betray Christ to those who wish to kill Him. "Devil" in the Greek also carries with it a meaning of "slanderer," a false accuser, one who makes accusations in order to destroy. If we look closely, we see the important associations of Christ with truth; one who makes a false accusation, a slanderer, is therefore opposed to Christ on many levels. This sort of action is meant to destroy a person, not to correct an evil nor to protect the innocent. By contrast, Christ's mission to the world has been to save, out of love. It is important to understand the nature of our faith, what we put faith in. Faith, akin to trust, creates a kind of alliance. So much depends on our choices. In the opposition of a "devil" to Christ, we come to understand the nature of the reality we either embrace, or not. We ally with the One who was betrayed by one of His own. We might come to experience a similar sort of treatment in sharing that life with Christ. But Jesus knows what is happening. He speaks the truth boldly, and lets the "chips fall where they may," so to speak. All things are in the hands of the Father; there will be those who choose to follow His truth, and those who do not. And then there is the "devil," the one who will slander, even though he was chosen by Christ. The Gospel gives us a picture of the world as it is, not how we would wish it to be. It doesn't fill us with false promises of a fairy tale life. It doesn't give us simplistic solutions in place of the difficult things. But it does give us a true picture of the spiritual reality in which we live, the hope of Christ, the faith in love and truth -- a faith that works through all things. It offers us the "good fight" together with the One who has come to save and to liberate. And that is everything.
