When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
John 6:60-71
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
For some of us, passages like the one above are purely academic. For others of us, it brings a painful challenge because we have decided to commit our lives to follow Jesus and, like Jesus, be disciple-makers. He modeled for us how to do it. We know that to get the kind of results Jesus got, we must do the work the same way Jesus did. For anyone who has carefully studied how Jesus made disciples, it is evident that the vast bulk of the church is not following Jesus as a disciple-maker.
This entire sixth chapter of the gospel of John is a disciple-maker’s challenge. Jesus purposely made it hard and drove away many who were otherwise following him. Jesus did not believe in being “seeker-friendly.” Many on the periphery of his band of disciples commented, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” To that thought, Jesus added, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”
The offending saying was about eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood, admittedly a hard saying. None of us would consider this an ethical and appropriate thing to do if we take it literally, that is, being cannibals. This saying became problematic for Christians later when they were, in fact, alledged to be cannibals.
Jesus was weeding out his disciples and holding the number down. He wasn’t looking for attendance records or record-breaking offerings. What was his explanation for speaking this way? His words are not to be understood intellectually alone.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
John 6:63
Then Jesus throws out one of those radically controversial statements, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” He throws us right into the Calvinist vs. Arminianist controversy long before there was a Calvin or Arminius. But there is no arguing about what he said, “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” What does this mean to a disciple-maker? Jesus did, at the end of his time on earth, command us to go and make disciples of all nations, so there is some responsibility we have to put out the effort to make disciples. But, the bottom line is we can’t make someone into a disciple of Jesus unless the Father grants it. It isn’t our prerogative to decide who will be a disciple of Jesus. Earlier in this conversation, Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—”
Jesus wants genuine disciples who are prepared to die before renouncing him. In one part of the world today where persecution is rampant, one of the questions at baptism is, “Will you follow Jesus even if it means they will kill you and your whole family?” If that disciple can’t answer positively, they are not baptized because they aren’t ready to pay the price to follow Jesus in their country. We might want to consider adding that to our baptismal formula. We would probably produce fewer namby-pamby Christians.
As disciple-makers, we must make the same demands Jesus made. We should not soften the severity of a decision to follow Jesus and enter the spiritual warfare of the ages. Yes, following Jesus relieves us of lots of our problems. Specifically, those that come from our personal sin that he forgives and grants us the power to be free from those sins. He gives us incredible peace and rest to our souls. He also calls us to warfare. Following him is both challenging and joyful at the same time. Mainly we promote the joyful part of following Jesus, but when we take a good look, I think Jesus promoted the challenge of following him more than the joy of it all. And, I am a big fan of joy in Jesus.
As one who wants to make disciples of Jesus, I take great comfort in the fact that no one can come to Jesus except the Father draws him. My job is to pray and set the table for one to eat the bread of life. Only those who hear from the Father and learn from him come to Jesus. My job is to give myself to extraordinary prayer and mobilize many others to prayer for disciple-making, then discover people around me whom the Father is drawing to Jesus. I need to actively engage people, get to know them, love them as Jesus commanded, discover whether or not they are spiritually hungry, and if they are, provide some food from the Father, the Bible stories in which they can hear from him and learn from him so they can come to Jesus.
Jesus is a radical savior, and he wants radical disciples. We need to, first of all, be radical followers of Jesus, radically obedient to everything he has commanded us in the Scriptures. When we are radical disciples, we are modeling for others what Jesus wants in a disciple. Are you a disciple worth multiplying? If not, become one, become radically obedient to Jesus, and fall radically in love with him. That kind of discipleship is contagious; others will catch it from you and also become spreaders of the love of Jesus. Pretty soon, there will be enough radical followers of Jesus that we will be holding super-spreader events of the most beautiful viral infection possible, the love of God in Christ.
Count the cost and follow Jesus. Be radical!
