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John 6:60-71 - Will You Also Go Away?

19 min read

At the end of the Bread of Life discourse, the question is no longer whether Jesus can multiply bread. The question is whether His disciples will receive Him when His word exceeds the limits they have set for God. They have heard Him say that His flesh is true food and His blood true drink. Some now call the saying hard. Many turn back. Peter remains. Judas remains too, though his heart is moving toward betrayal.

John therefore places three responses beside one another: offense that retreats, faith that stays before it understands everything, and visible nearness that conceals refusal. Christ does not dilute His teaching to recover the departing disciples, nor does He compel the Twelve to stay. He reveals who is speaking, the Son of Man who came from heaven and will ascend where He was before, and He asks for a free response made possible by the Father’s grace.

The passage is severe, but its purpose is merciful. A hard word from Christ can uncover resistance before resistance becomes departure. Peter shows what faith can say while mystery remains: “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Judas shows why no title, ministry, or place near holy things can replace repentance. Between them stands Christ, still speaking words of eternal life.

The Hard Saying and the Life-Giving Spirit (John 6:60-65)

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.”

John calls these hearers disciples. Their complaint comes from people who have followed Jesus, listened to Him, and seen His works. The Greek behind “hard” can mean hard, harsh, severe, or difficult, while the question literally asks who is able to “hear” the word.1 Their problem has passed beyond incomplete comprehension. They are resisting reception. A mystery may rightly lead a disciple to ask, wait, and seek understanding. Here difficulty is becoming permission to stop listening.

Jesus names that danger with His question, “Does this offend you?” The verb carries the force of stumbling or falling away, not merely feeling displeased.2 Verse 66 will show the fall in action. Christ brings the concealed decision into the light: will they remain His disciples when His word judges their assumptions, or will they make their assumptions the judge of His word?

The Lord answers their earthly estimate of His flesh by revealing the identity of the One whose flesh He gives: “What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?” “Where He was before” points to more than a future spectacle. The Son of Man who stands before them in real humanity is the eternal Son who came down from heaven. His Ascension will not discard the Incarnation. The incarnate Lord ascends. The flesh offered for the life of the world belongs to the Word who is Life by nature.

This makes verse 63 the key to receiving the preceding discourse rather than an escape from it. “The flesh profits nothing” cannot mean that Christ’s own flesh is useless after He has just called it true food, true drink, and the gift He will give for the life of the world. Flesh considered by itself cannot communicate divine life. Christ’s flesh is life-giving because it is inseparably His, the humanity of the life-giving Word. The Holy Spirit raises the hearer beyond crude imagination and enables true participation in the mystery. Spiritual hearing does not make the gift unreal. It receives the real gift according to the identity and power of the Giver.

St John Chrysostom states the guardrail plainly: “He speaketh not of His own flesh, (God forbid!) but of those who received His words in a carnal manner.”3 The carnal hearer reduces Christ to what ordinary sight can measure. The spiritual hearer begins with who Christ is and allows His word to correct the limits of ordinary categories.

St Cyril of Alexandria reaches the same center through the Incarnation. Of Christ’s flesh he writes, “For since it was united to the Life-giving Word, it hath become wholly Life-giving.”4 The “how” of the sacramental mystery is not mastered as though the Eucharist were a mechanism. Cyril says it is “honoured in silence and faith above understanding.” Reverent silence here is not intellectual laziness. It is the worshipful confession that the reality of Christ exceeds the mind without contradicting the truth He has revealed.

Jesus then identifies the deeper division: “there are some of you who do not believe.” The hard saying has exposed unbelief already present, and the Evangelist adds that Jesus knew both those who did not believe and the one who would betray Him. Christ’s knowledge does not cause their refusal. He knows the heart truly and addresses it before its hidden direction reaches its end.

Verse 65 places grace before every faithful response: no one comes unless coming has been granted by the Father. The verb presents the coming as a received gift.5 No one reaches Christ through superior intelligence, willpower, or religious achievement. Yet the gift does not erase the person who receives or refuses it. In this same passage, disciples turn back, Peter confesses, and Judas remains without surrendering his heart. Grace makes coming possible; it does not make love mechanical.

This gives the struggling disciple a prayer and a responsibility. Pray, “Father, grant me to come to Your Son where I still resist Him.” Then answer that grace by staying near the word, seeking honest instruction, bringing sin into confession, and refusing to turn confusion into distance. A hard saying may become the place where self-reliance dies and deeper faith begins.

Language insight: Hearing, Stumbling, and Life

The sequence of verbs tells the story. The disciples ask who can “hear” the word. Jesus asks whether it causes them to “stumble.” He then says the Spirit “gives life.”1 2 The contrast is not between thinking and feeling. It is between a hearing that closes around its own limits and a hearing made alive by the Spirit. The first asks whether Christ can fit within the hearer’s categories. The second receives a new measure from Christ Himself.

Many Go Back, Peter Confesses (John 6:66-69)

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.”

“Went back” has directional force. The disciples depart toward what lies behind, and the continuing walk they once had with Jesus ceases.6 This is more than leaving a difficult conversation. Discipleship had been a walk with Christ; now resistance reverses that walk. John gives no dramatic argument after their departure. The terrible sentence is quiet: they “walked with Him no more.”

Retreat often begins before a person formally leaves. Prayer becomes optional, Communion is avoided without seeking healing, resentment is protected from Christ’s command, or a difficult teaching is dismissed before it is understood. The outward pattern may remain religious for a long time while the heart steadily moves backward. Verse 66 asks the reader to notice direction. Am I still walking with Him where His word is difficult, or have I begun arranging a life in which He no longer has the right to correct me?

Jesus turns to the Twelve and asks, “Do you also want to go away?” He neither softens His words nor holds them by force. Love cannot be secured by manipulation. St John Chrysostom says Christ wished them “not to be restrained by force and compulsion: for to remain on such terms is the same as to depart.”7 The Lord’s question gives the Twelve freedom to answer Him truthfully, while the departure around them reveals the real cost of that answer.

Peter does not claim that the teaching has become easy. He answers a question of identity and belonging: “Lord, to whom shall we go?” The grammar is personal. Peter does not ask where a better explanation, community, or path might be found. He knows that eternal life belongs to the One speaking.8 Mystery remains, but Christ has become more certain to him than his own capacity to master the mystery.

“You have the words of eternal life” also looks back through the discourse. Jesus has promised resurrection at the last day, called Himself the living Bread, spoken of abiding, and given His flesh for the life of the world. Peter has heard enough to know the source of life even while he has not exhausted the meaning of everything heard. Mature faith is not the pretense of total comprehension. It is fidelity to the One whom we have come to know.

Peter says, “we have come to believe and know.” In the Greek text, both verbs are perfect forms, presenting a conviction reached in the past whose force continues in the present.9 Faith and knowledge belong together. The disciples entrust themselves to Christ and, through remaining with Him, come to know who He is. They do not wait for mastery before following, and they do not treat faith as ignorance. They believe, remain, learn, and know more deeply.

St Cyril of Alexandria hears Peter’s confession as attachment to the one true Teacher: “We must sit by One only Teacher, Christ, and cleave unceasingly and indissolubly to Him.”10 This is not loyalty to an idea detached from the Lord. It is communion with Christ, whose words carry the life they announce. When every other refuge proves too small, Peter’s question becomes a prayer: “Lord, keep me with You. There is nowhere else life can be found.”

Language insight: “To Whom” and “Believe and Know”

The personal “to whom” keeps Christian faith centered on Christ Himself. Doctrine matters because it tells the truth about Him; worship matters because it brings the Church before Him; the sacraments matter because He gives His own life through them. Peter’s joined verbs, “believe and know,” show the path of discipleship. Faith opens the person to Christ, and remaining with Christ forms knowledge that is lived as trust, obedience, worship, and love.8 9

Chosen, Yet One Is a Betrayer (John 6:70-71)

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.

Peter has spoken truly for the Twelve, but Jesus refuses to let a true corporate confession become false personal security. “Did I not choose you, the twelve?” makes Judas’s condition more sobering, not less. He has received apostolic nearness, a place among the Twelve, and a share in their ministry. None of these gifts makes betrayal impossible when the heart refuses repentance.

The Lord’s words also keep election from being misunderstood as compulsion. Judas is truly chosen, Christ truly knows what he will do, and Judas truly becomes responsible for betrayal. The passage does not explain away any of these truths. St John Chrysostom gives the needed boundary in a short sentence: “The calling compelleth not.”7 Grace is prior, generous, and necessary; the human response remains real.

“One of you is a devil” is deliberately severe. The Greek word can describe the devil, a slanderer, or a false accuser and is applied here to a human being whose will is aligning with the devil’s work.11 Jesus is not declaring Judas a demon by nature. St Cyril describes him as “the worker of the Devil’s will,” language that preserves both the satanic depth of betrayal and Judas’s human responsibility.12 Sin becomes most dangerous when the person offers his freedom to the work of the evil one while still standing among the servants of Christ.

Christ exposes Judas without naming him publicly to the group. Chrysostom sees mercy in this restraint: the Lord does not drive Judas into shamelessness through public humiliation, but He also does not let him imagine that his concealed direction is hidden.13 The warning comes before the betrayal. Christ’s knowledge becomes an appeal to repentance, even though Judas will refuse it.

The ending therefore turns the reader away from suspicion of other people and toward watchfulness over the self. Ministry, ordination, doctrinal fluency, regular Communion, and proximity to the altar are holy gifts. They also intensify accountability. A servant can speak about Christ while protecting resentment, ambition, dishonesty, or secret contempt from His rule. Judas warns that outward nearness must become inward communion through continual repentance.

Yet warning is not the same as despair. Christ speaks while repentance is still possible. When His word exposes a concealed compromise, the merciful response is to come into the light: name the sin, seek confession, make restitution where needed, and return to the Lord who exposes in order to heal. The safest place is not a reputation for faithfulness. It is a heart that remains open to correction.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: Freedom, Warning, and Mercy

Chrysostom holds together Christ’s freedom-giving question and His warning to Judas. The Twelve are not kept by force, and Judas is not exposed for spectacle. The Lord seeks a willing confession and offers a concealed sinner room to repent.7 13

Cyril likewise refuses to make foreknowledge the cause of evil. He writes, “For in man is free-will and choice to go to both, either to the right hand, or to the left, i. e., to virtue or vice.”12 Peter and Judas stand near the same Christ and hear the same words, but nearness bears fruit only where grace is answered by faith, repentance, and continued communion.

The Church’s voice in worship ⛪

The Coptic lectionary places John 6:47-71 as the Liturgy Gospel for Thursday of the sixth week of Great Lent. The Church therefore hears the entire crisis of John 6:60-71 as Lent approaches Holy Week: Christ’s life-giving gift, the offense of His word, Peter’s confession, and the warning of Judas all stand inside the call to repentance.

John 6:57-69 is also the Vespers Gospel for the Sunday of the fourth week of the Holy Fifty Days. That reading ends with Peter’s confession and does not include verses 70-71. In the Resurrection season, the Church joins Eucharistic life to the confession that Christ alone has the words of eternal life. Lent asks whether we will turn back when the word exposes us. Paschal joy answers that the risen Christ is the Life for whom the heart was made.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Bring difficulty to Christ before it becomes distance from Christ. Some disciples use the hard saying as the beginning of departure. Honest struggle can take another path: remain in prayer, ask for instruction, and refuse to make confusion a verdict against the Lord. If a command about forgiveness, chastity, sacrifice, or Communion presses against you, name the resistance plainly: “Lord, this is hard for me, but I do not want to walk away. Teach me to hear.”

Let the Spirit correct the way you approach the Eucharistic mystery. A carnal hearing reduces Christ’s gift either to crude physical categories or to a symbol that demands little faith. Verse 63 directs the communicant to the life-giving Spirit and the incarnate Word. Before the Liturgy, bring one part of life that resists communion, such as an unreconciled quarrel, hidden dishonesty, contempt for someone, or prayerless routine. Ask the Spirit to make Christ’s words life in that exact place, then take the concrete step repentance requires.

Watch the direction of small withdrawals. The disciples “went back” and the walk ended. Most spiritual retreat begins quietly: neglected prayer, repeated absence without seeking help, a Gospel kept closed because it may correct us, or service performed while the heart grows cold. Choose one backward step you can reverse this week. Return to confession, resume a small rule of prayer, speak to your father of confession, or seek reconciliation with the person you have avoided.

Make Peter’s confession your prayer when understanding is incomplete. Faith does not need to pretend that every question is settled. It needs to know to whom it belongs. When grief, unanswered prayer, or a difficult teaching leaves you without a clear explanation, pray Peter’s words slowly: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Remain before Christ long enough for trust to become deeper knowledge.

Refuse the false security of visible nearness. Judas is one of the Twelve. The warning falls first on the servant, the knowledgeable believer, and the person familiar with holy things. Examine the place where reputation and reality have separated. Do not inspect everyone else for betrayal. Bring your own concealed resentment, ambition, double speech, or compromise into the light while Christ is still warning and calling. His exposure is mercy when it leads to repentance.

Footnotes

  1. Greek text and morphology for John 6:60, with lexical entries for σκληρός and ἀκούω. The narrative context distinguishes difficulty from the refusal to keep hearing. ↩ ↩2

  2. Greek text and morphology for John 6:61, with the contextual lexical range of σκανδαλίζω. ↩ ↩2

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, direct discussion of John 6:63, CCEL. ↩

  4. St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Book IV, direct discussion of John 6:62-63, Tertullian.org. ↩

  5. Greek text and morphology for John 6:65, with the lexical range of δίδωμι. The explanation of freedom also follows Chrysostom and Cyril in the sources cited below. ↩

  6. Greek text and morphology for John 6:66, with the directional sense of ὀπίσω. ↩

  7. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, direct discussion of John 6:67-71, the freedom of the Twelve and the non-compelling call. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Greek text for John 6:68; St John Chrysostom, direct discussion of Peter’s answer, CCEL. ↩ ↩2

  9. Greek morphology for John 6:69, with lexical references for πιστεύω and γινώσκω. ↩ ↩2

  10. St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Book IV, direct discussion of John 6:66-69, Tertullian.org. ↩

  11. Greek text for John 6:70, with the lexical range of διάβολος. ↩

  12. St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Book IV, direct discussion of John 6:70-71, Tertullian.org. ↩ ↩2

  13. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, direct discussion of Christ’s gradual exposure of Judas in John 6:70-71, CCEL. ↩ ↩2

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