60 On hearing it, many of His disciples said, “This is a difficult teaching. Who can accept it?”

61 Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what will happen if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before?

63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 However, 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 Then Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

You sometimes hear people say things like: “The greatest miracle of all is when a person comes to faith in Jesus” (hey, I might have said that a few times myself). It seems that Jesus would agree, at least from what he says in verse 65: “no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”

Today’s passage helped me appreciate one reason why conversion is always a miracle: because so many things about Jesus are deeply offensive to our corrupted minds. The chapter so far has felt like Jesus trying to say as many offensive things as possible. But when some of those following him (at least for now!) push back and say, “Jesus, you’ve gone too far,” he adds two more offensive claims that are, if anything, even worse.

First, he says they will “see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before” (v 62). I struggled to understand this verse, but I think he’s talking about how he will return to his Father’s glory – via the cross. In John’s Gospel, when Jesus talks about being exalted or “lifted up,” the focus is when he is lifted up on the cross. The cross is his throne, the moment when he is declared to be the king (John 19:19-22). Jesus won’t let you receive him as the ascended King without also receiving him as the crucified Saviour, the Word of God who revealed his glory by being mocked, spat on, rejected, and shamed. There’s no easy and smooth road to triumph for Jesus, or for his followers. It goes through the cross.

And second, Jesus says, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (v 63). I am flesh, so according to Jesus there is nothing at all in me that contributes to me finding life. All my efforts, my sense of self-worth, my dignity, my pride mean nothing and “profit nothing” when it comes to the one thing that matters.

Once you recognise and embrace those truths, you’ll finally see where to find the Spirit and true, everlasting life: in the words of Jesus (v 63). But recognising and embracing those truths is always a miracle that can only be the work of the Father, through the Spirit, drawing us to Jesus.

Thank God now for so kindly doing that miracle not just in you, but in the hundreds of your brothers and sisters at St Barnabas. And pray by name for someone you know who is still offended by Jesus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister.