IV: Du fils de Zébédée (pas du tout Jacques!)

Jean chapitre 6
Home stretch!
{Continued from previous posts..}

vv.51-59
My questions, as always, are about knowing God personally (of course) & knowing what He wants us to be/do/say/think.

Jesus is still playing variations on the theme of Eternal Life And Resurrection (*ah, sweet music*)
~ "If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (v.51)
~ "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (v.54)
~ "..so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me" (v.57)
~ "..he who feeds on this bread will live forever" (v.58)
..which reinforces that knowing God has a lot to do with eternal life & being raised up at the last day!

This seems closely related to what God wants for us (ie. how we can know what He wants)
~ feeding on Jesus (= bread of life - v.51, vv.53-54, vv.56-58).

Which begs another question:
**What does it mean to feed on Jesus - to eat His flesh & drink His blood?**
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vv.60-66
All that Jesus has said has elicited a reaction of arguing (v.52) & grumbling (vv.60-61) among the Jews who had sought Him after seeing the miracle of 5000 fed.

Jesus then appears to respond to the grumbling by indicating the importance of believing (*ding!!*) in His Words just spoken (vv.63-64). Finally, He rounds it off by reminding them that God the Father is the One who enables people to come to Him - again, emphasis on this being God's work first (and not ours, e.g. v.65; refer also to v.44).

The sad result, which must have been hard for God the Son & Father, is that "many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him" (v.66).
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vv.67-69
"'You do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.'"

Is this the right response to God?

Is this what God wants for us, what knowing God is all about?

Is there more to it than this? ..After all, Peter's understanding is hardly complete, as ch.13 will show..
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vv.70-71
And then, a curiously foreboding conclusion to this section..
.."..Jesus replied, 'Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?..'"
(That's not the foreboding part; the idea that Jesus chooses His followers, though, is in keeping with God's initiative as stated several times above - cf. v.44 & v.65.)

.."..'Yet one of you is a devil!'
(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray Him.)"
I think that last bit is clear as crystal - the predicted response of the betrayer is certainly not what God would want for us!

But this gives rise to my last question (for the moment):
**What did betraying Jesus really mean for Judas Iscariot, & how are we to avoid that, in the grace & will of God?**
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Wow, that was a thick passage of text to deal with. I'm in two minds about whether to sum up all my notes so far, or whether to let it go for now.

As I type this, though, it occurs to me that I never shared my findings about ch.5..in which case, I shall need to double back to it soon!

L/T.