About six months have passed between the events of chapter six and the events of chapter seven.  The time for the Feast of Tabernacles is at hand.  In this chapter, Jesus travels to Jerusalem and finds hostility and misunderstanding there.

His brothers were convinced that he is a powerful person, and they believed that he should show the world this power.  They told him to go with them in the main crowd to the heart and center of the Jewish nation.   Then they told him he should perform jaw-dropping messianic signs so that everyone could see him and admit his greatness.  They said this because they were unbelievers.  Like so many others, they wanted the Messiah to act according to their own expectations and do the things they wanted him to do.  Jesus could not be manipulated by them.  He refused to go with them, for the time was not yet right.

Jesus waited to go to Jerusalem, and he avoided the crowds during his journey.  He knew that he was called to be a suffering Messiah, not a popular one.  It was becoming more and more dangerous to show his face in Judea, and he wanted to limit his exposure to the hostile Jewish leaders.  He did not want to end his ministry before the time was right.

There was a mixture of people at the Feast.  Some had seen him before, some had not.  When he spoke to them, some liked what he had to say, and some did not.  Most of them feared to say too much about him, since they knew the Jewish leaders were set against him.

The Feast was halfway over when Jesus finally made it to the temple.  The people who heard him questioned his qualifications as teacher, since he had no formal training, though they were nonetheless amazed at his teaching ability.  In turn, he questioned their qualifications to listen to him properly.  Jesus told them that if they knew anything about God or Moses, they would know that the words he spoke were true, because he is truth.  Furthermore, he said that they were wrong to condemn him as for breaking the fourth commandment when he healed a man on the day of rest.  Their hostility was due to an utter failure to understand him, which was in turn due to their failure to submit to God.

It is not possible to be an uncommitted follower of Jesus Christ.  Either you are for him or you are against him (Luke 11:23).  There is no middle ground.  Jesus has just proclaimed to be a suffering Messiah who would die on behalf of his people.  Though the crowd might not have understood everything that Jesus was saying, they understood well enough to get mad and leave.

Jesus is now speaking to his closest followers of all, both the twelve disciples and others who have been faithfully learning from him.  He presents them with a decision that they must make: they may either follow him without doubting him at all, or leave him altogether.  Most choose to leave.

Jesus could see into the hearts of his hearers, and he knew that they did not like what he had to say.  His words had been offensive to many of them, but if they were offended by this, they would certainly be much more offended by his upcoming death and resurrection.  To them, it would seem like his ultimate defeat, though we understand that is is his greatest victory.

The difference between those who do not believe and those who do is the work of the Holy Spirit.  He is the one that “gives life” (John 6:63) and the one that causes people to come to the Father (John 6:65).  He is the one who enables men to lift their eyes up from earthly things to the heavens, so that they are able to understand God and what he requires of them.

Jesus turns to the most faithful of the faithful, the twelve disciples, and he asks them if they will leave as well.  The words that Peter gives in response are the true confession of all Christians everywhere, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69).  He is God Almighty, the giver of life, the redeemer of his people.

Of course, Jesus knew that Peter was exaggerating a bit when he said “we have believed, and have come to know.”  Not all of the twelve truly believed and had truly come to know that Jesus is the God who is to be worshiped and adored.  A traitor was in their midst.

Last week we said that Jesus’ popularity was going to diminish quite a bit in northern Israel due to the events in chapter six.  Some of the crowd left him after he refused to be their king and departed and went up on a mountain.  Nonetheless, some of the crowd still tried to find him; though they seem to be in a bad mood at this point.  Jesus would get rid of almost all of them as well by the end of this chapter, alienating himself from all but his most devoted followers.

Jesus condemns the people seeking him as soon as they find him.  He accuses them of being interested only in receiving a free lunch, not in having eternal life in him.  Their inability to understand spiritual things is made evident by their first question, “What must we do?”  They were unable to understand that eternal life is a gift (John 6:27), not something men earn by doing good things.

Jesus says that feasting on the “bread of life” that he gives is nothing less than delighting oneself in him.  He is the one that satisfies spiritual hunger.  He will surely satisfy the hunger of those whom the Father has given to him.  These people will never slip out of his hand, and he will surely save them and resurrect them from the dead.  Their gaze will always be fixed on him.

The Jews grumble all the more, because Jesus claims to have come from heaven.  Jesus redirects them from their grumbling to the truth of God he is giving to them.  Their desire to “do” things to merit God’s favor is entirely wrong.  Salvation can only come from God, as a gift, since the Father draws men to Jesus.  People do not come by their own volition.  Furthermore, he is the only pathway to get to the Father.  It is only by belief in him and his crucifixion in the “flesh” that people may have eternal life.

Jesus’ words about his “flesh” cause the Jews to grumble all the more.  Jesus keeps going, telling the crowd that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood if they are to have eternal life.  That is to say, his body will soon be nailed to a cross and he will shed his blood on behalf of sinners.  Just as bread is fundamental to physical life, so is Jesus’ death fundamental to spiritual life. Those who depend on the “bread of life” that he offers will never die.