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.” …

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.”

66 After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

— John 6:62-64a; 65-66

9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

11 … no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.

12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

— 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 11b, 12

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

God’s steadfast love be with you all your days!

Jesus clarified His teaching concerning eating His flesh and drinking His blood for gaining eternal life, saying, “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.” To feed on Jesus means to take in His words which are spirit and life. Feeding on Him and abiding in Him are a matter in the spiritual realm and they are only possible after He died for the sin of the world, was resurrected and ascended to heaven where He had been before. Jesus’s previous teaching had baffled His listeners, but this time His message created a dividing line. Jesus purposefully turned the discussion from His death to His coming victory. His resurrection and ascension would prove that He is all He claimed to be.

Jesus’ words, full of the Holy Spirit’s power, offered life to those who would believe and trust Him. Yet Jesus knew the very hearts of the ones who rejected His words and refused the life He came to give. He repeated the important truth that only those the Father enables can come to Him. A lot of the superficial disciples turned away from following Jesus. It’s a sad fact that failure to believe in Jesus and His words results in failure to understand spiritual truth and experience the blessed spiritual reality.