One of the saddest scenes in the life of Jesus, where I think we can see his emotions very clearly, is after many disciples turned back from following Him in John 6. He had spoken some truths that were very hard for them to accept by saying “whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” and “no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” This language was too much for many of His disciples to accept, so they turned back and no longer walked with Him (John 6:54, 65-66).
At this point Jesus turns to the twelve apostles who are still there with Him, and he asked, “Are you going to go away, too?” On one hand, I think He knew the answer to that question, but I can’t get away from the fact that the question feels sad to me. It strikes a chord with the sense of loneliness and abandonment that we humans fear and want to avoid. I don’t know for sure that He was feeling that, all I’m saying is that the question feels sad to me.
I think it does point to the sense of satisfaction that He got out of being in relationship with those twelve men who were His apostles. I think it does point to the sense of loss He would have felt had any of them also turned back. I don’t think the sad question points to a lack of confidence in Jesus as our own fear of loneliness may do at times, but I do think it points to the great satisfaction our Lord has in being in relationship with us humans and the profound loss He senses when we abandon Him.
Peter’s answer is profound. When he was asked, “will you go away, too?”, Peter boldly and confidently said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” The great satisfaction Jesus had in being in relationship with Peter and the rest of the Twelve would continue because they were intent on listening to Him. Jesus would be able to avoid a great sense of loss in their leaving because they chose to stay and listen to Him.
Today’s sermon from Mark 4 is all about how to listen to Jesus. Listening to Him is so important on so many levels, but by looking at John 6 we see that one of the reasons it is so important is because when we listen well to Him we honor the great satisfaction He has in being in relationship with us. By listening intently to Him, we say to Him that we also feel great satisfaction in being in relationship with Him.