The Hardest Teaching: Why They Left Jesus

I'm Michael Link and welcome to The Depositum where we explore the depths of Christian theology
 through AI. Please note the voices ahead are AI generated. We vet each episode but ask that
 you listen with both faith and reason. Let's dive in. Welcome back to The Deep Dive.
 Today we are jumping into one of the most intense and pivotal moments in the Gospels.
 We really are. We're looking at John chapter six. The goal today is to really understand
 why a single teaching from Jesus caused a huge number of his followers to just get up and leave.
 And you can feel the tension right from the start. We're in the synagogue at Capernaum.
 The crowd is already skeptical and then Jesus just drops this on them. I'm reading from John
 chapter six verses 51 to 53. You're ready for it. I am the living bread which came down
 from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever and the bread that I will
 is my flesh for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying
 how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Yeah it's a gut reaction and you know you can't
 really blame them. Not at all. I mean let's be honest it sounds like cannibalism. Yeah.
 If I'm in that crowd my first thought is okay this has to be a metaphor right? Like
 when he said I am the vine. So why didn't Jesus just calm everyone down and say hey relax
 it's just a symbol. Was he being I don't know a bad teacher by letting them run with this
 gruesome idea. And that is the absolute key question because any good teacher would clarify
 a misunderstanding that huge. But Jesus does the complete opposite. He doubles down. He
 really does. Listen to this. This is John chapter six verses 54 through 55. Then Jesus
 said to them amen amen I say unto you except you eat the flesh of the son of man and
 drink his blood you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my
 blood hath everlasting life and I will raise him up in the last day. The amen amen is basically
 him saying pay attention this is not a drill. Exactly. The original greek word here for eat
 is even stronger it implies like a physical chewing. He's demanding real eating. But
 and this is so important he does correct the manner of their understanding. The manner
 what do you mean? Well they're thinking of cannibalism. You know literally mangling a
 dead body a corpse. Jesus immediately corrects that gross idea by pointing toward his ascension.
 He can see the murmuring and he says this from John chapter six verses 62 and 63 doth this
 scandalize you if then you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before. So he's
 saying I'm not going to be a corpse on the ground for you to eat I'm ascending to heaven.
 That's it exactly. He's offering his glorified living body. So when he says the flesh
 nothing he's referring to their carnal dead flesh understanding of it. He corrected the
 idea of cannibalism but he absolutely refused to correct the reality of eating his flesh.
 Okay so let's put on our detective hats here because this is where the logic really comes in.
 Right let's think this through. If the symbol theory is correct if this was all just a big
 metaphor for believing in me. Then Jesus is morally obligated to stop them from leaving.
 100% you cannot as a good teacher let people walk away and lose their souls over a simple
 misunderstanding of a figure of speech. It makes no sense. You wouldn't let your entire
 movement fall apart because they miss the metaphor. But he does he lets them go and
 I'm telling you the silence of Jesus as that crowd walks away is the loudest proof of the
 real presence. He wasn't silent because he was negligent he was silent because he had
 already told them the truth. And the scripture is so blunt about it. It is John chapter six
 verse 67 after this many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
 That's just brutal. He watches them leave and then he turns to his inner circle
 the 12. It's the ultimate test. This is John chapter six verses 68 through 70.
 Then Jesus said to the 12 will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom
 shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life and we have believed and have known
 thou art the Christ the son of God. Now notice what Peter doesn't say. He doesn't say oh now
 I get it it's a symbol. No he basically says I have no idea what you're talking about but
 I'm not going anywhere. We trust you. Yes he is trusting the who which is Jesus even when he
 has zero understanding of the how. And that right there is the very definition of faith.
 So the apostles stay they trust him but they're still left with this massive unanswered
 question of how. They are and it takes an entire year but they finally get their answer
 in the upper room. The mechanism that was a mystery in Capernaum is finally revealed. This
 is from Luke chapter 22 verse 19. The Last Supper. And taking bread he gave thanks and break
 and gave to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this for a
 commemoration of me. So he didn't explain the how with words in Capernaum. He showed
 them he did it in the upper room. He enacted it. That hard teaching wasn't just a tough
 metaphor. It was a prophecy of this exact moment. The church later defined the how as
 transubstantiation. The Council of Trent explains it as the substance of the bread
 changing into the body of Christ while the appearance of bread the look the taste it all
 remains. So when you trace it all back Jesus was willing to lose almost everyone not for
 a symbol but for the literal truth that the bread really does become his flesh. It does.
 Which leaves you with this thought. Jesus didn't just give us something to remember him by.
 He gave us himself.