One day, Jesus was teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum and many came to listen to Him. For the sake of clarity, let’s go into the content of His passionate teaching and pick a few of His sayings. Jesus said to them:
- I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
- I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:51)
- Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. (John 6:53)
- For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. (John 6:55)
Jesus was addressing a multitude of audience whom the Bible described as ‘disciples’ using the phrase ‘His disciples’ in verses 60 and 61. His message was revolutionary; it was nothing like what they had ever heard in words or in writing from any priest, prophet, wise man, or king from of old. These disciples, upon hearing Jesus’ claims, might have exclaimed, “What! Is He serious? How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
These teachings of Jesus stunned His disciples; they could not take it and completely disapproved of what Jesus was teaching. John who was a witness wrote about the disapproval of the multitude of disciples, saying, “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” (John 6:60)
This multitude of disciples took offense at Jesus’ teachings. They thought that Jesus had gone too far, He had overly esteemed Himself, He had blasphemed, and His claims were false because they knew who His parents were, yet He claimed He was from above. Worse yet, Jesus taught them that they should eat His flesh and drink His blood; and the disciples understood this saying literally.
For someone to consume the body and the blood of another person, both the one who offered his body and the one who ate it have committed a gruesome act of abomination in Israel. The multitude of disciples took offense at Jesus’ teachings to such a high degree that Jesus even passed a comment on it. It is written,
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it (His teachings), he said unto them, Doth this offend you? (John 6:61)
Eventually, the effect of the offense they took at Jesus was that they stopped following Him and abandoned Him, never again to become His disciples. The relationship between Jesus and them broke on that day; apostasy has occurred. John wrote about their apostasy, saying, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” (John 6:66)