Questions from Jesus : Do you want to go away ? (4) - Proposed reading : John 6. 25-71

Friday February 11, 2022

Jesus said to the twelve (disciples) : And you, do you not also want to go away ? Simon Peter answered him : Lord, to whom shall we go ? You have the words of eternal life. John 6. 67, 68

Questions from Jesus : Do you want to go away ? (4) - Proposed reading : John 6. 25-71

At the beginning of the chapter, the enthusiastic crowd wants to crown Jesus and make him king. In the end, after listening to his teaching, many of his disciples left him.

Jesus finds himself alone with his twelve disciples, the closest ones, and asks them : "And you, don't you also want to go away ?" We can guess his pain in the face of these defections.

But Peter has this beautiful answer : "Lord to whom shall we go ? You have the words of eternal life". If some had withdrawn because of the words of Jesus, Peter, he remains because he heard and received in what Jesus was saying, the words of eternal life. He understood that Jesus is not only the one who can multiply the loaves, but that he is "the living bread which came down from heaven", which gives eternal life (v. 51).

Our life too can know moments of crisis when we would be tempted to abandon Jesus. The disciples who withdrew did not speak to him directly but complained among themselves (v. 60, 61) and they stopped accompanying him.

Peter allowed himself to be questioned by Jesus, and he stayed with him with the eleven other disciples. The Lord reassures them by saying to them : "Did I not choose you, you twelve ?" (v. 70).

Do I take the time to listen carefully, with faith, to Jesus' words in order to stay close to him ? Near him, the holy Son of God, I will also be able to adore him because it is he who has chosen me.

Source (The Good Seed)