This coming Sunday is the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle B.  60 Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” 61 Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? 62 What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 

Before v.60 the dialogue with the people in the crowds was marked by grumbling, incredulity, and quarreling. The same range of reactions will be found among those closest to Jesus, the disciples: murmuring (v. 61), disbelief (v. 64), rejection (v. 66), confession of faith (vv. 68–69), and betrayal (vv. 64, 71). Jesus offers his very self – and yet even among the closest there are those who turn away to a former life, forsaking the very author of life.

John records that even among those who had counted themselves among believers and were following Jesus, even among the disciples, this saying was skleros, a word meaning “hard, harsh, difficult.” In this case the three primary meanings perhaps capture the range of reaction among the disciples.  Looking ahead to v.66 we see the result: some disciples turn from Jesus and walk away although the “Twelve” remain (vv.67-68). The word skleros is related to the word used to describe hardness of heart elsewhere in Scripture. The word used in “murmuring” is the same used of the crowds in vv.41 and 43 – thus connecting the larger discourse to this more private dialogue.

And so Jesus challenges their doubt and their resistance to their understanding of Jesus, the ultimate meaning comprising the sign of miraculous feeding. The challenge is conditional (what if…) and is open ended. This is not the first time in John we have seen such language as part of a challenge. Consider John 1:51, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  In both this and 6:62, the ascent of the Son of Man becomes the proving ground for the disciples’ faith. In both verses, Jesus moves the disciples’ immediate response, whether faith (1:50) or doubt (6:60), into a broader sphere.

Still, the language, typical of Johannine structure, has several ways to understand the challenge There are two principle ways: (1) if they saw him ascend, they might be prepared to accept his hard saying –everything might begin to make sense; or (2) if they saw him ascend, their difficulties and incredulity would only increase.

As O’Day [610] points out “Language about the ascent of the Son of Man is synonymous with language about Jesus’ return to God (e.g., 3:13; 20:17) and thus points to the entire Easter event: death, resurrection, and ascension.”  Although the language refers to being “lifted up” in John 3:13, the idea of ascension is also carried in the image of Jesus being lifted up on the cross. If the ‘disciples’ who grumbled about Jesus’ hard saying about eating his flesh and drinking his blood should witness his shameful death upon the cross, they would be scandalized still further.

Verse 62 also evokes the preexistence of the Son of Man (cf. 1:1–2, 18; 8:58) and Jesus’ heavenly descent (3:13; 6:38, 51). This verse suggests that the offense of Jesus’ teaching must be contextualized in the sweep of his life, from incarnation to crucifixion and resurrection. The challenge of v.62 is intentionally open-ended, because each person will make his or her own decision about the significance of this pattern of events.

Image credit: The Feeding of the Five Thousand by William Hole (1846-1917) | Edinburgh University Library | PD-US