DOES THIS OFFEND YOU?

Chapter 6 is the longest in the book of John. The preceding chapter tells the feeding of the 5,000, which sets up a detailed discourse in 6 about Jesus being the "Bread of Life". 

Here Jesus touches on his divinity ("I have come down from heaven") and on good works verses faith (The crowd asks, "What must we do to do the works God requires?") and his own upcoming sacrifice for the world ("This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."). 

The crowd struggled to comprehend what Jesus was teaching, but when he started talking of their need to "eat" his flesh and "drink" his blood, they full-on grumbled. 

But Jesus insisted this was the only path to eternal life.

Even many of his disciples - outside the original 12 - considered Jesus's teaching and then griped, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

Jesus's response was not at all seeker-sensitive: "Does this offend you?" 

Then He asked, "What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before?" He wasn't backing down or letting up.

The narrative is blunt about the crowd's response: From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

Wow. These were people who considered themselves disciples - who knows how long they had been following Him - but they up and left. 

There is no record of Jesus chasing after them, apologizing for offending them, or softening his words.