By the end of chapter six the five thousand fed on loaves
and fishes have gone home and “many of his disciples” desert him. Only the Twelve
are left and as usual Peter gives voice to what they’re thinking. They have come
to accept what the crowds cannot and because they believe Jesus is the Holy One
of God they aren’t turned off by his “eat my flesh and drink my blood” talk. I
don’t think they understand what he is saying any better than those who declare
it to be “a hard teaching”, but then accepting doesn’t require understanding.
Not that they don’t have limits to what they will accept as in Peter’s “God
forbid it!” when Jesus says he will suffer and die and rise again. And when the
mob comes to the garden to grab Jesus the Twelve (minus one) find another “to
whom shall we go” place to hide until the risen Jesus breaks in on their pity
party to prove with nail scarred hands that death itself has died. But for now
they are the ones enabled by the Father to believe. We too have been enabled by
Spirit filled words to believe what we cannot fully understand and only dimly perceive,
that all our best hopes and dreams for the here and now and the forever future are
found in the Holy One of God.
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