"After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?'" (John 6:66-67).
When Jesus was on earth, He experienced all the emotions we do. He knew what it was to be happy, sad, afraid, and even angry. He also understood loneliness and rejection, experiencing them on a daily basis. He had come to earth because of His deep, unsurpassed love for the people He had created, but the vast majority of them wanted nothing to do with Him.
One specific occasion stands out. John 6 tells about Jesus' miraculous feeding of the 5,000, where He distributed five loaves of bread and two fish to a vast multitude, with twelve basketfuls leftover. The crowd was ecstatic about what He had done, wanting to make Him their king on the spot. But Jesus withdrew from them and went to the other side of the sea.
When they found Him the next day, Jesus began to teach them about the true bread of life. He Himself was that bread, He told them, and what they really needed was the eternal life He offered them.
But the people didn't get it. They just wanted a king who would take care of their physical needs; their spiritual needs were unimportant. So they left Him. Even some of His followers left Him, deciding that He was too radical for them.
Jesus was left with only His twelve closest followers. With the pain of rejection particularly keen, He turned to them and asked them a question ripe with grief: "Do you want to go away as well?" Everyone else had left Him. Would these, His closest friends, abandon Him too?
Many of us have similar experiences. We pour everything we have into others, but they don't seem to appreciate it. They want what we can give them, not us ourselves.
Jesus knows exactly what that is like. In this moment that John shows us, we see Jesus in His full humanity, grieving the knowledge that so few people want Him. So few people stay with Him.
Jesus knows the ache of abandonment. And He is the Friend who will never abandon us.
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