66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
I'm always struck by how confrontational Jesus is. He's not mean or angry, but His words are always so direct. So direct, in fact, that many can't handle it. A bunch of the people in this passage had been there for the miracle of the fishes and loaves. It seems so similar to the American church: we want all the cool stuff but we don't want Jesus. The truth he speaks offends us. These people, who had just eaten the miraculous bread and fish, then chase him down not because they wanted to know the Man who had performed the miracle, but, as Jesus states in v26, because they wanted more bread! And if that weren't enough, when He suggests that He is "the bread of life" and has been sent from God, they demand "perform a miracle to prove it"! The audacity!
Notice also that Jesus doesn't beg these people to come to Him. He doesn't entice them with yet another miracle of fishes and loaves. Yet He also doesn't become enraged and send them all away. He simply reiterates His point: "If you want to live forever - if you want to know the God of Moses - you will listen to Me." Jesus simply repeats the central messge of the Gospel: "Come to me..." The people can't take it.
They came for food. They got the truth. They went away angry.
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