John 6:41-71

Easy-to-Read Version

⁴¹ Some Jews began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “This is Jesus. We know his father and mother. He is only Joseph’s son. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ But Jesus said, “Stop complaining to each other. ⁴⁴ The Father is the one who sent me, and he is the one who brings people to me. I will raise them up on the last day. Anyone the Father does not bring to me cannot come to me. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets: ‘God will teach them all.’^[a] People listen to the Father and learn from him. They are the ones who come to me. ⁴⁶ I don’t mean that there is anyone who has seen the Father. The only one who has ever seen the Father is the one who came from God. He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷ “I can assure you that anyone who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread that gives life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna God gave them in the desert, but it didn’t keep them from dying. ⁵⁰ Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will never die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my body. I will give my body so that the people in the world can have life.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue among themselves. They said, “How can this man give us his body to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said, “Believe me when I say that you must eat the body of the Son of Man, and you must drink his blood. If you don’t do this, you have no real life. ⁵⁴ Those who eat my body and drink my blood have eternal life. I will raise them up on the last day. ⁵⁵ My body is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Those who eat my body and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.

⁵⁷ “The Father sent me. He lives, and I live because of him. So everyone who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ I am not like the bread that your ancestors ate. They ate that bread, but they still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹ Jesus said all this while he was teaching in the synagogue in the city of Capernaum.

Many Followers Leave Jesus

⁶⁰ When Jesus’ followers heard this, many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹ Jesus already knew that his followers were complaining about this. So he said, “Is this teaching a problem for you? ⁶² Then what will you think when you see the Son of Man going up to where he came from? ⁶³ It is the Spirit that gives life. The body is of no value for that. But the things I have told you are from the Spirit, so they give life. ⁶⁴ But some of you don’t believe.” (Jesus knew the people who did not believe. He knew this from the beginning. And he knew the one who would hand him over to his enemies.) ⁶⁵ Jesus said, “That is why I said, ‘Anyone the Father does not help to come to me cannot come.’”

⁶⁶ After Jesus said these things, many of his followers left and stopped following him.

⁶⁷ Jesus asked the twelve apostles, “Do you want to leave too?”

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ⁶⁹ We believe in you. We know that you are the Holy One from God.”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus answered, “I chose all twelve of you. But one of you is a devil.” ⁷¹ He was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve apostles, but later he would hand Jesus over to his enemies.