John 6: 61 But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? 62 Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
The word 'profits' is conveying an active sense. The Greek word is ὠφελέω which is preceded by a negation, meaning the positive meaning of ópheleó , to help, to benefit is negated. The CLEAR meaning of the sentence is Jesus telling them what you think hleps, benefits does not help or benefit ... BECAUSE IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT GIVES LIFE, not the eating of flesh.
The flesh profits nothing. Agreed
It is the Spirit that gives life. Agreed
The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life. Agreed
The “words that I speak to you” also conveys an active sense. Jesus is referring to the words that He spoke to them in the synagogue at Capernaum. And in those words, Jesus says that He is the living bread that came down from heaven; that whoever eats this bread will live forever; and that the bread that He will give is His flesh for the life of the world.
So how can He give His flesh for the life of the world if the flesh profits nothing? It is the Spirit dwelling in Him that gives life to His flesh. It is this living bread come down from heaven that is His flesh for the life of the world.
Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 when He spoke of the serpent:
12 If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
If we believe in the Son of Man, we accept what He tells us about heavenly things even if we don’t understand it.
The twelve probably didn’t understand. When Jesus asked them if they wanted to leave, Peter didn’t say that they understood or even believed what He was saying. They accepted His words as the words of eternal life and believed and were convinced that He was the Holy One of God.
I can understand your difficulty with these words. It is indeed a hard thing to say. Who can accept it? “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Mark 10:15
See post 421