Seeking or Settling, 5; John 6:59-71

John 6:59 tells us, "Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum."  In verses 60-66, we have another sad section of the chapter.  It begins and ends with the expression, many of his disciples.
In the ESV, verse 60 reads, "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?'" whereas the same verse in the NKJV states, "Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, 'This is a hard saying; who can understand it?'"
What was so hard?  What challenged these many that they left off following Jesus?  The issue was not listening or understanding but perhaps that they understood all too well, and they did not like what they heard.
"But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, 'Do you take offense at this?  Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?'" (v. 62)  [Grumbling: complain or protest about something in a bad tempered but typically muted way.]
Even that would not bring about faith in them; why not?  Jesus continued, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)  And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father" (vv. 63-64).
It appeared that many had not had this granted to them, based on verse 66:  "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him."
Jesus has gone from a large crowd at the beginning of John 6 to a dozen men by 6:67.  And then Jesus took the initiative and said to the Twelve, "'Do you want to go away as well?'  Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.'  Jesus answered them, 'Did I not choose you, the Twelve?  And yet one of you is a devil.'  He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him" (vv. 67-71).
I assume that when Judas did not dissent from what Peter had said, the rest of the Twelve thought he was in agreement with them.  Jesus knew that was not the case.
What did so many leave off following?  Only the called are enabled by the Holy Spirit to persevere.  Jesus made this clear numerous times, as would others (see Philippians 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 5:23-24, for examples.)
Earlier in John 6, Jesus made the clearest statement of who and what he is:  "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.... All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (vv. 36-40).
Is that so hard to understand?  No, but we always want to have some way to get credit for our salvation, which is why the question was asked, What do we do to do the works of God?  We cannot wrap our wicked minds around the fact that only the Holy can satisfy the Holy.
And none of us is holy in and of ourselves.  Only Jesus is.  But there is hope to have his holiness be considered ours and our wickedness considered his:
2 Corinthians 5:21:  "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Romans 10:9-13:  "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, 'WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.'  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."

Seeking or Settling, 4
In John 6:22-40, we meet the crowd again.  John 6:22-24 provides the setting:  "On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had only been one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.  Other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.  So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus."
How did the crowd know that the disciples had left without Jesus?
What is so important about the phrase, "near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks"?
When the crowd went to Capernaum seeking Jesus, were they really seeking Jesus?  After all, when the crowd arrived and found Jesus, the question allegedly was, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"  But Jesus answered their real desire:  "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."  Unspoken: and you expect that provision to continue.
Jesus told them, "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.  For on him God the Father has set his seal."
As was common with them and is with us, this elicited a question as to how to work the works of God.  To them and us, Jesus made the point that believing in him is what is required.  And naturally, they replied not with faith but a requirement for a sign or work to be done first.
Manna of course signifies the temporary bread God provided.  Even when Jesus pointed out that God was the real source of the manna and that the bread of God is a Person, they didn't seem to understand.  "Sir, give us this bread always" makes me think the still had an object rather than a Person in mind.
In verses 35-40, Jesus makes the clearest statement of who and what he is:  "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.'"
In verse 41, a subset of the crowd, the Jews, makes its loud, and not its last appearance.  Grumbling, in verses 41-51, they have the first of two disagreements with Jesus.
The initial response appeared to be to his statement that he had come down from heaven.  How could that be?  They knew he was the son of Joseph. 
Jesus rebuked them and restated, "I am the bread of life," as well as reminding them that those who ate the manna died.  He is different:  "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I given for the life of the world is my flesh."
This leads to the second dispute in verses 52-58:  "How can this man give us his flesh to east?"  After additional expansion in the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood for salvation, Jesus comes back to this point:  "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.  Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever,"
Was this the end of the matter?  Hardly.