Jesus is completely confident in Himself and doesn’t need followers to give Him worth. He makes all of these declarations about who He is throughout John 6, and then finishes by saying, “Do you want to leave too?” to His closest disciples.
There were a couple times in the desert of Exodus that God told Moses that He was going to wipe the Hebrew slate clean and start over with just Moses! I think God could have done the same thing right here if the 12 deserted Jesus, and Jesus knew it.
Just like Jesus was poking Philip to see how done he was back at the beginning of chapter 6, I think Jesus is poking the 12 to see if they too will leave. “How much of this are you guys getting?” is basically what Jesus is saying. “Are you ready for me to BE your life?”
Peter has heard from Jesus that words are the overflow of what is inside of us. When Peter says, “You have the words of eternal life” he wasn’t talking about magic spells or secret codes. He was confessing that the things Jesus said were the teachings that would lead to a full life that would last forever.
He still has the words of eternal life today. He’s not forceful or manipulative. He doesn’t wear makeup or have moving lights. He does care if you follow Him or not, but He’s not going to change the words of life into words of death just so you’ll like Him. The truth is what it is, and He offers it for free.
