We all know that Jesus was a nice man. He preached love, He preached tolerance, He hung out with sinners. He was kind and humble. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, accepted the outcast. "Love your neighbor, judge not lest ye be judged". These are just two of His teachings. If Christians would only be like our God, we'd win so many converts.
With Christ being such a wonderful God, it's hard to see why anyone would want to crucify Him. That is, until you realise that the above paragraph is not an accurate representation. Rather, it is a lie by omission. Yes, Jesus preached love, but when you study Scripture, you see that "love takes no pleasure in iniquity" (1 Corinthians 13:6). He did "hang out" with sinners, but only because that's the only kind of person there is. The sinners He "hung out with" were the ones who listened when He said "...go and sin no more" (John 8:11). The ones who thought they were fine just the way they were? The kindest He was to them was to tell them actually, no, you're not. "Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”" (Mark 10:21, emphasis mine).
So already, we see that real love meets sinners where we're at, but doesn't leave us here. You might think you're fine as you are, but if you went to Jesus and told Him you've kept the whole law of God, He will tell you "one thing you lack", and target your idols. The things you love the most. The biggest flaws you have. The one thing you love so much, it's literally keeping you from following Him.
Suddenly, we see why people might not have liked Jesus very much... This was Him being loving. This young man wasn't, as far as we can tell, oppressive, or full of pride, he was just rich but still wanted to go to Heaven. So Jesus was gentle with him. The other kind of person who thought they were good? These, He really wasn't kind to. In fact, while we as a culture tend to shy away from the mere mention of Hell because it "puts people off", Jesus ran around saying things like "Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" (Matthew 7:22-23).
These, by the way, were Christians (Matthew 7:21). Able to do great wonders, to the point of casting out demons, these people claimed to prophesy in Jesus' name, they even called Him Lord, yet He condemned them. So what are we to think of these spineless Christians who run around telling people "don't expose the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11), just preach love, volunteer in a soup kitchen, donate clothes to a homeless shelter, do some odd jobs for old people" etc?
John 6 is a beautiful picture of Jesus not doing that. At least, not on its own. At the famous feeding of the 5,000, Jesus fed a whole crowd of people who came to see Him. "After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do." (John 6:1-6).
And of course, most people know what He did. He took 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, and every single person in that crowd of 5,000 men, and when they were all full, they still had enough left over to fill 12 baskets. But what most people forget about this account is that Jesus doesn't just feed them physical food. He offers them the bread of life. Because of the feeding of the 5,000, the people wanted to make Jesus their king (v14-15), and so Jesus fled. But they found Him the next day, and He said to them "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." (v26-27).
John continues: "Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe." (v28-36).
Now, first, note the absolute cheek. Jesus has literally just fed them using nothing more than a child's lunch box, after which He gathered up 12 times what He sent out. But they ask "what sign will you perform that we may believe you"? This is truly unbelievable. But Jesus corrects them and says that the Father gives the true bread from Heaven: Himself. He who comes to Him will never hunger, and he who believes in Him will never thirst.
This is where the Jews start to get frustrated with Him and get put off, but rather than panicking and apologising for offending them, He doubles down, repeating Himself in no uncertain terms. In fact, He steps up His analogy, saying that not only is He the bread of life, but unless we eat His flesh, and drink His blood, we have no life in us! (John 6:53). By verse 60, they start to complain that they can't stand His teaching. In verse 66, they leave.
So now we see just how little Jesus concerned Himself with the popularity of His message, or the feelings of His hearers. He didn't care if people were offended by what He taught. "Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." (v61-63).
Focus on verse 63 for a moment. "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." Suddenly it becomes apparent that there are more pressing matters than the temporary sustenance of the perishing flesh. Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, even if that fish was miraculously duplicated from a child's lunch box. But the next day, that same man will be hungry again, and will come demanding "bread from Heaven". He needs the Gospel. He needs to be told that his ways are not perfect. That he has sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God, and therefore, he is a dead man walking.
Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Give a man the Gospel, he will never hunger or thirst again. To come to Christ in genuine faith is to receive eternal life from the same. On the last day, Christ will raise up everyone who believes in Him. Everyone else? They will encounter the Hell Jesus spoke so frequently, and graphically, about.
Make no mistake: This world matters. Jesus did heal the sick. Jesus did feed the hungry. Jesus did cast out demons. But not once did He do so at the expense of His true mission: The Gospel. Therefore, even if we lose every friend we ever made, even if our biological families cast us out into the streets, we must preach the Gospel, warts and all. The bits the world loves so much they would make Christ their King, and the bits the world hates so much they nailed Christ to the cross for preaching it. Any alternative will inevitably lead to the same place as those we failed to preach to.