Peter McKenzie

It doesn’t specifically say this verbatim, but the whole passage deals with the contrast of the 2 groups of people – those Jews who believe Him and want to follow Him with right motivation and those who don’t believe and are following him for the wrong reasons. So what we see in John 6 is really a dividing out of the one group from the other. I think the fact that the latter group went away when Jesus delivered the truth via a “hard saying” serves to show this point. I am really just drawing that by way of inference, but given that Jesus knew that they weren’t believers and their hearts weren’t right I think they did what He wanted them to do. IE if they weren’t going to believe, He preferred that they didn’t follow Him for the wrong reasons. Of course, if some heard the words He spoke and ended up believing He would have been most happy. But He knew what was in their hearts. Despite His desire that they hear the truth and be saved, he likely expected that they would leave.