On hearing this [please reread John 6:53-59!], many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching.  Who can accept it? … Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:60, 68).

God is not who we think God is.  God is who God says and shows us he is. 

Jesus is who God is, God incarnate in our human flesh.

Sometimes—perhaps often—we discover that who God really is, what God says, is “a hard teaching.”  And we are tempted to peel away and go our own way.  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” sounds wonderful, noble, uplifting, until I really have, or make, some enemies because of following Jesus.  “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” seems nice enough, until the hurt of betrayal, rejection, abuse or abandonment stabs the deepest places in my soul.  A cross might make a nice piece of jewelry or ornamental wall-hanging until I am confronted, again and again, with what the cross is pointing to, what it means: we are called to follow a king whose glory is most clearly revealed by crucifixion.

It is also true, and needs to be said, that not everything that is said, taught or done “in Jesus’ Name” represents Jesus.  There certainly are “teachings” of all kinds that we ought to reject: that Jesus was merely a great human teacher; that we can be reconciled to God apart from Jesus; that if you have enough of the right kind of “faith,” God will make you wealthy and healthy; that Jesus’ Good News is mainly or only about “going to heaven when you die”; that God’s kingdom is dependent upon the “correct” race or nation or political system or leader being in power.  And many others.

But even as we clear the theological weeds from our gardens, it will still be true: all the beautiful flowers and all the nourishing fruits in that garden are seeded by some hard sayings—by Jesus: if you try to save and secure your life apart from me, you will lose your life.  If you would be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me.  If your eye or hand causes you to sin, get rid of it!

What should we do when confronted with such “teachings,” these seemingly “hard words” from Jesus?  Especially when they’re not merely abstract “issues” but life-churning realities?

Stick with Simon Peter, who stuck with Jesus: “Lord, where else would we go?”  It may seem that throwing off the words of Jesus feels liberating, especially at the start.  But if we do that, we will learn that such liberation is short-lived and ends in our enslavement.  “Lord, you have the words of life. Because you yourself are the Word of Life.”

So we simply throw ourselves upon Jesus: “Lord, I don’t understand this, I don’t like it … but you have and are the Word of Life.  Everything you say, even and especially the hard things, is a word of life for me, because that is what you have said, that’s what you have promised.  Please help me to let you be all that you really are, that I might become all that you purpose me to be.”

What’s a “hard teaching” or a “hard saying” with which you currently wrestle?  How could you not wrestle with it all by yourself—whom could you invite into your wrestling match?

What’s one way you could practice obeying that hard word, even if only imperfectly, only a little bit?  (IMPORTANT: when Jesus speaks of cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye, he is speaking metaphorically, not literally!)

To read or re-read the overview/summary of this week’s passage, you can click here.