When Jesus Offends You
John 6:66-69 After Jesus said these things, many of his followers left and stopped following him. Jesus asked the twelve apostles, “Do you want to leave too?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe in you. We know that you are the Holy One from God.”
Back in 1610 when Galileo posited that, in reality, the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the other way round, the world branded him a heretic. His truth offended the comfortable order of things. But reality doesn’t bend to opinion. It just waits for eyes willing to see.
Some truths taste like medicine – they’re bitter, unpleasant; they sting on the way down and yet still manage to heal what’s sick on the inside. And that’s the thing with Jesus: He doesn’t soften truth to keep us happy. He tells it straight, even when it shocks us.
One day, He was teaching a huge crowd. Everything was going fine – until He said something utterly outrageous: “Those who eat my body and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.”
To us, perhaps that sounds symbolic, but to them it sounded grotesque. They couldn’t handle it.
John 6:66-69 After Jesus said these things, many of his followers left and stopped following him. Jesus asked the twelve apostles, “Do you want to leave too?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe in you. We know that you are the Holy One from God.”
Peter didn’t stay because everything made sense. He stayed because he’d discovered there was nowhere else to find real life.
What is it that Jesus has said or done that offends you, that makes you squirm, that has you turning and running for the hills? When He says something that cuts across your comfort, your opinions, your pride – do you turn away, or lean in?
Because the most difficult words of Jesus are often the very ones that set us free.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Blessed by this devotion?
Share it with a friend!
Respond