Hard Sayings

“This is an hard saying; who can hear it...From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

In John the sixth chapter, Jesus spoke of “eating His flesh and drinking His blood.” And if one didn’t, he or she would forfeit eternal life. This difficult saying caused many to give up on following Him, in spite of the fact He was speaking spiritually, and told them as much in verse sixty-three. Even Peter understood it to be so v. 68, b. To take it literally would mean one believed in cannibalism.

This is seen also in the following chapter. There He speaks of “rivers of water” flowing out of a man’s stomach. But in verses 38-39, again, it plainly says He was speaking spiritually.

Just like wading through lengthy genealogies produce patience and character in us, even so, the hard sayings have their purpose. I believe one of the main purposes is in getting the spiritually minded to think. Jesus always made His hearers think.

You can depend on the dunces to give up when the thinking gets tough!

Modern translations attempt to make Jesus’ hard sayings easier by replacing them with ones of their own. But I find theirs much more difficult to understand, if not impossible. In trying to make it more acceptable, they leave it less challenging.

Peter, speaking of Paul’s epistles said. “As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood.”  Notice, he did not suggest a better rendering of Paul’s letters or a more up to date translation. We are to put on our spiritual thinking-caps, and work through difficult passages. It takes spiritual and intellectual sweat to understand the hard things of the Bible, which this generation of Christians, is not into.