v 60. Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”
There come times when we have to remind ourselves that the largest Christian denomination is the one where people say ‘We used to belong to a Church’. Nothing new about that; even in Jesus’ day there were many who turned away from following Him because they found His teaching hard to understand. How often we read in the Gospel stories of the multitudes that tagged along with Jesus, they listened to His teaching, admired His miracles, and even shouted out His praise on Palm Sunday. Yet they went on to shout abuse at Him and shriek for His crucifixion. They may have started out as interested followers but never made it to become committed disciples. And today people might well echo the words of this verse – It is very hard to understand, and then to believe, Jesus’ words. If we find Christ’s sayings hard to understand we should pause to remember our state of ignorance. Humility is the frame of mind we should labour and pray for; the ability to understand everything about our faith is certainly not a condition for our acceptance by God. His love for us does not in any way depend on our understanding of His ways.
So hang in with God; trust Him, believe Him and follow Him; understanding may have to wait for another time!
—