When Bible verses shock us

Wednesday January 26, 2022

(Jesus says) : I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world... Many of his disciples, after having heard him, said : This word is hard ; who can listen to it ? John 6 51, 60

When Bible verses shock us

"Little Tom wanted to have glasses. He thought they would give him the same prestige as his father, who was a businessman. They took him to an optician where he had to read a card to see what letters he could make out.

- I see very well the first letters H, L, C but I cannot read the following S, A, B, he says.

This funny story illustrates our own weaknesses. When we read the Bible, we eagerly accept what corresponds to our ideas, but we find it much more difficult to accept what contradicts our thoughts and exposes our sins" (Richard Wurmbrand).

If we read the Bible wanting it to say what we think, we are not really reading it. If we exclude certain parts of our readings because they challenge us, we are doing like the child who claimed that he could not read certain letters.

To act like this is to miss what God wants to say to us in order to transform us. The passages that trouble us the most are perhaps the ones that we need the most !

It is true, certain words of the Bible can shock us or shake us, as was the case for several disciples of Jesus who said : "This word is hard" What does Jesus answer them ? “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6.63).

Instead of leaving Jesus, as these disciples did, let's go to him and tell him what hurts us, asking him for his help. He will answer.

Source (The Good Seed)