April 26 - This is Too Difficult!

April 26 – This is Too Difficult!

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” (John 6:60-70)

Does this offend you?

I’m always surprised to hear about those who have left Christianity for some other religion.  The words of Peter in this passage are why.

“Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

I’d like to think that people leave Christianity because they don’t like the way other Christians act and that’s certainly true.  There are very few Christians who are good advertising for Jesus Christ.  Because our humanity gets in the way and steps all over our Christianity, we tend to hurt more than we help.

I’d like to think that people leave Christianity because they experienced a rotten church.  That’s just as possible.  There are plenty of churches out there that emphasize the wrong things, that are more interested in fluff and being a social club than spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’d like to think that people leave Christianity because they are reacting to their upbringing – whether it was too strict and that’s what they associate with being a Christian or because there was no real substance and they just drift away.  That’s absolutely real.  Sometimes our parents don’t do well by us when it comes to a true understanding of the Gospel.

I’d like to think all of these things and more are reasons why people live within a Christian culture and then separate themselves from it. 

But, that’s not the only reason.  From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, there were those who found His teaching to be too difficult or were offended by it.  Even some of those who called themselves His disciples (not necessarily the twelve – there were many others who followed Him and learned from Him), took off when things got too hard.

If everyone was going to drop in line and become a follower of Christ, God wouldn’t have talked about those who harden their hearts against Him and there wouldn’t need to be a threshing of the harvest in the final days. 

Now … we just need to eliminate our negative impact on people regarding  Christianity.  If we can make walking away from Jesus that much more difficult by being good stewards of His Gospel … there will be great rejoicing!