Jesus Said What?

Some parts of the Bible are genuinely hard to understand. There are a few passages Christians disagree over, and others that believers and skeptics alike wrestle with. Some verses have to be read two, three, or ten times just to make sense of them. But the reality is, most of the Bible isn’t difficult to understand. It’s just hard to follow.
 
Mark Twain famously quipped, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do understand.”
 
This week, we’re looking at a passage exactly like that. On the surface, it’s not confusing, it’s just strange. In fact, it’s so strange and so offensive, that many people walked away from Jesus because of it. Not because they didn’t understand what He was saying, but because they understood it perfectly and could not accept it.
 
In John 6, Jesus tells the crowds that if they want eternal life, they must gnaw on his flesh and drink his blood. If your reaction is, “Wait… what?”, you’re hearing it correctly. That was the disciples’ reaction too. And for many of them, it was a step too far. It was the moment they walked away.
 
The crowd was happy to follow Jesus when He was giving them bread, solving problems, and meeting their needs. But the moment He stopped being useful and started demanding trust, dependence, and surrender they were done.
 
This Sunday, we’re going to unpack what Jesus actually means when He talks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. We’ll see why this strange and uncomfortable language gets to the very heart of the gospel. Let me encourage you not to walk away just because it sounds weird. Join us for worship. It will be worth it.