Is Christian belief really that hard? It’s only the eternal and infinite God who transcends time and space itself and the most fundamental truths behind everything in the universe and the very meaning and purpose of human existence; what’s so complicated about that? Admittedly, our faith has some pretty hard teachings, some of which freak us out a little when we can’t wrap our minds around them. How do we react to those?
Jesus has just given his famous bread-of-life speech and finished by saying one would need to eat his flesh and drink his blood to receive eternal life. Ick. No wonder people got nervous. The Jews didn’t take kindly to the idea of cannibalism, and that sure sounded like what Jesus was suggesting. In reality, Jesus was explaining a more spiritual kind of involvement with him, but that was hard for people to pick up on. And unfortunately, oftentimes when people run into teachings that really challenge them, they run away from the whole thing altogether.
All of us have been there. For example, think of a particularly sensitive sin problem of yours, and how defensive you typically get whenever someone confronts you about it! The uncomfortableness of facing sin drives many people altogether away from faith. But mature wisdom demands the opposite of us. Mature wisdom embraces the humility of accepting things that are at first challenging. After all, the gospel would be too small if it all easily made sense to us! We have to remember that God knows what he’s talking about far better than we do, and he really does do and say everything he says and does for a good reason. That kind of humility is called faith.
But the best part is that God doesn’t leave these things high above our heads; he gives us the Spirit who fills us with divine wisdom. It may seem crazy, but all the mysteries and depths of the gospel are available for us to know! Praise God he enables us to hear and understand and believe! That doesn’t mean it’s all easy now, but it does mean that the one who is filled with God’s presence can mature and learn and discover under his guidance. So keep to the faith. Trust him when the hard things come up. The truth may just be more beautiful than we can fathom yet.
