Sometimes, when the crowd following Jesus grew too large, He would give them a hard teaching that would cause some to fall away. He did that here in Capernaum. He talked about how He is the bread of life. He told them that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they would not have life. The crowd following him, even part of the larger crowd of disciples, was put off by this talk of eating His flesh. They stopped following Him and dispersed. But the 12 core disciples stayed. When Jesus asked whether they wanted to leave, Peter said: “Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God!” That’s a terrific picture of faith. The disciples didn’t understand this talk of eating His flesh any better than anyone else, but their faith was grounded in who He is, not their ability to understand all He taught.
We should be the same. We run across teachings or Bible passages we have a hard time understanding. If that shakes our faith, then our faith is really in our own intelligence, not the Lord. When our faith is in Christ, that enables us to say that we follow Him, because of who He is, even when we don’t understand all that He is telling us.
Is there a teaching or a scripture with which you struggle? Reaffirm that your faith is in Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the truth when you are ready.