Fear No Fear

“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53, MEV). Jesus loves us enough to tell us the hard things. His audience didn’t get what He was speaking about. He was talking spiritually, but they were thinking naturally. They got offended. Cannibalism? How dare this young man? Even His disciples were shocked. “When they heard this, many of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?”” (John 6:60, MEV). We can get offended by what Jesus tells us. We can get shocked. It happened more than once in His ministry on Earth. It is STILL happening now. One of the reasons Jesus tells us the hard things is to remind us that He is LORD. He isn’t just our friend. He isn’t just the One who saved us. He isn’t just our companion and mediator. He is all of that and more, but there is also a level that He is totally 100% RIGHTEOUS and LORD. You don’t talk back to a king if you are the subject. You can’t tell the king what to do. You don’t get to set policy. There are no special interest groups. You get in line with what the king says or you go to a different kingdom. Kings, emperors, and rulers didn’t need to understand the people. They issued commands so that their territory (no matter how small or how large) worked the way THEY wanted it to. It didn’t matter if it was foolish or wise. Their advisors tried to help, but whatever that head of state wanted is what happened. PERIOD. We forget that Jesus is our Lord. He isn’t giving us opinions or asking us to take something under advisement. Yes, He meets us where we are. Yes, He works with us. Yes, He guides us. But He also says some things are. We are the ones responsible for movement. We are responsible to get into alignment with what HE says is right and good. It doesn’t matter how we feel about it. It doesn’t matter what we think about it. If HE says it is so, then it is so. He is the ONLY objective perspective that exists. So Jesus tells us the hard things. He tells us the things that are not easy to follow. He tells us the WHOLE truth instead of only describing the picnic part. He does this because He LOVES us. He does this because He loves us enough to want us to know the Truth. He loves us enough to help us through it, too. He is a GOOD God!