60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” 61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?” … 63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” … 66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. (John 6:60-61, 63, 66)
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not beyond our ability to comprehend. The problem here was the unwillingness of His audience to receive His teachings. When we complain about the difficulty of receiving and following the teachings of Christ we are complaining against Jesus Himself. The words of Jesus Christ are “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68, 63). Jesus did not modify and change His teaching to what the audience felt it needed to hear. He did not change the vocabulary of truth to be sensitive to their anxieties, insecurities and doubts. So, many were offended and did not follow Him. Yet, He boldly expected them to change themselves to conform to His word. He expects the same of us, too. Instead of trying to change the gospel to fit our agenda, Jesus says to change ourselves to fit His. His words give eternal life. Our own words can never do that (Jeremiah 10:23).
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