Tues.'s Devo - Can You Handle the Truth?

Read John 6:28-71
Verse 28 is the question of the ages: How do we do the works of God? Jesus said the work of God is to believe on him. This wasn't enough for the people, they wanted a tangible sign that what he was saying was true. Jesus reminded them of the miracle of God giving the children of Israel manna every morning. This was truly a miracle and a picture of God sending heavenly bread down to feed the people. Jesus was the fulfillment of this picture. He was the bread sent down from heaven to give nourishment and life to the people. Jesus came down to earth to save all that would come to him and raise them up at the last day.
The Jews didn't like Jesus saying he was the bread that came down from heaven... they knew he was Joseph and Mary's son so how could he say he came down from heaven? Jesus knew what they were saying so he cut to the chase: no one can come to me unless the Father draws him. So there! Then he explained again that he was the bread of life. The manna in the wilderness didn't give them eternal life but he could. All you had to do is to eat his flesh and drink his blood. I'm afraid that he might have lost me there. He certainly lost some. He said 3 times that he came down from heaven which was enough to try to swallow but to eat his flesh was cannibalistic and absurd! So Jesus gets even more complicated and says EXCEPT you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you. And when you do....you will be in me and I will be in you. This was indeed a hard saying. Even the disciples had a hard time with it. Jesus doesn't mind offending people with truth and he seems to try to weed people out with hard sayings that they can only believe if they are yielded to the spirit. The spirit knows truth and can embrace it even when the mind can't understand it. Jesus said in verse 63: "The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life." The ones that couldn't accept this bit of truth left from following him. Jesus looked at his 12 and asked them if they were going to leave and Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that you are that Christ, the Son of the living God." So Jesus laid an even harder thing on them: "Have I not chosen you and one of you is a devil?" What a way to break up a party? Jesus never danced around truth. He was the truth and the more they believed the more truth he dished out to them. I bet they weren't expecting that one.
Lord, expand our minds to embrace the things you want to speak to our spirits. Give us hearts that long for truth and faith to believe it when it comes.