Devotional for the Week

Questions Remain

Devotional for the week of August 25, 2024

Throughout his time on earth, Jesus taught the disciples what it means to follow him, delving deeper into difficult concepts with each step toward the cross. Jesus’ thought-provoking and life-changing words challenged existing wisdom, stretching the boundaries of belief, forcing each person who heard them to reevaluate everything they thought they knew. How could they eat this bread and live forever?

Is it any easier for us to wrap our minds around Jesus’ teachings? How do we open our hearts to the mystery of flesh given for us, blood shed for us, and bread come down from heaven when our culture insists that there is a simple black-and-white answer to every question? Who takes time to slow down and reflect on challenging Bible passages? Can we allow those words we do not understand to just be, to percolate and take root in the fertile soil of Christ’s presence until the Spirit can coax a shoot of understanding to spring forth and grow into the light?

Too many unanswered questions weighed heavily on some of Jesus’ followers. They wanted out; it was too difficult. They turned back to the safety of familiar routines and comfortable ideologies, prompting Jesus to wonder if all the disciples would abandon him. “Do you also wish to go away?” he asked the twelve (John 6:67). He asks the same question of us today whenever the circumstances of our lives challenge our faith, whenever our hearts are broken and our bodies exhausted, whenever it feels like we cannot take another step. Will we trust in Jesus’ promise that his words are spirit and life? Do we believe he is the Holy One of God?

Questions remain, but the good news is that God’s love is stronger than our doubts and fears, calling us back to worship, filling us with strength and giving us peace in the midst of uncertainty.