Thoughts and stories, by Pal

“To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” By  Brant Bishop  · November 30, 2022 Shortly after his beautiful bread of life sermon, many of the Savior’s disciples murmured and turned away from following him. (John 6:60-66) To most of us—born and raised in a cultural tradition that understands Jesus in light of his completed life, miracles, sacrifice, and resurrection—that sermon is a wonderful testimony of Jesus’s divine nature and saving power. But those words challenged the cultural traditions of Jesus’s day, and were a very real stumbling block to those who first heard them. After all, in asserting that he was the true and living bread sent down from heaven, Jesus was explicitly claiming to surpass in importance Moses and the miracles wrought through him. And in teaching his disciples that his flesh and blood offered them eternal life in him, just as he had life in the Father, Jesus offended the finely-honed Jewish sensibilities against blasphemy. “Many ther...