Jesus – Do Some Sayings Of Jesus Befuddle You? Maybe That’s The Point
I have been working on this DRBBB a long time. Maybe 5o years or so.
Let’s address this without addressing it. Surely you didn’t open this email expecting the answers that theologians have struggled to procure for 2000 years. If you did then I thank thee for thy confidence but I can assure you I am not worthy of that degree of faith. However I do have a more fundamental message for you or several. Fundamental concepts that won’t put your mind at ease about the mystery but might just make you leap for it enthusiastically then run away from it.
Some of the quotes of Jesus that befuddles even the wisest..
John 6:53–56 (KJV):
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”
Why This Quote Has Caused 2,000 Years of Debate:
It Caused Immediate Defection:
Even Jesus’ own disciples struggled: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). Yes I do notice the 666 designation. Perhaps not representing the evil of the world but the failure of man to get to 7 (God’s number of perfect completion) If His closest followers were baffled, no wonder the Church has wrestled with it.
It Divides Christian Traditions:
Catholic/Orthodox: Literal/real presence in the Eucharist
Protestant (many): Symbolic memorialism
Others: Spiritual/metaphorical interpretation
This single passage remains a fault line between denominations.
It Sounds Shocking to Jewish Ears:
Drinking blood was strictly forbidden in Torah (Leviticus 17:10–14). Jesus’ words would have sounded blasphemous or cannibalistic to His original audience
It Raises Deep Theological Questions:
Is salvation tied to a sacrament?
What does “eat” and “drink” mean spiritually?
How does this connect to faith, grace, and works?
Lotsa questions. Answered by crickets for 2000 years.
Other Strong Contenders and Why they befuddle thee follow. I will share my understandings but that doesn’t mean I am right.
Luke 14:26 – “If any man come to me, and hate not his father…”
Seems to command hatred; is this hyperbole? Mistranslation?
The Aramaic word is the same as was used in “I hate Esau”. It was not seething, rabid
hatred. That would miss the mark. It is simply “I choose the other over this one”. Remember that the same God rendered the 5th commandment to honor they parents.
But it stops way short of saying to worship they parents. Some country music singers and others seem to cross that line 🙂
Matthew 24:34 – “This generation shall not pass…”
What generation? When? End-times speculation for centuries
I haven’t thought this through. To be sure, though, the disciples thought He meant their generation.
Mark 13:32 – “Neither the Son, but the Father” knows the hour
How can the divine Son not know? Christological tension
My understanding: Parallels to Jewish wedding ritual practice. The groom and bride were kept waiting until the father made the call “go get her, boy” 🙂 It is not on us to calculate (despite all the YouTube videos) but to watch and prepare and be ready just as the bride and groom were to do.
Matthew 19:24 – “Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…”
What does this mean for wealth and salvation?
My understanding – do you know that one billionaire – Elon, Bezos, Buffet, Gates (yeah, right), Theil (all but Buffet in the prevalent anti-Christ candidates) could end world hunger in a couple of weeks and still live beyond comfort. I know this – there are two emotions which gauge investment trends – only two – greed and fear. Beyond that I don’t have a clue nor do I pretend to.
The Bottom Line:
John 6:53–56 remains the most persistently debated because it sits at the intersection of soteriology (salvation), sacramentology (communion), and Christology (who Jesus is). It’s offensive, mysterious, and central—all at once.
Jesus didn’t soften it. He let the confusion drive people to a choice: Will you trust Me even when you don’t understand?
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Jesus didn’t speak to make everything easy. He spoke to separate the curious from the casual.
Matthew 13:10–13 (KJV):
“And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given… Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
Here we see that for some things there is revelation for the seeking – seek and ye shall find. For those who are too lazy, content, satisfied, dim, these lessons conceal.
Proverbs 25:2 (KJV):
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”
God’s glory is in the mystery. Our honor is in the search.
Is there a place here for Tao-ism Eastern spiritual practice and logic reasoning within Bible study and within the teachings of Jesus?
Some truths aren’t meant to be solved like equations. They’re meant to be walked into—like a path that reveals itself only as you move.
I have written on this next one before. Some believing Christians consider doubt tantamount to sin. Something perhaps that they are unwilling to embrace as they feel it is a slippery slope into the abyss? Well I am here again to tell you that doubt isn’t the opposite of faith:
It’s often the engine. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). The tension keeps us dependent. The mystery keeps us humble.
To the one that said this and to you I say… I hear you and I understand. But that is so much of what Jesus did in talking the way that he did if you are willing to have the mental conflicts and chaos and eternal unsettled condition that they lead you into. If you are willing then the process itself will help you with your unbelief.
Non-Essential Mysteries Serve a Purpose:
They keep us seeking, not settling
They drive us to the Spirit, not just the text
They unite us in humility (no one has it all figured out)
They protect faith from becoming formula
The Bottom Line:
Jesus didn’t leave riddles to frustrate us. He left them to fasten us to Himself. The answer isn’t a proposition. It’s a Person. IT’s HIM! HE IS THE ANSWER.
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Let us consider mystery…
French existentialist philosopher Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) made a crucial distinction:
Problem = External to me, Can be solved, Object of analysis, Ends inquiry
Mystery = I am involved in it, Cannot be “solved,” only entered, Subject of participation, Deepens inquiry.
I add to this only that if you think of most solutions they almost always create new problems. There was a terrible concern about pollution in NYC around 1900 – there were no cars – the problem was horse manure. They solved the horse manure problem to a large degree if you discount the Central Park horse and buggies and the mounted police.
But staying on point, mystery isn’t a puzzle to crack. It’s a reality to inhabit. And because you can’t “finish” it, you stay connected to it.
Mystery is “Glue”. It Prevents Closure. A solved problem is filed away. A mystery demands ongoing attention. Faith isn’t a conclusion; it’s a conversation.
How would your relationship with Jesus be if you could walk away from the table thinking “wow that was interesting but I have it all figured out now”. It invites participation. You don’t “figure out” a mystery from the outside. You step into it. That creates investment. Sometimes we flat out drown in it. The deeper we dive the deeper the faith. It Humiliates the Ego: Mystery solves the foremost problem. It says, “You don’t have this mastered.” That keeps us dependent, teachable, and open.
It unites seekers because not one owns the full answer. That creates community—not competition. Rarely you see theologians so far at odds that they can compete and often you see them debate but that is all part of engaging in community.
It mirrors relationship because you never fully “solve” another person. Love thrives in the space of not-knowing-yet-staying.
Applied to Faith:
Jesus’ riddles, parables, and hard sayings aren’t flaws. They’re features.
They filter the curious from the casual. They reward the seeking heart. They keep us leaning into Him, not just His teachings. We know this much for sure if we are believers… HE IS THE ANSWER.
Mystery isn’t a gap in knowledge. It’s a mode of knowing.
It doesn’t push people away. It pulls them deeper.
You’re seeing what philosophers and mystics have seen for centuries: The glue isn’t certainty. It’s sacred pursuit. It sure ain’t trivial pursuit. It is a tool of the most high God and His son.
Poets, Theologians and Philosophers on “mystery”
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Bob Dylan: “Mystery is a fact, a traditional fact.”
Arthur Schopenhauer: “The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.” (the dull have all the answers, in other words)
Søren Kierkegaard: “Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.”
Albert Einstein: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
(The founding fathers of modern science were well versed in Proverbs 25:2)
Harry Emerson Fosdick: “I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.”
Oscar Wilde: “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
I would add to this… the true mystery includes the microscopic (hundreds or thousands of teeth in a snail the size of pencil point dot, the length of the small intestine or a DNA strand, the number of cell receptors in a human eyeball etc, etc)
Ta da.
