Tuesday, August 23: “Hard Comfort”

John 6: 60, 66: “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’ … As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”

Given a perfect opportunity to speak comforting, calming words to His disciples who were wavering, Jesus did just the opposite–He strengthened, instead of watered down, the words that offended them. He would not back away from the truth, no matter how confrontational it was, because only the truth brings forth true fortis (comfort). Compromising the truth to make it more palatable and comfortable leads to weakness, not strength.