The other side of a red line

What is the truth? It is not the answer to any question that we know how to ask. Can there be a truth that saves, can there be salvation, for those who have learned of life not to believe in salvation? Only on the other side of pain…the pained embarrassment at the words Jesus Saves, which at its heart is a pained embarrassment at our own nakedness and incompleteness…pain that brought tears to the eyes…of hope betrayed…the pain of the good thief, which is the pain of surrender, the pain of acknowledging finally our utter helplessness to save ourselves.”

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Sign by the Highway”

Once Jesus utterly embarrassed a whole crowd of followers by telling them something they couldn’t hear: you need me so desperately, you need to eat my body and drink my blood in order to have life. That was too far, a red line.  As people shook their heads, picked up their belongings and began to leave, Jesus asked his closest disciples, “Are you leaving, too?”  Peter answered him, “Lord, where else would we go?  You alone have the words of life.”

Are we there yet?

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