In our sermon series about the earthly life of
Jesus, we’re approaching the end of Jesus’ time on earth. Judas has
betrayed him. Jesus has been arrested. Now, he’s been taken to the
high priest for questioning. The questions, we’re told, are about Jesus’
disciples and about Jesus’ teaching.
The more I think about the way Jesus answered those
questions, the more remarkable it seems to me. Because there were a lot
of ways Jesus could’ve played this, you know. He could’ve denied
everything. He could’ve claimed he’d been taken out of context, that the
things he’d said did not mean what it was claimed they meant. He could’ve
said that the accusations against him were a pack of lies--which, according to
some of the other gospels, they actually were.
There were other options.
He could’ve gotten angry, the way he did in the temple courts when he
chased out the money changers. He could’ve questioned their authority--he
could’ve told them that he was the divine Son of God and that they had no right
to question him about anything. He could’ve even called on divine
help--last week we read where Jesus said that all he had to do was ask and God the
Father would send twelve legions of angels to help him. These are just
some of the ways Jesus could’ve played this, some of the ways he could’ve
reacted to the questioning from the high priest.
But Jesus did not do any of
that. Here’s what Jesus said:
I have spoken openly to the world. I
always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together.
I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who
heard me. Surely they know what I said.
Jesus knew that the high
priest’s mind was closed. He did not know who Jesus was and was not
interested in finding out. The high priest was not looking for
information. He was looking for a reason to have Jesus killed. It
did not matter what Jesus said. The decision had already been made.
So Jesus refused to play along. He was not going to get angry.
He was not going to argue. He simply says, everyone knows what I
said. What’s the point of asking me? Without saying so, he makes it
clear to everyone that the high priest has no intention of giving him a fair
trial. This is just all for show, and Jesus is not about to put on a
show.
And it’s interesting, I think,
that the officials had no idea how to handle that. One of them gets mad
and slaps Jesus. And Jesus again refuses to play along with the charade.
He simply says, “If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong.
But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”
I think there are some
important lessons here for us. We’ve talked before about how Jesus told
us to go and make disciples. In doing that, it’s important that we live
lives that show our Christian faith, but it’s also important that actually
spread the word. It’s important that we tell people about our church and
about our faith in Jesus Christ.
One of the things that keeps us
from doing that is fear. That fear can take several forms, but among them
are the fear of rejection and the fear of starting an argument. But I
think that the way Jesus handled this shows us ways we can deal with those
fears.
Let’s look at the fear of
rejection first. Now, Jesus was rejected. Absolutely he was.
But look at the people who rejected him. They were people, like the
high priest and like the officials surrounding him, whose minds were closed.
They were people who were not receptive to Jesus’ message in any way,
shape, or form. They were not interested in hearing anything Jesus had to
say. They were not interested in hearing why he said what he said.
Without even hearing what Jesus had to say, they were already opposed to
him.
These were not the first people
Jesus had run into who had that attitude, of course. It happened at
various times during his ministry. And basically, Jesus reacted the same
way to all of them, which was that he was not going to waste his time with
them. Essentially, Jesus knew that there’s no point in talking to a brick
wall. He tells the disciples the same thing. In Matthew Ten,
Fourteen, Jesus says, “If anyone will not
welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust
off your feet.” Jesus knew there would be plenty of other people
who would be receptive, or at least open-minded, so there was no point in wasting
time on those who were not.
When we look at this way, we can see we don’t need to fear
rejection. We just need to move on from it. If we’re talking about
Jesus and we get rejected, it’s okay. You and I don’t need to take it
personally, because they’re not rejecting us personally. They’re
rejecting Jesus. It’s not an insult to us. It’s an insult to Jesus.
So let Jesus handle it. Move on.
So let’s look at the fear of starting an argument.
That can happen, of course. We all know people who love to argue,
right? And they’ll argue about almost anything, including religion.
But just because someone wants to argue does not mean that you and I have
to join the argument.
Now we should make clear, there’s a difference between an
argument and a discussion. Jesus welcomed discussion. You and I
should welcome it, too. If someone wants to know more about Jesus, if
someone wants to know more about the Christian faith, that’s an awesome thing. We
need to encourage that. If someone has honest questions about God and is
really interested in finding the answers, that’s a great thing. Asking
honest questions is one of the best ways to learn.
That’s far different from an argument. And again, it
gets back to the distinction between someone whose mind is closed and someone whose
mind is open. And we can usually tell that difference through the course
of talking to someone. If the person we’re talking to is actively engaged
in hearing what we have to say, if they’re responding to it, if they’re being
respectful and asking questions out of a desire to learn more, we can usually
tell that. If the person we’re talking to is not interested in hearing
what we have to say, if they’re just interested in making their own points and
don’t even seem to be paying attention to what we’re saying, we can usually
tell that, too. That’s when it becomes an argument.
Jesus showed us how not to get involved in an argument.
The more I read what Jesus said, the more impressed I am by it. He
says, basically, you don’t have to ask me what I taught. Everyone knows
it. Everything I said was out in the open, in public. If you really
want to know what I said, ask the people who heard me. If I said anything
wrong, say what it is. If not, what are we doing here?
That’s an example for us. If someone is not
interested in hearing what we have to say, if they just want to argue, we don’t
need to fall for it. And again, we don’t need to take it personally,
either, because the fact is that they’re not really arguing with us.
They’re arguing with Jesus Christ. All we need to do is say, hey,
I’m just telling you what Jesus said. I can show you where Jesus said it,
if you like. But if you don’t want to like it or don’t want to hear it,
that’s your choice. Your problem is with Jesus, not with me.
Jesus had told the disciples that was going to happen, too.
In Matthew Ten, Forty, Jesus says, “Anyone
who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who
sent me.” The implication, then, is that anyone who does not welcome the
disciples does not welcome Jesus, and does not welcome God the Father who sent
him. So it’s not us that’s not welcomed. It’s Jesus. It’s not
an insult to us. It’s an insult to Jesus. So again, let Jesus
handle it and move on.
There’s one other point to make about
moving on. By moving on, we’re not giving up on anyone. If someone
changes their attitude, if they become receptive to God’s word, if they want to
hear about Jesus, we should always be ready to talk to them. Jesus
would’ve been more than happy to talk to the high priest if the high priest had
actually been interested in hearing what he had to say. Moving on does
not mean slamming a door on anybody. We should always make clear that, if
someone truly wants to know more about Jesus Christ, we’ll be more than willing
to talk with them.
But if not, then we need to do what Jesus
told us to do. Focus on the people who are interested, not on the people
who are not. And know that they are not rejecting us and they are not
arguing with us. They are rejecting Jesus and arguing with Jesus.
So we can let Jesus handle it and not worry about it.
Jesus told us to go and make disciples.
You and I can do that without fear. If we keep our eyes open and
our hearts open, God will show us people who’ll be interested in Jesus’
message. Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to lead you to those people.
Then, trust that God will tell you what to say, so that they may be led
to faith in Jesus Christ.
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