Tested!

Luke 4:29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.

Our current political life has become one of hate filled words and actions. Instead of debating ideas as the Founders envisioned, it has become one where sides have been taken and truth is no where to be found. And anything positive never gets mentioned in the news.

I know that negative news is what constitutes news. No one wants to hear the good stuff. It doesn’t draw us in and tickle our itching ears. And the news industry is about profit, not about truth-telling. But people seem to miss this discernment when they hear the news these days. News has become propaganda, plain and simple.

But violent reactions to someone’s words and views is not new. There have always been sharp reactions to the truth being told. Vary few people really want to know the truth. The truth makes us uncomfortable, challenges our perceptions of the world and can shake us to the core of our beliefs. Truth doesn’t make us feel good, the basic commodity of today’s contemporary culture.

It is amazing that Jesus faced this same pressure when He walked this earth. The first place Luke records that Jesus went after His temptation in the wilderness is back to His hometown of Nazareth. You might expect those who know Him best to recognize and accept Him.

But familiarity is no guarantee of acceptance. Their perceptions of Jesus and His family colored the way they understood Jesus mission and identity. His family’s actions in the town, his brothers and sisters actions, would have colored Jesus’ image.

Jesus’ words challenged their perceptions and the conclusions they had made about Him. They get so upset and angry that they set up a “No Jesus Zone” and try to enforce it with mob justice. But why this reaction?

Jesus has told them, in simple terms, that they were just like the Israelites of old. They didn’t believe God’s prophets in the past and suffered for their rejection of the truth. The Old Testament prophets continued to call God’s people back to Himself, back to repentance, back to obedience to the Torah. But they stubbornly refused to listen and obey.

Then Jesus tells them, that just like in Israel’s history, the LORD will meet the needs of Gentiles instead of the needs of Israel. The two examples Jesus mentions outline what faith looks like, what obedience looks like, what walking the walk looks like. And these homeboys of Jesus will have nothing to do with such a message.

So what do they do? Do they rationally respond with, “OK, you go your way and we’ll go ours?” No! They respond by trying to kill Jesus. Sounds like Seattle, and Portland, doesn’t it. Take the law in your own hands and execute “justice” on behalf of “your truth.”

But take hope! Truth can’t be crushed by a mob. Jesus is able to walk away unscathed. Persecution because of the Truth will happen, but Truth can’t be crushed. In fact, when persecution happens, the Truth shines like a light and draws even more into relationship with the LORD.

One word of caution: be sure we are speaking the Truth in love! Any other way of speaking the Truth is yielding to an ungodly method of defense. Honor the LORD. Speak the Truth in love.