Just the Facts
September 11, 2005
Dear Friends,
It is a burden of human nature that we often string together a series of facts but either lack all of the facts necessary to make a reasonable conclusion or simply construct the available facts in such a way as to reach a bad conclusion. Unfortunately, many times the facts are readily available, but we simply are too lazy, too biased or too sinful to construct them in an appropriate way.
Lest we underestimate the importance to constructing facts appropriately, let us remember that it was the failure to do so that led to the greatest crime ever committed on the face of the earth, the execution of the Son of God.
Here are the “facts†as the elders of Israel saw them in the first century. FACT: Jesus came from Nazareth. The Messiah is born in Bethlehem. Plus, Jesus couldn’t have been born in Bethlehem because all of those babies were killed by Herod. CONCLUSION: Jesus can’t be the promised Messiah (John 7:40-42). Of course we all know the very unusual circumstances of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:4). He was born in Bethlehem. The Jewish leaders made a very bad assumption that if he grew up in Nazareth and his supposed father lived there, he must have been born there.
FACT: Jesus’ mother was pregnant before she was married to Joseph. CONCLUSION: Jesus must be an illegitimate child. This rumor seemed to follow Jesus his whole life. His accusers mockingly told Jesus that “We be not born of fornication.†(John 8:41) The subtle innuendo was not lost on those around Jesus. “We are not born of fornication, Jesus, but you are†is what they meant when they said this.
FACT: Jesus does many things that anger the religious leaders such as healing on the Sabbath, letting his disciples eat without going through the ceremonial cleansing of their hands, and so forth. CONCLUSION: This man cannot be from God. They were so steeped in their legalistic self-righteousness that they could not see “That in this place is one greater than the temple.†(Matt. 12:6)
FACT: Jesus is doing many amazing miracles. CONCLUSION: Since this man is not from God, he must be doing these miracles from some other source than God. It must be the false god of the Philistines — Beelzebul. In reaching this conclusion, they committed the unforgivable sin. Salvation would never be theirs because they would never avail themselves of the cure for their sin.
One exhortation we can take away from this is to be careful with drawing conclusions. As stated above, each of their facts was correct. However, through false reasoning and the flesh they turned those facts into outrageous and incorrect conclusions.
Another exhortation is that sometimes we can guilty of the same thing. We get partial facts and never go to the source. In Matthew 18, we are given a commandment about getting our story straight. Not only is it a command, but it is common-sense for those who want to do the right thing. If we are truly looking out for the best interests of our brethren, why would we even countenance not following this advice? What is the advice? “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him ALONE.†(Matt. 18:15) The flesh does not want to do this. Confronting someone in their sin is not pleasant. It is much more gratifying to the flesh to spread rumors than go to the source of the problem. Plus, for those with less than honest motives, we just might find out as the Pharisees did that our facts are not correct and to our dismay we will have to change our preconceived and mischievous ideas.
Yahweh, who can find a home in your tent, who can dwell on your holy mountain? Whoever lives blamelessly, who acts uprightly, who speaks the truth from the heart, who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade, who casts no discredit on a neighbour, who looks with scorn on the vile, but honours those who fear Yahweh, who stands by an oath at any cost, who asks no interest on loans, who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts can ever be shaken. (Psalm 15 NJB)
Have a great week!
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