Today's Scripture Reading (November 28, 2020): John 7
It always amazes me how different we can see people.
In watching the turmoil as the United States prepares to go through what is
sometimes an almost decadal change in presidents, how differently we see the leading
players is astounding. This time, the change is coming a little quicker. But
the truth, not trying to insult President-elect Joe Biden, seems to be that the
past election just wasn't about him. More than any other political battle that
I remember in my life, this was a referendum on President Donald Trump. And I
have important people in my life on both sides of the Donald Trump coin. To
some, he is a saint; to others, he is pure evil, and the two sides seem totally
unable to reconcile with the other. And, I admit that the situation mystifies
me more than a little.
But maybe that is just the way it is when we
interact with famous people. We all see something a little different. Even for
those who are less well-known, we have people who see us with rose-colored
glasses and those who struggle to see any good in us at all. And we know that
they are there. And with most of us, the truth is somewhere between the two
extreme opinions the exist around our public persona.
Maybe, because I am writing in the wake of an American
election, this passage seemed to jump off the page. No, I am not saying that
Donald Trump is some kind of evangelical savior sent to us by God. I am
actually on the other side of the coin. I am saying that sometimes we see what
we want to see in those around us. If you are a conservative, you might be more
willing to give King Donald a pass on his eccentric behavior. And if you are
not a conservative, you might be less inclined to see President Trump in a
positive light.
In Israel, there were two kinds of people;
those who were willing to accept that Jesus might be the Messiah, and those who
really did not expect that the Messiah was coming. For one group, Jesus was a
good man. For the other, he was the embodiment of Satan, the great deceiver of
the world.
I wish it were possible for us to see without
preconceived labels. That we could allow Jesus to be everything that he claims
to be in our lives. Maybe then we would be shaped so that we could be the
catalyst to make this world a better place. And perhaps, we might recognize
that Jesus is the only savior. He is the only one that we need, as well as the
only one that we have. But that would mean that we would need to see beyond our
expectations in a way that we never have before.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 8
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