Wednesday: Neither Did His Brethren Believe in Him
WEEK 46
WEDNESDAY
NEITHER DID HIS BRETHREN BELIEVE IN HIM
John 1:43-46
We will spend one more day on the mastery of prejudice.
Jesus loves especially those who are the object of prejudice, for he was the particular object of prejudice. Note these sayings about him: “Can anything from Nazareth be good?” (John 1:46).—prejudice against his hometown. “Why [does he] eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30).—prejudice against his associations. “He’s never been taught! How has he mastered the Law?” (John 7:15).—prejudice against his lack of schooling. “He throws out demons with the authority of Beelzebul” (Luke 11:15)—prejudice against the power working in him. Everywhere he turned, he met prejudice—even in his own home: “because even [his brothers] didn’t believe in him” (John 7:5).
How did Jesus overcome these prejudices against him? By going around defending himself and nervously explaining? No, he dissolved them by his unquenchable love and his luminous words. People came to mock and stayed to pray. When the rulers sent soldiers to arrest him, they came back without him and said: “No one has ever spoken the way he does” (John 7:15). They heard the Person and forgot their prejudices. He didn’t rebuke; he revealed. And people saw and knew they saw. “People may doubt his words, but they cannot doubt his face,” said a fifteen-year-old of a certain minister. Jesus did that; one look into his face and prejudices dropped away.
So if you are misunderstood, don’t try nervously to explain. Only little people are always explaining and excusing. “Never explain; never complain,” a man had embroidered on a pillow that he carried with him. “To excuse yourself is to accuse yourself” is a saying I heard first from an Indian lawyer. A man said of Rufus Moseley, “The first time I heard him, I thought he was ‘off.’ But the second time I heard him, I knew I was ‘off.’ ”
A member of the secret police of India told me after a meeting, “I came here to spy on you; I stayed to find Christ.” So our attitude toward prejudice should be infinite patience, infinite love, and infinite understanding; and if that doesn’t work, we should pray, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
O Christ, your love breaks me down and breaks me up. If I come to you to find flaws in you, I go away beating my breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My prejudices are buried; my faith and expectancy from God and people are alive.