Letting Go Of Prejudices To Become God’s Witness

Letting Go Of Prejudices To Become God’s Witness

Luke 7:1-11 Matthew 8:5-13 9/23/22

Have you ever judged another person and missed out on the opportunity to have had your life enriched. I can remember in my years in high school, I pretty much stuck with the same group of friends, most of whom were athletes in the sports I played. I pretty much ignored my other classmates. That is, until the last six weeks of my senior year, in which seniors were thrown together in a series of activities. I was forced to deal with people I had ignored for years.

I discovered some of them were incredible people who would have been great friends the previous t 4 years. But in a few weeks we would graduate and all go in different directions. I regretted my own prejudices, my arrogance, and my warped thinking. I made the error of thinking that I was just a little bit better than some people and that false belief robbed me of people God wanted to bless me within my life.

We are all going through life knowingly or unknowingly battling the temptation to think we are slightly better than others. We are better than them because of the place we’re from, the things we have, the way we look, the things we believe, and even the God we serve. When this hidden temptation comes fully to the surface of our hearts, we refuse to have contact with those people, and once a little hatred is thrown in, we hope for the destruction of those people and willingly participate in their downfall.

This is so far from Jesus, who told us, “A new commandment, I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Have you ever thought about who Jesus is talking about? Can you think of some “one another” you do not want to love because they don’t share your views, your opinions, or your way of seeing an issue? Can you find a teaching of Jesus that allows you to avoid this command to love “one another”? Would the world be a better place if everyone got the same pass as you give yourself to neglect this command of Jesus?

Jesus had an incredible ability to love and to be concerned about people from all walks of life. He never seemed to be concerned with his reputation or of what others might think or say about him. Anyone who follows Jesus, is going to have a shaky reputation in the eyes of some people.

Let’s look into how Jesus dealt with some different “one another” in chapter 7 of Luke. This story is also found in the 8th chapter of Matthew in a more abbreviated format. Each gospel provides some additional details. In Luke, Jesus was coming back to Capernaum after having preached the sermon of the mount.

One commentary stated it was probably about a seven mile walk from where the sermon was preached back to the city of Capernaum. So Jesus and his disciples are probably tired from the journey. Although Jesus was from Nazareth, Jesus chose to make Capernaum his home base. It was the largest city on the north side of the Sea of Galilee, and it was the headquarters for a small contingent of some Roman soldiers.

The hostility between the Romans and the Jews was intense. In addition to the Romans being the conquering enemy, the Romans were Gentiles. In Jewish prayers, they often thanked God they were not born Gentiles. The Jews would not even enter the house of a Gentile, because it would make them unclean. Slavery was a large part of the Roman Empire, so there were slaves in Capernaum. There were a lot of reasons for people to think they were better than or superior to others.

Look at Luke 7:2 (NIV2011) 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The first “one another” to appear in this story is from the bottom of society. He’s a slave, he’s very sick. Matthew in his gospel tells us the man was also paralyzed and suffering terribly.

We don’t know his name, but we do know something of his character or work ethic. Slaves were considered little more than property that could be disposed of, but this slave had lived his life in such away that he was highly valued. When others looked at him, they may have seen “just a slave.” Why bother Jesus over “just a slave.” But this slave owner saw more than “just a slave.” He saw someone of incredible value. He saw someone that he did not want to lose. He saw someone that moved his heart to compassion to do whatever he could to save his life.