Having read the Gospel passage I found myself asking the question
How do we deal with criticism?
How do we deal with complaints
Should we complain as much as we do?
Story
This reminds me of the story about a Trappist monk.
Trappist monks take a vow of silence and in this particular monastery the monks were only allowed to speak one sentence every 5 years.
On the anniversary of his first five years, the Abbot came in and said: "My son, you have been here five years, you may say your one sentence".
"The beds are too hard" was the reply.
Five years later, the Abbot returned and said to the monk: "My son, you have been here ten years, you may say one sentence"
"The food is awful" was the reply.
Five years later, the Abbot returned and said to the monk: "My son, you have been here fifteen years, you may say one sentence"
"The toilets are blocked" was the reply.
The abbot turned to the monk and said: My son, I wonder if you are cut out for monastic life; all you have ever done since you have come here is complain.
How did Jesus deal with criticism from his nearest and dearest?
David Simpson writes this:
If there is one glaring fault in my ministry, it has been to allow others /to blur my vision /and that of the church.
No matter what you do in life, you are going to have critics.
The only people who don’t hear criticism are the ones not doing anything.
So how are we to deal with critics and how much complaining should we do?
St. Paul was so concerned about Christians in Ephesus that he challenged them with these words recorded in Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. - Ephesians 4:29
In other words, don’t let your criticisms become gossip, otherwise you will find yourself destroying God’s work.
Story: When Maddy and I were in Switzerland and we went to an English Church in Rheinfelden.
Maddy went to a ladies’ prayer meeting one day from the Church.
Steffi, the leader of the prayer group said everything mentioned here would be held in confidence.
So when Maddy was asked what she would like prayer for, she said “Please pray for Martin.”
That got interpreted by one lady as Martin and Maddy are about to get divorced.
Which was something we hadn’t even thought about.
But instead of asking either of us if it was true, the lady tittle-tattled about it in church.
The tittle tattle got so bad that people in the church started suggesting we should get counselling from a Tamil Pastor, Larwin
Eventually, we were able to get the lady to talk to us in the presence of the Swiss pastor, Urs Hauri, in whose church we met.
I asked her why she didn’t ask Maddy or me about it as the Scriptures tell us to do.
She replied that the Holy Spirit had told her to talk around the church about it, rather than speak to us.
Maddy then explained what she had said:
The reason I asked for prayer for Martin was that
Martin has a full time job as a patent attorney,
a young family and
leads worship on Sunday in church.
And it is a lot to do. So I asked prayer for him.
The lady didn’t believe that answer despite Urs Hauri supporting our position
The damage was done and so we left the church.
I met a couple of the church members of the Church a few years later and they blamed me for the church closing a couple of years after we left!!!.
Were we right to leave?
I don’t know for sure,
But it did free us up to start another Church in 1988, which is still active today and reaches out to the refugees in one of the Refugee Centres in Basle.
God can use what we do wrong to further his Kingdom
In our Gospel reading today Jesus didn’t allow his critics – even if his nearest and dearest to side track him from his calling.
Background
Jesus had returned to his home town after a revival.
Wonderful healings were happening and people flocked to hear his teaching.
And that’s where the devil can get in.
Generally if we are not fulfilling our calling properly, the devil will leave us alone.
Why – because the devil is happy with that.
But here Jesus was being successful, he was fulfilling His Father’s calling
So the religious leaders become jealous and so they set out to cause as much trouble as they could.
They start questioning Him saying that Jesus is working for the Devil.
What really annoyed them was that Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
You can read that in Mk 3:1-6
You mustn’t heal on the Sabbath
How did Jesus deal with criticism?
Firstly he addressed the issues raised:
1) How dare you heal on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them with this statement
“If the eighth day after birth of a male child happens to fall on the Sabbath, you’ll circumcise him, to keep the letter of the Law.
But if someone comes and heals the complete body on the Sabbath you criticise him.”
2) And then the critics added – because he was breaking the Sabbath rules/ he must be healing in the power of Beelzebub – The Devil.
Jesus then asks his critics this question
“How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself, /that kingdom cannot stand.
If a house is divided against itself, /that house cannot stand.
And if Satan opposes himself /and is divided, he cannot stand; /his end has com
In times of criticism, Jesus gives a quiet but firm response showing he has heard the criticism and he deals with it
He doesn’t let it side-track him
He then gets back to his primary mission to teach his disciples.
Perhaps this is a challenge to us, when people criticise us.
A firm but quiet response and then get back to what God has called you to do
