“And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.” Mark 12:12 NKJV
Reflection: how do you face the truth when you realize you have been wrong?
The current estimate is that as many as 35 million people died as a result of the recent pandemic. Just to put that into perspective, around 20 million died in the First World War, and around 70 million in the Second World War. In other words, more people died than in one of our biggest wars in recent history. In addition, the pandemic had a massive impact on people’s livelihoods, marriages and families. We all were impacted in one way or another. Yesterday, we met a wonderful middle-aged man who told us his pandemic story. He lost his business and livelihood, his wife left him, many friends and, even several family members turned their backs on him as he refused to go along with the government mandates. But he did not back down, even in the face of such hardships.
Many people across the world are still trying to understand the facts of the pandemic. Not about what we were told, but of what actually happened. Now most understand more clearly that much of what the governments, the media, companies and institutions, celebrities and even people were pushing were in fact massive deceptions, “a web of lies”; including what was promised to solve the crisis, the so-called “vaccine”. It can be very difficult to process and accept this, whatever position you had during the hight of the crisis. It takes a lot of strength, of courage to admit being wrong, and to say so openly. And, for those who were right, not to become conceited. Because, to admit being wrong requires humility, as does being right, which shows our prideful flesh at the most basic level. Pride, one of the devils favorite tools.
Pride (or shame) is often what prevents people from repentance, from turning to God. Some even “double down” on a lie when faced with the truth. Jesus dealt with exactly this, with very prideful people in our story today. To illustrate who they really were, Jesus told them a parable, to which “they knew He had spoken the parable against them.” It is amazing to read these words. They knew. Jesus confronted them with truth, but they refused to accept it. They refused to repent and change their ways, even if they knew He was right and they were wrong. They knew He was the Son of God. Let’s read this parable, and think about why it was so difficult for them to accept the truth.
“Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.” Mark 12:1-8 NKJV.
Wow. Jesus clearly didn’t mince words, that is for sure. He brings the religious leaders all the way back in history, to the prophets and messengers of God of old. He even told them that they would end up killing Him. That they had murder in their hearts, even to murder God’s only begotten Son. And even if he told them the truth, and they knew it was the truth, they went forward with their plans, to try to hide the truth, to “kill and bury the truth”. And, because of their murderous hearts, Jesus said ““Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?””Mark 12:9-11 NKJV. The responsibility for the vineyard which God had given them, was taken from them and “given to others” as a result of their rebellious and hard hearts. They rejected Jesus, the cornerstone of the temple of God.
So how do we handle the truth when faced with it, even when it reveals our prideful hearts? How do we face Jesus? When we know we have done something wrong? When we know we have hurt someone? When we know we have believed and followed a lie? Let’s humble ourselves, let’s repent and turn to Jesus, and relentlessly pursue the truth, even if it will cost us our livelihoods, our marriages, our friends and our family relationships. Jesus said “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 10:34-39 NKJV
