When Jesus was on trial, numerous people made many false accusations against Him. However, He didn’t get caught up in disputing the legitimacy of their claims or in defending Himself. The Bible says, “The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed” (Mark 15:3-5).
Jesus knew where He needed to go. His death on a cross awaited Him which would be followed by a miraculous resurrection from the dead. He knew the road He needed to walk in order to bring forgiveness and reconciliation to humanity. Jesus stayed focused and didn’t allow Himself to be distracted from His mission. To engage in inconsequential disputes would only be a distraction from what He needed to accomplish.
However, He would have had a good case for defending His reputation against these false accusations. His accusers said, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes…(Luke 23:2).”
Yet, what really happened was very different. Earlier in His ministry Jesus was asked, “…Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Matthew 22:17) Jesus responded by saying, “Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:19-21).
Clearly, Jesus could have paused and made a great case for why He was not teaching people to withhold their taxes. This was obviously a false accusation against Him. However, the outcome of that debate didn’t really impact His mission, so Jesus didn’t engage.
He stayed focused like a laser on what His Father had called Him to do and left history to care for His reputation. He knew that defending Himself against these trivial false accusations didn’t really matter in the scope of eternity.
The next time you sense something is pulling you away from what matters most, consider Jesus example and ask of the potential distraction, “Does it really matter?”
No comments:
Post a Comment