Home  Articles  Site map

When Jesus was rising in popularity among the people, the Jewish rulers became jealous. But without recognising and dealing with this jealousy, they reasoned among themselves that it was going to be detrimental for the country, and so it was better to sacrifice one life than to put the whole country in jeopardy! It appealed to everyone who heard it, except that this was not the real reason behind the plot to kill Jesus.

The Pharisees wanted Jesus to prove that He was their Messiah by doing a miracle. Yet they were not willing to recollect the memory of the hundreds of miracles Jesus had done among the people.

When the chief priest asked Jesus whether He was the Messiah and He replied affirming it, he turned it around as if it was blasphemy. Jesus had His miracles and His blameless life to back His claims, and yet the chief priest turned it around as if Jesus was making a false claim. It was a no-win situation for Jesus.

When Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver which he had received as the price for betraying Jesus, the Jewish rulers could not accept it into the Temple treasury because they said it was 'blood-money'! Remember, they had had no qualms earlier about putting an innocent Man to death for their selfish gain, and now they were being very 'sensitive' about minor aspects of propriety! They wanted to present a picture about how careful they were about keeping the sanctity of the Temple.

We need to understand that in any situation there are many factors at play, some of which are more important than others. But those who play 'politics' can always bring out a less important factor into the limelight and exaggerate it in such a way that an innocent person gets depicted as a criminal, and a criminal is seen as a 'saint'. We can see that this kind of politics is played not only among political parties but also by ordinary people in their interaction with others. We need to make sure that we are not playing politics ourselves and also that we are prepared to face it from others who are less scrupulous.

When we are determined to be truthful and sincere in all that we do, we find that no matter how innocent we are, people have a way to turn things around against us. A common example is when one man does wrong to another and then points to the second man not forgiving him! This is really 'injustice' and not being 'fair'. But that is life! That is why we have to be willing, as disciples of Jesus, to overlook a lot of offences against us, forgive those who do wrong to us, and bear with those who are not changing (Col.3:13)! On the other hand, we have to learn to avoid this politics from our side. Let us stand with truth, and take care about how we deal with the others. Remember, there are many factors in any situation. Let us not try to strain out the 'gnats' while swallowing camels (Mt.23:24). Also, when we notice the 'speck' in another's eyes let us make an effort to get rid of the 'log' in our own (Mt.7:4,5).

Tweet