July 14, 2024
"The Truth Isn't Always Welcomed"
Mark 6: 14 - 29
Maybe some of us have seen or heard of the movie, A Few Good Men. Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson starred in the movie. In one of the scenes, Tom Cruise, who is a military lawyer, questions Jack Nicholson, who plays a military officer accused of being responsible for the death of a soldier. The questioning in the court room begins to get heated. At one point, Cruise demands that Nicholson state the truth. Nicholson’s response is, “You can’t handle the truth.”
I think it’s accurate to say that the truth isn’t always easy for people to accept. It’s too much of a shock for their brains. People get comfortable in not knowing the truth. When they’re presented with the truth, their world is shaken. Their responses vary. Some lash out in anger, some feel guilty, some internalize what they’ve just heard and try to come to terms with it, some go in denial, some try to suppress it, and so on and so on.
Boeing is in a little hot water for suppressing the truth about the safety of its planes. Not too long ago a door blew off one of its planes while it was in the air. Praise God the plane didn’t crash. But the point is Boeing hid the truth about the safety of its planes. And those who tried to bring this truth to light were ignored or fired. Boeing intentionally kept the truth hidden because it couldn’t handle the truth. My guess is Boeing doesn’t want to deal with the additional costs to ensure its planes are safe to fly. We’ll see what eventually happens.
In our text, Herod and his wife couldn’t handle the truth. John the Baptist told them that it was unlawful in God’s eyes for them to be married. You see, Herod had taken his brother’s wife to be his wife, thus committing the sin of adultery. John the Baptist called them out on this. But this was the truth they didn’t want to hear. They were okay with their arrangement.
One day Herod threw a birthday party for himself and was so pleased with the dancing of his wife’s daughter that he promised to give her whatever she wanted. She consulted with her mother who told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod did as she asked. He had John beheaded and had his head brought to his wife’s daughter who in turn gave it to her mother. This was Herod’s and his wife’s response to the truth which John the Baptist had told them. It was the truth that they didn’t want to hear.
Do we see how people respond to the truth? The truth isn’t always welcomed. The reason is it’s hard to handle.
Believe it or not, people have a hard time handling the truth of Jesus Christ. In our day and age, Christians have been imprisoned and put to death for proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t sit well with people.
I know that we don’t always like to hear the truth that God tells us. How many of us like to hear the truth that we are sinful? Probably not many of us. I don’t see many hands go up. The truth hurts. But the truth of Jesus is necessary for our salvation. What Jesus did on the cross for us makes no sense if it’s not accompanied by the whole truth.
The devil is good at suppressing the truth and leaving out important details of the truth. He lied about the Lord in the Garden of Eden. He has fooled churches with his lies and by suppressing the truth. Why does he do this? He does it to take as many people away from the Lord as possible. He doesn’t want us to be saved. How can people be saved if they don’t know the truth?
A ship is sinking. If people don’t know that there are lifeboats available for them, they won’t be saved. The truth that there are lifeboats available has to be told to people so that in the event of a catastrophe they will know where to go to be saved. The truth here can mean life for people.
The truth of Jesus Christ means life for us, the complete truth of who we are and what Jesus has done for us. Without this truth, we’d all be lost.
The truth is we are sinful human beings. We aren’t good by nature. We aren’t always good to our neighbor. We talk bad about our neighbor. We aren’t always kind. So, we are sinful. We are sinners.
But the truth is Jesus came into our world to forgive us. His forgiveness is necessary if we wish to be saved. He never gave up on us. He loved us so much that He was willing to die for us, which He did 2,000 years ago. This is the truth. And He not only died for us, but He rose from the dead which He promised to do for us as well. This is the truth.
Jesus Himself stated that He came into our world to give us the truth. The world during His time on earth lived in darkness. It lived in lies. Our world today lives in lies. It believes abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, lying, stealing and so on is okay. But it’s not. The devil has a grip on their minds.
The truth is in Jesus Christ. And it’s this truth that sets us free from the lies of this world. Jesus Himself said that the truth will set you free. True freedom is found in the truth of Jesus Christ. That is the truth.
This is the truth we were born into at our baptism. We no longer live in the realm of darkness. We were brought into the light of Christ. We were freed from the lies of the devil. We continue to live in the truth of Jesus Christ.
We thank God that He came into our lives so that we can handle the truth. As I said before, many people can’t handle the truth of Jesus Christ. But that’s not us. The Holy Spirit has worked on our hearts, has softened them up so that they are receptive to God’s truth. They can handle the truth.
We’re still human beings, though. And that means that there are times when we don’t want to hear the truth of Jesus. We can handle it, but we may not want to hear it at times. This is sin working in us. But we’re not like those who can’t handle the truth of Jesus Christ. Those who can’t handle it are still in the grip of the devil, but we are not. Christ has freed us from his power over us. We live in the truth of Jesus Christ.
How does this affect our interaction with those who can’t handle the truth of Christ? Do we just not say anything to them about Christ? No, our Lord wants us to reach out to them. I think we know this. For years, I’ve been reminding us of God’s imperative to us to reach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ has bid us to share His truth with the world.
But this brings up the question, do we share the truth with others if it will cause them great alarm or guilt or some other negative feeling? When it comes to proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ, we do it no matter what. That doesn’t mean we do it rudely, with an in-your-face approach. We do it in a spirit of love. Our concern is that a person come to a saving faith in the Lord.
In other circles, though, the approach to presenting the truth--any truth I’m referring to here— is different from our approach. The truth is often times suppressed so as not to offend someone or to hurt their feelings. In some instances a lie is preferred. Keeping the truth from a fragile person is what’s best for that person until they can handle the truth. But in the case of the Gospel—is this the best approach? We’re talking about a person’s salvation here. If we withhold the truth of the Gospel because we think it may offend a person or really hurt his feelings, we are putting that person’s spiritual life in jeopardy.
I read an article not too long ago about a teacher being fired in California for her Christian beliefs. The school district there accused her of being unprofessional and expressing her Christian beliefs. Now, she didn’t force her Christian beliefs on her students in the classroom. She simply posted them on her social media account. And she refused to lie to parents and children about their gender identity. The school district wanted her to lie, but her religious convictions wouldn’t allow her to. She believed the truth was more important than pacifying the school district by going along with its sick policies. As you might suspect, she was fired. However, she took her case to court and won, believe it or not. She received a settlement from the school district. The truth won in this case.
The truth of Jesus Christ is what matters, even if it means we may have to suffer. And we pray for those who can’t handle the truth of Jesus. We want the Lord to save them.
May the Lord continue to keep our hearts open to always receive His truth and to boldly live and proclaim His truth.