“Playing To The Gallery!”

“Playing To The Gallery!”(Lk.22:54-71).
A beggar sitting at a roadside had a placard which read, “Please, help me, I am blind.” A passer-by dropped a thousand francs note in his bowl just at a time when a strong wind was blowing. This wind lifted the note into the air. The blind beggar jumped up and ran after the thousand francs note. The person who gave the money was embarrassed and said to the beggar,
“The message on the placard says you are blind.” The beggar told him, “I asked the artist to write that I am deaf and dumb. I didn’t know he wrote that I was blind.”
We fail in many ways when we carry a script without knowing its content. This happens when we are either too lazy to read, or we cannot read, or we read and do not understand what we have read. When we are in any of the categories above we are like the hypocrite beggar. When somebody comes along who reads and understands the content of the script we carry, when he explains to us, we may make him an enemy because he has exposed our hypocrisy. A blindman cannot run after a note that is carried by the wind, and a deaf and dumb does not speak clearly and fluently.
The travesty of justice that happened to Jesus was a blatant demonstration that the so-called Jewish religious authorities had little understanding of their own Scriptures. If they did, they would not have pressed for his death.
The major accusation against Jesus was blasphemy. The blasphemous act was his claim of being the Son of God who has come into the world so that through his death and resurrection he becomes the Christ.
The evidence was/is there in their Jewish Old Testament Canon, the Talmud and the Pseudepigrapha. In their ignorance they played to the gallery in the plan of God!
Jesus knew what his accusers ought to know, and because they did not know, their every step was God’s designed way for the salvation of fallen human beings.
When we read about the different moments when Peter denied Jesus, it shouldn’t surprise us. It couldn’t have been Peter’s words against the words of the Lord.
According to Jesus, his accusers used their mouths to testify who he was. They said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Christ, tell us.’ Jesus answered, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.’ They all asked, ‘Are you then the Son of God?’ He replied, ‘You are right in saying I am.'”
The mere mention of “I am” in Jesus’ response was enough testimony of his blasphemy. “I Am” was the sacred name of God that he told Moses in the Burning Bush.
Dear friend, it is the right thing for us to feel sorrowful that the Lord Jesus suffered for our sake. But we should steep ourselves in the words of Scriptures so that we may know the Christ more and more and the power of his resurrection!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, encourage us to constantly read and study the Holy Scriptures. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
16/04/2025.