[The following devotional is a part of our 2015 Easter Season Devotional Book “Passion Road.” We will be posting a devotional each day on this blog between February 18 – April 5, 2014.]
Right/Wrong by Mark Robinson
Read: John 4:43 – 5:15
Every year in elementary school, there was one event that attempted to separate the mental men from the boys. What was this event? The Science Fair. Every year, I would make a project . . . and lose every time.
While some students were discovering the theory of relativity, I was relatively impressed with my project, “Which carpet cleaner works best: Scotch or Resolve!” While some students were putting together computer “mother boards” to power robots that could make dinner for you, my mother was impressed by my card board box covered with hand drawn images that represented video games I “designed.”
Every year, as the projects would be displayed at the Fair, and as all the ribbons would go to my friends, I would begin to rationalize my performance. “My friend’s father who is a research scientist must have worked his project for him,” I would muse. Of course, in my reasoning, the answer must not have been that they were just better at science.
As these friends have gone on to become engineers and medical doctors, I am forced to realize that my original assessment was not accurate. Though I had the right info (their projects were better), I was drawing the wrong conclusions (they must have cheated.)
I was thinking about this reality as I read John 4:43-5:15 and pondered the reactions of people to the miracles of Christ. Compared to the religious leaders of Jesus day, His actions and methodology stood out in their power and authority. Though people all saw Jesus’s awesome works, they did not all respond in the same way. When the Royal Official from Capernaum is told by Christ that his son would be healed, the official “took Jesus at His word and departed.” Later we find out that the Royal Official and all his household believed. By contrast, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, after seeing Jesus heal a lifelong paralytic, assume that Jesus was cheating the Father’s Sabbath. The Royal Official in Capernaum and the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem both had right information about Jesus, but only the Royal Official made the right conclusion.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and His actions are always impressive, and they are always right, however, sometimes, we find ourselves not reacting rightly to the revelation we receive of Jesus Christ. Sometimes when things don’t work out the way we had hoped, we might be tempted to draw the wrong conclusion that Jesus is not in control or that He does not care about us in our time of need. While it may be right that things are not working out to our plan, it is wrong to ever conclude that Jesus is anything less than our holy and loving God. The spiritual life is not simply a life of observation, it is a life of our response to God’s revelation.
Question:
- Why do you think people draw the wrong conclusion about who Jesus is?
Prayer:
- Ask God how He wants you to respond to Him as a result of this study.