Prejudged
Imagine being judged not by what you say or do, but by where you are from.
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law they are accursed.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’ - John 7:37-52
Some people were impressed by what Jesus said, and they were ready to believe he was the Messiah, but the Pharisees knew better.
They knew Scripture and could not accept that someone from Galilee could be taken seriously.
When Nicodemus, who had gone to meet with Jesus secretly, spoke up seeking a fair hearing for Jesus, he was put down.
The lesson in this could be that God's choices do not follow convention. We should not assume that the person from the street has nothing to offer us when we need help, or that the uneducated or poor among us could not teach us something about God's love for all.
When people ask to help, it may be God prodding them to come forward, so why not accept their offer?
We all have prejudices, though we may find that hard to accept. We have preconceived notions of what will work and whose help we will need, but God answers prayers in strange ways.
We may be hoping for funding to hire someone, only to get volunteers willing to do the work. If we turn them down, thinking they could not do what we need done, we become the fools.
God comes to be with us in many forms, through many people He chooses. If we go through life not recognizing Him in them, whose fault is that?
More to come...