How annoying and inconvenient and seriously embarrassing! What's s/he trying to do? Guilt us into changing? Really, the truth is overrated.If you've ever tried to gently, with love but conviction, speak the truth to another you've come up against this reaction. Really? I have to listen to this? Jack Nicholson wasn't so far off when he said, "You can't handle the truth."
The truth forces us to face ourselves without blinders or soft lights or Alanis Morissette playing in the background. No place to hide. Adam and Eve figured this out when God confronted them in the garden. Jean Valjean figured this out in Les Mis. You've figured this out at some family gathering or other when 'do you remember when' stories are being told.
John tells us "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." (8.32) But that isn't our usual reaction to the truth. We want to squash the embarrassing, guilty, foolish stuff about ourselves.
(Although once you admit the truth, what more can be said? Once it is out there, there is no threat anymore. Of course, you have to learn to live with the real you. A thought for another day.)
The people in Nazareth had the same reaction to Jesus. I think they were expecting either a pat on the back or an insider's path to acceptance or maybe even a step up with God when their hometown boy came back and taught with authority. They just didn't want the authority turned on them.
It was the beginning of a long road to the cross where Jesus was in his body the truth about God's love for all creation. Hold your truth up to that truth and you will begin to learn the power of God's love for you.
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