“Don’t Be So Sure!” (Grace Note #89)

 

“Don’t Be So Sure!”

Grace Note #89

By Gary L. Clendenon, October 16, 2020

                                                                        

Most of us know well the famous story of Peter’s betrayal. Early in the day of Peter’s betrayal, Peter was confessing his loyalty to Jesus and Jesus said to him, “DON’T BE SO SURE. Today, this very night, in fact...you will deny me three times.” Peter replied, “I will never deny you” and all the other disciples said the same thing! (Mark 14:29-31, emphasis mine)

We think we know ourselves pretty well and what we would or would not do, but this story puts a real check on that idea! It gives us an opportunity to learn from others and grow in our understanding of ourselves. We really don’t know what we would actually do in any given situation!

“DON’T BE SO SURE”, Jesus says!

We would be wise to learn from Peter and all the other Disciples’ experience and become LESS SURE of who we think we are and what we think we would do.

I learned this lesson most graphically as a Student Missionary in Indonesia when we decided to teach our students a lesson on how they should relate to the poor (Indonesia has a LOT of poor people!). We practiced a skit on “The Good Samaritan” (1) and then headed home for a quick dinner before our evening program.

At our gate was a living example of the parable: a man, in desperate need of some real help! We passed by him. We had a schedule to keep—a program to get ready for! We ate our dinner in humbled silence until someone finally said what we were all feeling: “Shouldn’t we do something to help the guy at our front gate?” We all scattered to gather things to help him and then went out to the front gate.

He was gone.

It was with real humility that we acted out the skit of “The Good Samaritan” that night and a renewed sense of what the parable really meant!

Almost every day on my daily walk, I encounter the “Samaritans” of our day—the homeless. They are dirty. They smell funny. They smoke. Often, they seem really off in the head. To be honest, I am a bit afraid of them. Intellectually, as a “Christian”, I am very sure that I want to help them—my heart goes out to them, but, in reality, I am repulsed by them and want to “cross to the other side” of the street.

Truth is, I am not so sure about what to do—how to be Christ to them. I give to local charities that help the homeless, but something in me says that’s kind of a cop out. I’m going to end this, not with some clever colloquialism or pound-it-home-point, but instead just with an honest admission—taking Jesus’ advice—that “I’m just not so sure”.

It may be that solutions are only found in this place of not being so sure. Let’s find out!

1. The parable told by Jesus in Luke 10:25-37.