Prejudice

Zaccheus, a chief tax collector sought to meet Jesus. What he didn’t know was that Jesus was seeking to meet him as well.

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.  Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.  And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.  So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”  So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.   But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” Luke 19: 1-7

Jesus called to Zaccheus, and He invited himself to his house! Those who saw Him could not believe that Jesus, a rabbi and a friend of down and out was willing to go to a sinner’s house! They must have been disappointed by His lack of loyalty to them. In their minds, He was choosing to switch camps and go to a traitor’s house to stay!

Most of us have experienced situations where there are two or more camps at any given time. In government you have two parties competing to get the most votes and snatch the most powerful seats. At work, there are those who strive for boss’ attention and those who want to be an advocate for the average employee. At school, there are those who criticize the teachers/administration and the few who want to be the perfect student for the teachers. You can find camps in the church as well.

Sometimes the decision to be part of a camp is choosing between good and evil. There are times that one has to choose between evil and lesser evil. At other times it is a choice between better and best.

The truth of the matter is every camp can be wrong on certain issues. Each camp has its prejudices and half truths; Jesus’ camp (His own disciples) were wrong at times. One time, they tried to keep the children from coming to Jesus. James and John wanted to call down fire on people to be consumed for not receiving Jesus. Peter cut off  guard’s ear who came to arrest Jesus. While in all these situations, Jesus was perfect, but His camp still had issues!

I personally do not like being part of a camp because it creates a mindset of  “us against them”. However, sometimes by just desiring to do right, you make an unspoken decision to be part of a camp. Regardless of the camp we are part of, we have to be willing to ask the tough questions and not just be happy to be part of a camp.

If we are going to be followers of Christ, we have to shut our ears to propaganda from any direction and seek the face of God and what pleases Him. When we seek to please the Lord, there is a great likelihood that many will not like us. The ones who are part of our camp will accuse us of being traitors, and those who are outside of our camp will consider us to be man pleasers.

Our priority should be to please God rather than belonging to a camp. If our focus is to please our camp or raise hostility/envy in another camp, we are not being right!  When seek God first in everything, we will continue to walk in integrity with Him. If we happen to be part of a camp, then we need to do our part to keep it healthy.

Despite the reaction from the crowd, Jesus took the risk to go to Zacheuus’ house. They complained, but Jesus had a greater assignment than to please men. He wasn’t doing it to please Zacheuus nor was he doing it to make people angry. He was doing it because God led Him. He was not choosing a camp!

Are you part of a camp? Do you see the issues within your own camp as clearly as you see the issues in other camps? Are you willing to speak up or do something about them? Jesus is seeking us out today to give us what our camp is not capable of giving us.

Zacheuus is about to come face to face with the reality of His camp. I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.