“The Cost Of Standing for The Truth” 

Sgt. Joe Friday, the detective in the famous Dragnet T.V. series of the 1950’s, had a famous line….  “just stick to the facts”. He wasn’t interested in opinions or theories, just the facts. Joe Friday would have liked the  gospel writer Mark. “So Mark, what happened to that woman in Chapter 5 of your book… just give me the facts.” Well Sarge, “there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” (Mark 5:25-29) “Hmmmmmm, it seems like the woman got ripped off by the medical profession….. took all her money, caused her a lot of pain, didn’t help her…..we obviously have a case of medical malpractice.”  

I would guess the Jerusalem Medical Society was not a big fan of Mark or of Jesus. For that matter the Scribes & Pharisees were not big fans of Jesus, nor were the local leaders.  It seems that most of the “big dogs” of the day were not big fans of Jesus. Jesus was more interested in the truth of God than pleasing the local “Big Shots”. As a result, conflict happened.  “Who are you to come into our area and start throwing your weight around … who gives you the right to say that, who gives you the right to heal that person on the sabbath, who give you the authority to forgive sins…”. The Lord didn’t seem to be very interested in answering all the questions that the scribes and Pharisees and Roman rulers kept asking. He had bigger issues. 

Sometimes I can think if we just said things better, more clearly, more politely, deferentially, that all would be well with the world. Perhaps the Lord could have used a good PR Person….. maybe a few properly worded press releases might have helped. Hmmmmm, actually that probably wouldn’t have helped. The things of God and the things of the world are on a collision course and no cleverly worded explanation is going to help. The word of God and the truth of God is what stands at the end of the day; the rest is just a mist that dissipates in the heat of the sun.

I’m not saying that it’s not good to be clear and polite in our discussions, but generally it gets down to the truth versus that which is not true. When that happens, we need to hold fast to the truth even when it involves conflict. Jesus did not compromise when it came to the truth. 

I personally don’t like conflict. I prefer people getting along. I prefer peace ….  but not “peace at any price”, not peace at the expense of truth. There’s a cost to standing with the truth. If we stand with the Lord and his truth, we will need to be ready to endure the cross. Ultimately our Lord was willing to give his life in order to stand with the truth. It will be the same for us.