Let Them Know!

Let Them Know!

[Jesus said,] “I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels.”

Luke 12:8-9

During the American Revolution, a British unit was marching through the countryside when they came upon a ramshackle old house in the woods. Thinking it would yield little in the way of supplies or horses, they planned to just march on by to the more palatial house in the distance.

Suddenly, out of the house hobbled a little old man. As fast as his limp would allow, he shuffled toward the British army, shaking his cane above his head.

Then from the house came a young woman, running to catch up with the old man and shouting, “Grandpa! Grandpa! What are you doing? Get back here! You can’t take on the whole British army alone!”

As the old man kept advancing toward the Brits, he hollered back to his granddaughter, “Well, I know that, but I can at least let them know whose side I’m on!”

Similarly, when the Pharisees and Romans came to arrest Jesus, one of the men with Jesus stepped up, pulled out his sword, and sliced off the ear of the high priest’s slave in defense of Jesus.

In response, Jesus— a man of compassion and healing—said, “No more of this.” And Jesus touched the injured man’s ear and healed him. (Can you imagine the slave’s astonishment?)

In today’s world of toleration and let’s-just-get-along-no-matter-what attitude, we often hesitate to stand up next to Jesus and let people know whose side we’re on. Instead, when the time comes to be counted among the faithful, we tend to do a Peter act as if to say, “Who, me? I don’t really know him.”

Does the world know whose side you’re on?

Give me courage, Lord, to stand up and be counted for you, knowing the eternal consequences are far greater than the earthly ones. Amen.