Seeing the Past the Present

How good a judge of people are you?

Take an afternoon of people-watching and guess what kind of person they are. Are they volatile? Worried? Joyous? Competent? Or are they dismissed as not worthy of attention?

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg, PA dotted with hundreds of fresh graves. He delivered 87 words.

The next day, the papers reported Lincoln’s “little talk.” They were not complimentary.

The Patriot and Union newspaper devoted a single paragraph to the appearance of the President of the United States.

“We pass over the silly remarks of the president. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion be dropped over them, and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.”

Yet, school children memorize the words and they get recited with reverence. Few could see the eloquence of such a simple man in whose face the war had carved canyons of worry lines.

It has happened to many. A newspaper fired Walt Disney from a newspaper job for “lack of imagination.” The teacher told a little boy named Thomas Edison that he was “too stupid to learn.”

I’m sure it has happened to you. I have felt the sting of those comments as well.

What would you have thought of the twelve disciples?

In the group was a political terrorist laced with the poison of betrayal. A hated tax collector sat around their table. The rest of the group filled out with unknowns or fishermen with the stench of a lifetime of catches.

When people sized them up, they were unimpressive.

The learned religious establishment put a Jewish tape measure against them.

They perceived that they were uneducated, common men.

No prime candidates for a rabbi in this group. Not one of them had the potential for anything but failure.

This was the group that Jesus chose. Not a bright guy among them. No one could run a business, amass a fortune, or employ someone else. What was he thinking?

Yet, Jesus saw something in them. As gold is buried under tons of earth, Jesus could uncover the gold amid the slag.

These men would become responsible for the greatest venture the world had ever seen. They would spread a message from a city that had lost its luster. The task would require them to go places they had never been. The men would experience hunger, deprivation, beatings, and imprisonments, and most would find the executioner’s bench.

They had one task. Tell a story that seemed so fanciful no one could believe it. And then they were to persuade people that the one they said was raised from the dead could change their lives, if they would only abandon lifelong patterns of belief and behavior.

The new converts would cut ties with culture, and for many, the message would sever family ties.

So the task that these common, uneducated men had was monumental.

And within a generation, the then-known world had heard the message.

Twelve nobodies changed the world.

What did Jesus see that others did not? He looked at hearts and knew that, under his influence, they could change.

In fact, the snooty leaders saw it.

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13, ESV)

Under the influence of Jesus, people change. They become who they were not. Fishermen become preachers. Tax collectors turn into biographers. Skeptics don the mantle of martyr.

All this gives me both pause and hope. If Jesus can take twelve men discarded by society and change them so they can change the world, it can happen to me as well.

Our society suffers from inferiority. We compare ourselves with celebrity air-brushed Instagram pictures, and think, “I will achieve nothing.”

But remember, under the influence of Jesus, you become a catalyst for life in others.

Stand in front of a mirror and look closely. Do you see a Peter…a Thomas…a Matthew? Not the stained glass ones, but the fisherman pulling in nets or a tax collector filling in his ledger.

Jesus changed the world through them because he saw what they could not see.

So, before you think you are insignificant, no one is useless in the hands of Jesus. Listen to him. Spend time with him.

Under the influence of Jesus, you will change…and will change the corner of the world you live in.