The Spiritual Practice of Being Misunderstood

In the passage when Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin (the ruling body of 70 Elder Rabbis from Israel), there is so much to mourn and one really important thing to learn to emulate in Jesus. 

Can you imagine sitting with 70 of your colleagues, some who mentored you, some you sat under, some who sat under your teaching, and be treated like this? Jesus warns his disciples that this is coming: 

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers." (Matthew 5:11-12)

Persecution, lies, evil words. We still see this in our world today, and it is only increasing. For those who stand in the middle and reject the lies of the world…and also reject the lies of religious leaders, we experience this sort of ongoing battle from both sides.

But let’s focus here on those attacks that come from the religious influencers of our day. Do you see in this passage, anything that looks like Jesus and the kingdom of heaven? Do the sects of Pharisees and Saducees who ruled the religious institutions of Israel (Temple and Synagogue) have any connection here to the God who made them?

It is the same today. Spiritual leaders who lead churches, denominations, institutions like colleges and seminaries and publishing houses…they still are looking to lie about Jesus and His followers. They are still looking to discredit Jesus in the public square, they’re just using different language:

-Jesus hates those people

-Jesus isn’t tolerant enough

-Church is evil

-Jesus loves my candidate

-Jesus would punish those people I hate

-Jesus hates the church

-Jesus hates the world

The opponents of God on all sides still try to slander Jesus and His people….and Jesus shows us something radical here, a practice that is not well-recognized in our world.

The spiritual practice of being misunderstood….and not correcting people.

“But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, 'I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.'"

We want to write a long social media caption explaining ourselves. We want to defend each other, our churches, our institutions…but it’s not fair…and it’s not true.

Jesus here is giving us the gift that we need to overcome persecution and lies: stay quiet and let your life vindicate you. Let your silence create your moral authority. Let the empty words of lies show themself as without merit.

The people I know who walk closely to Jesus practice this the best. They don’t feel the need to justify themselves but:

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others. (1 Thess. 4)