TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth

There has been a lot in the national media lately about a “reckless disregard for the truth”. Yourdictionary.com quotes Webster’s New World Law Dictionary for reckless disregard. Reckless disregard is defined as an act of proceeding to do something with a conscious awareness of danger, while ignoring any potential consequences of so doing. Reckless disregard, while not necessarily suggesting an intent to cause harm, is a harsher condition than ordinary negligence. Proving a defendant’s “reckless disregard for the truth” is the standard for success of a plaintiff in a suit for libel. TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth

That is true in a court of law, but in God’s court, Jesus will not have to prove anything. A person’s life will be on display. His/her actions will be the testimony. Since God is omniscient, He will not display our lives against the truth for Himself but for us. Jesus, the judge, will evaluate each person by their response to truth. He Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) In Mark 12, Jesus provides a glimpse of how we will see our lives against the truth and how we can TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth.

Mark 12

Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ² At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

⁶ “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

⁷ “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
¹¹ the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹² Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

The Word tells us “Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them.” They were consciously an keenly aware that Jesus had not only been speaking of them but condemned their behavior against the truth. Jesus was conveying that God had reached out to them and had given them the truth, but they were disregarding God’s truth and way. We know in Mark 11 that Jesus condemns their behavior in the temple. It was that condemnation that caused them to ask in verse 11:28″“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”” TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth.

Like the men in Mark 11 and 12, we too know the truth; yet TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth. God has shown us that He knows our thoughts and motives. He judges and will judge them. Despite that, we persist in doing our own thing because we can TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth. A mere refusal to accept the truth is akin to an ostrich sticking his head in a whole despite the imminent danger surrounding it. We cannot successfully attempt to ignore unpleasant facts or situations. We see in the passage the people tried to ignore Jesus by rejecting God’s efforts to reach out to them.

TRUST: People Seek to Disregard the Truth. Are you living in constant denial of Jesus, the TRUTH? We all will be judged for how we respond to God. Don’t continue living in disregard to the truth.