And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. (Mark 15:1-5)
We all could tell stories of how people have influenced us for good or ill. We also have testimonies of how we have helped or hindered others. And there is even more influencing going on than we could ever identify!
Today’s point is Jesus’ example of steadfast devotion to the divine will. Part of us growing to be like our Savior is learning to be more attached to him than anyone or anything else.
One thing that has helped me over the years has been learning to be honest about self-protection. Whatever we learned to do in our younger years to protect ourselves from being hurt (as much as we were capable of doing so) was customized by whoever was influencing us. The influences were real, and the Influencers were far too effective.
However, where each of us is today is now ours to influence. All of us are invited to bring our sins, our wounds, our brokenness to God who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up our wounds”. It doesn’t matter how much hurt anyone has caused us, or how much regret we feel about how we have handled life as a result, today we can come to God in full submission. We don’t even need to know all the details of what is messed up inside us to come to Jesus and rely on him as our ultimate Influencer.
I have noticed over the years that the world loves its heroes who know what they are doing and don’t care what anyone else thinks. These characters all seem to have glaring character flaws, but they are adored for always knowing what they are doing and doing what they know with unshakable confidence.
That kind of confidence has eluded me most of my life because my self-protection revolved around people-pleasing. Play it safe. Figure out what people want and set the stage for success. And that kind of constantly reading the crowd, so to speak, means that the strongest Influencers are the ones who can hurt us the most.
And then I see Jesus in the midst of crowds that are intent on doing him harm and he can’t be influenced. He can be hurt, but not dissuaded in any way from doing his Father’s will. He can be betrayed, disowned, and denied without ever questioning what he was doing and why people were treating him so unlovingly.
Today I am welcoming the influence of Jesus’ example. But more than that, I am welcoming the influence of his presence. He is with me in his Holy Spirit. He has a will about everything in my life. His will is going to clash with the will of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
But here’s the thing: because Jesus did the will of the Father even when no one was with him in that will, and so many were directly opposing him, we now have the salvation that brings me more under Jesus’ influence than anything ever could. And I know that he will be influencing me in every encounter, every opportunity, every thought and feeling, so that I can walk in “the obedience of faith” no matter what anyone else chooses to do.
And I am assured that this will have a good influence on everyone I meet whether anyone sees it or not.
© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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