Sunday November 11th

Sunday November 11, 2012

The Final Week – Tuesday Morning

On the morning of the Tuesday of Jesus' final week, all those in power wanted to trick Jesus into saying something that would give the court a solid, legal reason for killing Him because those in power also wanted to stay in favor. So they try first in public to trip Him up, and then they send spies to try and catch Him when He isn't in front of a crowd; both attempts fail. Jesus stayed true to His teachings while also evading every trap laid out for Him, in public and in private.

A famous quote that I love is "character is who you are when no one is watching." Jesus definitely stayed true to His character, and because Jesus taught with stories, and evaded these traps with them, I thought I would share with you a story of a man with character as strong as Jesus.

This man's name was Socrates. You may have heard of him, he was a philosopher in Ancient Greece. At the beginning of this part of his story, he was getting older, had a very loud, unpleasant voice, walked a little funny, and was known to most of the people in power as a thorn in their side. See, Socrates was told that he was the wisest man in all of Greece by a well esteemed oracle, but he didn't believe it and set out to prove her wrong. So he went to every wise person he knew and just had a discussion with them. He would ask them about their opinions and beliefs, and question most every part of their argument until finally they would trip up and contradict themselves. Socrates didn't give up, he did this to every person he could trying hard to prove the oracle wrong.

Now, most of the people he had conversations with were people who were already considered to be wise with some kind of political power, and all of them failed to stay true to their opinions and therefore got knocked off their high horses by Socrates. After a while, he started accumulating a following, mostly of wealthy teenage and older men, who enjoyed watching the people in power get knocked down a peg. But these people were not to be taken lightly, and finally Socrates was charged and tried for some pretty bogus crimes. In Athens at this time, you were allowed, and even encouraged, to defend yourself at your trial, and Socrates did so. When he was questioned about his crimes, instead of blatantly saying he was not guilty, Socrates questioned right back, staying true to his quest for wisdom. He lost, having a majority vote of being guilty, and was sentenced to death.

While waiting in his cell, his friend Crito came and offered Socrates an escape. Instead of taking the offer right away, Socrates asked if fleeing was the right thing to do. He told Crito if he could give him a good reason to flee, and if he was able to back up that reason, then Socrates would go, and if not he would stay. Crito came up with reason after reason, and still Socrates found flaws in the logic, so he did not escape, but stayed.

Socrates may have been abrasive and annoying, but he had one of the strongest characters out of any person I've studied so far. Not only did he stay true to himself during his public trial, but he also stayed true in private, with his best friend. If I were him I'm not sure I would sit and fight any reason to escape, and I know I would at least express some kind of doubt to my best friend, but Socrates never doubted himself, just as Jesus never doubted His Father. Jesus stayed 100% true to His faith while successfully dodging the traps laid out for Him.

The lesson we can take from this story is the importance of staying true to your beliefs. You need to be sure enough in them to be able to stick to them, and confident enough in them to share them and stand up to arguments against them. Something to consider now is if you were having a discussion with Socrates, would he be able to trip you up?

Hope you all have a nice week :)

Gina