There is no worse feeling than that of being falsely accused. We are falsely accused when, groundlessly, we are criticised or accused for doing something wrong. If it’s ever happened to you, you’ll know that it really hurts.
My very first day at school was a memorable one for all the wrong reasons. I had joined the class late – three months into their term. I can still remember my eldest sister, Ella, dropping me off at the door of the classroom, and the teacher looking up and pointing to a desk by the window. I obediently sat down and waited. She gave out some instructions to the class as a whole, but I didn’t understand what she meant so I carried on waiting.
Forty minutes passed, and still no one told me what to do. Eventually the teacher looked up from her desk, but instead of helping me out, she started to shout at me at the top of her voice. “You’ve been sitting there doing nothing for the last forty minutes”, she said. “If you didn’t know what to do you should have come out and asked.” I can still remember that feeling of shock and helplessness. Is this what school was meant to be like? If so, I didn’t like it one bit.
Being falsely accused happens to us all. Only recently I was given an angry earful by someone for something that was nothing to do with me. I spent the next hour trying to carry on unperturbed, while inside I was seething. Eventually I had to ask God for help on the matter. “Oh God”, I said. “Please help me to get over this before it begins to effect things too much.” And God did help. He reminded me that hurt I was feeling is how he himself feels when he, too, is wrongly accused by people every day. Because, when things go wrong in people’s lives, then, more often than not, it’s God who gets the blame. And when that happens, he too feels that hurt.
Over the next few weeks, on Sunday mornings, we are looking at the character of what Jesus calls ‘the Kingdom of God’. Through the eyes of his disciples we hope to see how his ways are different from the ways of the world. So, how does he respond to being falsely accused? Does he lash out in judgement? Does he keep quiet at the time, and then moan about it when he’s with his friends? Does he bottle it all up and take it out on the cat?
Jesus response to being falsely accused is summed up by his words from the cross – “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” He responds to the hurt with something the Bible calls ‘grace’. Grace is the gift you offer which is not deserved, but given freely all the same. Grace reflects a love that is unconditional.
A false accusation is something that can cause great hurt, and it happens to us all. But the next time you feel that hurt, how are you going to respond? Are you going to offer hurt in return? There is an alternative. The way of grace is far more difficult, but it is the only way to healing.
Much love
John