Misunderstood

How many believers over the millenia have felt misunderstood by their fellow man? In particular, how often has that come at the hands of the Church itself? I'm no historian, but I believe that more people were likely martyred by the official Church than by non-believers. Perhaps somebody who knows the stats can correct me if I'm wrong, but from where I stand, it began with the crucifixion of Christ and it's been going strong ever since.

Well, actually, no, it began with Seth, moved to the prophets, on to Christ and since to various martyrs down through history.  Given that, we oughtn't to be surprised when we face it here.

In the American culture, where I live, it's not generally about life or death. That may be a benefit (or it may not be, I'm not always certain.) What we face here is typically more along the lines of a rejection of truth which our Savior leads us into.  When I've faced this experience, I can often end up devastated in spirit.  It is so disheartening to be misunderstood.

We feel judged unfairly.  We know that the people making the judgement don't actually understand us or what we are trying to do or say. But we must helplessly watch as people add more bricks to whatever walls keep us separated one from another.

The trouble with these kinds of walls is that they are literally unable to be penetrated without destruction of the wall itself.  The reason is that you can't see anything at all through them.

So what do you do when you see a wall going up between you and another person? You can try to meet them at the wall and begin dismantling it together. You can invite an open dialogue. You can try to listen carefully to their point of view.  You can invite them to listen to yours.  But in the end, if the wall keeps going up, you are left with only one option that is good.

You can relate to Jesus. 

Misunderstanding can be a place of communion. That may seem strange but consider this.  Jesus was the true Son of God, sent from Heaven to preach the good news.  And that is what He did.  But most people didn't understand Him.  That was especially true of the religious leaders of His day.  

These religious leaders were men of great Scriptural knowledge and experience.  They were the ones responsible for teaching the people about God. And yet they misunderstood God in the Flesh. These men looked to the Scriptures and somehow couldn't seem to find Jesus there at all.  

When Jesus came and taught, they completely misunderstood everything he said and did, even to the point of suggesting that He was demon possessed.  The Living Son of God was called demonic all because of misunderstanding.  They were expecting Him to behave in a certain way, do a certain thing, say a certain thing. When He failed to reveal himself in the way that they expected, their response was to reject Him.

I've been a bit of an unorthodox Christ follower myself and over the years have found myself feeling rejected because of misunderstanding as well.  During those times, I am drawn to passages like Luke 6:22-23 which says "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

I am reminded that my Savior was misunderstood and so shall I be misunderstood. I've often wondered at times if I should be concerned when no one is misunderstanding me, so frequent was that response to the biblical followers of Christ.

Certainly that doesn't mean we ought not check ourselves if someone rejects our teaching, but if we go back to the Word and to Christ himself and find confirmed that which we've stood our ground on, we can remember that Jesus himself stood there before us and we can look to Him for comfort and for ultimate understanding of who we are and how we live.