Assumptions

1.7.2011

Luke 7:39 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” NIV

Luke 7 is full of assumptions – the centurion assumed Jesus could make his servant well. The mother of the dead son assumed Jesus was up to something when He said, “Don’t cry.” The disciples of John came to Jesus assuming that His inaction (toward John) meant He wasn’t who He said He was. The crowd assumed John was someone other that he was. The sinful woman assumed Jesus deserved her worship (as outlandish as it seemed to the others present). And the Pharisee assumed Jesus was a fraud because no holy man would allow this kind of woman to touch Him, or even be in the same room as Him.

We assume things about God all the time. We assume He’ll wink at sin. We assume He’ll treat us as the spoiled children we are (just listen to our prayers…). We assume we can be touched and helped and changed by Him during the hour or so we spend at church each week and then we go out living as if we never knew Him the rest of the week (just look at our schedules, conversations, leisure activities, and the attention we pay to the news media.) We’re assumers.

Jesus tried to help the Pharisee to see that faith is more than keeping the rules or living based on assumptions. Faith is true belief and is often expressed in desperate actions that defy cultural logic or acceptance. The faithful are thought odd because they assume they can only be helped by God.

I must not judge by outward appearances – everybody has a story to tell. I must not assume wrongly about God or about others. I must live assuming that God loves others as much as He loves me and that He will deal with each of us as He chooses, not according to some rule-book.

Father in Heaven,
I assume today that You love me and I assume that You accept me just as I am. I pray for Your help because I assume You have power to heal me and to change me from wrong assumptions and unfairly judging others. Lord, eradicate the Pharisee in me… I pray in Your Name, amen.