You can't Handle the Truth! - September 15
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 56, 57, [58]; PM Psalm 64, 65; Job 40:1-24; Acts 15:36-16:5; John 11:55-12:8
When I worked at a Boy Scout camp many years ago, prior to the age of Wi-Fi and cell phones, we would pass the time by memorizing movie lines, and of course, burning things, but that’s for another story. We would then turn the movie scenes into campfire or flagpole skits making sure we didn’t waste all of that creative time and energy. One of the movies we committed large chunks to memory was the Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson blockbuster from 1992, “A Few Good Men.”
The dramatic courtroom scene takes place where Nicolson is on trial for ordering a “code red,” a hazing incident that goes awry, and a private is killed. Cruise is demanding answers from Nicolson who is on the stand. “I want the truth!” demands the young lawyer played by Cruise.
Nicolson shouts, back “You can’t handle the truth!”
He continues, “Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.”
Nicolson’s character doesn’t think much of the young lawyer. It’s a brilliant script.
This dialogue came to mind when thinking of the story in Acts of the growth of the church. Paul and Timothy are traveling and spreading the Good News throughout all the lands. They end up in Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit forbids them to speak the word in Asia (16:6). Finally, they try to go into Bithynia, but the “Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (16:7). I guess some people weren’t ready for the truth, or maybe they couldn’t handle it.
The Good News does make it into Asia, just a few chapters in Acts later when Paul makes his third missionary journey to Ephesus. Paul is reminded that God’s timeline is a little bit different than his own.
We are people who are obsessed with the truth and often through a theological lens. It is too easy to dismiss people who disagree with us or do not share our collective truth. As it applies to God’s truth, maybe a more hopeful way to look at disagreement is to believe that God’s truth will be understood at a later time. Maybe the Holy Spirit is forbidding us to speak it. Or maybe others aren’t ready to hear it. Either way, it’s nothing new, just the Holy Spirit taking her time. While the truth needs to be made known, how can this period of holding back help us grow in our own understanding of the truth in a way that will help us be ready when the time is to come?
-John
Questions for Self-Reflection: When have you tried to share a point of view that you believed to be truthful and others have been resistant to listening or hearing?
Daily Challenge: When engaged in conversation with others, try clarifying your expectations. Instead of trying to convince somebody, try to reframe your goals. Know your intention. Most of the time, the goal should not be facilitating opinion change.