Birthers

We have all heard the barrage of discussion regarding the place of President Obama's birth. The constitution demands the president to be a natural born citizen of the US. Was Obama born in Kenya or Hawaii? It matters if he would be our legitimate commander-in-chief. I doubt that by this time those who have considered this matter will have their minds changed. People will believe what they want to believe to support their like or dislike of Mr. Obama. Jesus had a similar "birther" problem. Where was He born, Galilee or Bethlehem? It mattered because most Jews knew that Old Testament prophecy said that the Messiah, the descendant of David, would come from the city of David, Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). So when Jesus was considered as a likely candidate for Messiah His birthplace was important. He grew up and lived most of His life in Galilee in Nazareth. When introduced to Nathaniel (John 1) his first response was "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" This city was not known for producing Messiahs or prophets. In fact later this town would reject Jesus as Messiah.

As the crowds became increasingly restless regarding Jesus, and began to take sides regarding His identity, the Jewish leaders also became more desperate to discredit Him, and kill Him. One way to do this was to spread lies about His birthplace. Now, I don't know that they knew they were lies, but they should have. They had the ability to research this matter. There were plenty of ways to find out where Jesus was born. Bethlehem was not far away. They could have questioned people there. Jesus' brothers were at the Feast, and perhaps even His mother. They could have looked at the census records that corresponded to the date of Jesus' birth. And, they could have even asked Jesus where He was born. But, instead they just made something up, jumping to the conclusion that since He grew up in Nazareth that He must have been born there.

A voice of reason spoke up. Nicodemus was getting bolder in the face of Jesus' enemies. The chief priests and Pharisees pronounce a curse on the crowds for not knowing the Law. So one who does know the Law, Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Ruling Council, speaks up to defend the Law. "Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?" You might think they would respect this reference to the Law. Exodus 23:1; Deut.17:6; 19:15; Proverbs 18:13 all make clear Nicodemus' point. He was standing on good legal grounds, But how can you argue with those whose minds are made up. Don't confuse us with facts. We know the truth and do not need to do research. This human weakness of "jumping to a conclusion" or merely "shooting first and asking questions later" has a numbing effect on truth seekers. Paul tried Nicodemus' approach in Acts 23:23 when he was on trial. But, it had no better effect than it did in Nicodemus' case. I wonder if this was the real turning point for Nicodemus. Did he say to himself, "I cannot stand with these biased, truth-denying hypocrites any longer. I must decide if I am going to come out of the closet and declare my love and admiration for Jesus?"

We too have choices to make. We must stand up like Nicodemus and defend Jesus as being worthy to be heard. Don't condemn him until you hear him.