Let's Go Back to the Bible

The Truly Important People

The focus of the morning news is the surgery of the leading senator of our land. I am confident that over the next few days there will be many updates and interviews by the media. His surgery and recovery will be the focus of many of the popular talk shows. I realize why this happens, but I wonder if it really makes that much difference.

Why is it that we tend to make so much of the events in the “important” people of our day? What difference does it really make which celebrity is no longer shacked up with his or her “lover” and is now living in a sinful relationship with a new significant other? Why is it so wonderful that another superstar has “come out of the closet” and revealed their sexual perversion? Why are events in the lives of the high and mighty more significant than any others?

I am confident that heaven’s view of all of this is vastly different from ours. Our society focuses on the rich and famous and on those of presumed nobility. Even though these existed in Biblical times, the Scriptures place no emphasis on them. Why? Is there a message our society needs to learn from this? More importantly, is there a message that every Christian needs to learn?

Have you ever noticed Jesus’ attention was not on the “important” people but on those who are unseen by most individuals? Think about the attention He paid to Zaccheus, Lazarus and his two sisters, Lazarus the beggar, the Samaritan woman at the well, Bartimeus, the Syrophonecian woman, Legion, the “sinful” blind man, Levi, the widow of Nain, the adulterous woman, the child He sat in their midst, and the widow with two mites. Where is the emphasis on the Caesars? The Herods? The Roman officials? What a contrast between those heaven sees as important and those the secular world honors!

The same is true throughout the New Testament. The world would never have given a second look to those mentioned in the sacred text. It ignored people like Lois and Eunice, Epaphroditus, Antipas, Priscilla and Aquila, Crispus, Onesimus, Lydia, and Onesiphorus—the list seems endless!

What does this have to do with you? Everything! When heaven looks down on what is happening in our country it sees you! His eyes are over you! His ears are open to your prayers! His special providence is for you! His angels surround you! His hedge is about you! It is not about the high and mighty; it is all about you!