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A woman answered her door to find a man with a sad look. “I’m sorry to disturb you,” he said, “but I’m collecting money for an unfortunate family in the area. The husband is out of work, the kids are hungry, the utilities will soon be cut off, and worse yet, they are going to be kicked out of their apartment if they don’t pay the rent today.” I’ll be glad to help, the woman said,” but who are you?” I’m the landlord,” he said. The man was hiding his true motive to get his rent money. Like that man, the ancient Jewish leaders had a hidden motive to discredit Jesus. We read in John 9 that Jesus had healed a man born blind. As a result, his fame was growing, and the Jewish leaders were afraid of losing their power and control. So they tried to discredit the man’s healing. They went to his parents, hoping they would say he was never been born blind–as he claimed. In the meantime, they had decided to put out of the synagogue anybody who said Jesus was the Messiah. Excommunication would ostracize a person from the community, and in some cases, they might even flog them. All this was to protect the hidden agenda of holding on to their power and influence. This ought to remind us that what some people do and say in public may be hiding their true motives. Their hidden agenda may not be just or fair, or have God’s approval.
Wolf.