More Weight! - Follow Jesus

Have you ever read “The Crucible”? You know the fiction story of the young girls in the 1700s who start accusing all these people of being witches and being under the rule of the devil. The actions of these girls sent the people on a witch hunt. Blinded by fear and false sense of “holy” purpose, they carried out acts of injustice in the name of God. Well if you haven’t it’s really not half bad. It’s a sad story in so many ways, but it makes some good points.

One of my most favorite parts of the book comes after an old man name Giles has been accused of these crimes. Like many others in the book, that were accused, he then had a choice of whether he would lie and say the accusations were true and in doing so save his life. Or will he stand by the truth and loose his life? Later in the story you read that this man stood by the truth and denied the erroneous claims, standing up to the people–people who had been his friends and neighbors. He dies with them trying to get him to talk. They laid him down and then put blocks on top of him, trying to crush him, literally and emotionally. Trying to get him to speak. They added more and more, wanting him to name more names, to admit to his “sin”. But this man, who had done nothing wrong, refused to take part, not even to save his life. He would not lie. Rather, he cried out, “MORE WEIGHT!” And under the weight of the people’s judgement He died but he did not give in.

This man in the story would rather die under the weight, or the consequences of what is right, than live under the weight of doing what is wrong. Far to often we seem to find ourselves stuck between what is right and what is easy. How far would you go to do what you know is right? By knowing, I mean that it matches up to the will and character of God. To what extent will you stand up for what is good? Is there a limit to how far you will go? Is there a time to let slide doing what is right for what is seemingly better for the greater good?

James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

We should live doing what we know is right. Living as if, because we are, accountable to a just and holy God.