Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

 

When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, “This is really the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some asked, “Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not arrest him?” The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” Then the Pharisees replied, “Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” They replied, “Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.”

Then each of them went home.

You would surely have heard the legal principle that declares that a person is innocent until proven guilty. This is an international human right under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under this right, the prosecution must prove that the accused is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. If reasonable doubt remains, the accused must be acquitted. This was established in 1948, but it is good to see that even in Jesus’ time the law did not allow people to be judged without a proper hearing.

Now, I don’t know what it is about people but many seem to like the reverse principle: guilty until proven innocent. And even after that, when the person is found innocent, there is so much suspicions surrounding them, they may as well be considered guilty. These reflections are intended to help us introspect, so I would like us to do that today, even if it makes us uncomfortable, and see if we might not be doing what the Pharisees did: judging somebody without a hearing. We do this out of prejudice, or more often, on hearsay.

I had a guy come for one of my meetings one day. He said he had heard so many bad things spoken about me, he thought I was simply too bad to be true. So, he came to find out for himself. “What did you find out?”, I asked him when the meeting was over. “Definitely too bad to be true,” he replied laughing, saying he wished the people who told him these things had come too. None of them had ever met me. They had merely been repeating what others had told them. And I am pretty sure none of them knew me either.

Now, I use a simple operating principle in how I do things, and I would like to share it with you. Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” (Luke 6:31). It’s called the Golden Rule. Let’s apply it here. How would you feel if somebody accused you falsely of something? How would you feel if everybody starts to believe the accusations without the slightest attempt to find out the truth? You’d be hurt pretty bad, I imagine. Right? So why would you do this to others? 

I believe one of the reasons we like to put others down is because we feel elevated in comparison, but that isn’t true. When we drag others down, we drag ourselves even lower, which is why there is this sordid, dirty feeling we get whenever we slander someone or speak ill of them. It’s true, ya? So, why don’t we try something else today? Let us speak well of somebody, pay them a compliment, tell them how wonderful they are. I pretty much guarantee you that we’ll feel pretty good about it. 

And while you are at it, remember, it’s innocent until proven guilty.