The Power and Progression of Prejudice

Last night I preached a sermon that wasn’t easy to present. The subject matter was that of prejudice, and the difficulty in preaching such a sermon is that no one likes to think that they struggle with that problem, but we all have (and probably do) toward some group of people.

The sermon came from Acts 22, where Paul is giving a defense before a Jewish audience. He is rehearsing his religious life, and the crowd is listening in total silence (v.2). That is, until…

Verse 22 begins with this sentence: “Up to this word they listened to him.” What word? “Gentiles” (v.21). This group was so prejudice against Gentiles that they did not even want Paul to finish his speech after using that awful word.

But what happens next is what we spent some time with in our sermon last night. In the next couple of verses, we see just how powerful prejudice is, and how it progresses out of a heart that is filled with darkness.

1. Prejudice Closes Hearing Ears. When the Jews heard that word “Gentiles,” they were done listening. Nothing else Paul could have said would have gotten their true attention again. Today, we may feel the same way toward women, or Hispanics, or some other group. There is something like skin color, ethnic background, gender, or age, over which they have no control, but for some reason–completely uninformed reason–we will not truly listen to them or about them.

2. Prejudice Opens Cruel Mouths. After awhile, however, hearing isn’t enough. We begin to participate in the spewing of prejudice words. Verse 22 continues, “Then they raised their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth!'” Verse 23 tells us they were shouting these things. How many Christians will post lyrics that are degrading to women on their Facebook page? How many forward emails where the only “humor” is racial in nature? That’s what prejudice does: it opens cruel mouths.

3. Prejudice Moves Violent Arms. But, after awhile, words are not enough. Verse 23 states that the Jews “were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air.” Possibly they were getting more range of motion to throw stones at Paul. Or, they might have just been so angry they were acting like madmen. Whatever the case, they were done talking and were going to react violently out of their prejudice. We may never try to kill someone over prejudice, but our hearts can become to hardened that we fail to feel for them any more. (As an aside, one of the proven dangers of pornography is that it deadens a man’s sensitivity to the news of a woman being raped, since he has filled his mind with degrading pictures or videos of women.) A young person may join a gang and have no feeling for the elderly being attacked by the gang. One race may simply attack another for no other reason than skin color.

None of us likes to think we are prejudice, but we still struggle with “seeing as man sees” instead of how God’s sees: the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). This coming Sunday will be the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s landmark “I Have a Dream” speech. Sadly, not all of his dream has come true, but you and I can be part of the solution. May we look at people, not by the color of their skin, but by the “content of their character.”

After all, that’s how our God sees.

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Photo credit: U.S. Mission Uganda on Creative Commons

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