13 Feb False Narrative
John 18:12-13 – “So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.”
In the darkest moment of human history, an unholy alliance of political and religious leaders conspired to arrest Jesus Christ. In epic betrayal, Judas Iscariot, the double agent working for Satan as a disciple of Jesus, organized the entire plot.
Jesus had committed no sin or crime. However, by declaring Himself to be God and Lord over all, the religious and political leaders saw His rising power and popularity as a threat to their own. So, they aligned together to arrest and murder the Lord.
How could they possibly justify their actions publicly? With a false narrative – that either many people would die if the movement of Jesus continued, or that Jesus alone could die thereby ending His movement and sparing many lives – this spin was that they were choosing the most loving, expedient, and lesser of two evils.
It is quite common, in everything from negative political campaigns to bitter divorces and nasty church fights, to have a negative narrative set that is false. No matter what happens, all information is then forced into the false narrative.
Consider the life of Jesus for example. The enemy worked through a variety of enemies, starting with religious and political leaders. They not only called him a liar but also extended the fight to discredit his mother, saying she was a sexually sinful woman and liar like her son (John 8:41).
When Jesus cast out demons, the false narrative was, “He is possessed by Beelzebul” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons” (Mark 3:22).
When Jesus hangs out with people, the false narrative reported Him as “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Matthew 11:19)
To continue carrying the false narrative forward, as they sought to arrest and kill Jesus, “many false witnesses came forward” (Matthew 26:60). If we only read the social media, blogs, and skewed media in Jesus’ day, we would wrongly assume his mother was a lying con artist who raised a demon possessed, alcoholic son who pretended to be spiritual as part of a great demonic deception. This same pattern continues in every age as the same demons encourage people to do the same thing to others that happened to Jesus. False narratives are demonic and a form of lying.
Is there any false narrative that you are believing, or helping to perpetuate, about someone else?
