Two or More Ways of Seeing Something

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                        Acts 1:18

Two or More Ways of Seeing Something

by Robert T. Cooper

I was recently looking at a book that included the optical illusion involving a black and white line drawing that can be seen as a young woman if looked at one way or can be seen as an older woman if looked at another way. Most people have seen similar optical illusions. One simply has to change one’s focus and the way in which one organizes what is being seen.

It is something like a policeman getting the stories of several eyewitnesses. No two stories will totally match, but all will contribute to the truth of what really happened. It can even be the same if a single person tells more than once something that happened. The details will vary, but it is possible to harmonize the stories.

There is a story of a teacher who had four students who missed a test. The four insisted they had been headed to the test on time, but their car had a flat tire. Something about the situation made the teacher suspicious, but the teacher agreed to give them all a one-question make-up exam. The teacher had them sit in the four corners of the room. Then the teacher told them what the one question on the make-up would be: “Which tire was it?”

In Acts 1:18, it is reported that Judas used the 30 pieces of silver to purchase a field. While at that field, he fell headlong, his body burst open, and his intestines spilled out. That is one graphic and memorable image. But the Gospels report that Judas threw the money back to the priests and that it was the priests who bought the field. Then the Gospels say that Judas went out and hung himself. So just who bought the field? Just how did Judas die?

Is it possible to harmonize the two accounts? When the priests bought the field, they might have done so in Judas’ name so that the legal records showed that it was Judas who bought it. We don’t know that is how it was, but it is a plausible explanation. But harmonizing the rest of it takes a lot more imagination. One suggestion is that Judas was running with the rope around his neck (picture the crazed Judas of The Passion of the Christ) when he tripped. As he fell, the rope caught on something so that he hung himself. But rather than being suspended in the air, his falling body hit a jagged bit of ground that caused his body to burst open and his intestines to spill out. Gruesome, huh? Again, we don’t know that is how it was, and it is a little less plausible than the purchase of the field, but it might have been that way.

So what is the point of all this? Different people might see certain things in more than one way. Don’t you want people to believe you and be gracious to you when you say what you understand and they don’t understand it your way? We too should be gracious when others say things that we genuinely believe not to be so. The other person may not be a liar and may not be crazy. The other person might not even be mistaken.

If we truly love one another, we will think the best of one another and be gracious to one another.

What do you relate to in this blog post? Can you share a story of a time you and someone else saw something different ways?