Jesus and the Disinherited, Part 8, March 22, 1959

Description

In his eighth talk, his Easter message, Thurman turns to the issue of Deception and how it can be a tool for the weak. He discusses how morality prevents chaos, and how easy it is for us to call darkness light if we want to excuse something we are doing. In this talk he gives several examples of deception, but ponders whether or not it is morally acceptable to deceive. From his own life, he gives the example of his job as the "door boy" for his older sisters and it was his job to open the door for their dates and if it was the wrong boy he was to deceive them and get rid of them. From nature he gives the example of how the cuttlefish deceives the predator, or how Florida birds fool the chicken hawk. Children know how to manipulate their parents so that the parents believe they are doing their own will, when they are actually doing the will of the child. In the Negro Spiritual "All God's Children Got Shoes" the word "heaven" is substituted for the master's house to deceive the master in what they are really talking about. From Scripture, Ezekiel spoke of Hiram when all knew he was speaking of Nebuchadnezzar. On Palm Sunday, the praises of the people did not arise from the purest motives but Jesus did not stop the procession. Henry Van Dyke's story of the people protecting baby Jesus by declaring there is no male child here and here is a ruby for the soldier who goes and looks elsewhere. Will God forgive Naaman for bowing down to a foreign king in order to preserve his own life? Is it moral to deceive for a greater moral cause? Is it acceptable for the weak to deceive the powerful in order to protect themselves. What does Jesus mean when he says, "Let your yes, be yes, and your no, be no?" Without answering the question directly, Thurman ends with comments on how there are some things in life that are worse than death.