July 30, 2024 Devo

A few years ago, a 42-year-old man in Indonesia caused quite a ruckus. Someone took a picture of his identity card and posted it online. It went viral. The reason is that his name is Tuhan, which in Indonesian means “God.” A group of religious scholars contacted him and asked him to change it. The feeling was that it could lead to people regarding him more highly than they should and leading to idolatry. No one knows why his parents gave him that name, nor why it took so long to be made public. Interestingly enough, the man happened to be a carpenter by trade, the same earthly trade that Jesus had. However, unlike Jesus, Tuhan never personally claimed any divine heritage.
Jesus points out in our passage today that HE is the only one who has come from the Father and is worthy of honor and glory. He goes on to point out that, sadly enough, people ignore Him and give that honor to one another. In other words, they thought other people held their destinies in their hands. They thought other people had the money, positions, and power that they thought they wanted and needed. When people don’t have a knowledge and relationship with the One True God, they will settle for lesser gods.
Let this sink in a bit today because there are two different ways that many of us do this. One is that we give way too much weight to some of the people in our lives. We think we can’t live without them. We seek out their wisdom, their opinions, and their approval before or instead of seeking God’s. The other side of this coin is where we feel we have to impose OUR will in people’s lives. Though we’d deny being someone else’s “God,” we try to control their lives in subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways. We don’t really call ourselves “divine.” However, we do believe we’re always “right”—which is truthfully the same thing.
There is a God, folks. But YOU are not Him. Neither is your buddy, your BFF, or your dad. It’s wonderful to have helpful, wise people in our lives to bounce ideas off of and seek their counsel. But let’s make sure we’re not making a god out of someone who’s just a fallible human being. And let’s make sure we’re not trying to make ourselves one, either. Let’s give honor, glory, and obedience to the Only One who is worthy of it all. Because all the rest of us are not God. No matter what our name is. That’s God’s Word for you today.