As a child growing up, I would sometimes hear one of my siblings say "No comments from the peanut gallery!" My sibling meant if my counsel was not asked for, then counsel should not be given. The use of the term 'gallery' also suggested a scene where people were sitting way up in a balcony with no clue of what was really happening on the stage.
Last Sunday's sermon included questions regarding this contrast between people in the gallery versus people on the stage:
"What are people saying about Jesus?"
"What are you saying about Jesus?"
In Matthew 16 Jesus asked about the comments from the gallery of His day: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" (16:13). And, His disciples were able to answer without hesitation. In other words, they knew what the gallery was saying. The opinions and ideas of people were common knowledge to them, and it was no big deal for the disciples to repeat what they heard on the street.
Then Jesus asks a different question: "But what about you?" (16:15). And most of us know Simon Peter's famous answer, given to him by the revelation of God the Father: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16).
I'd like to ask you a question, the same one Jesus asked: But what about you? Are you listening to the comments from the people on the street, or are you listening to the voice of your Father in heaven? Do you spend your energy in the gallery, or are you engaged with the Daystar, the Center of our attention, the One who makes things happen on the stage of life?
God is in the business of revealing truth to those who seek Him. As Pastor Sam said in his sermon at the National Black Nazarene Conference this past July, what we need to do is to spend some time seeking the presence of the living God. As God fills us with His Spirit and His reality, we are transformed into effective agents in the kingdom of light. The revelation born from that intimacy will take us much farther than any hypotheses generated from the gallery.
Lord, help us to seek Your presence.
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