Jury Duty

For the second time in my life I got summoned for jury duty in a supreme court trial this month. The first time I was a student in Saskatchewan and filed the paperwork to be excused and was. This time, I filed the paper work to be excused and my request was denied by the judge who obviously didn’t consider my time to be any more valuable than anyone else's.

Honestly, I would love the experience of being on a jury. I took law in high school and we got to walk up town and sit in on a trial at the same court house and I believe it would have been a very interesting and educational experience. But this trial is scheduled to take close to three weeks!

Anyway, I went in at the appointed time and we began the tedious process known as jury selection. I was sitting there wondering how a defense attorney would like to have a baptist pastor on the jury but looking around me at the large number of people that had been called and thinking it probably didn’t matter anyway as the odds were in my favor. But then, they called on all those who had medical issues, hearing loss or financial concerns and dismissed them. The ranks were thinning.

Then it happened. According to procedure, the crown attorney read the list of all the witnesses they intended to call. So, I got in line, put my hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (or something like that) and took the stand (actually sitting). The judge asked me why I thought I should be excused. I told him that I knew a certain gentlemen quite well whose name was on that list, and that was it! I was out that door quicker than you can say Matlock. I called Florence on my cell and told her I was free! (those are my exact words).

Then I started to think back on my experience. The only reason that judge said to me that I was ‘free to go’ was because I knew someone. And that is how it will be some day. We will all stand before the judge of all the earth and the only thing that will matter on that day is whether or not we know Jesus Christ personally. No other issue will matter. And if it is determined that we really know Him, or more to the point, that He knows us!, then, and only then, will we be ‘free to go’. You see, it really is WHO you know.

“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed… Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 8:36 ; 17:3