This story showed prejudice because although Zacchaeus was dishonest, no one gave him a chance to change his ways. Jesus was the helping hand that Zacchaeus needed to become a good person and repent. The people themselves were sinners for being prejudiced against Zacchaeus, not just him. It is fortunate that there are people in the world today, as well as in Jesus’ day, who can look beyond prejudice at what a person is really like.
Another example of prejudice is when Jesus healed a blind man on his way to Jericho. This blind man heard the crowd moving and asked what it was. They told him the Jesus of Nazareth is passing. The man shouted “Jesus! Son of David! Take pity on me!” But the people in the crowd told him to be quiet. So again the man cried “Son of David! Take pity on me!” When Jesus heard him he ordered the blind man to be brought to him and asked what he wanted him to do. The man replied that he wanted to see again. Jesus then healed the man and said, “Then see! Your faith has made you well!” The man got up and praised the Lord, and when the crowd saw, they praised God too.
It was the people in the crowd who showed prejudice in this example. They thought that the blind man wasn’t good enough to see Jesus, and tried to get him to be quiet. The man, however, kept trying because he had faith and knew that Jesus could heal him. This was a brilliant act of faithfulness and Jesus recognised it, and healed the man. At the end of the story, the people realised that they had been wrong to scold the blind man, and joined him in praising God.
Everybody in the world has been prejudiced against someone or something. People can be prejudiced without even knowing it. I think that is why it is such a common problem in the world. In this part of the essay I am going to give two examples of prejudice in modern times.
The first example is the well-known story of Martin Luther King. He and all other black people in America in the 1960’s were greatly discriminated against, for as I see it, no good reason. Their children had to go to separate schools, they weren’t allowed in some shops and had to sit at the back of a bus, separate from white people. Martin thought that this wasn’t fair, and when he spoke to other black people he discovered that they felt the same way. These regulations needed to change, but instead of using violence like a lot of people wanted to, Martin used peaceful methods like protests and strikes. This was due to his Christian faith. He knew that God wouldn’t want Martin and other black Americans causing pain and suffering. Martin got a lot of ideas on peaceful protest from Gandhi. A very famous protest was the “Bus Boycott” where black people refused to use buses. This meant that the bus companies lost a lot of money. The “Bus Boycott” protest was very successful and eventually blacks and whites were not forced to sit separately. During Martin’s campaigns for equality he was beaten up and put in jail many times. I think that this was very unfair because he was doing no wrong, just trying to do some good. In 1964 he won the Nobel Peace Prize. I believe that Martin thoroughly deserved this, because he was very brave in what he was doing. He was going against a very powerful force, who weren’t afraid to use violence. We see this from the people who tried to kill him by stabbing him and blowing up his house. Unfortunately, one of these attempts was successful. In April 1968 Martin was in Memphis, Tennessee. While out on his hotel balcony, a man shot him in the neck with a rifle. Martin was dead within an hour. This really was a great human tragedy. He had done so much for civil rights in his short lifespan that I think that the possibilities for what he could have done, had he lived longer, are endless. I have a great respect for Martin Luther King, and I am disappointed that I will never have the chance to meet him. However, I also believe that the work that he has done lives in and continues to be very powerful today, long after his death.
The white people who were prejudiced against blacks had no reason to dislike them. They had done no harm and didn’t deserve to be treated badly. In fact, it was white people who brought blacks over from Africa to be slaves. Unfortunately, this is the way prejudice works. People pre-judge before they know all of the facts and circumstances. Martin used love and compassion to overcome prejudice. Many people wanted to use violence but he persuaded them not to.
The people around her treated her badly because they thought she was just like any other “smack head”. They thought she just did it for the fun of it. If they had spoken to her and tried to help her, they would have found out why she took drugs. She had felt lonely and very depressed, after her mother’s suicide, so she took drugs to try to block out her problems.
Lots of things have changed since Jesus’ time, but prejudiced hasn’t. It was just as rife then as it is today. We can learn from the teachings of Jesus to help solve this problem, and apply them to our lives. Like in examples I have mentioned earlier, Jesus looked beyond prejudice and brought people closer to God. I know that if I do as I have mentioned, and follow the teachings of Jesus, I will have the love and compassion to overcome the prejudices in my life, and in doing so become more like Jesus.