Ignoring Some Stuff and Looking for the Right Stuff

Scripture Reference: Matthew 21:23-27

The more Jesus went around teaching people, the more the church leaders became offended. He exposed lies and hypocrisy –particularly the lies and hypocrisy they preached and lived.

They decided it’s time to put Him in His place and to do so publicly. They do so shortly after He cleared out the temple –the temple they turned into a business. They wanted to know who gave Him the right to do things like that. According to them, Jesus –God in the flesh –had no right going around cursing fig trees, teaching people and making changes to the way they do church.

He was not ordained like them, after all. They questioned Him in front of His listeners hoping to discredit Him. “So, Jesus, where are your ordination papers? Who appointed you to teach here and make changes as you please?” In today’s terms that would have been the gist of their public inquiry.

They couldn’t discredit what He taught. They couldn’t discredit His miracles. So they decided to discredit His authority, attempting to make Him look like some kind of maverick preacher who did whatever hits his fancy. The truth is, of course, that Jesus was under the highest authority imaginable: The authority of God Himself. So why didn’t they see that?

The truth is, Jesus’ miracles were sufficient proof of His God-given authority. But, they refused to accept it as God did not bring Jesus into their circle. He was not chosen from among them. He was an outsider. Only they were appointed by God.

I am intrigued by the ways of Jesus. His ways beg a deeper delving into His Person. It is in this delving one finds the wisdom that far exceeds what we see in daily life. Here is just another example. In response, He does not go into a debate about His miracles as proof of His authority. He does not refer to the comments made by the crowds that He teaches with authority and neither does He refer to the fact that demons tremble at His voice. No, rather, He asks them a question in return.

It’s a question which would, if they answered truthfully, answer their own question. His question forces them to acknowledge that they conceded, in secret at least, John’s Baptism has been sent by God, but yet they did not believe him.

It is no different with Jesus. They know deep in their hearts God sent Him, but they refuse to embrace Him because that would mean the end of their cozy lives as ‘respected’ church leaders. (‘The whole world is going after Him’ they said among themselves). They saw Him as a threat because their religious privileges were more important to them than the Truth. Had the truth been more important to them, they would have been prepared to embrace Him regardless of personal cost. They knew God sent Him. They preferred not to see it. That is the same attitude they had towards John the Baptist. He was not part of their group and therefore they could not (publicly) acknowledge that He had been sent by God.

They could answer the question, but said, “We don’t know” The truth is, they did know. They decided they won’t answer it because whichever way they answer they will be exposed as frauds.

From Jesus’ response to them I learnt it is best to ignore the questions of those who have no intention to learn, but seek only reasons to drag us into heated debates. It is okay to ignore some stuff. If we take the bait we are in danger of losing our self-control and we will ’prove them right’.

Another lesson I learnt from this incident is that we are always in danger of rejecting those God sends to us if we look for ‘credentials’ and people who are only part of ‘our group’ as confirmation that God sent them. Let’s look for the right stuff.