Hindsight

The authors of scripture picked their words carefully!  When they record a location, a time, a road, or a person, there is always a reason for it.  They aren’t giving a travel log like some of us do when we want to communicate a story.  Some of us say things like, “Last Tuesday at 7:40, no, no, it was 7:20, because I remember Jeopardy was still on.”  That’s how we tend to tell stories. 

Not the authors of the Old and New Testaments.  There are no throw away lines or travel log details that aren’t important to the story.  The details are important. 

As we talked about Matthew 22:41-45 in last Sunday’s sermon, I hope you remember the very first line of that story.

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them…”(vs. 41) 

That line is very important.  Matthew 21:23 says that the whole religious leadership of Israel came to Jesus and asked, “By what authority are you doing these things?”  Jesus answered only in parables. 

They didn’t like that, especially when He was telling parables critical of their leadership. 

Matthew 22:15 says, “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words…”  Matthew 22:23 says, “That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question…”  Matthew 22:34 says, “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him…”  Soooooooo…

“While they were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ‘What do you think…”

Why is this so important to the development of Matthew's story?  The religious leaders are constantly coming at Jesus with aggressive, combative, debate style Rabbinic questions and in perfect Rabbinic form He is deflecting their questions with His own far more insightful questions. 

Jesus cuts to the core of their beliefs and confronts them with their legalistic rituals.  He challenges them to accept a relationship with God through Himself as the Messiah of Israel--and they’ll have none of it.  They continue to regroup, rethink, and strategize, “How do we trap Him?”  The fact that they might be wrong never enters their minds!

What is your faith in?  There’s nothing wrong with a certain amount of action, production and trust in your family, career, investments, and building the life that the book of Proverbs describes.  “Look to the ant, how he toils in summer… that he might enjoy the winter.” (Proverbs 6:1-11) Nothing’s wrong with hard work, industriousness and planning for a rainy day.  In fact, those things are very commendable. 

But the religious leaders refused to break out of their plans and get on the same page with the plans of God.  This is evidenced in Matthew by the way they continually try to trap Jesus in His own words, and their refusal to admit He must be the Messiah.  It is evident that they are frustrated because they can’t confound Him. 

These men are the best and the brightest of Israel.  Isn’t it interesting that they never say, “This guy is smarter than we are!  And we’re brilliant!  Maybe He is the Messiah!”  But instead of that conclusion, they simply beat their heads against the wall arguing with God!

Have you ever argued with God?  I have.  I lost. 

I wanted to be a college diving coach.  I dove for Ronnie O’Brien the US Olympic coach for years and years.  All my diving partners are now coaching at major universities all across the country.  I had to give that dream up.

When I went through the major crisis of my wife being in ICU for nine weeks, I was teaching at Sierra Jr. College part-time. I went back to school to complete a master degree in Exercise Physiology at Sacramento State so I could teach full time at Sierra Jr. College.  I felt burnt out and emotionally crippled because of the intense psychological stress of my wife’s illness.  So I wanted to get out of church ministry for a awhile and try to recoup. But Jesus got me on the phone with two different churches asking me to, either go to Honolulu and take over a church with a small Bible College or, go to San Jose and plant a church.  I went to San Jose and planted a church. I pastored that church for eight years and that church now runs over 2,000 per Sunday.

“While they were together, Jesus asked them a question…” 

What question is Jesus asking you?  Think about this seriously; there are no throw away lines in the Bible.  Is Jesus asking you to make a decision?  Be baptized?  Read scripture every day?  Pray?  Tithe?  Teach Sunday School?  Drive the golf cart?  Love your wife as Christ loves the church?  Consider weaknesses in your parenting?

Jesus asked them a question that would have changed their whole mindset.  They would have accepted Jesus as their Savior and believed in Him as the Messiah of Israel.  Instead they squandered and wasted their lives clinging to their plans.  In 70 A.D. their plans became a smoldering trash heap of a city that was once Jerusalem.

The Apostles were allowed to set in motion an organization that is still conquering the world!  Whose plan would you really rather follow?