Skip to main content

Leading Questions

 

 The Pharisees were out to get Jesus. They figure if they could get him to say something against the Romans, they would have a lever in which to remove Jesus. So they go to him and ask him a question involving the payment of taxes to Caesar. If he said no, well the Romans might be after him.  

 But notice how they speak to Jesus before they ask that question. In Matthew 22:16 they say, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any”. You can see what they are doing. They are trying to rile him up with compliments. Imply he is the type of guy who won’t cave to pressure and then ask him a question to prove just that. Challenge him to show that he is a truthful teacher not afraid of giving the “right” answer.

 Jesus didn’t take the bait.

 His answer was brilliant. It took the issue out of the trap and back into the real world. He never violates who he is but doesn’t allow the malicious to control the context.

 We should take note of this. How often do we get suckered into useless arguments and verbal traps by those that throw out similar traps? “Only real Christians” will do this or “if you love God you will XYZ. Some will take issues of opinion and make them a test of faithfulness. Many will piggyback political content as church doctrine.

 Don’t take the bait.  We need to render unto Caesar what’s his and God what is God’s. We can give answers without getting pulled into the fray.

  

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

  Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair   It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission.  It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...
Post a Comment
Read more