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Meditation for Preparation – Feb. 2nd

By Daniel CreswellPublished On: January 29th, 2025Categories: Leader Blog, Meditation for Preparation0 Comments on Meditation for Preparation – Feb. 2nd

An Open Invitation to Learn From Jesus

Read:  Luke 20:19-44

19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. 27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question. 41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 43 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

After maneuvering through several crafty questions meant to corner Him, Jesus finishes our passage by going on the offense and initiating a question that targets the heart of the Scribes’ misunderstanding of His Messianic status. Think about it.  Why does Jesus refer to a well known Psalm and pose the question of the Christ’s relationship to King David?  As we read this Psalm with the knowledge and belief that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man and that God exists as 3 persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) but one God, what David says here makes perfect sense.  “The Lord (God the Father) said to my Lord (Jesus the Son)…
 
I believe Jesus asks the Scribes this question because it gets to the heart of their inability to submit to the Lordship of Jesus.  They believed the Messiah would be a son of David, a fully human warrior-king who would establish an earthly kingdom over which the people of Israel would reign and bless the earth for all eternity.  As they read and interpreted the Old Testament prophecies, they did not understand that the Messiah would not only be man, but He would also be God.  To be fair, Psalm 110:1 is poetry.  Poets can be enigmatic and mystical in their communication.  Perhaps the lyric was considered so unclear as to not be intelligible.  Maybe they needed help to know how to make that lyric make sense.  
 
I’d like to think that many of the Scribes held their knowledge of the Scriptures with enough humility to be willing to hear Jesus’s question as an open opportunity to see and believe.  However, history tells us that Jesus’s question only poked the prideful and puffed up the chests of the Scribes so much so that they led the march to send Jesus to the cross.  
 
Our faith has things of “first importance.”  These are doctrines derived from Scripture that are essential to saving faith.  The Scriptures leave no doubt on these issues.  One of them is what we call the “hypostatic union” of Christ, which says that Jesus is 100% man and 100% God.  It is a central tenet of the Christian faith and is evidenced by the Scriptures.  Yet somehow, the experts of the Old Testament Scriptures could not see it. 
 
How robustly do you know and defend the essential primary doctrines of our faith?  How humbly do you hold your theological convictions that are shrouded in mystery?  When another brother or sister poses a question, do you seek to understand the question and to build up your brother or sister before you seek to defend your position?  May we be people who speak the Truth boldly in love, and may we be humble learners and listeners of the things God has left less clear.

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