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Have you
ever heard the expression, “The enemy of my enemy
is my friend”? We’ve seen this dynamic played
out in the Middle East over the past half century.
Islamic regimes that ordinarily have nothing but
contempt for and suspicion of one another suddenly
become the best of friends when the discussion
turns to the annihilation of Israel and the Jews.
Even the
Jewish community itself, though genuinely fragmented
and divided sharply over a host of issues, manages
to unite in amazing accord when it comes to their
common fear, suspicion and contempt for Jews like
me, who believe and openly teach that Yeshua,
Jesus, is the promised Messiah.
As we
take a look at Mark chapter 12, verses 13-34 this
morning, we’ll be treated to a perfect example
of this principle. It is astounding how groups
which are otherwise fierce opponents of one another
can cooperate when combating what they perceive
to be a mutual threat. And make no mistake; Yeshua
was a threat to them.
There’s
something else we need to learn this morning,
and I trust our study of this passage will aid
in that endeavor. There are questions that are
asked in all sincerity, with the desire to find
an answer. Sincere questions deserve thoughtful,
reasonable responses. There are, however, those
who pose questions merely as a pretext; to lure
you into a debate in which they hope to make you
appear foolish and discredit you in front of others.
When is a question not a question?
I.
When it is Designed to Trap You
Verse
13 And they sent some of the Pharisees
and Herodians to Him, in order to trap Him in
a statement.
Who’s
the “they” in verse 13? Where and when is this
taking place? “Why do ‘they’ want to trap Him?
Who’s ‘Him’? How do they plan to do it? I know
we’d all like to get right to the action in this
scene, but first let’s be sure we know who all
the players are, and recap the “previous episode”.
You want to ask “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?”
“how?” and “why?” and get answers to those questions.
It’s called contextualization, and it’s the foundation
of good biblical exposition. If I don’t do it,
I’m short-circuiting the process of understanding
narrative literature, and I wouldn’t be doing
you any favors. After we establish the context,
we can better understand the scene, and later
on we can go on to ask, “So what – how does this
apply to me?
‘They’
are the chief cohanim (priests), the Torah-teachers
(scribes) and zakkenim, elders. They represent
the Jewish religious establishment of first-century
Israel. Israel may be under the overall jurisdiction
of Rome and Caesar and Herod, but locally, they
are “the powers that be.”
‘He’ is
Yeshua the young, modest, miracle-working rabbi
from Nazareth in the Galilee, whose reputation
for godliness and humility, coupled with His willingness
to mingle with the common folk and even the ‘undesirables’,
had gained Him a large following, and that following
was growing by the day.
‘They’
don’t like ‘Him’ and in fact felt genuinely threatened
by Him. Something about His teaching, without
any patronizing, seemed to ennoble the common
people, and that made the big wigs seem a little
less intimidating. The long and the short of it
was that Messiah Yeshua threatened their power-base,
and that was intolerable. Thinking back to the
prophecy of Jacob in Genesis 49, it seems that
Shiloh had come, and Judah wasn’t ready to hand
over that scepter just yet. The wielding of power
and authority can have a corrupting influence
in a fallen world, and power in the religious
realm is no exception.
Now this
scene is taking place just a few days before Passover,
the last Passover that Yeshua would celebrate
on earth before becoming the sacrificial Passover
Lamb. And as if His popularity hadn’t made the
religious leaders envious and paranoid enough,
Yeshua had just two days earlier gone into the
Temple and driven out all the profiteers from
the precinct. That action had been long overdue,
and I’m reasonably certain it made the average
Israeli jump for joy. You see, for years the priests
and sheep sellers had conspired to inflate the
prices of lambs for the Passover, such that you
had to pay exorbitantly for a lamb that was pre-approved,
or else risk the priest managing to find (or manufacture)
some microscopic defect in your animal, making
it unsuitable for the sacrifice. In other words,
you either paid their price or there was no lamb
for your family for the Passover meal.
In that
agrarian society, the average Israeli struggled
to earn a living. Suppose you had sold your very
best lamb back home and brought the money to Jerusalem,
as the Torah provided for, in order to purchase
an equivalent animal there. Suddenly you get to
the Temple and are told that the price is two
or three times what you got for your best animal
back home. What are you to do? You would have
to sell off some things to get the extra money,
or else borrow from a relative. Talk about taking
the joy out of Passover! But it gets worse. So
you get the money you need and you come back to
the merchant, and now they tell you, “I can’t
accept that money. You have to pay me in ‘Temple
Currency.’” What? So now you have to go over to
another table and exchange the one form of money
for another. But the money-changer is part of
this whole deal, and they charge you a percentage
for the service of making the exchange. So now,
once again, you don’t have enough for the lamb
you wanted. You either have to borrow more money,
or else settle for a pair of doves, and what kind
of meal does that make?
Needless
to say, the people deeply resented the monopoly
being run in the Temple, but were also powerless
to do anything about it. God’s command was a lamb
for Passover, and there was no exception made
for corrupt leaders charging more money. So imagine
the feeling of the common people when Yeshua went
in there and read them the riot act and forcefully
driving them out of the place. I’d have been shouting,
“Yeeeeehaw!” (or whatever the Hebrew equivalent
was). And so would you.
In chapter
11, the religious authorities asked Yeshua, not
why He did it (everybody and their cousin
knew perfectly well that they had it coming),
but by what authority He did it. In other
words, they knew that by cleansing the Temple
of the profiteers, Yeshua was claiming to be the
Messiah, of whom it was written through the prophet
Malachi, Behold, I am going to send My messenger,
and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord,
whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple;
and the messenger of the covenant in whom you
delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord
of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears? For He is like
a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap… and He
will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like
gold and silver…” (Malachi 3:1-3a)
The chief
priests, Torah-teachers and elders had long-since
adopted an adversarial posture toward Yeshua.
But His zealous cleansing of the Temple escalated
their hostility exponentially. Neither did it
ameliorate things any when Yeshua, in the verses
immediately preceding our text this morning, spoke
a parable against them, likening them to avaricious,
ruthless custodians of a vineyard who refused
to settle up accounts with the vineyard Owner,
but routinely beat up and even killed those He
sent to represent Him. The corrupt religious leaders
wanted to seize Yeshua right then and there, but
knew they couldn’t without risking an uprising
on the part of the people.
But they
determined that one way or another, they had to
get rid of Him! He threatened their position of
authority. They had to find a way to either trap
Him in what He said, and hopefully bring capital
charges against Him, or else stump Him with a
question He couldn’t answer and publicly discredit
Him in the eyes of the people. So again we read
in verse 13, And they sent some of the Pharisees
and Herodians to Him, in order to trap Him in
a statement.
They really
underestimated the Master. Did they really think
He was that naïve to not see immediately what
was going on? You need to know that Pharisees
and Herodians didn’t exactly chum around. You
would never have seen Pharisees and Herodians
cooperating! The Pharisees, while shrewd enough
to keep it to themselves, hated Rome and everything
it stood for, and deeply resented being under
the heavy hand of Caesar. They resented the taxes
to Rome they had to pay, and they deeply resented
having to answer to Herod.
The Herodians
were Jewish pragmatists. They advocated the fostering
of good relations between the Jewish nation and
Herod, and argued that to do so would allow them
to live peacefully. The Herodians hoped that through
courting the good favor of Herod, he himself would
be an advocate for them whenever matters of Roman
policy clashed with Jewish interests, especially
where religious practices were concerned.
Patriots
and pragmatists don’t generally schmooze. Those
of such opposite attitudes toward the powers-that-be
just don’t socialize. They are opponents of one
another! So when Yeshua saw Herodians and Pharisees
approaching Him in the same company, naturally
he was wary. It would have raised anyone’s suspicions!
You have to wonder what was (or wasn’t) going
through their minds. Did they really think they
had the appearance of earnestness? Let’s continue
in verse 14.
Verse
14 And they came and said to Him, “Teacher,
we know that You are truthful, and defer to no
one; for You are not partial to any, but teach
the way of God in truth.
Did I
mention they underestimated Him? Listen, wouldn’t
you become suspicious if someone started
lavishing you with compliments? I know I would.
First of all, if someone came up to me and started
ascribing all these virtues to me, I would assume
they had the wrong Rabbi Harris. But in Yeshua’s
case, everything they said was true. He is the
greatest Teacher the world has ever seen. He not
only spoke the truth, but He did not hesitate
to speak uncomfortable truths to those who needed
to hear them. He was completely just in all His
dealings and did not show favoritism, and absolutely
He taught the way of God in truth. His magnificent
teachings are unmatched, though often co-opted.
by the unscrupulous.
The thing
is, if they really believed what they were saying,
they wouldn’t have assumed they could lower His
defenses through the use of flattery. It is one
thing to pay a deserved compliment. Flattery,
however, is a tool used by the unscrupulous to
gain an advantage. Beware of flattery. Don’t employ
it, and don’t fall for it. Those who would flatter
you are buttering you up for the slaughter. So
now that they are sure they’ve set Him up, they
put the question to Him, as we read in verse 15.
Verse
15a Is it lawful to pay a poll –tax to
Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not
pay?”
Seems
like a straightforward enough question. But things
are not always what they seem. Remember that nearly
the entire audience here is Jewish. That means
three things:
- They all pretty much hate Caesar’s guts.
- They’re all fed up with Caesar taxing them
to death.
- They’re all going to stop what they’re doing
to hear the answer to this question.
The Pharisees
and Herodians are counting on these facts, and
they have posed a yes-or-no question – one designed
to either get Him killed or else destroy His following.
If Yeshua says, “Yes, it’s lawful, and you should
pay it,” then He’ll be branded as spineless and
unpatriotic; and given the acrimony that existed
between the Jews and Rome, He would lose His following
altogether. Even worse, He might be accused of
putting Caesar before God and of being a friend
of heathendom, and be labeled a blasphemer and
be charged with high crimes.
If Yeshua
says “No, our only King is God, and the tax should
not be paid,” (they were really hoping for this
answer), then they simply report Him to Herod
and Caesar, and He can be charged with sedition
- advocating open rebellion against Roman law
and of fomenting an insurrection, either of which
would earn Him the death penalty.
Either
way, they were sure they had Him in a corner with
this question. I wouldn’t be surprised me if,
while on their way to meet Him, they fought amongst
themselves about who would get to ask it. In Luke’s
description of the same encounter, he describes
these men as: spies who pretended to be righteous,
in order that they might catch Him in some statement,
so as to deliver Him up to the rule and the authority
of the governor. This was not a question.
It was a ruse, trickery, deceit – the very depths
of duplicity; all masquerading as a simple question
about the propriety of taxes to a secular ruler,
meant to destroy Yeshua.
Did I
mention they underestimated Him? Let’s continue
in verses 15 through 17.
Verses
15b - 17 But He, knowing their hypocrisy,
said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me
a denarius to look at.” And they brought one.
And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription
is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And
Yeshua said to them, “Render to Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that
are God’s.”
What a
wonderful reply, simple, comprehensible… and devastating
to the agenda of those who put forward the question!
Today
we tend to use the word “hypocrisy” to mean one
who advocates one thing but practices another.
But the word upokrisij was used at the time to
mean “pretense” or “insincerity”. Yeshua was not
for one minute fooled by these pretenders. You
should not be, either. You and I should be able
to distinguish between a sincere inquirer and
someone who only wants a debate and who hopes
to humiliate you.
How do
you gauge a person’s sincerity? What are the signs
to look for if you suspect duplicity? There are
all kinds of things to watch for: vocal inflection
(do they seem angry? Intense?), body posture (are
their arms folded across their chest? Are their
hands on their hips? Those signal an adversarial
attitude, and are often done unconsciously), facial
expressions (are they smirking or looking off
in other directions, obviously not listening,
while you thoughtfully address their concern?),
do they interact thoughtfully with your answers
or just dismiss them and proceed to fire off another
“question”.
You are
under no obligation whatsoever to provide answers
to those uninterested in them, particularly when
it is they who asked in the first place. And those
who are duplicitous are undeserving of a decent
reply. The Scriptures tell us not to answer a
fool according to his folly, or else you will
make him feel wise and clever in his own eyes.
When you deal sincerely with the insincere, you
are not doing them any favors. You just re-affirm
in their minds their own “brilliance”, and that
doesn’t help them on their way either to humility
or repentance. It hinders. Nor is it a sign of
godliness when you deal naively with the insincere.
It is a sign of immaturity. Scripture goes on
to say, answer the fool as his folly deserves.
Here is the principle, and don’t forget it: Yeshua
never gave a straight answer to a crooked question,
and neither should you!
They wanted
a simple “yes” or “no” which would have served
their nefarious purposes, but instead Yeshua leaves
them with a dilemma. Now they are left to figure
out for themselves what belongs to Caesar and
what belongs to God. They asked an intentionally
hostile question, Yeshua gave them an intentionally
vague reply. It was brilliant! Thus we read at
the end of verse 17:
And
they were amazed at Him. Yeshua’s deft handling
of the question enabled the crowd that witnessed
it to see through the pretense, caused them to
have to think, and strengthened the faith of His
followers. Your wisdom in identifying the nature,
not of the question, but of the questioner, will
make a positive difference (even if it involves
a rebuke), both for them and for those who listen
in. When is a question not a question?
II.
When it is Designed to Trip You Up
Verses
18-23 And some Sadducees (who say that
there is no resurrection) came to Him, and began
questioning Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote
for us that if a man’s brother dies, and leaves
behind a wife, and leaves no child, his brother
should take the wife, and raise up offspring to
his brother. There were seven brothers; and the
first took a wife, and died, leaving no offspring.
And the second one took her, and died, leaving
behind no offspring; and the third likewise; and
so all seven left no offspring. Last of all, the
woman died also. In the resurrection, when they
rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For
all seven had her as wife.”
What’s
wrong with this question? The Sadducees, who asked
it, denied the very premise of it. Like the previous
question, this one’s also disingenuous. As far
as the Sadducees were concerned, they might just
as well have been asking about Goldilocks! Why
would someone even ask a question, the very premise
of which they deny, unless they’re just trying
to pick a fight? It’s like the guy who asks in
an obviously irritated tone of voice, “Are you
saying that I’m going to go to Hell if I don’t
accept Jesus?” The smart thing to do is to ask
a question of your own: “Do you think Hell exists?”
More often than not they say “No!” So I reply:
“Then what do you care what I believe?”
I’ve had
people ask me earnestly about the biblical teaching
about Hell, and in those circumstances, I’ll patiently
point them to the Scriptures; but almost always
the guy who tries to pin you down on the matter
of people who reject Yeshua going to Hell is just
trying to paint you into a corner, to discredit
you in front of others (this question is almost
never asked without an audience present), and
to portray you as a hateful, judgmental, self-righteous
jerk. Okay, so even if I am all those things,
why give this guy the satisfaction of thinking
he’s right?
About
the Sadducees
Let’s
talk about the Sadducees (Tz’dukim in Hebrew,
taken from the name of the High Priest in the
time of David and Solomon - Zadok [meaning “righteous”
or “just”]). They were a sect within Judaism that
flourished from about two centuries before Yeshua
to the time of the destruction of the Temple in
AD 70. They were comprised mostly of the aristocratic
and priestly Jewish families, who owed their considerable
influence and power to alliances they had made
with Rome. For these reasons, they were regarded
(esp. by the Pharisees) as worldly and self-indulgent.
In terms of their doctrines, the Sadducees were
skeptical about the existence of angels, skeptical
of the possibility of miracles (at least in their
own day), didn’t believe the prophetic books should
be included in the canon of Scripture, and didn’t
believe in the resurrection of the dead and life
in the world-to-come (all of which explains why
they were sad-you-see). They were the equivalent
of the modern professional clergyman who long
since has ceased to believe in the supernatural,
but still occupies the pulpit of a large, influential
church, or who holds the Chair of their department
at a prestigious (but now liberal) seminary.
So the
Sadducees (who presume the non-existence of the
world-to-come) present Yeshua with an unlikely,
almost ridiculous scenario, and then pose a question
about the world-to-come. Why? What purpose would
it serve? Their intention was to pose a paradox
which, should Yeshua attempt to resolve it, would
make Him look ridiculous.
They,
too, underestimated the Master. Yeshua, in His
reply, “takes the gloves off” as it were. There
is nothing mean-spirited in what He says, but
in verses 24-27 he candidly points out their problem:
Verses
24-27 Yeshua said to them, “Is this not
the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand
the Scriptures, or the power of God? For when
they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor
are given in marriage, but are like angels in
heaven. But regarding the fact that the dead rise
again, have you not read in the book of Moses,
in the passage about the burning bush, how God
spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He
is not the God of the dead, but of the living;
you are greatly mistaken.”
What’s
interesting about this is that, while Yeshua criticizes
the Sadducees for their biblical and doctrinal
deficiency, He nevertheless gives them what they
didn’t deserve, a resolution to the alleged dilemma.
There will be no husbands and wives in heaven.
We, collectively, will be the bride and Yeshua
the bridegroom. In the process, Yeshua also presents
them with an argument for the existence of the
World-To-Come. Over five hundred years after the
time of Abraham, God identifies Himself to Moses
as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. If physical
death means the cessation of existence, it would
have been foolish for God to describe Himself
that way. Even the skeptical, worldly-minded Sadducees
were not about to think of God as foolish.
Yeshua
affirms the reality of the resurrection of the
dead. He Himself would be the first. Rabbi Paul
wrote to the believers in Corinth, saying, Now
if Messiah is preached, that He has been raised
from the dead, how do some among you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there
is no resurrection of the dead, not even Messiah
has been raised; and if Messiah has not been raised,
then our preaching is vain, your faith is also
vain, moreover we are even found to be false witnesses
of God… and if Messiah has not been raised, your
faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Messiah
have perished. If we have hoped in Messiah in
this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But now Messiah has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who are asleep (1
Cor. 15:12-15a, 17-19).
So be
encouraged and know that the One who is the ultimate
authority on matters of both time and eternity
assures us there will be a resurrection, and the
World-to-Come is real.
But also
learn from this…
The principle
we need to remember is: the person who asks a
question, the premise of which they themselves
deny, is not interested in the answer. They are
not really asking a question, just trying to make
you look foolish. You’ll only look foolish if
you treat their question as sincere. Answer the
fool as his folly deserves.
The scoffer
asks: “Can God make a rock so big even He Himself
can’t move it?”
You reply:
“Yeah – the one in your heart.”
Now we
want to guard ourselves against becoming jaded.
Frankly, I’ve been the target of so man disingenuous
questions and disputations over the years that
I have to fight the natural inclination to assume
bad motives. Gratefully, there are those who ask
questions in sincerity. Some questions are posed
in order to obtain an answer or needed information.
Others, equally valid, are posed more out of curiosity
– somebody wanting to know your position on an
issue. That can be a legitimate form of inquiry.
The next question brought to Yeshua is illustrative
of this.
III.
A Question is a Question When Your Answer (even
if disagreed with) is Welcomed and Heard
Verse
28 And one of the scribes came and heard
them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered
them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the
foremost of all?”
There
had for many years been an ongoing discussion
among the rabbis and scholars as to whether the
613 commandments of the Torah could be summed
up in just one or a few commandments. There is
nothing surprising about this question put to
Yeshua. Again, the more pressing issue is not
the question itself, but the attitude of the one
asking.
I don’t
believe there is anything insincere about this
question. Even though, as we will discover, this
scribe already had a previously formed opinion,
he earnestly wanted to hear Yeshua’s view, particularly
in light of the deftness with which Yeshua had
handled the trick question put to Him by the Sadducees.
Let’s look at Yeshua’s answer to the scribe in
verses 29-31
Verses
29-31 Yeshua answered, “The foremost is,
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord;
and you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second
is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Those
words are the centerpiece of Jewish liturgy today.
In synagogues all across the world the Shema is
recited each week. Jewish people who otherwise
have little or no knowledge of Hebrew can recite
the Shema easily from memory. But Deuteronomy
6:4 does not contain a commandment, strictly speaking.
It is, rather, a statement of absolute truth:
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
One. The commandment comes in verse 5: And
you shall love the Lord your God will all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
might. So of what use is it to repeat phrases
learned by rote, if there is no love for God.
Those
of you familiar with the Shema no doubt noticed
that Yeshua added a word that does not exist in
the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Yeshua
did not quote the passage verbatim, but employed
a common rabbinical form of translating or paraphrasing
of the Hebrew text of the Scriptures into Aramaic,
known as a Targum. I say this because anti-missionary
rabbis have criticized Yeshua for not quoting
the Torah verbatim. What is so sinister about
this argument is that they know full well that
the rabbis rendered such paraphrases all the time,
and in some cases their interpretations were so
off-base and bizarre as to have almost no resemblance
to the original text!
As evidence
to support my thesis, let’s see what the scribe
himself says in response:
Verses
32-33 And the scribe said to Him, “Right,
Teacher, You have truly stated that He is One;
and there is no one else besides Him; and to love
him with all the heart and with all the understanding
and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor
as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings
and sacrifices.”
Yeshua
added the word “mind” to the text in His Targum.
The scribe deleted “soul” and added “understanding”.
You have to know that these liberties were taken
all the time, and are evidence of the genuine
Jewishness of the Gospel narratives. I am not
suggesting you take such liberties yourself, however.
We live in a culture that demands more precision
than was the case 2,000 years ago.
Both Yeshua
and the scribe agreed that Leviticus 19:18, the
command to love your neighbor as yourself,
goes hand-in-hand with the commandment to love
the Lord. Talk is cheap. Anyone can say
they love God, but unless they love others, it
just isn’t true.
How are
you doing? I confess I fall short in both categories.
My love and loyalties and energies are sometimes
very unfocused and sometimes divided. If you want
to know how you’re doing in terms of loving the
Lord your God, a pretty good barometer is whether
you’re loving the people your God has put in your
life. Let’s strive as a community of believers
here at Shema to keep these two great commandments
forefront in our minds and put them into action.
The scribe
also says that to love the Lord your God and to
love your neighbor as yourself is superior to
burnt offerings and sacrifices. Some have attempted
to make a dichotomy of this, as though it is one
or the other. Not so! God’s word states clearly
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and
(God says) I have given it to you on the altar
to make atonement for your souls, for it is blood
by reason of the life that makes atonement
(Lev. 17:11).
So you
are to love the Lord your God and you are to love
your neighbor, and you are to bring the required
burnt offerings! Oh wait – you can’t, can you?!
The rabbis have argued that prayers and repentance
and righteous deeds take the place of those sacrifices,
but that’s not what the Scriptures say. Nor was
the scribe saying it was unnecessary. He was saying
that one’s love for God and loving conduct toward
one’s fellow human beings was the basis for all
other commandments, and thus was weightier than
ceremonial matters.
Verse
34 And when Yeshua saw that he had answered
intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far
from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one
would venture to ask Him any more questions.
Not very
many people received such compliments from Yeshua.
This scribe understood what really mattered to
God. But we must not make these words mean more
than they meant. That scribe, like every other
human being, would eventually have to make a decision
one way or the other: was Yeshua the Messiah,
or a messianic imposter? There had already been
quite a few pseudo-messiahs on the scene in the
years leading up to the first century. Of these,
Yeshua said, Amen, Amen, I say to you, I am
the door of the sheep. All who came before Me
are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
hear them… I am the Good Shepherd… (John 10:
7-8, 11). Yeshua later warned us about false messiahs
in the Last Days, saying, See to it that no
one misleads you. For many will come in My name,
saying ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will mislead many
(Matthew 24:4-5).
So there
we are. Yeshua has had some trap questions thrown
at Him, and one good question – all potentially
divisive, and handled them shrewdly and skillfully.
I believe we are called to do likewise. Having
all the right answers to questions put to you
is not half as important as getting a good read
on the person asking. That means be a good listener
and pay attention to little things. A question
is only a real question if the person asking is
seeking answers, and is willing to entertain and
interact with yours.
When next
we pick up in Mark 12, Yeshua’s going to turn
the tables on them. It will be His turn to ask
the questions, and it will only take one, and
it will shake their world!
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