22:5 - Does this sound familiar to anyone else - people too caught up in their own day to day exsistence that they don't have time to enter into the realm of God? We are being invited everyday to step into the party of all eternity and over and over we turn it down for mundane crap that leaves us empty and wondering why we have no joy. Gee...what could the problem be?
22:11-14 - I know this sounds a little scary, but it is an awesome passage. This is one of the many invitations that Jesus is making to Gentiles like me. When God's people chose to ingore the kingdom of heaven party, everybody else got invited. The good the bad the ugly - all of us. YAY! But it is also a stark reminder...all are invited, but only those dressed in the bright white clothes of righteousness (Washed clean by the blood of Jesus) are allowed to stay.
22:15-22 - If he says, "pay the taxes" the Jews will hate him because they hate their Roman oppressors. If he says, "don't pay the taxes" the Romans will kill him for leading a rebellion. It is the perfect hyper-political trap to catch Jesus...but Jesus is Jesus, he goes his own way. He says - Whose money is that anyway (Holds up a coin with Ceasar's face on it)? Give to Ceasar what is Ceasar's...we've got bigger things to do then worry about a tiny hunk of metal. Don't we all.
22:23-33 - What started out a couple chapters back as the triumphant entry into the city, has turned into a "how-can-we-trap-Jesus-fest." The Sadducees take their shot with a jumbled hypothetical question about marriage in the after-life (These guys don't even believe in an after life - sheesh!). Jesus says, you guys don't get it...we will be beyond all the physical stuff...we will have spiritiual bodies like the angels. We will be fully and completely connected with God and will not need the physical partners we had in this life. Secondly - I love when Jesus quotes the OT scripture, God is the God of Abrham, Isaac, and Jacob. He didn't say - I was the God of them...He said, I AM the God of these guys. Death is not the end...it is the beginning of true life when saved by Christ. Our God is the God of the living!
22:36-40 - Love God, Love people - pretty simple (Except for the fact that we have proved over and over that we are terrible at it!). Who says Christianity has tons of rules...we just have the two! Now let's get to work.
22:46 - Great message for us here...again Jesus is confronted and again Jesus silences his enemies with scripture. Just as he destroyed the arguments of Satan in the wilderness through the words of God...he destroys the arguments of the Pharisees with the bible. That is our weapon in the spiritual war we fight. If we do not keep scripture in our minds and heart we will be unable to fight back.
2 comments:
Excluding the parable, this chapter should be called – Let’s play Jeopardy with Jesus – or Are you Smarter Than the Christ?
It just gets me how these teachers were so knowledgeable and yet so dumb at the same time. They have The Answer they have been seeking literally right in front of them and yet they have brainwashed themselves into believing that they are the end-all-be-all of wisdom and that what they say, not God, goes.
I pray we aren’t that arrogant or confident in our own knowledge. I pray that we see Jesus for who He really is – God, Lord, King, Savior, Master – and call on His name for all our needs.
And if you need to get back to Christian basics – 1 - Love God first with everything you have – 2 - Love everyone else – i.e. treat others the way you want to be treated – 3 – if you have problems, refer back to 1.
j
i gotta give a shout out to verse 40 since this is the name of our student ministry, 22forty. what i love about this is that living like Christ is narrowed down to 2 guidelines. keeping these in mind we will keep the rest of scripture. God is so stinkin smart. i am continually amazed by things and systems he has layed down! thank you God!!!
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