Game of Tones

10/07/15

Luke 20.8 And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." – Luke, the doctor

Luke 20 encapsulates the confrontations Jesus had with His opponents. First, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and challenged His authority: Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority[!]

Then, 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. So then they sent imposters to ask Him tricky questions hoping to trip Him up: “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

Then, there came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection to try to beat Him in a game of words over the resurrection of the dead. They asked: In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Jesus was not intimidated by their questions or reasoning but He did say, in essence, you ask Me these questions not because you don’t know but because you don’t believe, therefore, I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things. In other words: because you won’t know, you don’t know.

Those who question Christianity typically won’t know; their mind is made up that it is a farce and therefore, there is no reasoning with them. Their questioning isn’t sincere because they are convinced already that the tenets of Christian faith are faulty from the get-go.

Hostility toward God in this age is ever-present in our world. I think when Adam and Eve fell, their sorrow for their sin may have been momentarily sincere, but their anger toward God grew. Cain is evidence of that. At the risk of repeating myself from a previous blog, what God asks of us is to repent of unbelief. And it takes a miracle of God to do that.

There is a place in life for angry questioning of God. But there is never a place for arrogant questioning of God. Big difference. Anger may be based in misunderstanding and can lead to arrogance, but arrogance is arrogance and God has no use for those who would try to outwit Him – just look at Adam’s childish and petty answers to God’s questions in Genesis 3. Adam (and all who follow): repent of unbelief.

I believe. I am more convinced day by day that God is my Friend and He cares about me. Yes, there are often times when things don’t go my way and I fuss about that, but I’m learning not to blame God; rather, I thank Him that the things that are out of my control, are out of my control for a reason. I leave the results up to Him. And I cannot, in a game of words, outwit the One who knows all, sees all, and rightly, does all.

There once was a time I demanded answers. But I had to get to that place of needing to know as opposed to demanding to know. When God questions our belief and we answer, we don’t know, we shouldn’t be surprised when He answers back: since you won’t know, I can’t tell you either…