temptation

The right answer

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“We do not know.” Mark 11:27-33

Jesus returns to Jerusalem in the morning. As he and his disciples walk through the temple area, the Jewish officials approach him en masse: the chief priests, scribes and elders. In other words, this is serious. They want to see his credentials. “By what authority do you do theses things? Who gave you this authority?“

In their own minds, they are the ultimate authority of faith and practice on earth. And they knew with certainty that they had not given Jesus any kind of authority to teach or to act. They are speaking, of course, in reference to Jesus driving out the money changers and other vendors from the temple on the day before.

Jesus counters with a question for them. It is interesting that they take up this question as they are under no obligation to do so. Thus they unwittingly yield their authority to Jesus. His question is, “Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer me.”

This was a factual question with a definite answer. But instead of giving an answer based on truth, or even on their own professional opinion, they express fear of the reaction of the people, who no doubt were gathering now to see what was going on. They fall back to a “safe” answer that they hope will not cause too much trouble. So they offer up the pretense that they do not know.

Jesus will not play games with them and states flatly, “Neither will I tell you.” But in a sense, Jesus has already told them the source of his authority. John was indeed a prophet sent from God to proclaim the coming Messiah, whom he identified as Jesus. The officials’ refusal to accept this did not make it any less true, but served as an indicator of the state of their hearts.

The temptation to give a “safe” answer regarding, Jesus, God or the Bible is just as great today. Our modern society has determined we are now “post-Christian” and have been for some time. In other words, we have grown out of this phase in our development and are now able to regard things in a much more realistic and scientific fashion. The concept of God and religion is seen as no longer being useful. In fact it may be downright dangerous, and indeed, anyone holding to these outmoded beliefs is rightfully subject to ridicule, loss of position and power and general persecution.

So, do we go along to get along, or do we stop, stand and proclaim the “right answer”?

Copyright 2020 David J. Cooley

Here comes Jesus

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“In those days Jesus came…”

Our world today relies on chaos to explain itself. There is no order and no design that cannot be explained in terms of chance or randomness. But in God’s universe, there are certain events that are definitely ordered and set in motion for a purpose. And once started, nothing can stop them from accomplishing their purpose at precisely the right time.

I like to think of it as The Inevitability of Prophecy. What God says will happen, will happen. Look at the progression of events that Mark depicts in quick, bold strokes: the beginning of the gospel of Jesus > the prophesied messenger > John the Baptist appears > there comes one after me > Jesus comes! The details are overshadowed by the dramatic sequence of events. In fact, many teachers rely on the other gospels to fill in the gaps that Mark leaves wide open.

And it continues. Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River. Want more details? You’ll need to look elsewhere. This is followed by a matter-of-fact recounting of a voice from heaven saying “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Wait! I need to stop and catch my breath – things like this don’t happen every day! But Mark marches on – “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”

Obviously, Jesus didn’t need a push to start his mission. But perhaps it was best to get him on the move before the crowd gathered their wits and began to besiege him with questions and requests for favors. That will come soon enough. But first Jesus has an unlikely appointment to keep with the devil himself. Satan may not have realized it then, but he had just lost the game when Jesus failed to succumb to his temptations.

The gospel has now begun.

For more, see Mark 1:9-13

P.S. When I took the above photo, I was surprised to see that the entire line of dominoes I set up fell in about a second, maybe less. I had to fire the shutter before I saw the dominoes falling. If I hesitated even for a moment, the image showed only fallen dominoes. It took several tries to capture the fall in progress. (I’ll leave the personal application for you to figure out)

Copyright 2019 David J. Cooley