Tag Archives: Trouble with Religious Leaders

What Does it Really Say?

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He answered, “Have you not read … ‘What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate’?” Matthew 19:4a & 6b ESV1

Read Matthew 19:1-9

I thought one of our smoke detectors was chirping. I changed the battery, but the chirping continued. I assumed the replacement battery was bad, so I threw away that battery and installed a new one. The chirping continued. Naturally, I was convinced the unit must no longer be working. I planned on purchasing and installing another unit, but to hook up a new one, I needed to detach the clip which connected the current smoke detector to my home’s wiring. For some reason, I was unable to get the clip to release. So, the chirping continued.

My husband couldn’t help me change the smoke detector; he was on a business trip. So, I listened to the constant chirping for days. Finally, my parents came to visit; I asked my dad to try his hand at disconnecting the smoke detector. He was more successful than I had been. The smoke detector was detached, but the chirping continued.

It was my mom who discovered that the device which was signaling its need for a battery change wasn’t the smoke detector at all; it was the carbon monoxide detector! Once we changed the battery in the correct unit, the chirping quit. Day and night for the better part of a week, I had unnecessarily put up with the annoying noise. Because I was so sure that something was wrong with the smoke detector, I never considered the possibility that something else needed a new battery. I wonder how many times we experience needless suffering or cause avoidable pain because we are convinced of something which just is not true. In most such cases, much more is at stake than being slightly annoyed for a short period.

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Finding Balance

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Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Matthew 16:6 ESV1

Read Matthew 16:5-12 & Mark 8:14-21

Have you noticed, as humans, we tend to live in the extremes? Like the pendulum of a clock, we swing from one thing to another. It is difficult for us to find balance in all the areas of our lives simultaneously. If we do ever achieve equilibrium, we soon realize it is impossible to sustain. This truth reminds me of something Jesus told His disciples.

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Here’s Your Sign

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The Pharisees came and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from Heaven to test Him. Mark 8:11 ESV1

Read Matthew 12:38-42, 16:1-4 & Mark 8:11-13

Have you seen the billboard which reads, “If you are looking for a sign, this is it!”? Perhaps you have seen something similar on a wall plaque or in an advertisement. Jesus could have invented that saying! Whether a person knows it or not, He is the One for whom everyone is ultimately looking. And yet, He is the One who is continually asked to prove Himself. Such was the case if the following account.

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Heart Condition

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“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:19-20 ESV1

Read Matthew 15:1-2, 10-20 & Mark 7:1-5, 14-22

My son was born with a heart defect. Because of his condition, we learned that some of the bacteria which dwell in one’s mouth would like to thrive in one’s heart. Bacteria that causes little problem in the mouth can cause serious, life-threatening infections in the heart. To prevent such complications, when my son was young, he always had to take an antibiotic before he went to the dentist. Similarly, not only does a mouth and heart connection exist in the physical realm; it exists in the spiritual realm, as well.

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Rules, Rules, Rules

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He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27 ESV1

Read Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28 & Luke 6:1-5

During the raising of our children, my husband and I were blessed with some excellent parenting resources. From one of those sources, we gleaned the valuable advice: Rules without relationship equals rebellion. That truth, paired with other wisdom and the help of God Almighty, allowed us to develop a home with high standards bathed in grace and love to which our children responded beautifully. It is too bad the Pharisees of old weren’t able to discover such life-giving truths from the resources available to them, the Law and the Prophets. Instead, they exhausted themselves making up new rules, trying to enforce those requirements, and attempting to punish anyone who broke those man-made laws.

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Choosing Forgiveness

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Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” John 18:11 ESV1

Read Matthew 26:47-56, Mark 14:43-50, Luke 22:47-53 & John 18:1-11

Have you ever been let down by someone you counted on to stand beside you? Or have you been betrayed by someone you had considered a friend? Have you ever been slandered by someone you had tried to help? Or have you been abandoned by someone who was supposed to love you?

I have. I can answer in the affirmative to each of those questions. Even though years have passed since some of those incidents took place, when they are brought back to my memory, the pain floods in anew and emotions rise in me which I thought had long ago subsided. Most of us can probably identify with such hurts. Jesus can too. But how we deal with being rejected may be quite different than the way Jesus did.

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Because He Loved

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Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. John 11:5-6 ESV1

Read John 11:1-45

After Jesus averted the attempt of the angered religious leaders of Jerusalem to seize Him (see John10:39) and stone Him (see John 10:31), “He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there He remained” (John 10:40). He stayed there with His disciples for a while until He was alerted of a friend in need. Out of love, He left His place of safety, and entered dangerous territory, to help this one whom He loved.

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To See or Not to See

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Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” John 9:39 ESV1

Read John 9:1-41

“After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea [where Jerusalem was], because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. [But] the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand” (John 7:1-2). The Feast of Booths, also known as The Feast of Tabernacles, is a time of remembering the LORD’s faithfulness toward His people, the Israelites, during the forty years they wandered in the wilderness after being freed from slavery to Egypt. It is an eight-day feast with the first and last days being Sabbath days. It is immediately followed by an additional Sabbath day which marks the beginning of the year’s cycle of Torah readings. This Feast was one of the three mandated Feasts which all able-bodied Jewish men were commanded to journey to Jerusalem to attend.

Because His life was in danger, Jesus considered not attending the Feast (see John 7:8). When He did decide to go, He tried to remain out of the public eye (see John 7:10). But He did not remain hidden for long. “About the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching” (John 7:14). I believe, at that point, He realized there was more work that needed to be done (see John 9:4-5), and that even though threats abounded, He was in no real danger, “because His hour had not yet come” (John 8:20b). It wasn’t yet time for Him to give up His earthly life, and God’s plan would trump the plans of man.

This truth was evidenced by the fact that during the Feast week, there were five unsuccessful attempts to arrest Him (see John 7:30, 32, 44-46 & John 8:5-6, 20), and one failed undertaking to kill Him (see John 8:59). Jesus remained safe as He boldly proclaimed the truth. In the process, “many of the people [listening] believed in Him” (John 7:31a, also see John 8:30). Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem was a special blessing for one man in particular; because of Jesus, the whole trajectory of this man’s life was changed for time and eternity.

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To Keep From Drowning

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And He said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”  Luke 14:5 ESV1

Read Luke 14:1-24

As Jesus’ time on Earth grew short, “He set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). He and His disciples “went on from [the villages of Caesarea Philippi (see Mark 8:27)] and passed through Galilee … to Capernaum” (Mark 9:30a & 33a) “to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan” (Mark 10:1a).

Looking at a map of Israel during Jesus’ lifetime, one can deduce that a trip from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem is about 120 miles (193 km) as the crow flies. But as the human walks, over mountains, through valleys, and across rivers, avoiding the land of the Samaritans (see Luke 9:52-53), it is much longer. According to most Biblical timelines, Jesus’ final journey appears to have taken about nine months. Jesus knew where He had to go and what He was going to have to do, but He took his time, stopping along the way to offer a helping hand.

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Upside Down and Backward

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And He laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. Luke 13:13 ESV1

Read Luke 13:10-17

I was traveling through the center of a city near my home with two of my friends. We passed a church building that was for sale. There was a sign out front. My one friend said, “I wonder what is going in that building. It must be a business from a foreign country. The sign is written in letters that are unfamiliar to me.” My other friend contradicted her. “Oh, no,” she said, “The sign reads ‘First Presbyterian Church.’ It is just upside down and backward.” Then we all saw it. Indeed, in an attempt to show that the building would soon be changing hands, the seller or the realtor had taken out the transparent, printed panel of the sign and had replaced it upside down and backward.

When I think of that event, I think of Jesus. Much of what He said and did seemed (and still seems) upside down and backward. This next account illustrates that truth perfectly.

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