FOCUS: Not to question, just to bow

Tuesday’s Reading: Matthew 21:23 – 26:3, Mark 11:27 – 13:37, Luke 20 – 21:36 (today’s are longer than the rest, perhaps break up into two sittings…)

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“Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Him in His talk.”

Matthew 22:15

Last night at prayer meeting, a friend was sharing about a recent experience–a young woman with a hard past, checking out this Christianity thing. She came to her asking questions, and my friend observed, “What’s so awesome is, she really wants to know the truth. She isn’t just asking questions to try to justify her own behavior.”

Immediately I wanted to meet this girl! Someone who asks questions because they genuinely want to know truth is, to me, someone I want to know! No matter what they’ve done or what their past is or where they currently are, someone who displays this truth-seeking spirit shows me that humility is at their core and Jesus always reveals Himself to the humble.

I’d much rather hang out with “sinners” who are seeking truth than religious people who think they already have a corner on it. 

As you read through these passages you see Tuesday’s common thread: The religious leaders were testing Jesus. They challenged His authority, they “plotted how to entangle Him in His talk,” they came up with complicated scenarios regarding Old Testament law in order to test His knowledge. Over and over and over in these passages the Scribes, Pharisees, chief priests and Sadducees approached Him with “questions.” But their questions had nothing to do with wanting to gain knowledge, wisdom or understanding, their questions were challenges of authority. 

Their questions were just a thinly veiled attempt to justify themselves. To validate their own self-righteousness. 

One in particular stands out, because it’s so sharply contrasted with another story in this same passage. The chief priests and scribes ask Jesus about paying taxes, crafting their question in a way that might easily entangle a lesser man than Christ. But Jesus cuts to the heart of the issue:

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

Done. The response: “Marveling at his answer, they became silent.” 

Our world is full of people who are “questioning” the faith. Often these questions are nothing more than an attempt to be let off the hook of worshiping Christ and bowing before Him in humble obedience.  There is absolutely a place for humble, honest, sincere questions–but we are wise to recognize when our “questioning” is nothing more than an attempt to justify ourselves and get out of doing the hard work of obedience.

Right after this story, a woman comes on the scene.  She does no questioning. In fact, she doesn’t even speak:

“And Jesus looked up and saw … a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

She easily couldn’t have questioned the tithe. She could have tried some similarly-slippery Scribe-like reasoning to weasel her way out of worship:

“Jesus, do I really have to tithe? I mean technically it’s impossible to tithe off of two coins, an amount that can’t be divided by 10, right?”

She saves her words and just worships instead. She gives all she had. Instead of arguing, questioning, and trying to “figure it out” she just goes ahead and gives all she has. No calculating or scheming, no sounding trumpets.

She comes, not to question, just to bow. 

Oh I ache to have a heart like that. I am too often the questioning and calculating scribe or Pharisee. I am asking Jesus a thousand questions instead of reaching into my pocket and just taking out all that I have.

Worship, really, is simple. 

Whatever it is you have, just give to Him today. Your loaves, your fish, your time, your heart, your trust, your two tiny copper coins. 

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{No need to question or figure it out. Just worship Him right now, today. Thanks for reading. }