Arguments
Sometimes an argument is presented just to make us think.
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet" '? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. - Matt. 22:34-46
Jesus seems to be disputing the belief that the Messiah would be descended from David when he says David called the Messiah Lord, and that stumped the Pharisees.
Arguments can be fun to observe, from a distance that is.
I found an argument in my search of this reading that credits Jesus with negating the credibility of the Hebrew Scriptures. The author of the argument places value on what Jesus says and in taking it literally, sets out to prove all religious texts are corrupted.
That's an extreme position, don't you think? First of all, why would this author value what Jesus said? If in writing down these stories we tend to twist the words to serve our purposes, which is what he is saying, why wouldn't the words of Jesus be just as corrupt?
The good thing about this argument, I think, is that it proves we are searching for truth.
So many don't even bother to read Scripture.
I would rather have someone build a case for his particular view of the world using these texts as proof, than to construct an argument without any references at all.
Jesus was a teacher, if nothing else, and his method was brilliant. Set up an argument through a story or image, and have the listener start the debate.
We don't debate anymore. We just throw out our views and expect the world to see things our way.
It would help if we could at least anchor our views to something.
More to come...