Brokenness
How do you convince someone he is wrong?
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. - Matthew 22:34-46
The lawyer who asked Jesus about the commandments had no intention of making himself a better disciple.
He was simply testing Jesus, trying to trap him.
So, it was only fitting that Jesus would challenge him back, asking a question he knew the lawyer would not be able to answer. He asked him about the Messiah.
Now, he didn't say that he was the Messiah, for that would give the lawyer what he wanted, something to accuse Jesus of.
Instead, he asks whose son the Messiah is.
He challenged him with the current understanding of the law. It was believed the Messiah would descend from David, and so he challenged that belief.
It must have been frustrating for Jesus, knowing he would not be able to change the views of those who led the people in their faith.
He came to help the lost, and though they were truly lost, they were not going to listen.
If they had, imagine how the faith would have changed.
Maybe the lesson here for us is to focus on where we can do the most good. Rather than trying to fix what is broken, we might try to help those affected by brokenness.
We are in good company if we do that.
It is what Jesus did.
More to come...