Rejected
Matt. 12:33-42
Sometimes we fail to recognize the truth when it is staring us in the face.
Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash
“Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! - Matt. 12:33-42
The Pharisees had to think that Jesus was crazy.
He is talking about Jonah and the Queen of the South, who is most likely the Queen of Sheba who traveled far to see for herself that Solomon’s wisdom was from God.
It must have been frustrating for Jesus to see firsthand that these leaders of the faith refused to acknowledge him. What more could he do to prove to them that he was the Messiah?
They are not even accepting him as a prophet of God.
We get an image in our heads of what we expect to see and hear, and when something causes us to question that image, we reject it, without even giving it a thought.
The Pharisees labeled Jesus a heretic, a tool of the devil, and that is what they saw. This should not be surprising for us today. We see the same refusal to listen to opposing views among all people on all sides of every issue.
If you don’t agree with me, you must be evil.
How can we ever come to peace with an attitude like that?
Maybe it will take someone like the Queen of the South to come from far away to show us what is right before our eyes.
More to come...