Reversing the Challenge
From the time we can walk and talk, we challenge authority, first with our parents and then the world.
Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?" - Mark 11:27-28
Today our first grandson turns seventeen. Seventeen! How quickly the years pass.
I remember how he would reach for the electrical socket which he knew he was not supposed to touch, and he would smile, waiting for one of us to see his challenge.
It is our nature to push against the boundaries, to say "No!" just to get a reaction.
In today's reading, Jesus is the one challenged, but the challenge is one from those who felt themselves the authority. Like the angry parent saying to the child, how dare you, they seek to reprimand him, put him back in his childish place.
The way Jesus responds is very clever. He diffuses the challenge without answering their question. He succeeds in reversing the challenge and making the authority figures look foolish.
We admire that, don't we? Perhaps not in our children or grandchildren when we are trying to teach them a lesson, but if we give it some thought, wouldn't we want them to be able to stand their ground like Jesus?
When a child seeks to get our attention and we give it, we encourage and support their efforts to stand on their own, and though they may drive us crazy at times, this is what we want them to learn.
By the time they turn seventeen, we have much less influence on how they think and act, so we had better imprint that independent thinking and envelope pushing ability early.
The lesson from the reading is to be able to defend without losing ground, to support without giving in, to be ready to reverse the challenge.
This is what we want for ourselves, yes, but more importantly, for our children.
So, our job is to be willing to be led by the small hand, and to set the boundaries we want them to cross, so that when they are on their own, they will be able to thrive.
Happy birthday, and many many more.
More to come...