<\/p>\n
And I thought I did stupid stuff …<\/strong><\/p>\n Okay, so I do, but it never ceases to amaze me when I come across accounts such as this as I read God’s holy book: “The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death.”<\/p>\n Amazement but not in a good way …<\/span><\/strong> Don’t let these words escape our consciousness. \u00a0Stop the movie, hit the pause, rewind if necessary before this entire scene disappears into the familiar shadows of another Sunday School story.<\/p>\n The reality of that moment …<\/strong> They knew jots and tittles but not Messiah …<\/strong> And it gets better, or worse, I guess, as “they were glad and agreed to give him money.”<\/p>\n Glad to pay …<\/strong> Just one more thought from my morning reading …<\/strong><\/p>\n They heard it from his own mouth.\u00a0 Yes, I am the Son of God.<\/p>\n Not trying to be overly dramatic here but we cannot allow this to be just another Bible story. \u00a0It happened.<\/p>\n Maybe a bulleted list will help us keep this from disappearing into the zone of the familiar.<\/p>\n Our lesson …<\/strong> The default setting …<\/strong> “What! \u00a0God was here? \u00a0Somebody shoulda’ told me.”<\/p>\n He stood in front of them and told them who he was but the concept of Messiah as a Savior and a seeker of sinners was too much for their spiritual receptors. \u00a0There was no Holy Spirit teaching them the truth of the moment because they were self-taught.<\/p>\n Remember …<\/strong> Don’t think that it cannot happen to us.<\/p>\n End of dire warning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And I thought I did stupid stuff … Okay, so I do, but it never ceases to amaze me when I come across accounts such as this as I read God’s holy book: “The chief priests and the scribes … Continue reading
I can’t tell you how many times the same scenario has played out.\u00a0 It happened again this morning as I read the following text.<\/p>\n\n
\nNow the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. [2] The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death<\/strong>; for they were afraid of the people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nI think every time I read this I just stop in amazement. \u00a0I have been reading the Bible through for many years now, and I don’t think it changes. \u00a0I just stop in bewilderment. \u00a0It never loses it’s zing.<\/p>\n
\nThe people who are holding the torch for truth, seeing to it that every jot and tittle is in place and\u00a0waiting for Messiah King are now found looking for their best chance to murder him when he does come to provide salvation for this world.<\/p>\n\n
\nAnd he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Him to them. [5] They were glad and agreed to give him money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nThey were very happy to pay someone to forward their plan of assassinating God’s deliverer.<\/p>\n\n
\nAnd they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.” [71] Then they said, “What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nAvoid the temptation to vilify the chief priests and the scribes and not see ourselves in the story. \u00a0We can easily be them and often are. \u00a0In fact this is how the human heart trends.<\/p>\n
\nWe transform our religion to fit the patterns and whims of our lives. \u00a0We make it fit. \u00a0Our religion becomes our religion, so much so that when God shows up we don’t know who he is, didn’t know he was there.<\/p>\n
\nThey had the truth, the true truth as Francis Schaeffer<\/a> called it, and they had the true theology of the Old Testament. \u00a0But the true truth and the true theology of Scripture had not shaped their faith. \u00a0No. \u00a0They were the shapers, not the ones being shaped. \u00a0They knew the words but their intellectual wrangling of the words had not given them even the sight to see the Son of God in flesh and blood standing before them telling them, “Yes, I am the Son of God.” \u00a0The God they served was unrecognizable to them.<\/p>\n