DAY 119
How NOT to Win Friends and
Influence People
1 Kings 6 & 7 and Luke 20:27 – 47
Solomon builds the Temple. It is the
grandest building. We will read more about it and how it was built in a
coming book of the Bible and so I will refrain from commenting here. Many
people have recreated what they think it looked like and here is a link:
In
the New Testament Jesus’ authority is still being challenged. One of the
ironies is that it is taking place in the Temple. Not the grand temple we have
read that Solomon built, something less and that story is coming. The
challengers have moved from the Pharisees to the Sadducees. They were the ones
who controlled the Temple and in some ways they feel the most threatened by
Jesus. A necessary tension existed between the Sadducees and the Romans. The
Romans allowed the Sadducees to be in power, but the Sadducees knew they could
only “go so far.” They didn’t like the Romans, but knew they needed to them if
they wanted to stay in power. The Sadducees were therefore not really
interested in a Messiah, unless of course they could control him.
One
of their beliefs was that there was no resurrection. The Pharisees did and they
did not. It is a little like the way different Christian denominations will
have different views on serious theological subjects. They therefore would be
hanging on every word of Jesus’ answer. His answer of course is brilliant. He
sees eternity and he knows that eternity is not filled with death, but life.
He
then challenges them with a question. It is equally brilliant. He quotes a
Psalm and asks them how this can be? The answer is that the Psalm can only be
if He is in fact the Messiah, the Lord.
He is
having a good day, and so to top it off He turns to the people and tells them
to be careful of the Scribes (those would be Sadducees)…he certainly is not
making friends at this point. Our Lord is interested in doing his Father’s will
much more than He is in making friends.
I
titled today, “How NOT to Win Friends and Influence People” in part to have a
little fun, but also in part to remind myself that love of and obedience to God
is what ultimately matters. Jesus is being obedient, right now He is standing
up to all of them, and ultimately he we ascend to heaven, but only after he
experiences the Cross.
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