Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, March 14, 2020
by R. Fergus Moir, Clergy Stuff
Jesus could be pretty sassy. I think our culture has done him a disservice painting him as some overly mellow, unrufflable Pollyanna. Dude had spunk. And when the Pharisees ask him, “Who do you think you are?” he responds by asking them a question there’s no way they can answer without seriously harming themselves. Checkmate.
But even if the motives of Jesus’ questioners had been pure, he might not have been able to answer with any sort of clarity by whose authority he was doing all these things. The short answer is “God,” of course. But there’s nothing “short answer” about God. God is a mystery. Any time we try to second guess, demand answers from, or pigeon-hole God, we fail, just as the Pharisees did.
Lots of times we run into brick walls in our faith. We can’t figure out why things aren’t going according to our plans and we blame God, being sure that if God really loved us, things would turn out in our favor. We’re sure we have so much faith we ought to be able to move a mountain. But in those cases, we’re deciding who God is and what God should be like. And that’s way above our pay grade.
We need only know that God loves us completely and invites us into a deeper relationships, to seek to know God and do God’s will, ever inspired by the act of learning and growing, even if we can’t ever possibly see God complete.
Gracious God, draw me into a closer walk with you each day. Amen.
An
Exceptional
People
Blog Posts
SIGN UP NOW