When the Religious Elite met Jesus..Encounters with Jesus

Today’s post in our series of Encounters with Jesus is written by Nathan Berry who is a presenter on Pure247radio. His inspiration is taken from the verses in Matthew 22:15-46. His thoughts follow on beautifully this week with our theme of humility.

Keep Your Trap Shut
Ever wished you’d kept your mouth shut? There’s a group of people who still blush when this memory turns up on Facebook.
So, Jesus had just been sharing some juicy parables with the masses. But these had left a bitter taste in the mouth of the religious highbrows, for whom these parables were solemn rebukes. They were anxious to get back at him – one way or another. So, one by one, the three groups of scholars and experts asked Jesus a series of impossible trick questions. The whole ‘episode’ is recorded in Matthew 22 and Mark 12.
Firstly, the Herodians and some Pharisaic disciples turned up with a controversial legal challenge. They asked if it was right for them to pay taxes to the occupying Roman leader at the time. Secondly, the Sadducees tried a deep theological question about the marital status of a seven-time widow in heaven. And finally, the Pharisees sought to trap Jesus by posing a question on morality. They wanted to know which commandment was the most important.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I could answer any of those. Jesus, however, answered each question with a wisdom that astonished the onlookers and completely silenced all the pompous intellectuals. Their clever trap failed – dismally. Ouch! Hence the blushing whenever this story resurfaces on social media.
Anyway, the observant reader may notice a gem of wisdom in this encounter: you can’t teach an omniscient teacher. To be quite clear, “Keep your trap shut.”
Think about it. Even the best collective minds in law, theology, and ethics couldn’t take on Jesus’s wisdom. Evidently, we humans cannot match the intelligence, knowledge or understanding of God.
In conclusion, rather than trying to outwit him, why don’t we stay humble and keep quiet, so we can glean some wisdom from the greatest mind of all?