Mark 10:2-4
Our
modern political speech has nearly perfected the ability to say so much and yet
say so little. They can talk for hours without saying anything significant.
This is especially true when they are asked a question about one of the many divisive
issues of our day. They rehearse answers to questions so that they don’t get
caught off guard. When they are preparing for a public debate, they have teams
of questioners come in to pepper them with questions to prepare them to respond
with their own message and not allow themselves to get sidetracked.
Jesus
uses a very different tactic when He is questioned. He often flips the question
back over to His questioner in order to determine their motive. Instead of
simply understanding more about Jesus as we study these interactions, we can
also learn about the questioners. Questions simply become a means to finding the
heart.
Some
very strict religious people come to test Jesus. Their motive is to catch Him
saying something that can stand up in court. They don’t really want to know the
answer. They just want Jesus to ‘blow’ it. They want ammunition, not answers.
So they pick a controversial topic: divorce. Things haven’t changed much.
Divorce is still a divisive issue.
These
questioners want to know what is lawful. They want to know the exact boundaries
so that they can look for the loophole through which they can run. But Jesus
won’t play their game. He asks them an even more fundamental question. He takes
them back to the source material, Moses.
Moses
gave commands, not suggestions. What the LORD shared through Moses were
requirements, not conveniences. It was supposed to be difficult to keep the
Law. The Law’s purpose was to prove that humans couldn’t obtain righteousness,
that they couldn’t live up to their own rules, so that redemption would be God’s
domain, once and for all. If we couldn’t earn it, then the LORD would have to
provide it. And He did.
They
want to know lawful. Jesus wants to know the command and they give Him permit.
They want to know what they can get away with doing. Jesus gives them what to
do to live. Their answer would fit perfectly with the politically correct crowd
of today. They give Jesus the loophole. They give the wisdom of their day, that
even the most direct commands are up for interpretation and dismissal.
I
want to encourage you to look for the “must do’s” and do them. If we spend our
lives looking for the loopholes, rather than living inside the lines, we will
end up with an incoherent life that isn’t worth following as an example. We
will live a life of inconsistencies and invalidations. Instead of living a life
of principles, we will live a life based on popularity polling, the opinion of
others leading the way. Our life will look like the random shots of a cub scout
on an archery target rather than the precision holes of an Olympic marksman.