Mark 12:24
Jesus replied, "Your problem is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God."
Got to hand it to Jesus. He never sugar coated the message did He? Always a straight shooter, Jesus would unload both barrels so that there would not be any questions as to what really meant to say. Such behavior makes us uncomfortable in today's p.c. police.
Wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Never mind that it might keep them from sliding over into hell...let's not say hurtful things.
Funny part in Jesus' statement is the ones He is speaking to. The Sadducees....a ruling part of the Jewish synagogue.They were using their collective noggin's to try and trip Jesus up on a theological point. They came up with a doozy of a question. Won't go into it, but it involved a woman whose husband died, and she ended up marrying his six other brothers as they all died off one by one. So what was the question? On the resurrection day, which one will she be the wife of? Really? No wonder Jesus went into the temple and turned the tables over....nothing worse than theologically-challenged goobers. Ah, I digress.
Jesus' answer to these mental shortcakes kind of hit home with me.
He went straight to the point and the problem.
"Hey guys, your trying to talk about things you are "Clueless in Jerusalem" about."
They thought they knew the Scriptures. After all, it was their job to know them. They were expected to be the religious pez dispensers of truth and knowledge when it came to the word of God. But Jesus uncovered the simple fact that they were trying to discuss something they did not understand. They were busy focusing on this theoretical dilemma when Jesus totally uncovers their hearts.
When Jesus said that "Your problem is that you don't know the Scriptures," He wasn't talking about the intellectual pursuit of truth. He was saying, "Hey guys-- you never been touched by the message of the Word. It has not moved from your head to your heart. It hasn't caused the lights to come on inside of you. As long as the Word of God remains in our brains...it will never enact change. It's the heart where the real change takes place. The Word is to be experienced in our lives. Not held at a distance and seen as some sort of religious do's and don'ts. One particular verse tells us that we are to let the Word of God dwell deep inside of us. In other words, the Word of God becomes an agent used by the Holy Spirit to enact the change needed for us to live out our relationship with Jesus.
So what about the "power"?
The power is the ribbon on the package so to speak.
It changes the words on the page into truth in our hearts.
Not just any truth, but truth that creates a desire in us to follow where God is leading us.
As Jesus said, "You will know (experience) the truth and this truth that you are running into at ever turn will set you and make you free." We find our instruction on how to live in the Word of God. We find the ability and power to do so through the Holy Spirit at work in us.
It seems to have fallen out of favor to study the Word of God.
In an age where information is a commodity, maybe we should take another look at the Power of the word of God.
Read it for ourselves.
Digest it and let it work and dwell deep inside of us.
Draw nourishment from what we read.
Then let the Spirit of God apply it to the areas we need to strengthen.
I don't want to be like the Sadducees.
I don't want to run around playing games with the word of God.
In fact, I'm just crazy enough to want everything God wants for me, and if you don't want what God has for you......slide it over here. I'll take it.
God on you...
mbb
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