181112

by

eighty eight.

NO JESUS OR KNOW JESUS?
Luke 20:1-18

This event took place after Jesus had driven out the merchants and livestock out of the temple. Possibly the next day or some day shortly after..

In the passage, the chief priests, scribes and elders approached Jesus and said "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority."
This was in the imperative form - a command... As if Jesus was inferior to them. 
If they had the slightest bit of respect for Jesus they would probably say something like - "Teacher, won't you please tell us by which authority you do these things?". But instead, they commanded Jesus to tell them.

The reason why they had said such a thing to Jesus was that, as seen in the passage where Jesus drove out the merchants and flipped the tables, Jesus had acted radically - no ordinary person would have done what Jesus had done, unless he was indeed extraordinary and acted out of righteous conviction.

Think about it this way, if some guy came into the church and started to overturn tables, pews and generally causing a racket, we would most likely tackle the guy and restrain him. But Jesus did something radical - not only did he act out in righteous anger, he spoke with POWERFUL TRUTH - "you have turned my Father's temple into a den of robbers".

Back to today's passage then, Jesus replies to the religious leaders' command by asking if the baptism of John came from heaven or from man... The religious leaders then thought about it and was at a loss for words. They somehow could guess that if they were to say 'heaven', Jesus would reply in saying "Why did you not believe him?".. and if they said 'man', the crowd would stone them for to them, John was a prophet. In thinking these things, the leaders then responded by saying they didn't know. And finally, Jesus expands - "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

In other words, 'even if I told you... even if I gave you enough proof, you still would not believe me.'

The religious leaders knew the answer to their own question. They have seen on multiple occasions the mighty works of Jesus and there was sufficient evidence from the prophecies of old that Jesus is the promised Messiah... But they were still hesitant in believing. Though their eyes saw, they did not believe.

In the passage, (v.9-18) Jesus concluded with a parable - about a man's vineyard that was let out to tenants.
The man went into another country for a while and sent servants (three) to take some fruit from it. The tenants beat up and drove away each servant until the man sent his own son thinking that they must respect him for he is the owner's son. The tenants then resorted to killing the son, believing that by killing the heir they would inherit the vineyard themselves. They also believed that the father would not come back to deal with them, so it all the more convinced them of the act.

This parable reflected God the Father sending His own Son to the world. It's God's vineyard... He would send miracles & blessings throughout the ages only to ask for some fruit... But the tenants keep rejecting His servants with greed and selfishness (Israelites and stories of rebellion in the OT). When He sent His Son, the tenants rejected and killed him too... Leaving room for God's wrath.

"The stone the builders rejected has become the CORNERSTONE".


When Jesus speaks, truth and power come out of his mouth. In today's age, there is no greater commodity than TRUTH. It is so scarce and therefore so valuable because we are always surrounded by LIES.

Are we going to be like the religious leaders? When there is actual TRUTH being spoken, we resort to selective hearing - only hearing what we want to... and shrouding TRUTH with a doubtful "I don't know"?
Are we going to say No to Jesus? or are we going to Know Jesus?

We are at our strongest when we are 100% dependent on God. When we don't rely on our own power and our own understanding... but His. The more we depend on God, the stronger we are.



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A beautiful day... Finally, a clear sky and a nice orange contrast with the trees. Next season may see snow in this landscape.
When I got back to my dorm and was about to head off to dinner, I found out that my Havainas broke...
It was definitely one of my room mates.. Perhaps they stepped on it or something... No one owned up to it and I was very frustrated.

 A lot of things weren't going well already and this just added on to the frustration.

 I quickly thought about solutions because these sandals were frequently used for in-dorm walking so it wouldn't be long before I next used it...

 The damage is as shown below and there were only a few ways to fix it...

 1) Bread clip on the bottom part to secure it - FAIL, Korean bread clip holes are huge for some reason...
2) Superglue - FAIL, no superglue
3) Duct Tape - FAIL, no duct tape
4) Rubber band - SUCCESS.

It worked.

My Korean bread.
It was nice anyway. Sweet white bread. =].

After fixing it and focusing on the more positive things in my life... I felt a lot better... The past couple of days hasn't been easy...

A lot things have happened and I've found myself less patient most of the days...


Thankful: A nice weekend. Thanksgiving dinner and Church. Somewhat relaxing but I had hoped it could have been a tiny bit more.

Prayerful: Approaching finals... Lots of assignments and exams.... Buildup of stress.

Dangers: I have been feeling very spiritually detached... I know something's not right.