Nougat 16

Sometimes when we read the Bible we find ourselves responding to the implicit message and not just the literal context. Consider today’s Holy Nougat

“Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What a response.

Obviously, Jesus had been engaged in a more extended conversation, this time with the Sadducees. As is to be expected, the conversation was more about them trying to trip Jesus (or was it ‘trick’ Jesus) into proving Himself a charlatan. They just wouldn’t quit. This time, they focused on marriage, remarriage and resurrection. It was interesting to see the interplay as the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection. But they were prepared to use the Levirate marriage as the point of focus, just to get at Jesus.

(It serves as a lesson to each of us in our own life journeys. The people who come to us, unabashedly biased in their thinking may at points pretend to side with us simply to embarrass us. We have to be discerning to recognize their motives.)

Jesus’ response is frank. He calls them out. But, He also used the question to create a teaching moment; one could say He evangelized. For, it was not only the Sadducees who listened to Jesus’ response – everyone gathered (and there’s always a crowd around Jesus) was paying attention.

All that is worth noting, especially since we ought to have a sense of context when reflecting on God’s Word. But I really want to take the nougat out of context for us to reflect on a deeper issue. Do we know (as in take time to understand and internalize) God’s Word, and what is the depth of our experience of God’s power? For ultimately, this is what will keep and sustain us in our spiritual lives.

Knowing God’s Word for ourselves means we are open to hearing it in our hearts, taking into consideration the text and context, as well as our own subtexts, all with the aim of deepening our relationship with Jesus. David said it best, ‘I have hidden Your Word in my heart so I might not sin against You’ (Psalm 119:11). And no, David wasn’t automatically sinless, but he was a full time God-chaser. And his desire was to sin less. That should be our desire also. If that’s our desire, then we have to work on it always.

For many of us, the power of God is a sticky issue. We associate God’s power with the prosperity gospel, or with those (fake) faith healers who often seem to have ulterior motives. But if it’s God’s power that we seek, then our task is to keep our focus on God’s Spirit and on Jesus, the all-time unblemished Sources of God’s power. It really isn’t only about healing and miracles and deliverance sessions. It’s also about the power that took us out of alienation from God back to friendship with God. And the same power which restores us to life in fullness as joint heirs with Jesus.

Are we ready to tap into God’s power and to understand God’s Word? No time like the present.

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May all we seek be found in Christ