When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?” (Matthew 22:34-36 MSG)
I remember my time in teachers college. I was surrounded by teacher candidates who thought they knew it all. After all, they had been accepted to a very competitive program and were going to be future teachers, so why wouldn’t they know everything, right? “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young,” said Henry Ford.
The distinguished religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought they knew it all until He came along and proved them wrong. In Matthew chapter 22, we find them asking Jesus perplexing questions about paying taxes to Caesar, marriage and the resurrection and the most important commandment in the law (vv.15-40). Of course, Jesus had the answer to their every question, but then it was His turn to ask a question. Take a listen to what Matthew tells us in verses 41-46 (MSG):
As the Pharisees were regrouping, Jesus caught them off balance with his own test question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said, “David’s son.” Jesus replied, “Well, if the Christ is David’s son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his ‘Master’? God said to my Master, “Sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” “Now if David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he at the same time be his son?” That stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.
Don’t stop learning. Allow God to teach you. You can never know it all.
Rising with the Son 