I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 21-22

When the religious leaders of Jerusalem challenged Jesus to declare by what authority He did the things which He did, He did not directly answer them.  Instead, He asked them if they thought that John the Baptist got his authority to baptize from Heaven, or merely from men.  They refused to answer.  We can learn a lot about having debates from this.  Jesus asked them this question because He knew that they were not asking because they wanted to know the answer.  They were asking in order to set up a narrative with those listening.  By asking His question, Jesus could establish the criteria by which His answer would be judged.  If they had said that John’s authority came from man, He would have established that they were merely looking for an excuse to demonize Him.  If they said that John’s authority came from Heaven, Jesus would have established a basis for making the case for His own authority.  By saying that they did not know the answer to Jesus’ question, they revealed that they were more interested in a “gotcha” moment than in an honest discussion.

A similar thing happened a little bit later when Jesus was asked about taxes and about marriage after the resurrection.  In both cases, those who asked the question were not interested in having an honest discussion.  They were looking for a “gotcha” moment.  In both cases, Jesus turned it around on them.  He showed that their questions looked at the situation they were about from the wrong direction.  This is something to which we need to pay careful attention.  Many of the conundrums we face in life result from looking at things the wrong way.