When you read Luke 20, you see clearly that there are some folks who just don’t get Jesus and would rather he just go away. Of course, since he’s a Galilean, they know they just can’t get near him without first having to do deal with some of his rough disciples, particularly those big fishermen guys from Capernum. But he’s got’ta go! Not too long ago he came into the Temple and turned the whole status quo on its head, literally, what with tearing into the folks selling pigeons and other animals for sacrifices and the money guys making change for 2 goats and a lamb. Now he’s sitting in the Temple courts just as calm as could be telling stories about guys owning vineyards – in the Temple no less! What to do? Pull out the old political propaganda machine! The tried-and-true spin campaign! The smoke-and mirror flim-flam-agam! Never fails to run these riff-raff “wan’na-be’s” right back to the hills where they came from. He won’t know what hit him. He’ll scoot off and all the good citizens and country folk will go back to drinking the kool-aid. (In this case watered down wine might be the proper metaphor.)
So in a very short time as described in the gospel, Jesus is taken on. One day, while Jesus is “teaching the people”, some chief priests (big shots), teachers of the law (bigger shots with proof) and elders (big shots who don’t need to prove anything) confront him and say, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things?” Salvo number one: who do you associate yourself with and why do you think you have a right to speak out? After he deals with them, some dishonest spies pretending to be honest, ask him, “Is it right to for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” A classic spin! Man these guys are good! (Or bad - no judgment call here.) After he leaves them astonished and silent with his reply to them, the Sadducees or the sophist-cats of the day, the most influential guys in town, say amongst themselves, “This guy likes stories, right? We’re gon’na give him the biggest flim-flam-agam ever!” And they proceed to tell him one of the most convoluted, messed up story-lines possible to totally trip him up and make him go running back to Nazareth.
What does this have to do with the JYG discussion on Sunday? Everything! They barely got out of the first question that was posed to him when they reviewed what was going on at the Temple! They were sacrificing animals?
Why? Who came up with that idea? Well, it was the custom. Okay, we’re not disrespecting a custom but what was the purpose? “Well maybe you did something wrong, and you want to tell GOD you’re sorry!” said one. “Maybe GOD likes it.” “No, it has to be it’s to show you know you did something wrong. How else, could you let GOD know?” “We’ll it doesn’t have to be animals, but to some people this was a big sacrifice; this is their livelihood.” “So to show you’re sorry, you sacrifice something that is going to cost you.” “Hey, there is a tribe in Africa”, someone knew, “who sacrificed half of all the food they had to their deity like once a month to show how serious they were!” Getting right with GOD seemed to be a very important thing, something that really mattered, and everyone was in agreement.
What about those folks trying to trick Jesus? Do we pay taxes to Caesar or not? “That’s a tough question!” said one. What should he do? “Maybe he should talk around the question.” “No, he should answer honestly”. “But no matter what he says he’s going to be wrong!” “Well, maybe there is no right answer.” “But he’s Jesus – he’s going to know!” “You have to bounce the ball back into their court”, said one budding debator, “and make them come up with the answer!” But that is exactly what Jesus did to answer the first question, and they couldn’t answer him! They even discussed it among themselves and still came up with nothing. “Of course not! They weren’t really expecting any answer but the wrong one from Jesus.” “What they really were asking was: ‘You want to die now or later?’” “Answer right, you might live a little longer, but eventually, Jesus, you’re going to give the wrong answer, and we will have you.” (OMG!)
The discussion finished with looking at why did GOD sacrifice Jesus? Do sacrifices really work? What does GOD really want? We reviewed the scripture that states, “What GOD truly wants is a contrite heart.” “GOD wants what’s inside”, said one. What’s that? “Love.” “Thanks.” Why did Jesus have to die? “People knew this guy was special.” Why did he have to die the way He did? “GOD made this whole plan. GOD wanted people to know that GOD wants to help them.” “If Jesus suffered as bad as He did and GOD brought him back to life, you know there is hope for you.” But why so painful a death?
“Well, the soldier took pity on him, and he was one of the one’s who killed him.” “GOD let it happen that way to prove how much GOD forgives us; even watching how Jesus was killed”. “Sometimes, real bad things happen to get rid of something even worse. Like World War II, had to happen to end the Great Depression.” “Yeah! GOD sees everyone as equals. And everything has to balance out.” “If you don’t have bad things happen to you, you just don’t know what good is.” (Wow!)
These comments came from the hearts and minds of the JYG students. This was what the discussion was about. We never got to compare what mattered most from one time to another. Or maybe we did. They also never got to the third question which was what the gospel story was all about today. They just didn’t have any time for flim-flam.
- Steve
