Nineteenth Day of Lent

Nineteenth Day of Lent

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures of the power of God.
Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:24

If we don’t read Scripture carefully, we are apt to fail to grasp the message. That is surely the case with this passage.

Jesus has just concluded a long conversation with a group of religious leaders. He is talking to Sadducees, the ones who do not believe in a resurrection. They were always trying to trap him, and they ask him about marriage partners in heaven. He moves the conversation to their real issue, which is resurrection, and tells them that they don’t know their Scripture.

We must remember that only Old Testament Scriptures existed at this time. The New Testament had not even been written, much less brought together in a canon.

But isn’t resurrection a New Testament topic? Jesus tells them they don’t understand resurrection because they don’t know the Old Testament?

Once again, Jesus is trying to get people to understand that what his teaching is “filling full of meaning” – or fulfillment of – the Old Testament teachings.

I could be pretty critical of them if I did not know that I often read the Old Testament with limited understanding that God is really telling me not just history past but history coming! He had a plan. Jesus executed his plan.

Often we too are in error because we do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

Prayer: Father, forgive me when I am unduly critical of those New Testament people who missed your point. Remind me that I, too, often am a careless student when I read. Amen.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator