Jesus Isn’t Explicit Enough;
Why Doesn’t He Speak
Plainly?
Published on Facebook, June 7, 2010
By Bud Powell
They thought they had Him. He had just cleansed the
temple, driving out the animals and turning over the tables and pouring out the
money.
In whose heart there is no
guile.
"By
what authority do you do these things?" They said. It was a loaded
question. It was [and still is] a very serious thing to set yourself up as a
teacher of religion on your own self-appointed authority. The law had said,
"But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I
have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods,
even that prophet shall die." --Deut. 18:20
Jesus did not answer them directly for He knew what was in their hearts.
"John the Baptist? Was his baptism from heaven, or from men?"
They had to talk about it. "If we say it was heaven," they said to
each other, "He will ask why we did not hear him." Everyone knew that
John's birth was announced in the temple when an angel told his father that
John would go before the Lord in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the people for
the Lord. John had pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away the
sins of the world and had baptized Jesus. So they couldn't admit that John's
baptism was from heaven.
On the other hand they were in a fix. "If we say it was of men," they
said, "then the people will think that we think John was a wicked man, a
self-appointed preacher worthy of death. They will stone us. We cannot say THAT
either."
So they showed themselves as dishonest men by claiming ignorance. "We
cannot tell," they said.
"Then I will not tell you by what authority I do these things," said
our Lord, the wisdom of God.
People very often lie and conceal what they know to be true. "You haven't
convinced me," they say, even though their arguments are in shambles. They
have too much to lose by being convinced, so their feign ignorance. Happens all
the time. Yeas later they may 'fess up, when the price for telling the truth is
not so great.
"dissemble" is a great word. It means to pretend that you don't know
what you know. "put on false appearance: to put on a false appearance in
order to conceal facts, feelings, or intentions."
No doubt they went away and said, "Too bad Jesus didn't explain it well
enough."
