This week in the gospel of Matthew (ch. 22) I read a story of Jesus being asked questions by the pharisees. For the last few chapters they have been seeking to trap Jesus in his words so that they might find a way to take “legal action” and shut him up for good. Finally when we get to the end of chapter 22 Jesus asks THEM a question about whose child the messiah is. After a short discussion about David it says that none of them could “give him a good answer and from that time on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
The way I read this, it sure sounds as if Jesus was just tired of this game, weary of their attempts at “dialogue”, pretending to be genuinely interested in conversing w/ Jesus, when really all they wanted was to get their way.
Just before this part of the gospel Jesus tells them that loving God w/ all your heart, soul & mind AND loving your neighbor as yourself are at the heart of everything that God has been up to in seeking to cultivate a people who would be God’s people. Everything God has said or done or commanded hangs on these two things: Love God, love people.
Perhaps this is why Jesus kills the conversation at this point. When love of God and love for others is not holding the center, not motivating our prayers and conversations that Jesus wants to drop a one liner that shuts us up and move on.
How often are my prayers and conversations w/ Jesus aimed at getting my own way — of trying to get Jesus to say what I want him to say instead of being genuinely interested in what Jesus would say to me and how he would want to direct me to be a better lover of God and those around me.
Does it trouble you to think that Jesus would respond this way to religious folks like you and me expecting that our conversation would be constrained by the gospel rather than our desire to get our own way?
