Jesus and His Teaching Moments
JESUS and HIS
Teaching Moments
Tuesday Morning (Mt. 21:20–22; Mk. 11:20–26)
Jesus and His disciples were on their way into Jerusalem on Tuesday morning. They passed by the fig tree He had cursed the day before, which had “withered from the root.” Peter comments on it, and Jesus used this as an opportunity to teach His followers about the three staples of the Christian faith: prayer, faith, and forgiveness. “His point was that God does great things in response to the prayers of his people. Speaking hyperbolically to emphasize his point, Jesus told them that when God’s people pray, he can move mountains in response (Matt 21:21; Mark 11:23–24). When God’s people pray, however, they must not harbor bitterness toward others. Bitterness and unforgiveness are detrimental to prayer. Faith is demonstrated in both praying to God and forgiving others (Mark 11:25).” (1)
Scripture interprets Scripture. The passage in Matthew 9 solidifies this concept and helps us understand the importance of prayer and faith.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38, ESV)
It is likely that you are already familiar with this passage. We'll be delving deeper into one verse in particular. In the English translation, it appears that Jesus is instructing us to pray for God to send out the laborers for the harvest. This is not a bad translation, but it falls flat in comparison to the literal translation. The Greek word ὅπως is translated “to” as in “so send out...” ὅπως is a conjunction made up of two words that means “which is how.” The verse should read, Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, which is how He will send out laborers into His harvest.”
This idea complements the passage in Mark 11, which shows God responds in a mighty way when His people pray. It is important to note that God does not need us to pray to accomplish what He wants, but rather He invites us to be a part of His ministry for His glory.
At the Temple Teaching (Mt. 21:23–23:29; Mk. 11:27–12:44; Lk. 20:1–21:4),
Jesus entered the temple that Tuesday and began teaching. The Chief Priest and Elders came with five questions.
By what authority are you doing these things? (Mt. 21:23)
What is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” (Mt. 22:17)
“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” (Mt. 22:24-28)
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Mt. 22:36)
Son of David? (Mt. 22:42b)
These questions were designed to get Jesus in trouble, but He was able to answer them in a way that demonstrated His depth of knowledge, particularly concerning the Scriptures. Take the second inquiry as an example.
Matthew 21:15-22:
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Jesus’ answer is brilliant. The question they were asking regarding paying taxes was referencing what was called the poll tax. “This tax was to be paid by all adults living in Judea under Roman rule. As a Galilean, Jesus was not responsible for paying the tax. The amount of the annual tax was one denarius, which was equal to one day’s wage for a common laborer. This tax was a very volatile issue in Judea, and Jesus was fully aware of their duplicity.” (6) They thought they had Jesus trapped between a rock and a hard place. If he said yes, the crowds would be upset, and if he said no, he would put himself in opposition to the Roman government. Jesus chose His words with great care. He responds to the inquiry with another query: "Whose image is this?" The denarius showed the image of Emperor Tiberius. So, they answered, Ceasar. Jesus said, Give to Ceasar what is his and to God what is His. [paraphrased] Jesus was saying so much in this statement. As stated before, Scripture complements and interprets Scripture.
Genesis 1:26-27 says, “
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them."
Humans belong to God if it is the presence of an image that establishes ownership.
What does this mean for us?
As stated earlier, Jesus does not need us to accomplish what He wants; however, He desires for us to share in His ministry. We must pray often and remember that not only do we belong to Him, but we are His ambassadors and representatives. We MUST take this responsibility seriously and represent Him well.
References Cited
(2) Köstenberger, Andreas J., Justin Taylor, and Alexander Stewart. 2014. The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived. Crossway. https://www.christianbook.com/final-jesus-important-person-ever-lived/andreas-kostenberger/9781433535109/pd/535109.
(3) Cook, 2022.
(4) Thayer, Joseph H. The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.
(5) Cook, 2022.
(6) Ibid.
