Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK
Nov. 30, 2011

Daily Ornament!
A Week of Hope: Day Four
“Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.” – Psalm 13:3

This week is all about “Hope.” We would like to know that what we do has some meaning and purpose, not just for the moment but beyond today. The Gospel reading for today comes from Matthew 21, verses 23-32. It describes an event in Jesus’ life (toward the end of His life) where He is confronted by the religious leaders of His day and is asked, “Show us your credentials! Who authorized you to teach here?” (vs. 23) Yesterday we talked about how for centuries the “Name” of Jesus has been shoved—that people have gone to great lengths to ignore and deny His existence and along with that His “authority.” Perhaps a good reason why many choose not to accept His existence has to do with the fact that they do not want to submit to His authority. That His words are too restrictive and/or confining when the truth of the matter is that His Words and authority truly “Free” us to be the men and women we were meant to be. I like this following story that I came across a few years ago.
There is a story of a man, who skeptical of Christianity, approached and asked a group of monks one day, that if they could one at a time, give him their definition of God. He then wrote down all of their responses and then came back to them and concluded this: “I asked all of you to define for me who God is and all of you gave me a different definition. Since none of you can come to consensus of just who God is I must conclude that He really does not exist.”
One of the monks, the oldest of the order stepped out and said, “Sir, I understand your skepticism and using your logic I must agree that since we cannot truly define who God is then perhaps we do not know Him as well as we thought we did. But I would like to ask you a couple of questions as well if I may.” The man agreed.
The monk then asked the man, “Are you a husband?” “Yes, yes I am.”
“Are you also a father?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a brother, a son, a friend, a neighbor, an employee, a citizen….”
To each of these the man answered, “Yes!”,br /> “It is then my conclusion, that since you say that you are all of these things you cannot adequately define for me who you are and I must then conclude from that you, sir, do not exist!”
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day questioned Jesus because He put their authority into question. They realized (or should have realized) that they were not as in control as they thought they were. The man in the story may have been looking for an aspect of Jesus that he could be more comfortable with only to realize He is more than what he thought He is.
For us to truly “exist” and live is to say, “Jesus is Lord!” And that means He can be whatever He wants to be in our lives and what He needs to be and that gives us the power to live each day!
Pastor J. T. Carnell