areliablefaith

Areliablefaith Devotional | Matthew 22 and Mark 12

The Teacher Who Asked Questions

Two things stand out to me about the way Jesus taught. The first is his consistent use of parables. If you took the time to sit with them, you began to see that he was describing a kingdom radically different from anything the scribes and Pharisees taught. It was just as different from the way the civil and military leaders of his day saw the world.

The second is his questions. Jesus frequently answered a question with a question, and by one common count he asked nearly twice as many as he was asked. His goal was to get people to think deeply, to ponder, and even to ask for help.

I believe asking for help in prayer is the starting place for so much discovery. When we stop running on “this is what I’ve always done, this is what I’ve always believed” and bring our questions to God, we’re liable to receive fresh insight that leads to greater understanding. James gives us this promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5).

The King’s Wedding Feast

Matthew 22 opens with a king throwing a wedding feast for his son. With the whole of Scripture in front of us, and with Paul’s description of the church as the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25–27), we can fill in many of the details. Those first invited point to Israel, and in that moment especially to the religious leaders standing in front of Jesus. They refused to come.

So the king sent his servants to the main roads to bring in everyone they could find, “both bad and good,” until “the wedding hall was filled with guests” (Matthew 22:10). Two thousand years later, the kingdom of God is still filling that hall from every corner of the earth.

Then comes the twist. The king finds a man without a wedding garment and asks, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12). Even in the parable, the King asks a question, and the man has no answer.

I see in him the person who comes into church and enjoys the party but has never accepted the free gift the Master offers. Many scholars see the garment as the righteousness that only Christ can give. We surrender our own clothes and receive his. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Isaiah sang about that same exchange: “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

A Week of Failed Traps

Between that parable and the end of Mark 12 is a long back-and-forth between Jesus and the religious leaders. This is his final week in Jerusalem. It’s Passover, and the city is churning with crowds, many probably staying out in the surrounding countryside. The leaders gather around the temple, where Jesus is teaching, and they keep coming to him with questions designed to disprove him as the supposed Messiah.

They keep failing. Each attempt does the opposite of what they intended, revealing a man with a deep understanding of Scripture who flips their traps on their heads.

Two Small Coins

Then Jesus sits down across from the treasury and watches people give. Rich people put in large sums. A poor widow comes along and drops in two small copper coins, worth about a penny.

Jesus calls his disciples over and says she has put in more than all the others: “For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44).

Only moments earlier, Jesus had warned about scribes who “devour widows’ houses” (Mark 12:40). Now he holds up a widow as the example worth noticing. Earlier in the same chapter, he said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). He had just described that kind of “all,” and here it comes walking up to the offering box in worn clothes.

Her faith moved her to trust God, release what was in her hands, and live believing that somehow, some way, he would provide. Mark doesn’t tell us what happened after she walked away, but I trust the God she trusted.

Seated at the King’s Table

Somehow, I see a connection between the first story and the last. I can see this woman with the wedding garment on. As she drops in her coins, she is dirty, bowed down, and dressed in worn clothes. But I can also see her with a seat of honor in the King’s presence, beaming.

What God has for her is a great, great reward. He loves her heart. He loves her faith. James asks, “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?” (James 2:5).

The man in the parable sat at the feast and didn’t belong. The widow walked past the people who seemed to belong, and Jesus noticed her. She was overlooked and destitute in this world, but rich in faith and rewarded by the God she loves.

A question to ponder: What are you still holding in your hands that God may be asking you to release, and what would it look like to ask him for help today?

Be blessed today and be a blessing. In Jesus’ name.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.