March 4: The Cop Out

Numbers 2:1-3:51

Mark 11:27-12:17

Psalm 47:1-9

Proverbs 10:24-25

Great reading in the NT today, about the Jesus and an interaction with the elders more confrontational than usual.  

Can you say "cop out"?  Because that's what the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders did when Jesus responded in kind to their confrontational approach.  They demanded to know the source of His authority, not because they were interested in discerning whether He was who He said He was, but because they wanted to demonstrate the illegitimacy of His teaching.  They weren't interested in discussion because they weren't interested in considering the possibility they were wrong.  And so, when Jesus responded with a question of His own, one that put them in an untenable position, they copped out.  

As sinners, we do that a lot.  God speaks to us - through scripture, through others, through our consciences, and often when confronted with the truth of our intentions and our actions, we rationalize them, even worse sometimes we dodge the challenge entirely, knowing we are in the wrong.  Like the elders and the chief priests, whose cop out left them wallowing in ignorance, our cop outs leave us wallowing in our own sin.  

Now some might say, so what?  Well, the second part of the NT reading very clearly shows that sin has consequences, consequences both unnecessary and terrible to contemplate.  

Father teach us the humility we need to be open to the possibility we are wrong, we are sinful; give us the humility we need to hear what You tell us, that we might no longer wallow in our sinfulness.