Final Week - Tuesday Morning - Matthew 21:20-46, 22:1-46, 23:1-39; Mark 11:20-33, 12:1-44; Luke 20:1-28, 20:39-47
You can buy a widow's mite pendant today from the Jerusalem Gift Shop for only $27.95...or you can honor her spirit and teaching and give the money to God. Go figure.
What do I think about the power of prayer? Really? When I pray for the sick, do I believe the Lord will heal them? Do I say the age of miracles has passed and then pray for healing? But Jesus says with prayer I can throw the mountain into the sea. [Matthew 21:21-22] My prayers aren't quite so bold. And, perhaps, that is the problem. As He prepares to leave, He arms them with prayer.
When Jesus tells the parable about the murderous tenants [Mark 12:1-9], the chief priests and Pharisees know He is talking about them. Are they amazed by His knowledge of their minds and hearts? No. They only plot the more to do away with Him. When confronted, do we acknowledge or try to silence that which contemns us?
Trap after trap they spring on Christ - the chief priests, the elders, the Pharisees and even the Sadducees. Jesus condemns the religion of elitism, legalism, injustice, hypocrisy and persecution. And aren't these the natural traps that all religions organized and run by man falls into. They try to spring traps on Christ while they have already try fallen into the trap of religious power and stature and establishment. Jesus instead points to the humble, the lowly of title and place, those with little to give -- the widow and her last pennies given. Who are the Pharisees and Chief Priests in our midst and who are the widows offering their mite...or should it be widow's might?
Lord knows.
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