JESUS THE LOGICIAN

 

 

 Jesus was the master logician. The learned rabbis continued to unsuccessfully try trap Him in an inconsistency or a breach of the law. For example, they asked Him if it is lawful to pay taxes to the hated Caesar. If He answered affirmatively, the Israelites would hate Him. If Jesus answered against paying taxes, the rabbis would report Him to Pilate for preaching insurrection. Instead, Jesus cleverly answered:

·       Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. (Matthew 22:19–22)

 

He gave them nothing by which they could charge Him. They also tried to find fault with Jesus for healing on the Sabbath:

 

·       Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."  The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"  When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated… (Luke 13:14-17)

 

Hypocritical? Yes! The leaders had criticized Jesus for working on the Sabbath, but they too worked on the Sabbath to water their animals. Besides, the woman was worth far more in God’s sight than the animals! By telling her to return on another day had shown their lack of compassion, especially since they hadn’t made any arrangements for Jesus to return to heal.

 

However, Jesus had humiliated the rulers. Where was His love for them? Sometimes, strong words, producing humiliation, are the very implements necessary to penetrate our hardened ground to receive His seeds.

 

No one was ever able to outdo the logic and the Scriptural understanding of the “unlearned” Jesus. No years of study had equipped them to deal effectively with such a Man! At their best, the learned were only able to accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil, a claim easily dismissed by Jesus’ willing death on the Cross.

 

Jesus’ parables, although not heart-warming, were pearls of wisdom to reveal the hard truths about ourselves. In the Parable of the Ten Minas, a nobleman gave each of his servants 1 mina to invest. Then he departed to receive his kingdom. After a long period of time, he returned. Even though his servants hated him, the first two had invested their mina, earned a sizable return, and were rewarded by the master:

 

·       "Then another servant came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.'  "His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?'  (Luke 19:20-23)

 

This servant claimed that he was fearful of his harsh master. Therefore, he merely buried his mina to return it to the master upon his return. However, the master, representing the Lord, called him a “wicked servant.” Had the master failed to show understanding for his fearful servant? Not at all! Instead, he uncovered the fact that this servant had been lying. If he had truly been fearful, the servant would have been obedient and invested the mina to earn interest. Therefore, the master ordered that his mina be taken away from the lying servant, who could not be trusted, and given to those who had invested obediently.

 

Do Jesus’ parables represent supreme wisdom? You might argue that wisdom is in the eye of the beholder, and there is much truth in that. We usually measure wisdom according to the degree that it conforms to what we already regard as wisdom—a highly subjective measure.

 

For this reason, I hadn’t regarded His parables as wise but as troubling. Jesus concluded one parable about the nature of faith in a humanly degrading manner:

·       “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:10)

 

“Unworthy servants?” Instead, don’t we need to believe in our worthiness to feel good about ourselves? I was sure that Jesus must have been mistaken! However, years later, I began to see the surpassing wisdom of entrusting all our needs, especially our psychological needs, to Jesus as we bask in the truth and peace of humility and the abundance of His superior provisions.