Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 19.
“Why do you ask?”
That’s the question a preacher friend of mine asks when someone seems to be asking a Gotcha Question — a question designed not really to get at sincere truth but only to make somebody look bad or get them in trouble.
Make no mistake, the question in the Lesson this morning is a Gotcha Question. It’s not intended to get at the truth about marriage and divorce; it’s meant to entrap Jesus. That’s why they ask. They ask because they know in answering he’ll either have to side with the Law of Moses and therefore be publicly opposed to Herod, who married his wife Herodias after she divorced her husband Philip, Herod’s brother.
So which one is it, Jesus, the Law or King? It was a question the Pharisees designed to frame him — just like their question about paying taxes to Caesar. They didn’t care what his answer was. They didn’t want truth or instruction or a way forward. They wanted ammunition.
There’s much to be said about marriage and divorce and Caesar — and a whole lot that can be said about all three together.
But why do you ask?
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