Seek and Find

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

SEEK AND FIND

Mark 11:27-33

27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 "By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?" 29 Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John's baptism — was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!"  31 They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32 But if we say, 'From men' . . . ." (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.) 33 So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." 

NIV

An interesting discussion even if the chief priest, the teachers of the law and the elders were trying to trap Jesus into making, what they could use to accuse him, a blasphemous response, at least what they would think is a blasphemous response. They surely were hoping he would simply say that he has the authority of God to do all he does and says, but Jesus knew what they were up to and turned the trap right back on them. This certainly shows us a little insight into why some non-believers simply cannot understand the truth within the word of God. If people refuse the nudging of the Holy Spirit toward repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then Jesus simply hides the truth from them. It is no wonder the chief priests did not get the answer they wanted, for they did not believe he was the Son of God, the Messiah, the Anointed one, the prince of peace, the Savior. Jesus would not give them the truth, because they were not looking for the truth. In order to see the truth of God, they truth within the word of God, and the truth about Jesus we must be seeking for it, not trying to find some loophole in it, in order to live as we think we should. So often we approach the truth, pretending to want to know the truth, but only with our preconceived ideas of the truth, or our filters of our own thoughts and desires resulting in not being able to actually discern the real truth. We have to be careful not to be like those priests, those teachers of the law and those elders who only wanted what they had turned the truth into as to benefit their own lives. Jesus was threatening their perverted form of the truth, and they wanted him dead because of that. We have to make sure we do no pervert his truth for our benefit. We have to make sure that we do not use the gospel, the kingdom of God to benefit our lives, but we should use our lives to benefit the gospel, the kingdom of God. If we want the truth we must seek the truth. It is not hide and seek, but seek and find.