Ready to Receive

This week, I'm reading in the Gospel of Luke chapters 17 to 20, and I'd invite you to read along with me.

Reading through these chapters yesterday, there was so much that jumped out at me that I didn't know where to dig in! Eventually, though I settled on the first eight verses of chapter 20. It is a curious exchange with Jesus. I say "curious" because we see a case where Jesus refuses to answer a question - a very straightforward question that had a very straightforward answer, and yet Jesus refused to answer it.

A little while after reading this passage, it occurred to me that God has refused to answer some of my questions. And then I wondered if Luke 20:1 - 8 might give me some insight into why that was. After all, I thought, some of my questions were pretty straightforward and relatively simple. Why did no answer come?

In Luke 20, Jesus meets the question about his authority (verse 2) with a question for his questioners (verse 4). Jesus wants to know about John the Baptizer - was his baptism from heaven or from men? In other words, who authorized John?

We then get to see the chief priests, scribes, and elders reason among themselves. Like their own question to Jesus, this question is straightforward with a simple answer. But they worry over it. They look at it from all of its angles. "If we say. . . then he will say. . ."

And so we receive a profound insight into the minds and hearts of these men. They are not interested in the truth. They have a preconceived outcome for this encounter. They are willing to play loosely with the facts as long as their answers produce the outcome they desire.

Jesus' question reveals this about them. His question to them lays bare their hearts. They will say "I don't know" to a question that the rest of the population had already answered (verse 6), and in their unwillingness to commit to the truth and their further unwillingness to submit to the revealed will of God, they will reveal their own selfishness.

Jesus refuses to answer their question because they have already proved that they will not respond with either faith or obedience.

And I have to wonder if the times God has refused to answer my questions was it because he already knew that in my heart I would not respond with faith? Perhaps my mind was already made up. Perhaps my intentions were already fixed. Perhaps I was asking more out of curiosity than out of any real desire to be more faithful in my service.

God is not interested in answering our curiosity. Nor does God waste his time giving more information or counsel to those whose hearts are hardened. If we would know the will and way of God, we must come in humility and with every intention of honoring his authority rather than seeking to judge him and his ways. We've got to be ready to receive direction!

As you come to God today, are you ready to receive - or are you more interested in telling God how he should conduct himself? The position of our heart before him will make an enormous difference!