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In this week’s teaching with Jonathan Merritt, we explore some of the subversive speech and action of Jesus and how these tactics are at work in our own relationship with God today.

One of the best ways to respond to a difficult question is with a better one. This is one of those instances where Jesus performs one of his signature Jedi mind tricks – a classic bait and switch. Jesus is responding to an insincere question from some of his enemies who are only trying to trap and condemn him.

But Jesus is not just reversing the dialogue back on his critics in order to simply expose and embarrass them, he is artfully changing the conversation. Jesus always takes what we offer on the surface, our good and bad intentions alike, and draws out and reveals our deepest desires and hiddenness. He takes our small ideas and points to the Big Idea behind it… One might call this subversive…

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Just like the many who welcomed Jesus as King, so we welcome Jesus into our world, often forgetting he wants to welcome us into his. When will we give up on our way of doing things and remember, we cling to the hope that it has all been done!

“Behold, I make all things new …” This is the promise that we cling to, uttered from the mouth of God. The question is will our life be found in Jesus? You see there are two realities we can cling to. The reality of God – that is happening right here and right now. One that transcends being proven and can only be trusted. Or we can default to the reality we can create.

And honestly, when we look at our world we have to ask, how well has humanity done in creating our reality? Our new world? This was what was at stake during the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Some wanted Jesus to be this or that – they made him in their image to suit their vision of the world. They trusted in themselves. Yet Jesus came to invite others to trust in the world he has created and sustained.

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Jesus goes wild in the temple. But given its sheer size, this was likely nothing more than a small skirmish off the side of the larger area. One that many barely noticed. And when he was done with his outburst, those buying and selling and exchanging money likely righted their booths and tables and kept on doing their thing.

What can get lost in all of this is the only words Jesus spoke, but they were not his words. They were the words of the prophet Jeremiah. In a tactic often employed by rabbis, Jesus quotes part of a verse as a reference to the larger context. Here, he quotes from Jeremiah 7 which is a full scale condemnation of those who practice evil, and still claim to worship God. It seems this is the one thing Jesus cannot tolerate is hypocrisy. Of course, we all do it, it’s just whether we are willing to admit it.

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No one knows the future. We pretend as though we do: we make plans, schedule things in the distant future and spend time before we are ever granted it. This may be because the greatest terror for humans is not having a future. Perhaps this is why Jesus told his followers not to worry about the times and dates that God has set in place for us. This has the power to lead us to the place of nihilism, if we stop to consider we really don’t know. Does it even matter?

Of course, it matters. While Jesus was short on specifics, there is a picture of restoration that we are invited to consider. That though the temple was torn down, it will be rebuilt in three days. Even when we cannot go back, even when everything is ending … just wait that means something new is happening. Something that will outlive us. A future that is pulling us forward.

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Something has ended … a plan, a strategy, a road map, a story, but what has been birthed is not yet clear. This is liminal space. It is the moment when we have not fully crossed the threshold into the new world, but stand over it with one foot in the world that has ended and the other foot in the world that is to come. Perhaps the best we can do is look back as a way of looking at the present and as a way of looking forward. In this, we just might find how to occupy this middle place in a healthy way and remain open to whatever may come.

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Anytime the end of something arrives there is a sense that’s things are over as we knew them. And while they may be true, the end of something also signals something new is on the horizon. Which is to say, anytime we face an ending or the end of something, that means it’s the first step toward something new being born.

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Jesus tells a parable about a master giving money to his servants. Too often we approach this from our modern, capitalistic, Western viewpoint. But the hint that this is not about money is found on the lips of the master when he returns … he praises his servants for being “faithful” not successful. These are two wildly different things and it would do us well to pay attention to this for a moment.

To invest the master’s money while he is gone seeking to become king is a vote of confidence the master will return as king. To bury the money until the master returns reflects a belief the master may not return as king, and it’s best to wait it out and see what happens. The difference between the faithful and wicked servants is their belief and trust in the king.

Which raises a question for the hearer of this story … “How are we using the gifts given to us?” Do our lives and the time we spend reflect our confidence in our king?

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