from Dining with Jesus
“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. Luke 11:52-54
What is the key to knowledge referenced here by Jesus? In the book of Proverbs, we read, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Proverbs also says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Basic to both knowledge and wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The Pharisees didn’t fear the Lord; they avoided God by systematizing their rules and then spending all of their time seeking to enforce the rules.
You’ll remember that on the Sabbath Jesus spit on the ground, made mud and put it on a blind man’s eyes. He was accused of breaking the rules. Jesus wasn’t fazed by manmade rules. Jesus worshiped God, obeyed Him and taught His followers to do the same.
“Wait a minute. Jesus is God, right?”
Yes, and as God the Son, Jesus explained, “I only do what the Father tells Me to do. I only say what the Father tells Me to say.” If this is true of Jesus, then it is also true of His followers. Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are supposed to live as He did. In fact, He has come to live His life through us. Our time is no longer ours. Our money and our relationships are no longer ours. Our kids and our grandkids aren’t ours. Everything we are and everything we have belongs to Him. The house is His. The car is His. Everything is His.
Years ago, as I was driving down the road on my way to work, the Lord told me to turn around and pick up a hitchhiker on the other side of the road going in the opposite direction. I assumed that God wanted me to share the gospel with him. But, it turned out he was already committed to Christ. I dropped him off, turned around and headed for work wondering, “Lord, why did you have me taxi that man?” I thought I had other more important things to do with my time.
God reminded me, “You work for me, and if all I want you to do today is drive around and give people rides, you need to do it.” The man had prayed that God would send someone to help him get to work. I needed the reminder that my life belongs to God. He decides what’s important. I was humiliated by my reaction to this task. I was glad I was alone when God rebuked me.
There are lots of ways God could have humbled me. It was very kind of Him to do it the way He did. But the fact is, I needed that rebuke, because it isn’t my car I drive; it’s His car. It’s not my time; it’s His time. It’s not my body; it’s His body. I have to take everything I am and everything I have every day and offer it back to God. It’s all His, because I am His. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
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