Rumination Journal

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts and the scribes and Pharisees were assembled there, Jesus asked the Pharisees this question: “What do you think about the Christ (Messiah)? Whose son is He?” “David’s,” the scribes and Pharisees answered.  Jesus said to them, “How can you say that the Christ (Messiah) is the Son of David? For David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared in the book of the Psalms: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’ Thus David himself calls the Christ (Messiah) ‘Lord.’ So, how can He be David’s son?”  The large crowd listened to Jesus with delight. And no one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Jesus any further. See Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Psalm 110:1

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came and gathered around Jesus where He was teaching in the temple courts. They may have been trying to publicly discredit His teachings. Because one of the Pharisees, who was a scribe and an expert in the law, asked this question: “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. And no other commandment is greater than these.” “Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him, and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is mo

That same day, some of the Sadducees came to Jesus. Now, like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were a Jewish sect and were represented in the Sanhedrin—the Jewish council. The Sadducees acknowledged the divine authority of the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Old Testament—but they did not acknowledge the rest of Scripture. And unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees rejected supernatural doctrines, such as the belief in the existence of angels, the belief in the existence of spirits, and the belief in the resurrection. So, it is interesting that the Sadducees planned to trap Jesus using a question about the resurrection. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies and leaves a wife without children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now, there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died without having children. So, the second brother married the widow, but he also died with no children. The third brother did likewise. This continu

Earlier, Jesus had been confronted in the temple courts by the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people the elders being the Sanhedrin; the Jewish council). That confrontation went much better for Jesus than for them. And they had departed after Jesus told them the parable of the tenants. The Pharisees continued to watch Jesus closely and they conspired to trap Jesus in His words so they could hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor. To do the trapping, the Pharisees sent their disciples, and they also sent the Herodians. The two groups pretended to be sincere while they spied on Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one because You pay no attention to external appearance. So, tell us what You think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But Jesus saw through their duplicity and hypocrisy. He knew their evil intent. Jesus said, “You hypocrite

Jesus and His disciples were in Jerusalem in the temple courts, and Jesus was teaching the people. Jesus had been speaking with the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people (the elders being the Sanhedrin; the Jewish council). And they had departed after Jesus told them the parable of the tenants. Jesus then told the people another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The king sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come. “Again, the king sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But those who were invited paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. “The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers

Jesus and His disciples were in Jerusalem in the temple courts, and Jesus was teaching the people. Jesus was still speaking with the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people (the elders being the Sanhedrin; the Jewish council). And Jesus had just told them the parable of the two sons. Jesus told them another parable and the details may have reminded the listeners of a similar story spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Jesus said, “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, he dug a winepress and vat, and he built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. And he was gone for a long time. “When harvest time drew near, the landowner sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. “So, the landowner sent another servant, but the tenants struck him over his head, beat him, treated

Jesus and His disciples were in Jerusalem in the temple courts, and Jesus was teaching the people. Jesus was still speaking with the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people (the elders being the Sanhedrin; the Jewish council). And Jesus had just refused to tell the Jewish leaders by what authority He did the things that He did. “But what do you think of this?” Jesus asked. He then told them a parable. “There was a man that had two sons. The man also had a vineyard. And he went to the first son and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “The first son replied, ‘I will not.’ But later he changed his mind and went to the vineyard. “Then the man went to the second son and told him the same thing: ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “The second son said, ‘I will, sir.’ But he did not go.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which of the two sons did the will of his father?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitu