Matthew 15:14 KJV
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
I was drawn today to think about the Lord's responses to varying peoples throughout this chapter.
One could make the case that Jesus Himself is not an example of people skill because He is God and as God there are certain things He has privilege to that we would not.
• God, for instance, can be jealous righteously. That is not true of any human.
• God can seek vengeance righteously. Again, no man can do that without trespassing into God's property.
On the other hand Jesus is also man and perfect man at that. And who better than from The Perfect Man to learn how to relate to people of different types and approaches?
He handled the question of the Pharisees and scribes with a question.
The subject of His question appears unrelated with the exception that it addresses the tradition issue. But His illustration of their tradition was far from the subject of washing hands. Still Jesus concluded by coming back to hand washing so he had never left topic, just didn't let them control how he would handle the topic.
When they were offended at His answer, he walked away from it instructing his disciples to "Let them alone." It is not, I am sure, that he did not care, but that He did not linger on it. He did not allow their rejection to dominate Him.
In the case of the woman, Jesus appeared to ignore her at first, even implying she was what the Jews said she was, a dog.
Scofield's Notes suggest that when she attempted to approach Him as Jew, He ignored but when she addressed Him as Lord his response was immediate.
The church believer is not to try to cling to Jewish tradition but to confess Him as Lord of this new thing, the church.
With the multitude, Jesus had compassion and would not send them away fasting.
Thus crowd would have certainly consisted of believers, seekers and unbelievers but He fed them all just the same.
The Christian ought to have compassion for everyone, believer, seeker and even the confrontationalist alike.
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
I was drawn today to think about the Lord's responses to varying peoples throughout this chapter.
One could make the case that Jesus Himself is not an example of people skill because He is God and as God there are certain things He has privilege to that we would not.
• God, for instance, can be jealous righteously. That is not true of any human.
• God can seek vengeance righteously. Again, no man can do that without trespassing into God's property.
On the other hand Jesus is also man and perfect man at that. And who better than from The Perfect Man to learn how to relate to people of different types and approaches?
He handled the question of the Pharisees and scribes with a question.
The subject of His question appears unrelated with the exception that it addresses the tradition issue. But His illustration of their tradition was far from the subject of washing hands. Still Jesus concluded by coming back to hand washing so he had never left topic, just didn't let them control how he would handle the topic.
When they were offended at His answer, he walked away from it instructing his disciples to "Let them alone." It is not, I am sure, that he did not care, but that He did not linger on it. He did not allow their rejection to dominate Him.
In the case of the woman, Jesus appeared to ignore her at first, even implying she was what the Jews said she was, a dog.
Scofield's Notes suggest that when she attempted to approach Him as Jew, He ignored but when she addressed Him as Lord his response was immediate.
The church believer is not to try to cling to Jewish tradition but to confess Him as Lord of this new thing, the church.
With the multitude, Jesus had compassion and would not send them away fasting.
Thus crowd would have certainly consisted of believers, seekers and unbelievers but He fed them all just the same.
The Christian ought to have compassion for everyone, believer, seeker and even the confrontationalist alike.
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