The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus
Tissot, James, 1836-1902. The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59094 [retrieved November 5, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Pharisees_and_the_Saduccees_Come_to_Tempt_Jesus_(Les_pharisiens_et_les_saduc%C3%A9ens_viennent_pour_tenter_J%C3%A9sus)_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg.
Spiritual Practices: Prayer
Father, thank you for the promise of reunification with those we’ve loved and have been separated from through death. Thank you for fulfilling your promise to us of eternity and restoration. Thank you, for when questions seem difficult or critical, you answer them with knowledge and authority. Thank you for your steadfast love and these examples in scripture on how to answer others. May we grow deeper in knowledge of your word. Amen.
Amanda Cunningham
Father, thank you for the promise of reunification with those we’ve loved and have been separated from through death. Thank you for fulfilling your promise to us of eternity and restoration. Thank you, for when questions seem difficult or critical, you answer them with knowledge and authority. Thank you for your steadfast love and these examples in scripture on how to answer others. May we grow deeper in knowledge of your word. Amen.
Amanda Cunningham
Spiritual Practices: Questions for personal reflection
When the Sadducees come to question Jesus, they have an ulterior motive. They ask a question about the resurrection, which they don’t believe in, not because they want an answer, but because they want to trip Jesus up. They don’t want to learn. They don’t want to explore. They don’t want to know Jesus more. They want to be vindicated.
Sometimes the reason we ask questions is more revealing that the questions themselves. Sometimes we ask God a question because we want to be vindicated or proven right. Sometimes we ask a question because we want to prove that God is wrong, or that God doesn’t exist. None of these motivations is particularly helpful. When we ask questions because we want to explore Jesus more, we want to grow deeper with him, that is when out questions begin to be productive.
If you had the opportunity to ask Jesus a question, what would it be and why would you ask it?
David W. Dalton
When the Sadducees come to question Jesus, they have an ulterior motive. They ask a question about the resurrection, which they don’t believe in, not because they want an answer, but because they want to trip Jesus up. They don’t want to learn. They don’t want to explore. They don’t want to know Jesus more. They want to be vindicated.
Sometimes the reason we ask questions is more revealing that the questions themselves. Sometimes we ask God a question because we want to be vindicated or proven right. Sometimes we ask a question because we want to prove that God is wrong, or that God doesn’t exist. None of these motivations is particularly helpful. When we ask questions because we want to explore Jesus more, we want to grow deeper with him, that is when out questions begin to be productive.
If you had the opportunity to ask Jesus a question, what would it be and why would you ask it?
David W. Dalton