City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Luke 20:1–8

Reflection

In the 2012 movie, Flight, Denzel Washington plays Whip Whitaker, a commercial pilot who, after a mechanical problem with the plane forces the plane into a dive, flips the plane over and flies it inverted before landing it in a field.

In a harrowing 7-minute scene I don’t recommend anyone watch who ever plans on flying again, Whitaker attempts to control the plane after the vertical stabilizer fails. As he does, he is in command, rapidly issuing orders, brilliant and resourceful, cool as only Denzel can portray cool, and . . . . he is drunk.

As a pilot, Whitaker is cool, disciplined and under control when all and everyone around him is out of control. Yet his personal life is an undisciplined, perpetual plane crash. Such characters fascinate us because they stand out from the herd. We call such characters “complicated.” 

The human condition presents us personality in what psychologists call “trait clusters.” Confidence with arrogance, humility with insecurity, and goodness with naiveté, are some examples. We are so used to seeing such clusters that when we notice someone who breaks the mold our interest is piqued.

In the scripture above, religious leaders are putting Jesus on the horns of a dilemma with a question intended to discredit him in front of the people he is trying to reach. If Jesus says His authority comes from God the religious leaders will accuse Him of blasphemy; if He says it comes from man, they will deny they gave Him any such authority.

Rather than take the bait, Jesus, turns their trick against them, and answers with a question that places them on the horns of a dilemma. If the religious leaders acknowledge John’s baptism was from God, they have to acknowledge Jesus’ authority because John identified Jesus as the One who was to come. If they deny John’s baptism as being from God, the people would turn on them because the people believed John was sent from God. 

The religious leaders refuse to answer. Jesus beat them at their own game. They assumed, as they would when they asked Jesus later about paying taxes to Caesar, that because Jesus was honest He would answer any question they presented to Him. They assumed because Jesus was honest that He was also naive, a common trait cluster.

Instead, when asked about His authority, Jesus responded with a question. When later asked about paying taxes to Caesar, Jesus refused to give them the sound bite needed to indict Him. Jesus was nobody’s fool.

This is part of what makes Jesus so fascinating. He is good, but He is savvy; He is honest, but He is not naive. These are not typical trait clusters. They are not the only trait clusters that makes Jesus complicated. Jesus is also confident yet humble, humble but not insecure, always right but always loving.

Application

At this point, it’s easy to say, “Well, Jesus was God, and God is all those things.”  But the Bible says we are supposed to transformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

What makes Jesus “complicated” is what makes Jesus holy. Jesus is only complicated to us because we’ve been conditioned to see what is corrupt as normal.

As Christians, we are all called to be “complicated”; complicated to the world because we are called to be like Jesus: confident yet humble, honest yet savvy, and righteous yet loving; complicated to a world that is only used to the common.

Prayer

Lord help me become conformed to Your image. Amen.