Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. - Matthew 22:34-46
"No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions"
Certain questions are dangerous to ask because to bring a point of tension to resolution would mean that we would have to change. Some questions, we suppose, are better left unanswered. If the Messiah were really Yahweh, it would mean that God was really the human standing before them and they should be calling him Lord. Or else he was the most sophisticated Bible heretic that Jerusalem had ever seen. Neither solution seemed good to the Pharisees, so they chose not to choose.
If we spend the time to think about the truth God has given us, it leads to inescapable conclusions. But rather than accept one of them--rather than trusting our life and soul to a conclusion--we choose not to choose-to rather live in mediocre, slow stupidity. Making a choice that might be right or might be wrong and possibly choosing wrong may seem safer, but actually it is guaranteed failure and cowardly. I have been scared enough already. It doesn't work. But if I will choose, I will choose boldly.
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