From Matthew 22:41-46 / Spiritual Misdirection

Slight of hand magicians – prestidigitators – rely on misdirection. If they can get your eye fixed in one place, you won’t notice what’s going on in the other place. Satan relies on the same technique.

In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, Older demon Screwtape writes to his younger nephew on the finer points of moving the spiritually minded away from God. He closes letter 12 with this: “You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Lewis, C. S.. The Screwtape Letters: Annotated Edition (pp. 60-62). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

And this reality is true regarding sins, or anything else which can edge one away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Even theology if need be. For so it was with the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the rest who kept putting questions to Jesus which all avoided asking and answering the most eternally important questions of all: Those concerning the person and work of Christ.

And so it is, when Jesus’ detractors have spent themselves questioning Him – He now questions them. And the issue: Who is the Christ? Who is God’s Messiah? And what are the implications of answering those questions? Indeed, Jesus has already visited this issue with His own disciples back in Matt. 16. And as we saw then – This, and this alone is the foundation of the Church: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Apart from this we have nothing but man made religion. Everything hangs upon and is founded upon this revelation. And any who have not had it revealed to them, are not of or in The Church. Indeed, this is THE question everyone must answer for themselves. And make no mistake, the mere truth of the data is not salvific alone. The Devil and all the demons know who Jesus really is. The question is, having received the light of who He is, have you been reconciled to God through Him?

So Jesus re-directs their attention to the Scriptures, and getting them to focus on dealing with this most critical issue – and especially in terms of how it applies to Him.

More important then Sabbath rules. More important than divorce and remarriage. More important than paying or not paying taxes to pagan governments. More important than anything else in the universe is answering who is Jesus? And then sorting out the implications of His being the Messiah, the eternal Son of God in human flesh. If that is who He is – what does this mean for you and me regarding what He said and taught, and what He did by dying for sins and rising from the dead? And what does that mean when He says He will return to judge the living and the dead?

Reader – what does all this mean to you? Think about it. Contemplate it deeply. It cannot be brushed off while you concentrate on your family, career or world events. What are you doing with Jesus? Whose son is He? How is it that David can call Him Lord when He is also His son? If this is the revelation of the incarnation – then the whole of cosmic and truth and reality – and the nature of our relationship with God places its full weight on this question.

So Reader – who is Christ? And how are you responding to that reality? Let nothing else ca[pture you until this is answered in full.