Let's Be Reasonable

However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.” [Matthew 17.27]

How ridiculous is this? Let's just be reasonable, right?

The problem is, if we call this passage "unreasonable," then we are forced to call nearly everything Jesus said and did "unreasonable" because this verse is totally consistent with every encouragement of Jesus about doing God's will first and trusting God to take care of all the "stuff."

Jesus consistently scolded His disciples for their lack of faith that, on more than one occasion, amounted to their worry about food - sustenance.

Every fiber of human reasoning wants to refute Jesus' obvious and repeated instructions to "forsake all and follow Him" and instead rest on one sentence spoken by the apostle Paul: 

Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.” [2 Thessalonians 3.10]

I want to challenge us all to deeply consider the contrast between Jesus' calls to "forsake all" and Paul's statement above. To be sure, the apostle Paul was not setting himself against Jesus! I want to point out that Paul did NOT make his mantra out to be a command of Christ but instead said clearly "WE gave you this command..."

I mean, what would have stopped anyone working with Paul from saying, "I'll just run down to the lake, catch a fish, and there will be money in its mouth!"? AND, before we might argue that "Jesus" only told Peter to do that, we must remember that Jesus didn't really tell "us" to do anything - we simply do what He told His disciples!

The fact that this even becomes an argument should raise all manner of "red flags" for us. Human reasoning never impressed Jesus (or God). In fact, Paul himself is the very one who penned these words:

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. [2 Corinthians 10.3-4 (underline mine)]

Question: What did reason have to do with any of the miracles Jesus did? Why would Jesus use those miraculous moments to make such an argument for faith among His men and not for reason?

If there is difficulty understanding how what Jesus said in contrast to what Paul said, do we dare lean toward Paul's instruction and therefore away from Jesus' clear commands? I think we would all fare better to "toe the mark" with Jesus and satisfy ourselves to "keep trying to figure out" what Paul meant in light of what Jesus said (and not the other way around)!

How often have the words, "let's be reasonable" caused us to miss miracles in our lives or the lives of those around us?

Consider this, it wasn't reason that the writer of Hebrews attributed to pleasing God...

And it is impossible to please God without faith. [Hebrews 11.6a]

Father, help us not strive for reason, but strive for the obedience of faith.