Day 280 – Jesus’ Answers to Disciples’ Questions

• There is not a person in this world who doesn’t have questions about Jesus, or the mystery of the Trinity, or of many other areas of the gospel. You will have many, and as you understand more in time, you will come to have different ones to the ones you have now! Questions show that you are searching for answers, rather than accepting a simplistic understanding. That’s good – I encourage in you a thoughtful, understanding faith, not a blind naive one. Today we read answers Jesus gave to His disciples on a number of topics.
• How did the questions from the disciples differ from the questions we’ve seen from the Pharisees so far?
• What does it means when Jesus said to “become like children”? It doesn’t mean to be childish or silly, so what does it mean?
• Jesus used hyperbole (which is intentional overstatement) to illustrate some points. One of these was in Matthew 18:7-9. What hyperbole was used, and what was Jesus’ point? How can we be practical about these verses without being literal?
• The parable of the lost sheep describes a believer (the sheep) who has wandered away from his faith, but is then “found” and comes back. What joy is there when the sheep is returned? Do you know how much joy it gives your parents/youth leaders/Christian friends etc when they see you trusting in Jesus more deeply after a period of difficulty or wandering?
• Matthew 15 onwards shows Jesus’ radical teaching on forgiveness. Forgiveness is wonderful, and freeing, but difficult. Have you ever forgiven someone something when you had every right to “not forgive” them?
• In the parable of the unforgiving servant, we read of two men who both owed money. One owed 10,000 talents – a sum almost impossible to pay back (it’s about $6 billion). The other owed 100 denarii – around $12,000, which is substantial but nothing like the amount the other owed. You will clearly understand the moral point of the story as it’s told by Jesus, but how does it link in with the gospel? Which servant are we like? Could we pay our “debt” for ourselves? Who forgave us our debt? In light of that, how can we use that wonderful news when it comes with dealing with people who “owe” us?

Make sure you have a good understanding of exactly what the parable is telling us about Jesus here – that we have been forgiven much more than we could ever imagine, and that there is no chance for us to pay our debts ourselves. We need Jesus!

Don’t skip over the verses in today’s psalm. They bring us back to the topic of asking questions, and being content with the answers we get… and sometimes the lack of answers we have. It might be a good psalm to use in your prayers if you are ever anxious about things.