Daily Devotional for Monday, April 27

Jesus’ Authority Is Questioned

“And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing, and answer me: The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?” Luke 20:3, 4.

When I was only five-years of age my dad started teaching me how to play Chess. My dad knew that I was already very competitive and hated to lose. Many times, my dad called “checkmate” signaling that there was no move that could be made to save my king and the game was over. I hated to admit to having lost and would stare at the chessboard for a long time trying to figure a way out. It did not help that there had been many times when my dad had called checkmate wrongly, and I did find a way out. I still remember how much I disliked acknowledging that I had been defeated.

This question that Jesus asked the chief priests, scribes and elders was a checkmate. They were defeated by their unbelief in the message of John the Baptist and their fear of the people. Jesus, on the other hand, had answered this question about where His authority came from many times. He had answered it previously when cleansing the Temple, and after this encounter by the parables He was teaching daily. Just like the Pharisees, we often struggle with accepting the hard truth when we do not like it.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Is there a difficult truth that God has checkmated you with? It can be difficult to humble yourself before God and change your mind but in due season you will be blessed for doing it.

Jonathon D. Smith