Hurling Bread and Buns: Silencing the Critics

This reading is based on Mark 12 that is read in accordance with the Revived by His Word initiative of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

"And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions." Mark 12: 34

I was born within a stone's throw from what was then West Indies College (now Northern Caribbean University, my place of work). I recall the days of eating freshly baked bread and/or buns that came from the bakery that the college operated. I recall my eldest brother and sibling often coming home with such goodies. He had an interesting way, he'd report, of getting those delectable treats to take home. All he would do was to dare the men who worked at the bakery to try and hit him with either a bread or a bun. Somehow, they'd often graciously oblige him. All that would obviously happen however, is that he'd just get something to take home that we could eat. Looking back now, I am convinced that God placed it in the hearts of those men to have humoured my brother as they did. Don't miss the "plot," or the context in which all this took place though: these bakery workers were actually hurling "missiles" (albeit friendly, and of bread and buns) at my brother, but as they landed, they became food for all of us.

In a similar way the questions that these devious spies hurled at Jesus, though meant to expose and discredit Him as an "ignorant impostor," not having attended their schools, served only as raised platforms for Jesus to proclaim precious truths of the Kingdom. Of course, as these emissaries from hell recognized that their plots constantly backfired on them, they afterward dared not "ask Him anymore questions." 

Today, sadly, critics still abound and questions and challenges are constantly rained upon God's children. The question is though, who is being silenced; the critics or the Christians?

Father in Heaven, please grant us knowledge of Your Word, and authenticity of an experience with You, so that we can with similar authority as our Lord, silence the critics of Your cause we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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