One piece of baseball vernacular is that minor league prospects who want to play in the majors have to while away their time learning to hit a curve-ball. They can field, they can throw, they can bunt, they know their defensive shifts, and can turn on a fastball, but hitting the curve-ball is something else entirely. Chasing a good curve-ball makes even the best hitters look silly. It is a skill that requires not only the usual hand-eye coordination, but patience as well. At the major league level there are enough pitchers who can throw the curve-ball for a strike that inability to hit it results in two buckled knees and one ticket back to the farm system.
In a theological sense, Jesus can hit the curve-ball.Those “innocent” questions posed to Him by His enemies are looking like 60mph grapefruit to Albert Pujols. Any yet each group asks the manager to hand Him the ball. The Herodians, dispatched in spectacular fashion in Matthew 22, are followed by the Sadducees in Matt 22:23-33.
For all their Scholarly arrogance and liberalism, they fare no better than their unlikely partners in crime, the Herodians. Jesus blasts their attempt to trip Him not only by pointing out a SINGLE VERB TENSE! He goes into their own back yard for the baseball bat, referencing the Pentateuch (Exodus, specifically) which they specialized in at the expense of the rest of Scripture.
Next up are the Pharisees. As foolish as the rest, they think that they can take a crack at Jesus, too. I’m reminded of those old swashbuckler movies where the hero, standing in a castle stairwell, dispatches hordes of villains who run up the stair single file to their doom. Like Inigo Montoya being bested by a single-handed Dread Pirate Roberts.
Who’s next?
That’s why I love the authority of Scripture: So long as I resort to God’s Word as the source of Truth, I can sit back in the dugout with my bag of sunflower seeds and let Jesus work over the heretical bullpen. After all, He is the author and sustainer of all (Heb 1, Col 1:16). He is the Living Word, and the author of Scripture.
Dear Matt,
Thanx for the encouragemant.
I would like to encourage everyone from the youthgroup the please come on Wednesdays! We have a great time learning about God and his word. The plusses are that you get to sit on futons(how ever you spell that…)everyone sits in the front, and you can watch me stumble over an obvious question…(and there’s pop for fifty cents, or bring your own…) Last week we studied Gnostisism, and before that Legalism. This is a “must come” event.
Went did Indego Montoya ever get bested by the Dreaded Pirate Roberts?
The MaskedMaster,
“Inigo Montoya being bested by a single-handed Dread Pirate Roberts.”
–was this a movie somewhere between ’84-98? ;-D
Uh, OK guys, that was the Princess Bride, if you didn’t know. Erik, despite the pop-culture black hole that you used to be, I’m surprised your wife hasn’t made you watch it. Actually, it’s a pretty good movie.
I ment Princess Bride…
How fitting! I need to grab my “cup of tea (my sunflower seeds)” and sit back and let Jesus go to bat for me. He knows how to answer and has the answers I just have to read it.
Hey Masked Master, “spell check” called. It misses you. For the record, “Roberts” beat Montoya atop the Cliffs of Insanity. At least he was subdued and rendered unconscious..
Very nice site. Maria