LESSON 7*May 10 - 16 The Puzzle of His Conduct
SABBATH AFTERNOON Read for This Week's Study:
Matt. 4:12, 13; 8:28-32; 11:18, 19; 21:12, 13; Luke 2:41-51; 5:32; 1 Cor. 1:26-28. Memory Text:
"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners"'" (Matthew 11:19, NIV). Last week's lesson focused on sayings of Jesus that leave contemporary people scratching their heads. This week's lesson probes similar issues, but in respect to His conduct.
One of our problems with Jesus is our perennial temptation to re-create Him in our own image. The revolutionary makes Him out to be one of them; social conservatives believe they have Him in their corner. To an extent, that is unavoidable. After all, our own culture and situation form the matrix through which we both consciously and even unconsciously view reality. But to be conscious of this fact offers some hope that we can begin, at least in some limited way, to transcend it, and attempt as objective an approach as we can to the Jesus we find in the Gospels.
Once we do that, we discover that it is not easy to pigeon-hole Him, not easy to place Him in a tidy little package with the word solved on top. Instead, we find ourselves genuinely puzzled by aspects of His conduct, wondering: Does He expect us to do that, and in the same way?
This week we will look at some of the more puzzling actions of Jesus in order to learn what we can apply and, perhaps, not apply to our own lives.
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 17.
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