Justify Yourself

Jesus never said anything new. What made Him different to the people who heard him was not the content of His teachings, but the authority with which He spoke. Even His most famous parables weren’t really new, because for generations storytelling was the way Judaism passed down its most important ideas and traditions. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, a Torah scholar attempts to entrap Yeshua into answering questions that are not real questions. There is an insincerity in asking a question when the answer is assumed or there is no interest in the answer. Sometimes our prayers work that way. We ask for what we think we need or want, but we are resistant to what God is actually saying. Or, like the Torah scholar, we try to sound smart or justify our insincerity. You don’t have to prove anything to God, and you don't have to prove anything to people. Ultimately we must strive for sincerity.