All the Right Questions

Jeopardy! is a TV game show I have watched periodically since I was a kid.  Art Fleming was the host when I was younger and Alex Trabeck is the current host. The game is fun to watch because I can see how many of the questions I can come up with as the contestants play.

 

Back in 2004 Ken Jennings won 74 straight games of Jeopardy!.  His streak is the longest in Jeopardy! history and he won over two and half million dollars during this time.

 

Ken obviously is very smart and seemed to always have all the right questions. Alex Trabeck rarely caught him making a mistake!

 

One could say that Jennings is Lord of Jeopardy!

 

Today’s reading is Matthew 12:1-11. The Pharisees had been following Jesus and the disciples. Experts in Jewish Law, they were trying to catch Jesus breaking the Law.

 

It was the Sabbath, the day Jewish people, according to the Pharisees, were not to do any work whatsoever.  The disciples were gleaning in a field to eat some grain. The Pharisees caught Jesus and his disciples working, since gleaning (picking the leftovers after a harvest) was considered work.

 

Jesus responded to the Pharisees' accusation with a question, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?” Jesus went on to verbally demonstrate the error of the Pharisees’ ways.

 

Later that day, in the synagogue, the Pharisees accused Jesus of working when he healed a man’s shriveled hand. Like before, Jesus responded with a question. “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?”

 

Again, Jesus went on to demonstrate the error in the ways of the Pharisees.

 

Like Ken Jennings, Jesus had all the right questions for the Pharisees. Unlike Jennings, Jesus never was defeated, nor will he ever be defeated.

 

Jennings may be Lord of Jeopardy!, but Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath!