Read the passage and respond to these questions:
            1.  Coming into this passage, what seems to be Jesus’ reputation?
            2.  How does he handle this current test?
            3.  If you could ask Jesus any question at all, what would it be?
Jesus was (and is) the greatest teacher.  People were asking Him questions all the time.  Some people asked Him questions because they were sincerely interested in discovering the truth.  Other people asked Jesus questions “in order to test Him.”  Notice how Jesus responded to this particular Pharisee.
The Pharisee believed that he already knew the truth.  He wants to see if Jesus knows what he knows.  So he tests Jesus with a question about the Law.  Jesus responds with the “right” answer.  He passes the test.
But then Jesus turns the tables and becomes the one asking the questions—only the purpose of Jesus is not to test the Pharisees, but rather to point out to them that they do not know as much as they think they know.  They could not answer His question, not did they want to ask Him any more questions for fear that they might again come up lacking.
What was true for the Pharisees is true for us as well.  We may know many good and true things, but we do not yet know it all.  We still need Jesus to be our teacher.
In your prayer life, do you talk with Jesus as if He were your teacher, or have you dropped out of class?  It is far too easy to think that we have “arrived” and have learned it all, or at least, enough.
Jesus taught that if we continued to live in His word then we would come to know the truth and that knowing the truth would set us free.  Jesus was not talking about a onetime event.  He was talking about a lifestyle.  Listening to Jesus, learning of and from Jesus is to be a constant, life-long process.
Many Christians feel that they have arrived, that they know it all.  Then they “test” other Christians to see if others meet their own standards.  This is not the attitude of a student, of a learner.  An avid follower of Jesus is always learning, always listening, always asking Jesus questions, always wanting more.
Are you asking Jesus questions?  Do you listen for His answers?  Are you willing to listen to others who are doing the same in order to discover what Jesus has taught them?  The Pharisees stopped asking Jesus questions because they were afraid of what they might hear.  Keep asking questions.  Let Jesus teach you.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me for my desire to put you to the test with my questions.  Help me instead to learn from You and from Your people, unafraid and yet in awe of your authority and power.