數十年來，麥當勞以「四分之一磅漢堡」稱霸速食市場。在1980年代，一家名為艾恩堡（A&W）的快餐連鎖店，為擊垮競爭對手而出奇招，以同樣的價格，推出比麥當勞份量更大的「三分之一磅漢堡」。不僅如此，這款新推出的漢堡還在許多盲吃測試中勝出。但沒想到漢堡竟賣不出去，最終停止銷售。後來研究發現，原來消費者誤解了計算方式，以為「三分之一磅」比「四分之一磅」還要小。一個了不起的行銷策略之所以失敗，就是因為人們缺少基礎的知識。

耶穌警告說，人們很容易會錯失信仰的基礎。在耶穌將要受難的那一週，宗教領袖們想方設法地陷害與詆毀耶穌。他們假設了一個奇怪的情境，用一名女子死了七個丈夫的問題來刁難耶穌（馬太福音22章23-28節）。耶穌回答說，這看似複雜的難題根本就不是問題，真正的問題在於，這些宗教領袖「不明白聖經，也不曉得上帝的大能」（29節）。耶穌堅稱，聖經的主要目的並不是要解決邏輯或哲學難題，而是要引導我們認識和愛耶穌，並且在祂裡面得到「永生」（約翰福音5章39節）。這些正是宗教領袖們所缺少的基礎。

我們也經常會錯失信仰的基礎。聖經的主要目的是讓人與這位永活的耶穌相遇，忽略了這一點，將令人心碎！

For decades, McDonald’s ruled fast food with their Quarter Pounder burger. In the 1980s, a rival chain cooked up an idea to dethrone the company with the golden arches. A&W offered the Third Pound Burger—larger than McDonald’s—and sold it for the same price. Even more, A&W’s burger won numerous blind taste tests. But the burger bombed. Nobody bought it. Eventually, they dropped it from the menu. Research revealed that consumers misunderstood the math and thought the Third Pound Burger was smaller than the Quarter Pounder. A grand idea failed because people missed the basics.

Jesus warned of how easy it is to miss the basics. Religious leaders, scheming to trap and discredit Him during the week He was crucified, posed a strange, hypothetical scenario about a woman who was widowed seven times (Matthew 22:23–28). Jesus responded, insisting that this knotty dilemma wasn’t a problem at all. Rather, their problem was how they didn’t “know the Scriptures or the power of God” (v. 29). The Scriptures, Jesus insisted, aren’t first intended to answer logical or philosophical puzzles. Rather, their primary aim is to lead us to know and love Jesus and to “have eternal life” in Him (John 5:39). These are the basics the leaders missed.

We often miss the basics too. The Bible’s main aim is an encounter with the living Jesus. It would be heartbreaking to miss it.