I’ve written before about solving the Friday crossword puzzles in the Wall Street Journal. The one for July 14 asked for:

The answer to this week’s contest crossword is the entry that’s a hidden sixth theme answer.

It wasn’t too hard: each starred theme entry contained the name of a state spelled backwards. For example, STEAK SALAD contains ALASKA reading right to left. Therefore the clear (I thought) instructions challenged me to find a sixth entry that contained a state spelled backwards. It turned out to be CHAT UP which contains UTAH. So I sent in CHAT UP as the solution.

It turns out a number of readers didn’t find it to be that simple. One person wrote on Monday after the solution was revealed:

My minor gripe was the not totally clear (at least to me) wording of the contest question. Are you looking for UTAH, the sixth theme answer, OR, are you looking for the full answer that contains UTAH (CHATUP)? After reading the Contest Question several times, I went with UTAH.

If this were a math class, and a student asked me that, I can hear myself saying, “What does the question say?”

Jesus experienced the same frustration I would have had trying to explain what seems obvious:

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8.14 – 21, ESV)

These guys sometimes appear not to be very bright. Jesus communicates in metaphor, and they can’t make sense of it. AND they think Jesus is upset that they don’t have any bread. Jesus rebukes them for lack of faith – they don’t trust his power to provide for them should he need to. And he rebukes their inability to grasp the metaphor. Matthew’s gospel adds:

Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16.12, ESV)

Ding, ding, ding! Jesus didn’t give up on the twelve, and he won’t give up on us, but he does expect us to grow in our ability to understand and apply increasingly difficult concepts and attributes.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1.5 – 8, ESV)

P.S. The Wall Street Journal contest editor said they would have accepted either CHAT UP or UTAH. (They draw from the hundreds or thousands of entries to select one winner of a coffee cup.)