Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through our year focusing in on Jesus’ parables, we come to a series of three short parables that only Matthew’s gospel includes. These three parables are shared just with the disciples, and they are shared after Jesus responds to the disciples asking for explanation of one of Jesus’ other parables. For this episode, we’ll focus on the first parable in this set of three parables, because while the three parables are all short and similar, each is distinct enough to warrant an episode dedicated to it.

Let’s read the first parable and discover another way Jesus describes God’s kingdom to the disciples. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the Good News Translation. In verse 44, Jesus tells the disciples:

⁴⁴ “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

As we read this one-verse parable, two phrases jumped out to me. The first phrase is how the parable opens. This translation draws a casual connection to the discovery of this treasure. It describes, “A man happens to find a treasure in a field”. Reading this translation makes me think that the man was strolling through the field, and he trips over something hard and realizes that it is the corner of a treasure chest. The way this is described makes me think that the man was not looking for treasure, but that he at least had his eyes open enough to recognize the treasure was there when it tripped him.

When reading the opening statement of this parable from multiple translations, no clues are given to the intentional nature or the casual finding of this treasure. Instead, the parable simply describes someone simply finding treasure hidden in a field. From this detail, and from the fact this is a parable Jesus shared, we can conclude that the treasure that is found is something that we all can find in our lives if we are paying attention. This “treasure in a field” is something that we may have been seeking out, or it may be something we find at a time we are not expecting to find it. Regardless of whether we are actively looking, or whether we stumble onto it, what matters is not that we found it, but what we will do when we have found it.

After the man found the treasure, he has three options. He can bury the treasure and walk away; He can steal the treasure, have the money, but also have the guilt associated with the theft; or He can sell as much as is necessary to buy the field that contains the treasure, which is the legally correct option. If I sold a home to you, and buried in the walls of the home were diamonds and blocks of gold that I was not aware of, when you discovered them, they would legally be yours. I might be upset at myself for not finding the treasure, but it would legally be the property of the owner of the home.

According to the details of the parable, the man doesn’t take any chances that he will not have enough money, so even if he only needed to sell a portion of his stuff, he sold everything because the treasure is that valuable in his eyes. This is the second idea that stood out in my mind as we read this parable.

This man wants this treasure legally, and he does not want any of the guilt associated with simply stealing it. This man knows that a treasure that has been wrongfully gained is not a treasure in the end. The treasures we can have and enjoy the most are the ones that don’t come with guilt or other negative traits.

The man buys the field because he knows that with this treasure, he can gain the life he has always wanted. While we might be tempted to think that simply having money can get us the life we most desire, the truth of this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is represented by this treasure that is hidden in a field. In other words, the treasure that can bring us true fulfillment in our lives is the kingdom of heaven treasure.

If we read this parable from the New American Standard Bible translation, it tells us that “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

The amazing truth of this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is something that we simply must open our eyes in order to discover. The kingdom of heaven is something that we might miss if we are not paying attention, but it is something we can discover if we keep our eyes open for it.

And not only this, the kingdom of heaven is something that is worth selling everything we have in order to acquire it. The kingdom of heaven isn’t a treasure that can be stolen. Instead, it is a treasure that is worth giving our lives for. This is because all that this life offers us is pain and sin that ultimately leads to death. While life may have its good moments, our lives one hundred, or even two hundred years from now will have ended in death – unless we have given our lives for the kingdom of heaven.

When we give our lives to Jesus, He promises to keep us safe through the death we face, and bring us out on the other side into a new, perfect, eternal life that has all the best parts of this life without any of the pain, sin, and death.

The kingdom of heaven is the ultimate treasure, and the first step in finding this treasure is seeking Jesus. Jesus is the way to this treasure, and He is the only way to eternal life!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, be sure to intentionally seek Jesus and God first in your life. Place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus as you choose to open your eyes to discovering God’s kingdom. As Jesus’ return moves closer, be sure you are actively seeking Him in your life so that when He returns, you will be ready.

One of the best ways to get and stay ready is by praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Regular prayer and Bible study helps draw you close to God and it helps you accept God’s Holy Spirit into your life. With the Holy Spirit working in your life, don’t be surprised to discover that God is using you to bring about His kingdom in the world today!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, after John has finished sharing about the crowd Jesus challenged and how almost all of Jesus’ followers left Him, John moves to focusing on Jesus being at home with His brothers and away from His disciples. We don’t have much context for what set the stage for this event, however what John shares in this event is fascinating.

Our passage for this episode comes from John’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

Pausing reading briefly, I am amazed at this event and at Jesus’ short conversation with His brothers. As I wonder and imagine the details of this scene, I suspect that Jesus’ disciples had already left to go to the feast in Jerusalem, and this is why Jesus was alone with His brothers.

However, the phrase that really jumps off the page at me is a statement Jesus’ brothers tell Him in verse 4: “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly.” This statement speaks volumes about where the heads and hearts of Jesus’ brothers were. The statement Jesus’ brothers make is completely true, but this statement also entirely misses the direction of Jesus’ life and mission.

When Jesus’ brothers share this statement, it is solid logic: If someone wants to be known and have a following, they won’t hide their lives away. If someone wants to be known by others, they must step into a spotlight, or at least step out in some way. This statement, given in the context of the whole message Jesus’ brothers tell Jesus, lets us know that Jesus’ brothers did not understand Jesus’ mission as the Messiah. In the minds of Jesus’ brothers, the Messiah needed to be very public and the Messiah needed to be focused on attracting followers in order to kick Rome out of the nation.

However, Jesus understands something that His brothers don’t. Jesus understands that fame and popularity are two very bad motivators. What Jesus’ brothers don’t understand is that Jesus is not interested in being known by the world – at least at this point in His ministry. Instead, Jesus is more interested in fulfilling God’s mission for His life, and God’s mission is one that is both incredibly personal, as well as incredibly sacrificial. Jesus’ mission for His life ultimately gives life to those around Him and to those who accept Him.

In contrast, the mission the first century culture had for the messiah was that he would overthrow Rome in their nation, and this mission required lives to be lost in order to succeed. Jesus’ ultimate mission only had one life to be given, and this life was His own.

Because of this, Jesus opts to sit this festival out, because He knows His time has not yet come, and likely because traveling with His disciples or His brothers will draw too much attention onto Himself.

However, after Jesus’ brothers leave for the feast, John continues in verse 10, saying:

¹⁰ But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. ¹¹ So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” ¹² There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” ¹³ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

In this passage, Jesus travels to this festival alone, and as anonymously as possible. At the start of the feast, the Jews were actively looking for Him, but they did not find Him. While this feast was happening, people were talking about Jesus and debating among themselves about how important Jesus really was.

At other places within the gospels, Jesus described how He would divide people. This last part of our passage hints at how Jesus divides people. In all this subtle whispering, we see this division take place. One group describes Jesus as a good man, while other people believed Jesus to be leading the people astray.

However, it is interesting from how John describes these whispered debates that neither one of these two groups understands Jesus’ ultimate mission or goal. Instead, the group that believes Jesus to be a good man might not believe much more about Jesus then this.

In an interesting twist, by this point in John’s gospel, Jesus has amassed a huge crowd of followers and pushed them all away. This detail allows this debate to flourish about Jesus because those who believe Jesus to be a good man can focus on all those Jesus has helped and healed, which is a sizable amount, while those who believe Jesus to be leading people astray can focus on the unbelievable claims Jesus made while teaching. Both sides of this debate have different sets of proof, but neither one appears to take any steps towards believing Jesus to be God’s Messiah.

This is the same in our lives today, except that there are now three groups of people. In our world today, there are people who are actively opposed to Jesus and God, and this includes many who simply claim God doesn’t exist and Jesus is not the same person that the Bible describes. Those who believe this line of thinking make up one group.

The second group of people are those who believe Jesus to be a good man and a good teacher, but that history has exaggerated His life and His ministry. Those in this second group know slivers of Jesus’ life and ministry, but they are not open to letting Jesus or God change their lives.

These first two groups are direct descendants of the two groups debating in our passage in John’s gospel.

To contrast these two groups, we have a third group, and this group believes Jesus to be the Messiah, and that Jesus is the way God stepped into history to show His love for us. This third group, which began with Jesus’ disciples shortly after Jesus returned to heaven, changed the first century world. I am a part of this third group, and if you’re not a part of this group yet, consider yourself invited to join. Those who have placed their hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross can begin a new life with God today, and our lives with God extend forward into eternity!

 As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus and in what He accomplished for humanity on the cross. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are giving the opportunity of a new life with God, a life that we don’t deserve, but a life that God offers to us as a gift if we are willing to accept it. If you haven’t accepted God’s gift yet, this is a challenge to do so today!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to Jesus each and every day. Through personal prayer and study, discover just how much God loves you and how God showed His love for all of us through what Jesus did for us! While some people point to acts of God that sound negative, angry, or hostile, we should filter all the claims through Jesus. Jesus gives us the best picture of God we can know, and because of this, the best place to begin studying is with Jesus!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue looking at Jesus’ parables, we arrive at another very short parable. In this parable, we discover another subtle theme that broadens our picture of God’s kingdom. While many of the early parables we looked at so far this year did not deal with God’s kingdom, it is as though Jesus shifted His focus part way through His ministry and increased the number of parables aimed at teaching people about God’s kingdom.

Similar to the parable we focused on in our last episode, and the next two parables we will look at, this parable is very short, but also very powerful. This parable also includes a subtle change of wording that draws our attention onto a significant truth. Let’s read what Jesus taught about God’s kingdom in this parable. Our parable and passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 20:

²⁰ Jesus said again, “What can I compare God’s kingdom with? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.”

While this parable is also included in Matthew’s gospel, Luke’s gospel simply ends here. Luke continues in the following verses by describing how Jesus continued traveling through the cities and villages in the region. Matthew’s gospel also has Jesus finish teaching with this short parable, but Matthew stays with the perspective of the disciples, who then ask Jesus for further clarification on an earlier parable before hearing more parables.

But before we dive into the other parables, we still have this parable about yeast to focus in on. While other parables focus on subjects that are less familiar to me, I happen to enjoy baking, and I understand the role of a little bit of yeast added to dough. While I have no idea how or why yeast causes dough to rise, I certainly appreciate this characteristic whenever I make pizza dough, or cinnamon buns. When yeast is present and working, what would have been flat and dense becomes large, light, and fluffy.

However, I find this parable one of the most fascinating comparisons Jesus could make with God’s kingdom. This is because so much of the Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies were centered on eating bread that had been baked without yeast added. This bread is called Unleavened bread, and it even had a festival celebration called after it, though this festival was also known as the Passover.

I find this comparison also fascinating because Jesus warned His followers and those in the crowds at least twice to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and religious teachers. Just a chapter before the parable we are focusing in on, Jesus told the disciples in Luke 12, verse 1 to “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, because they are hypocrites.” Other translations indicate that the yeast of the Pharisees was actually hypocrisy and not simply avoiding the Pharisees’ teachings because the Pharisees were hypocrites.

Overall, we discover that yeast is presented negatively more times than positively throughout the Bible, and even with this detail in His mind, Jesus compares God’s kingdom to yeast.

I believe this is because of the characteristic we see Jesus focus our attention on in this parable. In our parable about yeast, once the woman had hidden the yeast in the flour, the yeast was present but not visible. I wonder if it would even be possible to separate the yeast from the flour after this point. This detail is important, because when we have God’s Word hidden in our hearts and memorized in our minds, then it will be with us whenever we need it even though its presence might be invisible.

In this parable, we discover that God’s kingdom, hidden within a small location, has a way of growing and affecting the entire area, whether this is a church, a community, a region, or even a country. When God has people placed in certain locations, it is because He knows that they can positively impact lives in that location. From previous parables, we learned that our responsibility is to plant seeds, and we are to let God grow the seeds.

Just like I have no idea how yeast works when it causes dough to rise, we don’t know all the details about how God grows His kingdom in a region or territory. But we know that with the Holy Spirit, a tiny batch of spiritual yeast transformed the first century world.

With this positive picture of yeast, why then does God seem to speak so harshly about it?

In my mind, this is because there are spiritual forces at war in our world today. These forces want to grow wherever they can, and these forces want especially to grow in our hearts. While there are positive forces that can grow us into being mature believers and disciples of Jesus, negative forces can also grow causing us to doubt, to be cruel or mean to others, to tear people down, and to be anything and everything opposed to God’s character of love and selflessness.

It doesn’t take long to look at the world today and see people being confronted about their negative choices. However, someone’s negative choice only happened because they let a negative spiritual yeast grow in their lives.

Yeast’s nature is to grow, and when we talk about hidden growth, yeast is the perfect example. Just a tiny amount of pride, doubt, or cynicism can break down an otherwise solid spiritual wall against evil. However, just a tiny speck of selflessness, of genuine love, or of the Holy Spirit’s blessing can do the same with a solid spiritual wall against God.

In our parable about yeast, it was hidden in the large tub of flour, and while the yeast became invisible at that point, there was no denying that once the flour had been turned into dough, that there was yeast present!

When we talk about the metaphor of yeast, we are reminded that we must be intentional and diligent with whatever side of the spiritual war we are on, because just a little piece of unchecked yeast can cause us to switch sides. We should be extra intentional that we let God’s kingdom grow in our hearts like yeast, and to actively root out Satan’s yeast of doubt, hostility, and pride from our hearts!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life and let the yeast of His kingdom grow in your heart and your life. Diligently work to eliminate all the negative forms of yeast from your heart as you purposefully grow spiritually with God.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow through the reading and study of His Word. Personal Prayer and Bible study are the best ways to build a solid spiritual foundation in our lives. While hearing about the Bible from other people is okay, it is best to study out the Bible’s truths for yourself. Eternity is too important to let it depend on someone else’s interpretation or bias.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our last podcast episode, we stopped before finishing a longer challenge Jesus gives to the crowd of people who found Him following the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking to the disciples’ boat as they were struggling to cross the lake.

In Jesus’ challenge, He begins by emphasizing what God wants most from His people. After the crowd challenges Jesus to give them a sign, which tells us something about the character of this crowd since they just experienced a sign when Jesus fed them in the wilderness, Jesus shifts to talking about the bread God gives, and how He is the Bread of Life.

Reading a few of the last verses from our previous episode to give this episode’s passage some context, let’s pick back up where we left off in our last episode. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 47, Jesus continued speaking, saying:

⁴⁷ “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Let’s pause reading here. What Jesus has just described is one of the most challenging things He says in the entire Bible, and on the surface, it sounds like Jesus is telling His followers to become cannibals.

However, the only way these verses about eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking Jesus’ blood make sense is when we understand them spiritually. In a literal sense, no one has eaten Jesus’ flesh or drank His blood. The single opportunity that people would have had would have been as He was being taken off the cross and buried, but nothing like this is even hinted at in any of the gospels. While Jesus was dying, most of the disciples were hiding for their lives, and it is only after Jesus is raised from the dead that they begin to venture out. After Jesus was raised from the dead, there was no way the disciples could literally eat His flesh or drink His blood because He appeared and disappeared at will.

Instead, the spiritual truth Jesus teaches His closest followers later on during His ministry, when they are eating the Last Supper together on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested. In this Passover meal, Jesus takes bread and symbolically equates it to His body, and He takes wine and symbolically equates it to His blood.

However, at this earlier point in Jesus’ ministry while He is teaching this crowd, we don’t have any hint at this symbolism, only a strange literal-sounding declaration about becoming cannibals. Because of this, when we continue reading in verse 60, we see the response of the crowd. John tells us:

⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹ Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. ⁶⁴ Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

⁶⁷ “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” ⁷¹ (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

In this passage, and in its conclusion, we discover that Jesus subtly reemphasizes the spiritual nature of what He shared with these followers by saying in verse 63, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”

This is the biggest clue that Jesus is speaking in a spiritual, symbolic sense, rather than literally. Remember eating Jesus’ flesh doesn’t make sense when Jesus tells us directly that the flesh counts for nothing.

So a better question for us to ask is why would Jesus press this crowd with this truth?

When I look at the broad event, I suspect that Jesus understood something that we did not. I suspect that Jesus understood that the larger the crowds were that followed Him, the greater the danger that this crowd would derail His mission into this world. This specific crowd presents an interesting challenge of its own. This crowd, prompted by emotion, had wanted to make Jesus their earthly king following His miracle of food multiplication, but this same crowd then demanded more signs from Jesus to prove He was from God.

This crowd reflects a decent portion of humanity who are ruled by their emotions, while claiming to be ruled by logic. This crowd was self-serving, only interested in Jesus for what He could do for them, and they likely would not have been satisfied for long with any miracle or sign Jesus would have provided to prove that He was from God. Less than 48 hours after an amazing miracle they were a clear part of, we see them demanding another sign. This crowd discounted every reason they were given to believe in Jesus, while claiming they wanted Jesus to give them reasons for them to believe.

Because of this crowd’s overtly self-serving attitude and focus on bread from God, I believe Jesus took this theme and pushed it to its extreme. Jesus did not lie, but Jesus shared a spiritual truth that was deeper and more direct than any of these people were willing to accept. Jesus shared how He was God’s manna from heaven, and how the manna foreshadowed His coming into the world.

This spiritual truth was so challenging, that it prompted many of His followers who were disciples to desert Him. While we think of disciples as the twelve men Jesus chose, John uses this term to describe a bigger group of regular followers of Jesus, and John describes the twelve closest followers in this passage as simply “the Twelve”. From how this passage frames the aftermath of Jesus’ message, it appears like Jesus took this huge crowd and pushed every person away until He was left with only the Twelve disciples. The bigger the crowds following Jesus got, the harder Jesus pushed them with spiritual truth.

However, while Jesus pushed those in the first century with hard spiritual truth, we are called to believe Jesus’ words, because Jesus’ words bring life and Jesus’ life brings eternal life. God has promised that those who believe and trust in Jesus will be given eternal life. Even if Jesus challenges us with some very difficult to accept challenges, His perspective is bigger than our own, and even when we don’t understand, we are called to believe and look forward to the day when all our questions will be answered when Jesus returns to bring us home.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to trust in Jesus even when He says some challenging words. Study into the challenging messages Jesus shares to discover some amazing spiritual truth that is worth applying into our lives. Remember, through Jesus, we are promised eternal life, and because of what Jesus did for us, we have the assurance of salvation.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow from God’s Word. God has preserved the Bible for thousands of years, and it has the power to transform lives when we let the Holy Spirit speak through it. No other book or collection of writing has the Holy Spirit behind it like the Bible. We can trust the Bible will give us an accurate picture of God when we look at it holistically and in context.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!