Reflective Bible Study

During one of the times Jesus was traveling with His disciples, He asks them a question that is both insightful and profound. While this question leads into another question and ultimately into a response Peter gives that Jesus praises him for, the first “lead-in” question, is very interesting in my mind.

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’” (v. 13)

This question stands out in my mind because by this time in Jesus’ ministry, His disciples had been with Him for more than a year or two, and they had traveled around to enough places that the whole country knew about Him. However, Jesus’ question is more about wanting to know what people think. With everything that He has done, Jesus wants to know the general consensus surrounding who the crowds think He is.

The response the disciples give is interesting as well. They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (v. 14)

Some might point to the response the disciples give as pointing to a belief during that time in reincarnation. This would imply that Jesus reincarnated from one of these historical figures. But while this is a possible theory, a stronger theory is that these people believed in God’s ability to restore life (i.e. to resurrect someone). There are examples of resurrection in the Old Testament, and several of Jesus’ conversations center around the theme of resurrection.

But the big thing I see in this initial question and the disciple’s response is this: If we choose to stand out from the crowd by doing or saying anything significant, people will talk and rumors will circulate. None of the theories surrounding Jesus in the disciple’s response were correct, but that didn’t stop Jesus. If we stand out from the crowd, people might believe and/or spread lies about us as well. It is up to us to not let the rumors irritate us or knock us off the track God has placed before each of us.

One of the most surprising statements the gospel writers record Jesus saying is found in Luke’s gospel, and it comes as Jesus and His crowd of followers meets a funeral processional. I am sure that both the woman who had just lost her only son, as well as both crowds present believed Jesus’ remark to be pretty insensitive.

Perhaps this is why Luke prefaces the statement with a brief statement clarifying Jesus’ thoughts. On meeting the funeral processional and seeing the mother crying, Luke tells us, “When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. So he said, ‘Don’t cry.’” (v. 13)

Now in my mind, it is perfectly acceptable for Jesus to feel sorry for this mother, but telling her to not cry when her child has just died seems a little insensitive – especially for a loving perfect Messiah.

But perhaps Jesus says this to help break the woman and the funeral procession out of the sadness they are in. It may be that Jesus wants to redirect those present onto what God is about to do instead of on what has recently happened. Jesus may be focusing instead on the joy that comes as a result of the upcoming resurrection than on the sadness that comes with death.

When we face death in this life, we are reminded how special life is, and it is perfectly natural to feel sad and shed tears. However, as a way of moving past the sadness, it is also good to remember the future resurrection that comes through having faith in Jesus. This woman didn’t have to wait until Jesus’ second coming to benefit from His power to resurrect. She simply had to have enough faith to pay attention to where He wanted to redirect her focus.

In Jesus’ ministry, often He said things that rubbed people the wrong way. During one of these times, John shares with us an interesting verse in his gospel record. While teaching in the temple during one of the festivals, He said some things that seemed to claim equality with God – which was something that was punishable by death and it was crossing a line that the people had determined should never be crossed.

“When Jesus said this, they tried to seize him. But no one was able to touch him, because it was not yet the right time.” (v. 30)

John points us to an interesting theme that runs throughout Jesus’ life on earth: God gave Him protection that allowed Him to speak the hard truth without being harmed while leading up to the cross. No one was able to touch or arrest Him because God had placed Jesus under His protection.

This is incredibly important for us to pay attention to.

First, this tells us that God is willing to protect us. While not everything bad will be avoided, God will only let bad through that fulfills a purpose or gives us an opportunity/experience we can use later in life.

This also tells us that Jesus lived intentionally knowing this protection existed. Jesus didn’t abuse the protection with the goal of drawing attention to Himself. Instead, He lived entirely within this protection with the goal of pointing people to God by showing His character. God is full of love, not afraid to speak the truth, and is wholly interested in placing us ahead of Himself. Jesus modeled this, and God gave Him all the protection He needed to live life this way.

This leads me to some questions that I challenge myself with:

What would happen if we lived 100% for God knowing His protection exists in our own lives?

What if we lived with the understanding that no one could touch us until God’s timing is right?

If we knew God is protecting us, would that allow us to live more outwardly like Jesus in a world looking for selfless examples of love?

With Jesus as our role model, why not live like God fully protects us – especially since we are called to be His witnesses to a world in need.

While the gospel of John shares with us Jesus’ first encounter with some of the men who would ultimately become Jesus’ closest disciples, Luke’s gospel includes the details that prompted these four early disciples to leave everything to follow Jesus.

In this event, we see an amazing example of faith in the midst of doubt from the man who would become the most famous disciple of them all: Simon Peter.

The event begins one morning as Jesus is teaching by the lake. In my mind’s eye, the crowd was getting a little big, and the people kept crowding closer and closer to hear Jesus, and the space between Jesus and the water kept getting smaller and smaller.

Seeing a couple of boats and recognizing their owners, Jesus walks over and asks to use one of the boats to teach from. Jesus finishes His sermon while in the boat, and Simon (also known as Peter) and Andrew continue cleaning their nets from inside the boat.

After finishing the sermon, Jesus turns to the men and says, “Take the boat into deep water, and put your nets in the water to catch some fish.” (v. 4)

Here is where Peter gives us an amazing response – even before accepting the call to be a disciple. He answered, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish, and we caught nothing. But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will.” (v. 5)

It is like Peter is telling Jesus, “Hey, I’m the expert fisherman and you are the expert preacher. I didn’t catch anything last night during the prime fishing time. I don’t want to offend you, so I’ll try again, but if your plan doesn’t work, then perhaps you should just stick to preaching while I stick to fishing.”

But while Peter was doubtful of Jesus’ plan, he decided to try it out. By casting their nets into the water, these two early disciples displayed a willingness to test Jesus’ words with their actions. The result was the opposite of what they expected, and their catch was so large that it took multiple boats to drag it to shore.

Simon Peter was willing to act even though he was doubtful of the outcome. This shows way more faith than we might realize. Too many people today reject God’s plan because it doesn’t make sense in their mind, or because they don’t have all the answers for their questions. These people choose to skip testing Jesus because they are certain it wouldn’t work.

Peter’s decision in the boat is exactly like our decision is today: Do we test Jesus, even if we are almost certain of the results, or do we simply not put forth the effort and never know if things would have been different?

The call of these four disciples by the lake shows us that it is worth testing Jesus’ teaching, and seeing for ourselves – from our own experience – if following Jesus is worth it.