Reflective Bible Study

There are a lot of strong points in this passage, but one really big idea stood out to me as I read through this passage: Jesus did not come to give glory to Himself, but to point people to the Father (verses 49-50, 54). This is one of the biggest, mind bending ideas that I have seen shared about Jesus in the gospels: Jesus’ character does not strive to honor or bring glory to Himself.

However, there is another being who desperately wants to take Jesus’ place of honor (Isaiah 14:12-15). By the very nature of wanting to take Jesus’ place, Lucifer’s character runs completely contrary to this idea. He wants the glory to point to himself, because he wants to be the greatest.

Lucifer (Satan) wants to replace Jesus Christ. He tried in heaven, which caused him to be thrown out. I don’t doubt that he will try again here on earth. However, one of the easiest distinctions we can use to determine the true Christ from any false “christ” is this character trait. Boiled down to a simple question, we can ask: “Is this individual seeking glory for themselves, or are they uplifting God, Jesus as is written in the Bible, and not taking credit for their kindness?”

God often spreads our spiritual growth among many teachers (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). This is also uncharacteristic of someone who is seeking all the glory. Someone who wants all the glory is going to want to fill all the stages of growth, because they want to be recognized and honored. Another equally telling trait of a true Christ from a false “christ” is whether they are open to allow God to use a different individual to continue helping someone grow spiritually. Someone seeking their own glory is going to be interested in managing (and/or micromanaging) the growth process and this is counter to the character of Christ.

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, immediately after inviting Matthew (also known as Levi) to follow Him, Matthew invites Jesus to his home for a big dinner. It’s uncertain how many disciples Jesus had at this point, but regardless of the size of Jesus’ group, Matthew invited many of his tax collector friends over to eat and to meet Jesus.

When reading Matthew’s gospel, specifically about this event, a subtle detail stands out to me as strange, and maybe even a little underhanded. While the supper was going on, Pharisees saw what was going on and “they asked Jesus’ followers, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” (v. 11)

Perhaps at this point, the Pharisees had been stumped enough by Jesus that they decide to take aim at His disciples instead, or maybe they simply wanted to plant seeds of division among Jesus’ group of followers. Whatever the reason for singling out Jesus’ followers, the motive was almost certainly negative.

Luke’s gospel describes it a little differently. Luke records the Pharisees and teachers of the law “complaining” to Jesus’ followers: “But the Pharisees and the men who taught the law for the Pharisees began to complain to Jesus’ followers, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’” (Luke 5:30)

While Jesus overhears them and responds to their question, when we instead focus on the tactic these men use, we see something that is incredibly effective at sabotaging a movement. If they can get the disciples talking and taking sides over Jesus’ unconventional actions, then their group will be weakened and less effective.

It seems as though Jesus was well aware of this, and before the disciples even have a chance to respond, Jesus speaks up with an answer. The answer Jesus gave both validates the decision each of Jesus’ followers made when choosing to follow Jesus and Jesus’ answer defuses the Pharisee’s subtle attack.

Satan knows he can win if he can simply plant enough seeds of doubt in a person’s mind. Plant the right seeds that question God and undermine His character, and Satan has succeeded in closing that person’s heart away from God. Some of the seeds Satan plants are questions that cannot be answered before we reach heaven, but many of them can.

The remedy for doubt is by testing the challenges themselves. Look at both sides of the challenge and then make a decision. If Satan is attacking God’s loving character, take a look at God’s unloving actions included in the Bible, but instead of stopping there, also look at God’s loving actions. Only after looking at both sides of an issue can we truly be informed enough to make a decision.

Satan wants each of us to doubt God to the point we are unwilling to even claim His promises. If Satan can succeed with his seeds of doubt, we won’t even bother thinking God has something better for us. The best way of answering Satan’s doubt is by bringing the challenge to Jesus. Jesus does have an answer to Satan’s challenges and His answer will validate our faith while also undermining Satan’s challenge.

Throughout all the gospels, we see Jesus trying to warn His disciples of His upcoming death on the cross. Not only that, He also tried to get them to understand that within three days after His death, He would be back alive with them.

However, it always strikes me as a little odd that the disciples never really ask any follow-up questions to when Jesus tells them this. Perhaps they were confused about it, or maybe they were not ready to believe it to be true. But another reason for their silence could be because of what happened during one of the first times Jesus shared this information plainly with His followers.

Mark tells us that “Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: ‘The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life.’ He made this very clear to them. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But Jesus turned around, looked at his disciples, and rebuked Peter. ‘Get away from me, Satan,’ he said. ‘Your thoughts don’t come from God but from human nature!’” (v. 31-33)

Matthew’s gospel includes what Peter said to Jesus. Matthew tells us that Peter rebuked Jesus by saying, “God forbid it, Lord! That must never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22)

All the disciples believed the Messiah would last forever, and they believed Jesus to be the Messiah. Because of these two beliefs, the logical conclusion was that the Messiah could not die. Jesus teaching of His rejection and death didn’t fit with their picture of the Messiah, but instead of reframing their view of the Messiah’s role and ministry, or rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, they simply try to discount Jesus’ clear words to them. Mark includes the statement, “[Jesus] made this [His upcoming death] very clear to them.” (v. 32a)

What Jesus was saying didn’t fit into the mold that culture had created for the Messiah to fit into, and that mold was something that the devil created as a trap for Jesus. While Jesus’ response sounds over the top when He rebukes Peter, Jesus wanted to break free from the mold that first-century society had created for Him. The first place He needed to break it was from His followers.

Two thousand years later, our picture of Jesus looks different. We have 20 centuries of history to look back on and back through when developing our picture of Jesus. However we are just as capable of building a mold of who He is today as His disciples were back then. And just like Jesus broke the mold of the first century, He will break the mold we have for Him in the 21st century.

Jesus doesn’t like being restricted to a box or a role that humanity has created. Instead, He submitted to the role that God the Father had set before Him and He walked with the Holy Spirit through His ministry on earth. While we may not understand everything that God is doing, or everything that He has done, our job is not to understand it. Instead, we are called to follow Jesus’ example and submit to the role that God has set before us, and walk with the Holy Spirit leading us throughout our lives here on earth.

One phrase stood out to me as I read this passage: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (v. 34)

I know for me, a decent amount of time is spent thinking about money, or a task that involves money to complete. There is an emergency fund that needs to be completed, several home improvement/repair projects that are not getting any better by themselves, and the goal of expanding our family in the near future just to name a few.

In this passage, as the glorious climax to a parable on greed, and a teaching on contentment and trust, we have this key phrase, which tells us something about our fallen human state, compared to our ideal “sons and daughters of God” state.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (v. 34)

This phrase speaks to goals and to our focus in life. It is a surprisingly accurate test we can use to determine the focus of our heart and our lives. For my wife and I, the big percentage categories of our budget include tithe and offering (giving), utilities and mortgage expenses (shelter), health expenses, and leisure activities. Probably the biggest percentage in this mix is the shelter category. I imagine that many other people can relate to us.

Don’t misunderstand me though. I am not saying that shelter, health, or leisure are bad places to use money, or that they all should not exceed what we give — though if God is pushing you in that direction, I don’t want to stand in His way. Instead, too often I find that most of our money ends up being spent on ourselves, which says that our hearts are focused on ourselves — even though we like to think that we are very other-focused. We could call “other-focused” “kingdom-focused” because what matters in the long run is helping others to know Jesus so they can be included in God’s Kingdom. In many cases, the best way to help others with this is by helping them with a tangible, physical need that they have. We can see Jesus doing this because He first would heal the sick before beginning His sermon — or He would stop His teaching if an ill person showed up.

Jesus was interested in helping people physically, so He could teach them spiritually.

The big idea that I have learned regarding our treasure and our giving is that we must make giving intentional for it to be effective. We have challenged ourselves with giving goals in the past, and as the new year has begun, we want to challenge you with a “giving” goal for this next month.

A challenge you could make for yourself in the coming month is to increase your giving by at least 1%. This means that if you were giving 0% or only sporadically, that you intentionally set aside at least 1% on the front end of your paycheck (before tax or after tax is up to you) to give. If you were already giving 5% or 10%, then let’s increase it to at least 6% or 11% respectively. Chances are you already were giving that 1% sporadically, so really this extra percent won’t be noticeable in your budget when the end of the month comes.

Where should this extra money go? I’ll leave it up to you, though the best place to give this extra money will be a place where you can see the money being used to change lives. A few examples you could choose are a local church or ministry, sponsoring a child in a third world country, or getting involved in micro-finance opportunities around the globe. The possibilities are endless, but the more you can see a life changed, the better the place to give your money.

I love talking about giving and ways to use money wisely, and I could easily share a lot more, but in the interest of time and space, I’ll save it for another journal entry. The big idea I’m emphasizing in this post is that our hearts follow our money. Where we spend or give is an indication of what we value and what we are prioritizing in our lives.