Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

When Jesus Caused Blindness: Luke 24:13-34

Published September 3, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 24:13-34 (NASB)

¹³ And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was *Lit 60 stadia; one stadion was about 600 ftabout seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. ¹⁵ While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. ¹⁶ But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. ¹⁷ And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” ¹⁹ And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, ²⁰ and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. ²¹ But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. ²² But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, ²³ and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. ²⁴ Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” ²⁵ And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” ²⁷ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

²⁸ And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. ²⁹ But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. ³⁰ When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. ³² They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” ³³ And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, ³⁴ saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.”

Read Luke 24:13-34 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

The passage we will be looking at in this post is one that fascinates me. While walking along the road to Emmaus, two disciples, and these would be people who had followed Jesus for a year or more, walk with Jesus along the road and completely miss realizing who He was: “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” (v. 15-16)

These disciples longed to be with Jesus again, and they completely miss the fact that they were with Jesus again!

This tells me something interesting about ourselves as humans: We can blind ourselves to what is happening around us if we don’t believe the truth to be possible. These disciples did not believe that Jesus had rose from the grave, so recognizing Him as a traveler on the road would be impossible. It is only after they begin to understand what this “Traveler” was explaining from the scriptures that these disciples began to see how what happened to Jesus was what the Old Testament described.

However, this passage says that “their eyes were prevented”, which is another way of saying that God/Jesus hid Himself from them for the time it would take to explain the truth. Perhaps, if Jesus had simply revealed who He was, the disciples would have been too distracted by Jesus’ presence that they would have missed understanding what Jesus wanted to teach them from the Old Testament. This also means that sometimes God will hide Himself from us when He wants to teach us something.

Sometimes it feels as though the times when God is distant is when we want Him the most, and perhaps it is not that God is really distant, but that we are blind to His presence, and maybe it is because He wants to teach us something.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Not Believing In Jesus: John 7:1-9

Published September 2, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 7:1-9 (NASB)

Sometime during the middle of Jesus’ ministry, John’s gospel describes a time when Jesus appears to be alone with His brothers. In this event, John records a startling detail that is profound when we look at it a little closer. John tells us that “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” (v. 5)

This detail is significant for us to pay attention to because too often, those closest to us may be among the least supportive of us. While this is not always the case, plenty of cases can validate this statement. However, I think most times those closest to us don’t support us, they believe they are being helpful. Sometimes, help comes in the form of telling someone you love some difficult to accept things.

Perhaps we don’t feel supported by those we know love us because we know they don’t approve of something we do, some people we associate with, or a habit we have. Sometimes having a lot of history with a person is not helpful for building a stronger relationship because people can get caught up with each other’s faults.

However, the word John uses in this statement is the word “belief” and this is a little different than simply supporting someone. While believing in someone leads to supporting them and their decisions, believing in this context also means trusting, having faith in, and being loyal to the person in question. In this passage, John tells us that Jesus’ brothers – those He was closest to and had the most history with – did not believe in Him.

Jesus would have been aware of this and because of this lack of belief, trust, and faith, Jesus knows that it is better for Him not to travel with His brothers. While His brothers recognize that Jesus is special and that He can perform miracles, they miss understanding the purpose Jesus came and the counter-cultural way He saw Himself.

Reading this prompts me to think that sometimes it is better to take a step back in our faith – but not a step back in a literal sense, but a step back to then focus again on the big picture. When we look at the big picture and keep our eyes open for examples of God leading and blessing people in the world around us, we can avoid the trap Jesus’ brothers fell into because they had decades of history together – which included plenty of pretty normal events.

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Flashback Episode — Giving Gratitude to God: Luke 17:11-19

Published September 1, 2025 in Audio Journal Entries

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Over the past several weeks of podcasts, we have been focusing in on a section of Luke’s gospel where Luke includes lots of Jesus’ teaching. For this episode, Luke shifts out of sharing big truths Jesus taught in order to share with us a powerful miracle that teaches us a powerful truth.

Let’s read about what happened and then look a little closer to discover some big things we can learn from this event.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us:

¹¹ While He [referring to Jesus] was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; ¹³ and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? ¹⁸ Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Whenever I read this event, I always get the picture in my mind that the nine who didn’t return to thank Jesus must not have been very grateful. However, I then look closer at the details of this event and suspect that these other men simply had a different focus when they realized they were healed, and this other focus doesn’t mean they were not thankful, but that they didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their healing.

However, before getting to what their focus may have been, as we read this passage and learned about this event, several details jump out that I believe are significant and worth paying attention to.

The first of these details is Jesus’ message to them. Jesus doesn’t promise them healing, He simply tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. There is an implication that they would be healed, but it really isn’t promised. After all, they could go and show themselves to the priests and receive the verdict that they still were unclean lepers.

Jesus’ message to these men is significant, because often times we might expect God to speak a direct message to us about our current situation, and instead, we receive instructions that don’t sound very related. It was this way with the Old Testament man known as Naaman, who had leprosy, and who was instructed to do something simple, and who almost missed out on being healed because the task given to him seemed too simple and too insignificant. To learn more about this story, you can find it in 2 Kings, chapter 5.

When we receive simple or seemingly unrelated instructions from God, we would be wise to trust that He knows best. If the instructions don’t contradict any law included in the Bible, we should be willing to follow the instructions because chances are we will see a positive result.

I wonder if Naaman was on the minds of these lepers as they heard Jesus’ instructions. Jesus’ instructions were simple and His instructions only made sense in a situation that assumed they were already healed. Because of these two reasons, these lepers likely immediately set out to see the priests.

This brings us to the second big portion of this event that stands out in my mind. Luke tells us in verse 14 that “as they were going, they were cleansed.” These lepers were not cleansed before they started on their trip to see the priests; they were cleansed after they began their trip.

Often times, when we want to see God moving and working in our lives, we need to be like these lepers and begin moving – specifically following the instructions we have been given. Only when we start moving will we likely discover the next steps to take after we have started. Often, like traveling through a fog, we cannot see the ultimate destination. Instead, we are only able to see the next few steps. We should trust that God has the end in mind and that He is leading our steps as we continue to step forward with Him!

While the men were going to see the priests, they were cleansed. The implication I read in this passage is that they were cleansed relatively quickly after their trip began. I suspect this because this man is easily able to find Jesus and give thanks to Him.

However, the passage says in verse 15 that this man “turned back”. This Samaritan turned back from going to see the priest because He wanted to thank his Healer. A case could be made that these men had not traveled very far, because Jesus expects to see nine more people with this man giving praise and thanks.

The obvious answer to Jesus’ question about where the other nine men were is that they were following through with the instructions Jesus had given them. They were going to see the priests to get an official “all clean” verdict.

In some ways, we could flip this situation around and say that this Samaritan leper risked losing his healing because he deviated from following the instructions Jesus gave.

However, giving thanks and glory to God is never outside of God’s will. Jesus honored the gratitude and praise this Samaritan gave and Jesus tells him that his faith had made him well. This was the faith that left to see the priests, and the faith that likely directed Him to return to his journey to see the priests after thanking Jesus personally.

I am certain that the other nine men who were healed were thankful and that they praised God. Perhaps they finished their trip to see the priests before coming and thanking Jesus personally, or perhaps they praised God for Jesus and this miracle without returning. It is also possible they wanted to find Jesus after having seen the priests, but they were unable to locate Him.

Whatever the reason for these other men not returning, I am certain that it wasn’t because they were not grateful. Instead, I am certain they wanted to solidify the healing their faith in Jesus and God had blessed them with.

This leads us to one last big truth we can learn from this event: When we do nice things for others, sometimes we will be thanked directly for what we have done, but other times, we might not receive gratitude from those we helped. Whether we receive thanks or not, we should continue to help others because this is what God does.

We best reflect God and His character when we help others. Sometimes our help will be rewarded with gratitude, other times, our help will appear to fall on ungrateful people. However, God has called us to be a blessing to the world around us and regardless of whether we receive thanks for what we do in this life, God will reward those who blessed others in His name regardless of whether they received gratitude before.

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 give God thanks and gratitude for all the ways He has blessed you with. If you haven’t done so recently, simply say “Thank You” to God for what He has brought into your life. Having a grateful attitude is one of the best decisions we can make in our lives with God!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover a God who loves you more than you can ever imagine, and discover how we can open our hearts and let Him into our lives!

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 neglect where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Luke – Episode 35: When Jesus heals ten men who were lepers with a simple instruction, discover what we can learn when only one man returns to say thanks.

The Mission Statement: Luke 19:1-10

Published August 29, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 19:1-10 (NCV)

¹ Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd. ⁴ He ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come, and he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”

⁶ Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. ⁷ All the people saw this and began to complain, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”

Read Luke 19:1-10 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Part way through His ministry as He was traveling through the city of Jericho, Jesus meets a tax collector named Zacchaeus. Looking back on this event, the thing that is most remembered about Zacchaeus is the detail that he was short and chose to climb a tree to simply catch a glimpse of Jesus.

However, Jesus goes a step further and invites Himself over to Zacchaeus’ home. While the crowd grumbled and complained, Zacchaeus experiences a heart transformation, and pledges to give half his wealth to the poor and right any wrongs he may have committed in the past.

Luke concludes this event with Jesus saying a powerful blessing: “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.” (v. 9-10)

In these two concluding verses, we see Jesus sharing another glimpse of His ministry on earth. Jesus came to bring salvation into the homes of those who will let Him in. Jesus came to adopt people who are willing into the family of Abraham to become one of God’s chosen people. Jesus came to find those who are lost, hurting, and needing help with the goal of saving them.

The context in Luke’s concluding remarks are focused in on the specific event of Jesus’ time with Zacchaeus. In an almost universal way, we can take these verses and apply them to any and every situation where someone comes to God, whether they had fallen away from God at some point in their past or even if they had never known God.

We can also take these verses and apply them to Jesus’ overall ministry. Jesus came to the earth because He wants to find lost people and save them. Jesus arriving on earth marked the start of God’s salvation being made known, and the start of God actively adopting people into His new spiritual “family of Abraham.”

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