Reflective Bible Study

As we near the half way mark in our year focusing in on Luke’s gospel, we come to another part of Luke’s gospel where he shares some of Jesus’ messages that are more challenging. However, because Luke is writing this to someone who never met Jesus personally, we can know that these teachings are applicable to more than just those who Jesus spoke to directly. While the message Jesus shares is challenging, I suspect Luke knows that this message is applicable for all of Jesus’ followers throughout history.

Because of this, let’s read this message Jesus shared and discover what we can learn from it. Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 35, Luke tells us Jesus taught those present saying:

³⁵ “Be dressed, ready for service, and have your lamps shining. ³⁶ Be like servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding party. When he comes and knocks, the servants immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ They will be blessed when their master comes home, because he sees that they were watching for him. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and tell the servants to sit at the table, and he will serve them. ³⁸ Those servants will be blessed when he comes in and finds them still waiting, even if it is midnight or later.

³⁹ “Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, he would not allow the thief to enter his house. ⁴⁰ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at a time when you don’t expect him!”

Pausing our reading briefly, it is easy to wonder if Jesus is talking to just His immediate followers, or if Jesus’ message extends beyond. It seems as though Peter also has this question, because he speaks up in the next verse.

Continuing in verse 41:

⁴¹ Peter said, “Lord, did you tell this story to us or to all people?”

⁴² The Lord said, “Who is the wise and trusted servant that the master trusts to give the other servants their food at the right time? ⁴³ When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed. ⁴⁴ I tell you the truth, the master will choose that servant to take care of everything he owns. ⁴⁵ But suppose the servant thinks to himself, ‘My master will not come back soon,’ and he begins to beat the other servants, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. ⁴⁶ The master will come when that servant is not ready and is not expecting him. Then the master will cut him in pieces and send him away to be with the others who don’t obey.

⁴⁷ “The servant who knows what his master wants but is not ready, or who does not do what the master wants, will be beaten with many blows! ⁴⁸ But the servant who does not know what his master wants and does things that should be punished will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one trusted with much, much more will be expected.

⁴⁹ “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over. ⁵¹ Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it. ⁵² From now on, a family with five people will be divided, three against two, and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Let’s stop reading here because what Jesus has shared in this passage is powerful and I don’t want us to miss it.

Jesus has just finished sharing one of His most challenging messages. Many people living in the first century believed the Messiah would come and usher in an age of peace for all people. These people believed that after a brief but decisive victory over the Romans who had control of their country, the Messiah would set up a new kingdom that would never be destroyed and a kingdom that would bring peace.

This was the belief of those present, but Jesus directly challenges this mindset by saying that He did not come to bring peace but to divide the earth. A surface reading might imply that Jesus came to divide families against each other, but when framed like this, it doesn’t sound very Godly or Christ-like to divide families.

However, Jesus did not come to divide families. Instead, Jesus shifts from what He came to do, which was to divide the earth, and onto the result, which is that families would be divided. Jesus came to redeem humanity and the earth from sin, and when humanity is blinded by sin, and actively living in and preferring sin, there is a clear tension present. The division Jesus came to make was giving people the choice of whether to continue living in sin or to choose a life that places sin in the past.

Jesus did not come with the goal to divide families, but He knew that families would be divided when some preferred their lives of sin while others were interested in leaving sin behind.

While the reality of every situation is way more complicated than the oversimplified description I just shared, this oversimplification is more like a theme that runs through almost every spiritual division within families. Jesus came to redeem people from sin, to call people to live new lives with Him, and to reward those who have repented and turned to God with eternal life when He returns.

This is one reason why the opening part of our passage always stands out to me. As our passage opened, Jesus tells His followers in verses 36 and 37 “Be like servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding party. When he comes and knocks, the servants immediately open the door for him. They will be blessed when their master comes home, because he sees that they were watching for him. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and tell the servants to sit at the table, and he will serve them.”

While we might want to read this passage as the servants get to serve the master when the master arrives home, the reverse is what is described. While the servants fully expect to serve the master on his arrival, the master reverses the roles. Jesus describes the master stepping down and serving the servants when he finds them ready and watching for his arrival.

When we understand that Jesus is describing His return in this illustration, we begin to see that when Jesus returns, He will reward those who have been patiently waiting for Him by serving them when they fully expect to serve Him instead. Those who have been serving God all their lives will be able to rest and let God serve them. The servants who God finds at their posts serving Him will be rewarded when He returns.

As servants of God, let’s continue to model Jesus to the world. This means that even though Jesus said that His arrival would divide the world, we are not to intentionally cause division. Instead, Jesus came reflecting God’s love for those who were hurting, and with the challenge to return to God towards all who were sinning. This should be our attitude and our message. Let’s show our love for God by loving others, and let’s call people to live to a higher standard and out of lives that are focused on sin.

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 let God lead you out of sin. Let God help you leave sin in your past and when given the choice on whether to serve sin, self, or God, choose to serve God. Serving God leads to receiving God’s reward of eternal life and a life that outlasts sin.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and study, discover how to open your heart to the Holy Spirit and let Him into your heart, your mind, and your life!

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we come up to the half way point in our year looking at Old Testament prophecies, passages, and events that connect in some way with Jesus’ life and ministry, for our podcast episode this week, let’s look back at an event that happens very early in the first book of the Bible. Several chapters into the book of Genesis, after the flood, and during the time of Abraham, who was also known as simply Abram, we find an interesting event where Abram has to rescue his nephew who was taken captive.

To set the stage, Abram and his nephew Lot left their homeland and traveled to the region of Caanan, which God had promised Abram that He would give His descendants. After a number of years and many challenges, Abram and Lot decided it would be better to part ways, one reason being that their servants were not getting along.

Lot decided to move to a lush valley that had some very wicked towns living in it, while Abram stayed in the less fertile mountainous region.

Not too long after Lot had moved into the area, an army came and conquered the cities in the valley and Lot was taken captive. On hearing the bad news, Abram took a small group of his own men and rescued Lot and the other captives. The event we are looking at for our podcast episode happens after this rescue mission.

As I shared in the introduction, our passage is found in the book of Genesis, chapter 14, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 17, we learn that:

¹⁷ Then after his return [referring to Abram] from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). ¹⁸ And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. ¹⁹ He blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
²⁰ And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”

He gave him a tenth of all.

In this short passage, not only to we see one of the origins of the concept of tithing, when Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all that was gained in this rescue mission, but also hinted at in this event is another partial origin for a different celebration, and one that would be celebrated in different ways throughout history.

However, before jumping forward to the New Testament, let’s look briefly at who Melchizedek was. There is no shortage of speculation and mystery surrounding this king of Salem. The Bible itself does not provide many details or clues. Melchizedek only appears by name in three passages. The first is the one we just read; the second is a reference in Psalm 110; and the third place is in the New Testament book of Hebrews, within chapters 5, 6, & 7 that quotes from Psalm 110. Both Psalm 110 and the book of Hebrews draw attention to the priestly order that Melchizedek was a part of as being connected with the Messiah, and that priests within the order of Melchizedek would be priests forever.

In a strange, almost mysterious way, Melchizedek himself seems to point forward to the Messiah, who also came from God, who also showed up at a God appointed time, and who also has origins clouded in mystery. While we know what the Bible has pulled together for us regarding Jesus’ origins when He entered humanity, we know very little about Him prior to this point. Also, those living in the first century prior to the New Testament writers assembling Jesus’ history would have had a difficult time piecing together how Jesus was able to fulfill prophecy while also not appearing to be from any of the expected places.

However, let’s move forward into the New Testament, to the night Jesus would be betrayed and arrested, to a special Passover supper Jesus shared with His disciples. During this meal, which all four gospel writers include, Jesus draws special significance to two elements of this meal.

Let’s read from Matthew’s gospel, to refresh our memory of this special event. Our New Testament passage comes from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 26, and we’ll begin reading in verse 26:

²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” ²⁷ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸ for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

For those familiar with Christianity, the verses we read describe Jesus’ “Last Supper” with His followers. While some people might consider this a stretch to see the connection, I find it fascinating that Melchizedek brings Abram bread and wine to celebrate Abram’s victory with God’s help, and Jesus blesses bread and wine on the night before He would be crucified. During the Last Supper, Jesus draws the attention of the disciples onto how the bread and wine He was blessing and sharing represented His body, blood, and life that He would be giving to them on the cross.

While the Passover itself has lots of foreshadowing pointing forward to the Messiah taking on the sins of the world, one Old Testament root for the last supper can be found hundreds of years before the origins of the Passover within this somewhat mysterious and obscure passage.

Through both the life and actions of Melchizedek and of Jesus the Messiah, we can know that we have a High Priest interceding on our behalf in Heaven, and that for followers of Jesus, this High Priest is Jesus. Jesus is not only our defender, He is also our redeemer. The body, blood, and life Jesus gave on the cross wasn’t just a demonstration of His love for us, even though it is a powerful demonstration of this. The life Jesus gave up on the cross vindicates God of one of the primary charges Satan had accused Him of.

Satan wants people to believe that God’s perfection is impossible to attain, and that only by being perfect will God then choose to love us. Satan would love for everyone to believe that God is counting down the days until He gets to destroy fallen, sinful humanity. This is because God has the rule that the reward for sin is death.

However, Jesus came to pay the penalty for those who have broken God’s law. Jesus giving up His life in death opens up the way for God to prove to the universe that He loves sinners, even though He doesn’t love sin; and that He is willing to forgive those who are willing to accept forgiveness.

Jesus as our High Priest came to bridge the gap that sin caused between Heaven and humanity, and through Jesus, we discover just how far God was willing to go to redeem sinners – which could only happen if He loves them more than Satan would want us to believe.

God loves you and He loves me, and Jesus came to show us this love by becoming our High Priest and ultimately redeeming us.

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, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. Accept the gift of His sacrifice and let Jesus’ life cover yours. If Satan tries to tempt you into doubting God’s love, remind Him of the cross, and how that proves God loves sinners!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and build a better relationship with Jesus. Through regular prayer and Bible study, we open our hearts to God and we allow Him into our lives to transform us. When we allow Jesus into our hearts and lives, don’t be surprised when our lives begin to reflect Jesus’ life as we move through life with Him.

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!