Reflective Bible Study

In the verses we skipped over during our last episode, we discover a powerful event that likely ticked the religious leaders off even more than they already were and an event that prompted them to be even more intentional about looking for an opportunity to arrest and kill Jesus. However, also included in this event is an amazing picture Jesus gives us for His temple, and by extension, we could also include other places that are built for us to worship Him that don’t happen to be the temple in Jerusalem.

Let’s read what happened and discover some things we can learn from this event. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 15, Mark tells us that:

¹⁵ When they came to Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple courtyard and began to throw out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold pigeons. ¹⁶ He would not let anyone carry anything across the temple courtyard.

¹⁷ Then he taught them by saying, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves.”

¹⁸ When the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings heard him, they looked for a way to kill him. They were afraid of him because he amazed all the crowds with his teaching.

¹⁹ (Every evening Jesus and his disciples would leave the city.)

In this short passage, we see three distinct parts. The first part includes Jesus stopping the commerce from happening in the temple. The second part includes Jesus teaching those present, which also happens to be an explanation for why He stopped commerce in the temple. The third part is the response and reaction the chief priests and religious experts have to what Jesus did.

Prior to this reading, I had not ever noticed one word in this passage related to the chief priests’ response. Mark tells us in verse 18 that “When the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings heard him, they looked for a way to kill him.”

The key word I had not noticed before was the word “heard”. Prior to this, I had always pictured these religious leaders being the most upset with Jesus chasing out the moneychangers and the commerce, but with the way we see Mark frame this event, I get the picture these religious leaders were less upset about Jesus chasing the commerce out of the temple than they were about what Jesus said.

Immediately before this verse, we read in verse 17 that Jesus taught those present saying, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves.”

Regardless of the words Jesus used to challenge what He saw taking place in the temple, I suspect that Jesus’ challenge to the religious leaders appeared to be larger than one single idea at one single time. Instead, I get the impression that the chief priests and experts in Moses’ teachings saw Jesus’ challenge as a challenge directly aimed at their authority and their role. While Jesus doesn’t call any specific person out by name, He challenges these leaders that they are letting the temple descend away from God’s ideal and into a gathering place for exactly the wrong type of person.

While anyone and everyone are welcome to come to worship, when we come to worship God, we should bring our hearts along with a repentant attitude. It is unlikely God accepts worship from unrepentant sinners.

So does God dislike money or commerce? I don’t think He does.

Instead, God created society and everything that has been used as money over the years. I think God created commerce as a way of helping humanity understand a little bit more about His nature. Without commerce, we would have a hard time measuring value in a society larger than a couple hundred people.

However, commerce mixed with sin reveals some of the more evil aspects of humanity. When sin enters a transaction, the focus ceases to be how this transaction benefits everyone who is involved and it instead becomes how this transaction can benefit me the most. With sin involved, commerce becomes a me-first activity, and we stop thinking about others.

According to Jesus, this is how the commerce in the temple was described. At the end of Jesus’ statement in verse 17, He used the phrase, “A gathering place for thieves.”

A thief is someone who is thinking only of himself and not of the well-being of the person he is stealing from. A thief rationalizes that he needs whatever is being stolen more than the person who currently owned it. In some extreme cases, a thief simply steals because He wants to or is hired to. Thievery is a self-focused attitude and action, regardless of the rationalization or corruption involved in whatever the scenario is.

By describing the commerce in the temple as thievery, we can see that what was happening in the temple was not benefitting those who came to the temple. This also means that what was happening in the temple was not honoring God. Ultimately, what was happening in the temple stopped people from coming to God rather than aiding them to come into His presence.

In this event, we see Jesus push back against a me-focused worship experience. Worship is not about our preferences, our likes or dislikes, or about anything to do with ourselves. Instead, worship is all about God and what He wants.

Jesus’ big contrast statement here is a quote from the Old Testament that described God’s ideal for His house on earth. God wants His house on earth described as a house of prayer for all nations.

This means that prayer should be a central part of our worship, a key piece of our time focused on God, and anything and everything that pulls us away from prayer and focusing on God must be removed from our worship.

Our worship is not for our own benefit. Instead, when we worship God, we are to focus on bringing Him what He wants, and God is interested in gifts that contain our hearts. Nothing in what was happening at the temple allowed someone to give their heart to God, and because of this, everything that was happening in the temple was a distraction away from what God intended the temple, specifically His house on earth, to be!

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, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life. When you come to worship God, be sure that you give Him the glory, the honor, the focus, the respect, and the praise He deserves, and with the gifts you bring, include the gift of your heart!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. In the pages of the Bible, discover a God who gives up everything to save and redeem you from sin and discover how we can fall in love with a God who has already fallen in love with us!

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

In what some may call the most insensitive event in all the gospels, we come to a passage where it appears as though Jesus ignores someone asking for help, before out rightly insulting her. While this doesn’t sound at all like Jesus, part of me wonders if some of this was meant to be an example for those present and for us today regarding the idea of faith and persistence.

Let’s read what happened, and what we can discover from this event. Our passage and event are found in Matthew, chapter 15, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 21, Matthew tells us that:

²¹ Jesus left Galilee and went to the area of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A woman from Canaan lived near Tyre and Sidon. She came to him and cried out, “Lord! Son of David! Have mercy on me! A demon controls my daughter. She is suffering terribly.”

²³ Jesus did not say a word. So his disciples came to him. They begged him, “Send her away. She keeps crying out after us.”

²⁴ Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the people of Israel. They are like lost sheep.”

²⁵ Then the woman fell to her knees in front of him. “Lord! Help me!” she said.

²⁶ He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁷ “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their owner’s table.”

²⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! You will be given what you are asking for.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

This passage amazes me. On one hand, we see Jesus acting the most insensitive He has ever acted, while on the other hand, we don’t really know why Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon in the first place. These two towns were located in far north-west Israel, along the Mediterranean Sea, and they were likely some of the most secular, least Jewish places in the entire region. These towns are on the edges of most Bible maps of the region, and we might easily wonder if these two towns were even a part of Israel or not. The best-case scenario is that they were border towns.

In these towns, there were likely clusters of Jewish people, but being port towns, they were also very likely to be secularized and Roman.

With this in mind, I again wonder why Jesus went up to this region. Nothing else is said about what happened during this visit and both gospel writers who include this event share how Jesus leaves after this miracle to go elsewhere. According to what made it into the gospel record, it’s almost like Jesus made this trip to the region just to insult, though also to ultimately help, this gentile woman.

However, why would Jesus travel a decent distance to get to these two towns just so He could ignore the requests of a gentile woman? It doesn’t make sense, unless we can learn something in Jesus’ actions.

While I won’t begin to think I know all the reasons why Jesus did what He did, in this event, I see an amazing opportunity to demonstrate persistence in faith. I haven’t looked, but this might have been the only time Jesus traveled to this region, so this gentile woman likely knew that this was her only opportunity to get help for her daughter.

By this point in Jesus’ ministry, word had spread that Jesus could simply say the word and it would be done regardless of the distance, so while this took faith, it wasn’t faith without prior evidence.

However, this miracle is one of the only ones where it appears as though Jesus was reluctant to do it. I don’t think Jesus was actually reluctant to help someone in need, but I think He could see in this situation an opportunity to teach us about persistence.

In this situation, from very early on, Jesus knew that this gentile woman had an incredible, persistent faith. However, the only way to demonstrate this type of faith is by giving it resistance to push against it. If Jesus had shouted from a distance when the woman first was heard that her faith had saved her daughter, no one would know how persistent this faith was.

Instead, Jesus ignores and insults this woman to show everyone present that nothing would stop her, distract her, or shake her determination to get Jesus’ help. This gentile woman serves as an example for all of us. Regardless of whether we mess up, fall down, or fail God, the only way we truly fail is if we don’t get back up and press forward. If our faith disappears at the slightest push of resistance, it is worthless and weak.

In contrast, if we keep pushing forward, holding strong to our faith, and persistently pray for God to step in while moving forward in life knowing that He will direct our paths and step in when needed, we cultivate the faith that God is looking for. When we persist in prayer and don’t take “no” for an answer, we demonstrate the persistence this woman demonstrated and this woman ultimately received the answer to her prayer.

While I don’t believe God likes to ignore us, and I don’t believe His desire is to insult us, I believe that the only way to truly test the strength of faith is by giving it resistance. Without pushback, it is impossible to test the strength of faith. Without resistance, it’s impossible to become like the first century church heroes and model Christ to a world needing a Savior.

For too long, the Christian church has pressed for influence through any and every angle they have thought of, except the angle that mattered the most. As follower of Jesus, we should persist in prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to grow our faith in the areas that matter, and help us live like Jesus lived, and love those who are hurting like Jesus loved those who were hurting. Our faith should persist against all obstacles until we ultimately reach heaven.

When we live our faith through prayer and persistence, we overcome every setback and we truly become the people God has called us to be!

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

Always seek God first and live your faith in an intensely persistent way. Intentionally get back up when setbacks come, and always pray and move forward with the confidence that God will answer your prayers and that He will direct your steps forward.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. While other people can give you great things to think about, take everything to God personally as you pray, read, and study His Word.

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 walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Continuing our journey through Mark’s gospel, we come to an event that Mark breaks into two parts. In the first portion of this event, we have one of two places where the gospel writers record Jesus as hungry. It is interesting that in both of the times Jesus is recorded as being hungry, He faces a similar situation.

The first time Jesus is identified as hungry was while he was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days leading up to being tempted by Satan. The second time is what we will be focusing in on at the start of our passage for this event.

Let’s read about what happened. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 12, Mark tells us that:

¹² The next day as Jesus was leaving Bethany, he became hungry. ¹³ Seeing a fig tree in leaf from far away, he went to see if it had any figs on it. But he found no figs, only leaves, because it was not the right season for figs. ¹⁴ So Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And Jesus’ followers heard him say this.

Let’s pause reading here. On the surface, this event sound entirely unlike the first time the gospels mention Jesus as feeling hunger, but while the situations were very different, in both cases, Jesus does not get his hunger satisfied – at least initially.

In a similar way, when we face feelings of hunger, whether they are feelings of hunger that are literal or feelings of hunger that are spiritual, oftentimes we are unable to satisfy those feelings immediately. Sometimes when we feel hungry, there is no immediate way for us to satisfy our hunger. In other times, when we feel hungry, we intentionally push our hunger aside for more immediate or pressing concerns.

Regardless of what prompts our feelings of hunger, if you aren’t able to satisfy your hunger, understand that Jesus has been there too.

Also in this event, we are introduced to a fig tree that was full of life, but it had no fruit. Mark tells us this was because it wasn’t the right season for figs, but that detail does not appear to matter to Jesus. In the context of this event, Jesus expected a tree that had life to also have fruit.

While this is a very literal event, I wonder if Jesus responds in a way that emphasizes a spiritual truth. If we are full of life while alive on this earth, I wonder if we are also equally expected to be bearing fruit. While we face different seasons in our lives, I wonder if every season of our lives is able to bear a different type of fruit. I wonder if in the drier seasons, our fruit is more internal, growing more trust, more dependence, and more faith, while during other seasons, our fruit is able to be more visible, and we are able to share this spiritual fruit with others.

While we normally think of fruit trees as having fruit only during the season for picking fruit, if it isn’t winter time when many of these trees go dormant, every other season has these fruit trees working on producing fruit. In the spring, the trees work on buds and flowers that will ultimately become fruit, and in the summer, we see fruit beginning to form and grow. It is only when we reach harvest time that the fruit is ripe and ready to pick.

I wonder if Jesus didn’t see any evidence of any fruit growing on this fig tree. Regardless of whether it was the right season to pick figs or not, if the tree had leaves on it, it would be reasonable to expect it to have some evidence of figs growing even if these figs were not yet ripe. I wonder if this tree showed no fruit at all.

Because of the lack of fruit, Jesus curses the tree saying “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”

Jumping down a few verses to the next day, we pick back up in verse 20:

²⁰ The next morning as Jesus was passing by with his followers, they saw the fig tree dry and dead, even to the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered the tree and said to Jesus, “Teacher, look! The fig tree you cursed is dry and dead!”

²² Jesus answered, “Have faith in God. ²³ I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, fall into the sea.’ And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, God will do it for you. ²⁴ So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. ²⁵ When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins. [ ²⁶ But if you don’t forgive other people, then your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.]”

In this event, Jesus turns the now dead fig tree into being an example of the power of faith and prayer. I think too often, we immediately jump to this second illustration while missing focusing on the importance of being fruitful.

Actually, as I mention this, I think that all of these characteristics are connected. I don’t believe we can have visible faith and powerful prayer without being fruitful and being fruitful is evidence of a powerful faith and a powerful prayer connection with God.

I don’t believe God wants us to run around killing fruit trees or throwing mountains into the sea with our faith. Instead, I believe He wants us to know that our faith is powerful and when we have faith in Jesus, we can do more with God than we could even imagine. God wants our faith and our prayers to be fruitful, and when we are being fruitful we are living the lives God created us to live!

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 be fruitful in whatever season you are in. Whether you are resting in the winter or growing fruit at various stages during the spring, summer, and fall seasons, intentionally be fruitful with what God has blessed you with in the season of life you are in.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow a strong faith and connection with God. Only when we are connected with God can we produce the fruit God wants us to have in our lives and when we are connected to Jesus, we are able to be fruitful from eternity’s perspective!

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!

At the end of a long twenty-four hours and the end of a tiring night of fighting the wind while crossing the lake, Jesus and His disciples arrive at Gennesaret. However, while some of the gospel writers have stopped giving details, Matthew and Mark include a few verses about what happened after they landed.

While it would be very easy to skim over these verses in favor of a more glamorous miracle, I wonder if you’ll catch some interesting details in these three verses that remind you of miracles we have already looked at.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 14, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 34, Matthew tells us that:

³⁴ They crossed the sea and landed at Gennesaret. ³⁵ The men there recognized Jesus and sent messengers all around the countryside. The people brought him everyone who was sick. ³⁶ They begged him to let them touch just the edge of his clothes. Everyone who touched his clothes was made well.

Do you remember earlier this year we spent an episode that focused on a woman pushing her way through a crowd just to touch the edge of Jesus’ garment? When reading our passage for this episode, this miracle comes to mind. This got me thinking about where the woman’s miracle took place. While the gospels aren’t real explicit about where the synagogue leader who Jesus was going to help lived, when we read the broader context, we can conclude that that set of miracles likely happened in Capernaum.

I then did a quick search and discovered that Gennesaret and Capernaum were neighboring cities on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. What we read in the three summary verses we are focusing on in this episode is likely a direct result of the miracle we read about where the woman pushed her way through the crowd. All these miracles show us one big, clear theme: Faith, when added to just a sliver of Jesus, is capable of extraordinary miracles. The faith of all these people, when mixed with a momentary touch of Jesus’ garment experienced healing.

However, while looking up Gennesaret, I discovered that another prominent miracle happened here, and this other miracle is one that we looked at earlier this year as well. While Matthew and Mark are the gospels that give us the summary we are focusing in on in this episode, Luke, chapter 5, shares a different miracle that happened at Gennesaret.

Luke’s Gennesaret miracle is where Peter and the other fishermen disciples get a miraculous catch of fish. It is likely that while Jesus may have been raised in Nazareth, the group of most famous disciples, specifically Peter, Andrew, James, and John very well could have grown up in Gennesaret. This is where their fishing business was centered, and it was where Jesus invited them to become followers and “fishers of men”.

While some might think that it is too great of a stretch to take, my mind clearly sees a connection between the miraculous catch of fish miracle, and the miracles we see included in these transition verses. While it would be easy to connect the passages by saying that both events include faith, it is significant in my mind the type of faith that each of these events display. When we look at both of these events and the faith that each includes, we discover that each event and each miracle has faith built on the foundation of another person’s experience or word.

When we look at Jesus asking Peter to go out fishing when it was the worst time of day for catching fish, Peter takes Jesus up on the challenge. The little bit of faith Peter had, whether it was based on seeing if Jesus would be right or proving Jesus wrong, Peter and the other fishermen take Jesus at His word and experience a miraculous catch of fish that should not have happened.

In our transition passage of miracles, we discover that this region likely had heard about the woman’s almost secret miracle, and they were willing to claim the truth that if touching Jesus’ garment healed someone else, then touching it personally would be enough to heal me. All the sick people who were brought to Jesus simply wanted to touch his garment because they knew in their hearts that this simple act would heal them.

This makes me wonder something about faith: When we see people demonstrate faith in Jesus, does it show more faith to think Jesus can touch them and heal them personally, or does it display more faith to simply believe that touching the edge of His garment will make them well?

As I think about this, I imagine that those who believed that touching the edge of Jesus’ garment had more faith. If we were to imagine the formula for a miracle as the sum of two element: Jesus and faith, the more we increase Jesus, the less faith we would need, but the more faith we have, the less Jesus we would need. However, this does not necessarily mean that Jesus is not needed for a miracle to happen; it simply means that it would take an extraordinary level of faith to overcome the absence of Jesus.

This detail is incredibly relevant for us today. If miracles work based on this formula, and provided that the miracle will bring God glory, then our faith in this life is critically important. If we read about miracles in Jesus ministry where little faith is present, we can see Jesus is clearly present. This is the case for the miracle of the miraculous catch of fish. Peter likely had no faith, but only a desire to prove Jesus wrong. Any faith that was present was likely just enough to follow through with the actions of fishing to get his point across.

The next stage of faith is displayed by the sick people in the next time we see Gennesaret mentioned in the gospels. They have a lot of faith based on the evidence they had seen and heard about Jesus, and this means that their faith only needed to touch something connected with Jesus to be healed.

This doesn’t look too good for us living today, because the closest we can come to touching something of Jesus’ is by connecting with a group of people who are His followers – specifically people who are reflecting His character. This is something we can and should do, but it doesn’t mean that we can skimp at all regarding our faith. Instead, this means that we would need extraordinary faith in order to see miracles in our lives, and while this may sound discouraging, in our case, we have another option.

For those of us living 2,000+ years later, we have the option of leaning into the Holy Spirit for both our connection to Jesus and for our source of faith. With a Holy Spirit connection, we can have both the faith we need and the connection we need to see and experience miracles in our own lives. The big test of our faith is actually choosing to step out in faith that we will get answers and see the miracle.

I will be the first to say that sometimes the miracle doesn’t happen the way we’d expect it to, and other times, the miracle we are asking for doesn’t happen. However, the big thing for us to remember is that all the miracles Jesus did brought glory to God, and all the miracles we see Him doing today will ultimately bring glory to God as well. While it takes faith and trust to believe God knows what He is doing, we can have faith that every miracle we see today is given to help bring more people into a saving relationship with Jesus for eternity!

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

If you are uncertain how much faith you have or how much faith you need, don’t let your questions or doubt stop you from seeking God and from stepping out in faith. God rarely gives people the end picture before they have begun, and this is because knowing the end from the beginning, God knows we would either chicken out of His plan for us, or we’d get arrogant and try to push our own way. Learn to trust God and walk with Him one step of faith at a time!

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to continue growing personally towards God. God wants a personal connection with you and prayer and Bible study are two of the best ways to grow this connection!

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 walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!