Reflective Bible Study

As we approach the half way point in our year looking at Mark’s gospel, we come to a passage where Jesus give a very strong warning and challenge to a specific group of people. While it might be easy to skip over this warning under different circumstances, this challenge is prompted after Jesus is told about something His followers did. Of all the warnings and challenges, this one stands out as being one of the most significant and serious in my own mind. However, this challenge, while it is very serious, also contains within it a promise that is easy to miss if we are not paying attention.

This passage and challenge are found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 38:

³⁸ John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. ⁴⁰ For he who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

Let’s pause reading briefly because while Jesus has more to say, I want to emphasize some details in the first portion of this passage. First, it is worth paying attention to John’s opening and telling Jesus that he and some of the other disciples saw someone who wasn’t a part of their group casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John says that they tried to prevent him. However, Jesus pushes back with a powerful counter-intuitive truth: Christianity was never meant to be an exclusive club for sinners saved by grace. Christianity is united by people following Jesus Christ and giving Him the glory, the praise, and the credit for everything.

Jesus emphasizes this truth by telling His disciples that anyone who is not against Jesus is for them, and those who are performing miracles in the name of Jesus have God’s approval to do so. If someone cannot perform a miracle in Jesus’ name, then they are likely misusing Jesus’ name and/or they are missing a relationship with Jesus in their lives. Miracles that succeed using Jesus’ name can only happen if the one doing the miracle has the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Whoever helps someone else in Jesus’ name will not lose the reward God has promised them.

However, Jesus isn’t finished sharing. Continuing the theme of helping others, Jesus turns the tables starting in verse 42, saying:

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. ⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ [where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.] ⁴⁵ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, ⁴⁶ [where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.] ⁴⁷ If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, ⁴⁸ where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

⁴⁹ “For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

In the last section of our passage, we come to a very challenging idea: It would be better for us to cut a part of our body off if it causes us to sin than to risk our salvation. This is a challenging part of our passage because it implies that God wants us to injure ourselves. The implication is that our body controls our head.

While some people may let their bodies and their impulses control their lives, when given the choice of hell or losing a part of your body, I would imagine most people would recoil and acknowledge that any part of their body could be brought into control. Choosing between facing hell or losing a part of your body is like choosing between two significantly bad options when a third option exists.

The third option is banishing the sin from your life and bringing whatever part of your body into control so it does not cause you to sin any more. It may be significant that Jesus uses the example of hand, foot, and eye in this graphic illustration. Our hands can symbolize what we do, our feet symbolize where we go, and our eyes symbolize what we focus on.

In each of these cases, we have the freedom to choose. We can choose to do something wrong, which some people might define using the word sin; we can choose to go somewhere that is not spiritually healthy; and we can choose to focus on things that are not beneficial for our lives. While looking at these three ideas, it’s amazing in my mind that these three ideas create a loop. However, the progression this loop takes is in reverse order of what Jesus shared. The loop looks like this: Focus leads to movement, and movement leads to action. However, action then also prompts us to focus more, leading to more movement, and more action, allowing the loop to continue.

If we are stuck in a loop of sinning, we may have to do something drastic to break this cycle. While I don’t suggest maiming yourself or cutting a part of your body off, I think that given the choice of hell or being crippled, you would look intentionally for a third option.

Our third option comes in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. Verse 49 tells us that “everyone will be salted with fire.” While I haven’t done much study on this verse, it is possible that one way to understand Jesus’ words here relate to experiencing the Holy Spirit. Everyone gets the option of receiving and feeling the Holy Spirit’s fire. However, depending upon who the person is, the Holy Spirit’s fire can harden their hearts against God, or it will soften their hearts to hear His message. Everyone is given the option to choose Jesus or not. It is a choice we are freely given, and one that we all must make.

While there is much more we could discuss on this angle of the subject, don’t let the skeptic inside you ask the questions about everyone who doesn’t know about Jesus, or who couldn’t have known. This passage and challenge isn’t about them. This passage and challenge is about you. “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Let the Holy Spirit into your lives and let the Holy Spirit help you become who God created you 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, intentionally seek God first and let the Holy Spirit fill your life. Choose to let God help you move away from sin and intentionally control your bodies and actions in a way that builds up your life towards God’s ideal and don’t let your lives drift into a loop that feeds sin. We can choose what we will focus on, where we will go, and what we will do, and while some people have more freedom in these areas than others, we all have enough freedom to choose to sin or not to sin in any given situation.

Also, continue praying and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. God wants a personal relationship with you, and He wants to help you break free from the sin that is holding you back in 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 let sin or temptation steal you away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our last episode, we began looking at the event where Jesus healed the paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda. However, like many of the previous events we have looked at this year, this one contained more than one episode could handle, and we finished our last episode before the event had finished.

We left off immediately following Jesus healing the man, but before we discovered what happened next. Let’s read this whole event, and then focus in on the conclusion and what we can learn about what Jesus felt was important for us to pay attention to.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of John, chapter 5, and we will be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ^9a Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

In our last episode, we stopped reading at this point, but this is the point in our event when things are about to get even more interesting. Continuing in the second half of verse 9, John tells us that:

^9b Now that day was the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”

¹¹ He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³ But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

In this passage, we discover that Jesus had the audacity to heal this hurting man on the Sabbath, the day set aside for rest and for focusing on God. Work wasn’t just discouraged, it was prohibited, and the religious leaders kept a long list of what we could call “clarification laws” in place to determine whether an activity could be classified as work or not. One such prohibition was carrying your sleeping mat.

This then prompts the question in my own mind of why Jesus would heal this man on the Sabbath when any other day of the week would do? If you are remotely familiar with the gospels, you will know that many of Jesus’ healing miracles were done on the Sabbath, and Jesus didn’t seem to even remotely consider healing to be against the day God set aside for rest.

Since Jesus seemed to be so relaxed about what it meant to honor and remember the Sabbath, should we be as relaxed as Jesus was? If God set the Sabbath aside as holy, and Jesus acted indifferent towards it, does that mean that we can act indifferent towards it as well?

This is where many Christians are today, but it is important to pay attention to the small detail that Jesus never acted with indifference towards the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus didn’t pay much attention to the religious leaders’ extra laws they had constructed around determining if one was properly keeping the Sabbath.

A great way to describe this attitude was if we were to drive along a road where the speed limit was 75 miles per hour, or for our friends outside of the United States, let’s say the speed limit was 120 kilometers per hour. Knowing that people like to push their limits, the religious leaders decide it’s best to set and enforce a lower speed limit, just to make sure the people don’t actually break the real speed limit. In our example, the religious leaders set their cautionary speed limit at 50 miles per hour, or 80 kilometers per hour.

Then Jesus comes along, and while everyone has gotten use to the idea of driving at the slower limits, Jesus decides He will drive at 70 miles per hour, or 110 kilometers per hour, which is within the actual speed limits of the road, but beyond the religious leaders’ arbitrarily imposed limits.

When we look at how Jesus treated the Sabbath, we never see Him break any of God’s laws regarding Sabbath observance, but we do see Him instruct others, we see His disciples, and we likely could even see Him break some of the religious leaders’ extra laws in place for the Sabbath. In the case of our miracle, nothing in God’s law prohibited a person from carrying their sleeping mat on the Sabbath. This was clearly a cautionary law intended to keep people from coming close to actually breaking the real laws. Jesus knew this, and the man probably knew this too, which is why he didn’t hesitate when Jesus told him to pick up his mat and go home.

It is also interesting that this man does not have faith in Jesus knowing who Jesus is. Perhaps he had prayed earlier that day for God to help him, and that is what prompted Jesus to stop by. Whatever the case was, when the man is challenged by the religious leaders for breaking their laws, he doesn’t know who Jesus was to be able to identify Jesus to these leaders.

Regardless of this detail though, the leaders almost were guaranteed to have attributed this miracle, and the lawlessness they saw in this healed man, to Jesus before the man even knew it was Jesus.

Does Jesus want us to break the law? No. When we break the law, we will face consequences. When we break the law of the country we are in, we face civil punishments; and when we break God’s law, we will face spiritual punishment. Jesus never advocated breaking civil or spiritual laws, but He was very clear that when there was a conflict between civil and spiritual laws, we are to abide by the spiritual laws and their standard over the civil laws that conflict.

In this event, we might think Jesus broke the spiritual law by healing on the Sabbath, but it is best for us to remember that the only laws broken in this passage were the unrealistic laws that the religious leaders had built up around the Sabbath in order to appear superior to others. Jesus never broke God’s law, and Jesus upheld God’s law to a level the religious leaders never even came close to. Jesus obeyed God’s law and He modeled obedience based on love and gratitude – and as followers of Jesus, we are called to obey, not because God will kill us if we don’t, but because we are thankful, grateful, and happy God sent Jesus to redeem us.

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

As always, intentionally seek God first and place Him first in your life. Choose to obey God’s law because you love God, and because you are thankful to God for everything He has already done for you. Obey because of what has already been given and not because you expect to be given anything more. Sure, God has promised us so much more, but obeying with the expectation of what we will get leads us towards the path of legalism and away from love. Obeying because we are grateful for what God has already done for us keeps us on the path of love.

Also, be sure to keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God. While others can give you great ideas to think about, filter everything you learn and see through the lens of God’s Word and use His word as your guide in life.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Continuing the theme we have been focusing on for the past few podcast episodes, we come to another passage where Jesus tries to warn His disciples about His upcoming death. However, this passage contains a unique detail in it which might shed light on why the disciples were so ignorant of Jesus’ repeated warnings.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Version. Starting in verse 30, Mark tells us that:

³⁰ They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, ³¹ because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” ³² But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

³⁶ He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

In this passage, I find it interesting that Mark tells us that the disciples “did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it” when referring to Jesus teaching them and warning them about His upcoming death.

This teaches us that fear can stop us from asking the questions that God wants us to ask, and to push forward along the path God wants us to take.

However, why would the disciples be afraid to ask a simple question?

From what we have looked at so far, it seemed as though while Jesus stressed this warning and this prediction, the disciples remembered how Jesus challenged Peter when Peter challenged Jesus on this point. Jesus went so far as to call Peter Satan because of this lack of understanding. I wonder if some of the fear that the disciples had was because they didn’t want to be called out for not knowing or believing. This detail challenges us with the truth that pride in our lives can stop us from asking the questions God wants us to ask because we are afraid of what others might think of us.

We might be afraid because the question might sound inappropriate, because it reveals our ignorance or that we weren’t paying attention, or because we are simply scared of what the answer might be. Many things can stop us from asking the questions God wants us to ask, but we shouldn’t let fear control our journey with God!

This passage also hints at another reason the disciples did not understand Jesus’ clear warning about His upcoming death. When Jesus asks the disciples what they were arguing about while He was trying to teach them on the road while they were traveling earlier that day, the disciples refuse to answer because they knew they had argued about who was the greatest. While Jesus was trying to share with them what would happen soon, the disciples were too busy deciding who would take what place in the kingdom they believe Jesus would set up after overthrowing the Romans. The disciples had fame and status on their minds while Jesus was trying to teach them humility and that He would be crucified.

To help emphasize the point, Jesus called a child to Him and He uses this child as a clear visual illustration. Drawing our attention onto this point, remember that Jesus is in a home in Capernaum with His disciples. Remember also that Jesus doesn’t want everyone to know where He is because He wants more time to teach the disciples. This prompts the question: Where did this child come from?

Prior to reading this here, I had always pictured this event happening in a field, on a hill, or somewhere out in the open with crowds present. However, while there was at least one other time Jesus invited children to Him like that, in this passage and event, Jesus and the disciples were in a home with a closed door.

Two probable answers for this question come to mind. The first answer is that this child and his family had chosen to follow Jesus and they were included in the larger circle of disciples. One of the gospels mention a group of 72 followers of Jesus, and it is possible that this child was one of these followers, or that He was with his parents who were part of this larger group.

The other answer to this question about where the child came from is that the home Jesus was staying at might have had children in it. From other parts of the gospels, we can conclude that several of the disciples lived in Capernaum and we know that Peter was old enough to be married. If Jesus and the disciples were visiting Peter’s home, it is possible that this little child was Peter’s son or daughter.

However, while it may be fun to speculate about who the child is specifically, this detail is less relevant than who this child represents. While we can speculate about the details of this child, the bigger challenge is Jesus’ big idea: In order to be great in God’s eyes, we must welcome, help, and serve those who society believes are last.

While culture today seems to place an extraordinary focus on children, this was not the case in the first century. Prior to Christianity, children were seen as the lowest in society and in some cases, children were not even named until after a certain age because of high infant mortality and parents not wanting to get too attached.

Jesus’ challenge to His followers is to focus on service over status and look for ways to step down rather than step up. While many worldviews and religions stress the goals of stepping up, Jesus challenges His disciples to step down and serve. Stepping down is how we are seen as great in God’s eyes, and it is how we best represent Jesus.

When we welcome those who society has rejected, Jesus tells us we are not only welcoming Him too, but we are welcoming God, who looks down at this planet and sees all life as special and significant. Regardless of what culture tells you, in God’s eyes, you matter and regardless of what you might believe about yourself, Jesus came to redeem you from the punishment for your sins.

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 step down and serve those who society looks down on. Never believe yourself to be above another person, but instead, choose to see the world as a place God has placed you in so you can help, serve, and be a light of God’s love to those He brings your way. While everything in culture focuses on building oneself up, choose instead to focus on building others up while giving glory and credit to Jesus.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even a podcaster can share or challenge you with interesting thoughts, take everything you learn and test it against the truth in the Bible. God wants a personal relationship with us and a personal relationship is best grown through spending time together. God does not want our relationship with Him to be dependent on anyone else.

Instead, bring your questions, your concerns, and your fears directly to God and let Him help you walk through the challenges of this life with Him by your side.

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 be afraid of going where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue in the gospels looking at Jesus’ miracles, we now jump over into John’s gospel, and a miracle that only John chose to include. In this miracle, we discover something amazing about Jesus, about God, and we discover one possible reason why we may not see God’s help in our lives in a more visible way. In this unassuming but powerful passage, we can discover a clue to why we might not see many answered prayers in our lives.

Let’s read this miracle and focus in on what we can learn from what John tells us happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 5, and we will be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed. [It is here that some translations add the last phrase of verse 3 and verse 4, which tells us that they were: —waiting for the moving of the water, ⁴ because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].

After setting the stage in these first four verses, verse 5 begins sharing the details of our miracle:

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ^9a Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Let’s stop reading here to focus on what we can learn from what has just happened. While we don’t know how many people were sick around the pool that day, from a simple reading of this event, we see Jesus enter this place where there was a high concentration of sick people, He heals one man, and then He leaves. We might even conclude that Jesus left every other sick person present without healing them since John doesn’t tell us Jesus healed anyone else.

When reading this event, and concluding that Jesus likely left everyone else in their sick, diseased, or disabled state, we don’t see a very “Christ-like” character. We expect Jesus and God to be loving, and isn’t the most loving thing Jesus could do in this situation was heal everyone present? Healing everyone is loving, but healing everyone does not show us an accurate picture of God.

While we don’t like to think about it, there are some times when God chooses not to heal someone instead of healing them. We cannot know all the answers to why this is, but we can trust that when we are able to see the big picture from God’s perspective, we will understand. Some people choose to discount God’s love or His existence because of this dilemma, but this dilemma only is unsolvable when we see this life as all there is to live.

As soon as we frame our world today as infected with sin, and God’s ultimate goal as saving as many people as possible from this sin while also clearly exposing sin for what it truly is so it will never reappear throughout eternity, we can begin to see why sin might be allowed to persist a little longer. God’s ultimate goal and long-term plan is to end this world that includes pain, disease, death, and sin in order to recreate it as perfect and sinless where it will be this way throughout eternity – and God wants to fill this newly recreated world with His redeemed people. If God ends history too soon, then sin may reappear later, which would be bad. Also, if God ends history too soon, then He may lose one or more people who could have been in heaven with Him. God wants as many people as possible in the new heaven and new earth, and He wants sin gone forever, never to reappear.

However, while this answers why God may not always answer our prayers, this event hints at another reason we never actually see answers to our prayers. This hint comes in the additional details setting the stage for this event, and from the formerly disabled man’s reply. In this event, we learned that periodically, and perhaps even somewhat randomly, an angel would stir the waters of this pool and the first sick person into this pool would be healed.

With how John describes this event, we can conclude that everyone at this pool was focused on getting in the water when it had been stirred. The focus of their hope was not on Jesus but on being healed by the pool. Only the man who had given up hope of ever reaching the pool experienced a visit from Jesus who came to heal him. This detail helps explain why Jesus didn’t heal everyone at this pool, and this detail also tells us why we might not see as many answers to our prayers as we would like.

If we choose to pray as a last resort, or if we choose to pray and then look for resolution for our prayers from sources other than God, we shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t see God answer our prayers. If we constantly look for help from places other than God, it’s only logical that we won’t see God helping much in our lives. However, if we pray and we know that God oftentimes works behind the scenes through the lives of other people and through what we might call coincidences, then we are able to see His hand moving in many more places than we first are able to realize. This is why it is easier to look back on our lives and see how God has lead us in the past than it is to recognize how He is leading us in the present.

God wants to answer our prayers, but He also wants us to give Him gratitude, thanks, and love for being our Provider. When we are grateful to God for everything He has done for us, and when we open our eyes to how He often works, we will begin to see answered prayers, blessings, and evidence for His existence everywhere.

While there’s more we could talk about in this event, let’s wait until our next episode to focus in on it. Until then, as we come to the end of this podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always seek God first and decide today to live a life that is grateful towards God for everything that He is doing. If you struggle with how God could let evil persist in the world today, take this question to Him and let Him lead you to an answer. While I’ve shared some of what I’ve learned in this episode, I’m sure there is more to this answer than what we would have time to cover.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. The closer you grow towards God, the more His character will rub off on your life and the better you will be at reflecting His love to the world around you. When we are reflecting God’s love in our world, we are living the best lives we can live in spite of the pain, sin, hurt, and hate that rages around 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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!