Reflective Bible Study

Following up what we focused on in our last episode, we discover in our passage for this episode that Jesus’ mother and brothers arrive. If we were to take this passage and event by itself, we would not have any context for why Jesus’ mother and brothers were there. However, as our passage in the last episode pointed out, the purpose of Jesus’ family’s trip was to stop Jesus from doing what He had been called to do.

Let’s read what happened when they showed up, and discover some things we can learn from Jesus’ response. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will read from the New International Version. Starting in verse 31, Mark tells us:

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

In the entire gospel record, this event stands out in my mind as one of the most offensive things Jesus does. In three short verses, Jesus basically disowns His own family while emphasizing a bigger point about families in general. However, while we might be quick to point blame onto Jesus for how He reacts in this situation, He is not the only one at fault.

The way Jesus’ mother and brothers handle this situation is equally as bad. While Jesus’ family could have waited for an opportunity to go inside, or pushed their way through the crowds into the home, they send a message to Jesus instead. The implication in the message is that Jesus must stop what He is doing and step outside to talk to them.

While there is nothing in the message that is relayed to Jesus that indicates Jesus’ mother and brothers think He is crazy or that He needs to stop, we learn that from the context of this passage, specifically in the opening verses of our last episode’s passage.

In these few verses, we see Jesus’ family challenging Jesus to stop, and Jesus responding by redefining the idea of family in a way that excludes them.

However, I don’t see Jesus actually disowning His family. Instead, Jesus disowned what they were there doing. Instead of focusing on listening and learning, which would have been God’s will in this situation, we see Jesus’ family step outside of God’s will and try to get Jesus to stop.

How do we know that listening to Jesus is part of God’s will? From what Jesus implies in the last two verses in this passage. Verses 34 and 35 describe the scene: “Then he [Jesus] looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’”

Jesus draws attention to those seated in the circle around Him, and then He calls these men and women His mother and His brothers. Jesus then identifies the characteristic we must have to be called a brother, a sister, or a mother, and this characteristic is that we are doing God’s will. This means that those seated in the circle are doing what God wanted them to do because Jesus calls them His mother and His brothers, and Jesus’ family is made up of people doing God’s will.

This leads us to a huge truth: Doing God’s will places us within God’s family!

When we step outside of God’s will for our lives, we also step outside of God’s family. While it is never pleasant to think that our presence in God’s family is a matter of obedience, living within God’s will has at its definition a level of obedience. God’s will is not up for debate and God’s will for us is not something that changes.

In this passage, Jesus elevates but also simplifies what it means to be a part of God’s family. If you think doing God’s will is hard, you may be right, but according to this passage, doing God’s will is about as simple as you can think of. All those people in this passage did to be included in Jesus’ family and be identified as doing God’s will was simply sitting and listening to Jesus. I cannot think of a simpler way to be praised for being within God’s will.

While we don’t have Jesus physically speaking into our ears today like He did with those people in the first century, the next best option we have is reading the Bible, and in the context of this passage, we could say reading the gospels, that include Jesus’ own words. We could take this a step further and listen to an audio recording of the Bible to actually hear God’s word. With the technology available today, we can listen to the Bible in ways that would not have been dreamed of hundreds of years ago.

However, in this passage, we also see a challenge. In this passage, we see a subtle warning that our families might be a source of distraction. This passage subtly implies that Satan was working through Jesus’ mother and brothers to try to get Jesus to step outside of God’s will. If the Pharisees and religious leaders weren’t able to stop Jesus, Satan may have reasoned that Jesus’ own family might derail Him.

I am not going to step out and claim that in your case, Satan is distracting you from God’s will directly through your family. More often than not, life is more complex than this. Instead, knowing this is a possibility for us to face, especially since Jesus faced it Himself, we should find time that we can spend focusing on God and on Jesus when our families are not around or doing something that will distract us.

I will be the first to say that dedicating time to spend with God is much easier to say than it is to do. However, I also know that a strong relationship with God needs time spent with Him, and that means we must prioritize time with God. We have already seen in Mark’s gospel that Jesus focused on spending time with God. In our own lives, we must make spending time with God a priority because everything else in our life will try to steal time away from this incredibly significant habit.

As we come to the end of this 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 prioritize spending time with Him. Know that almost everything imaginable will try to steal time out of your life that you could spend with God, but believe that the time you spend with God will be rewarded in ways you cannot even begin to imagine. A strong relationship with God today leads into eternal life when Jesus returns. While there is more to the gospel than just this truth, the gospel message doesn’t mean much without this important detail.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue intentionally praying and studying the Bible for yourself to continue growing your personal relationship with God stronger. While pastors, speakers, authors, or even a podcaster can give you great things to think about, don’t neglect your time with God in favor of listening to other people. If you focus more on what others think and believe you will never be able to grow into the faith and knowledge that God has called you into. Instead, grow a personal relationship with God and let other people’s thoughts and ideas strengthen and encourage what you have already begun.

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!

After Jesus had finished healing Peter’s mother-in-law, which we looked at in our last episode, Luke’s gospel finishes out this day of miracles by describing what happened after sunset. While Jesus was healing Peter’s mother-in-law and resting that afternoon, something was happening throughout the region because of what Jesus had done that morning. Looking back two episodes ago, Jesus had cast a demon out of a man at a synagogue that morning, and that passage ended by telling us that word spread about Jesus throughout the region. The results of this news spreading all afternoon prompts the miracles found in our passage for this episode.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 40, Luke tells us that:

⁴⁰ At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. ⁴¹ Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

This two-verse passage includes plenty of things for us to pay attention to, and in some ways, this passage is a great summary and extension of the previous two miracles. The first of these two miracles was Jesus casting out a demon in the synagogue that morning, and the second was Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law. In this passage, we see Jesus healing more people of all sorts of diseases and Jesus casting out many more demons.

It is interesting in my mind that the same thing that happened in the morning miracle, when Jesus casts out the demon happens again when Jesus is casting the demons out that night. The man who was freed that morning had a demon who declares Jesus to be God’s Son and the demons who are cast out that night make a similar claim. In all these cases, Jesus commanded the demons to be quiet, and as we saw in the event two episodes ago, any claim a demon makes cannot be trusted.

Satan and his evil angels are not required to lie, but they are more than willing to. Hearing Satan declare someone as God’s Son should be enough to get us to take notice, but it shouldn’t be a claim we trust without further investigation.

Also, it is interesting that this is the first recorded mention of Jesus’ miracle-working where more people than the gospels can include came to be healed. If the only miracles prior to this point were the handful we have already looked at then this evening of helping, healing, and casting out demons greatly increased Jesus’ miracle count.

But Jesus didn’t perform miracles to get people to take notice. Instead, Jesus performed miracles that helped people, that gave glory to God, and that advanced God’s kingdom. On the surface, hearing a claim, even an untrustworthy claim, that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah seems to help press this mentality forward. However, as we saw two episodes ago, not only did Satan want to get people to distrust Jesus because of the source of the claim, if that didn’t work, Satan wanted the opposite extreme to happen. The opposite extreme in this case was for the people to forcibly make Jesus into a king and into the messiah they hoped would deliver them from the Romans.

While Jesus came to reveal God’s love towards us as a sinful race of beings, and while Jesus came to give His life in place of ours, Jesus’ mission was much bigger than the first-century Jewish culture recognized. Jesus came for humankind and not just for one race of people.

Our passage marks the beginning of Jesus’ miracle working popularity, and at the heart of these verses, we see God’s love for a sinful race of beings. Nothing in these verses speak to Jesus wanting to build Himself up, and nothing in these verses suggest that Jesus desired fame or popularity. Jesus actively pushed against these things, and we can see this the clearest when He repeatedly silences the demons declaring Him as God’s Son.

In our own lives, we are called to follow Jesus, to believe in Jesus, and to model Jesus. While we won’t have demons declare us to be God’s children, we should intentionally move through each day with the goal of showing a Christ-like love to the world around us. Jesus wasn’t afraid to confront sin, but He also never condemned the sinner.

This passage doesn’t describe Jesus looking down on anyone who was sick or demon-possessed. In place of looking down, Jesus reached down and helped each person that night experience healing and freedom from the chains of their past.

In the same way, we are called to reach down rather than look down. We are called to help where we can and to encourage others that God loves them, that Jesus died for them, and that together we are looking forward to eternal life in a new heaven and new earth – specifically a new heaven and new earth that doesn’t include the stain of sin!

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

Always seek God first and place Him first in your life. Learn to trust, depend, and lean on Him for help facing this life, and keep the hope alive in your hearts that He is preparing a home for us in heaven with Him. Choose to model your lives after Jesus lived, and choose to reach down to help others.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn firsthand what God is like through what He has preserved for us through history. The Bible is the record of God’s story in history, and He has kept it safe for thousands of years. If we can trust that God can keep us safe for eternity, we can trust that He is capable of keeping the Bible safe for a few thousand years. Use the Bible to filter what the world wants to claim as truth, and use the Bible as your final 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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Continuing our year moving through Mark’s gospel, we arrive at a passage that contains a warning, a very challenging truth and an amazing promise. However, while this passage is challenging and possibly confusing to some, we can claim the promise it includes in our own lives and our own mistakes because this passage’s promise is one that focuses on forgiveness.

Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 20, Mark tells us that:

²⁰ Jesus went back home, and once again such a large crowd gathered that there was no chance even to eat. ²¹ When Jesus’ family heard what he was doing, they thought he was crazy and went to get him under control.

²² Some teachers of the Law of Moses came from Jerusalem and said, “This man is under the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons! He is even forcing out demons with the help of Beelzebul.”

²³ Jesus told the people to gather around him. Then he spoke to them in riddles and said:

How can Satan force himself out? ²⁴ A nation whose people fight each other won’t last very long. ²⁵ And a family that fights won’t last long either. ²⁶ So if Satan fights against himself, that will be the end of him.

²⁷ How can anyone break into the house of a strong man and steal his things, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can take everything.

²⁸ I promise you that any of the sinful things you say or do can be forgiven, no matter how terrible those things are. ²⁹ But if you speak against the Holy Spirit, you can never be forgiven. That sin will be held against you forever.

³⁰ Jesus said this because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him.

In this passage, I am amazed at some of the details we discover. First, we discover that Jesus went back home, and the most likely place this is referring to is Capernaum, since this was where He first based His ministry. Capernaum is not too far away from Nazareth, which was where Jesus’ family lived.

The next detail I find fascinating. Verse 21 tells us “When Jesus’ family heard what he was doing, they thought he was crazy and went to get him under control.” The context of this verse is that Jesus was busy teaching people, healing people, and casting out demons. This might be why Jesus’ family thought He was crazy, or it could be Mark’s description of this situation, specifically that Jesus was so focused on helping people that “there was no chance even to eat”.

However, we don’t know what Jesus’ family concluded once they had arrived. I do find it interesting because if Jesus’ family, which I would assume to be His brothers and sisters and not His mom or dad in this context, remembered how Jesus was miraculously born and the promises that were given about Him at His birth, they would remember how extraordinary Jesus is. However, because this passage tells us Jesus’ family thought He was crazy, we can see the subtle truth that the longer something appears ordinary, the less believable an extraordinary change is. In the case of Jesus, regardless of His extraordinary birth, almost 30 years of normal development would be long enough to for someone to assume and conclude that there was nothing extraordinary about Him – which unfortunately means that they would miss seeing Jesus for who He came to be.

However, in addition to Jesus’ family believing He was crazy, teachers of Moses’ Law traveled up from Jerusalem to speak against Jesus. These teachers likely had seen enough evidence of Jesus’ successful healing and forcing out demons that they couldn’t argue with Jesus’ results. These teachers couldn’t challenge the fact that after Jesus forced a demon out, that demon was gone. The only angle for challenging Jesus was regarding how Jesus did this, and there are only two options available: either Jesus forced demons out with God’s power, or this was an elaborate trick of Satan.

Looking at Jesus’ response, we conclude that it is not logical for Satan to work against himself. If this was part of an elaborate trick, it was missing the trick. If Satan was being subtle and deceitful, the demons he would be casting out would be replaced by something worse. Satan is not interested in the well-being of humanity. Satan wants humanity to reject God and he wants us to distances ourselves as far away from the image of God we were created in as is possible.

If Jesus was receiving power from Satan to perform miracles, Satan would be fighting himself and ultimately prompting God to receive glory because in almost every case, God was glorified when Jesus helped or healed someone. Satan would not want to help or prompt God to receive glory. Satan’s claim is that God is untrustworthy and not worthy of glory at all. Helping Jesus give glory to God would run counter to Satan’s character.

However, a subtle truth we discover in this passage is that regardless of whether Jesus received Satan’s power or God’s power, how Jesus helped people ultimately doomed Satan’s kingdom. Either Satan fights himself and destroys his own kingdom, or Jesus really is more powerful than Satan is, and Satan’s kingdom is doomed because Jesus’ Source of power cannot be matched.

This passage concludes with Jesus promising us that anything we say or do can be forgiven, regardless of how bad those things are. However, speaking against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven. This is a huge challenge for us, but it is also a huge promise. The huge promise in this passage is that we can be forgiven of more than what we might think or believe. Whether your life is filled with sin or whether you have only sinned once, your sins can be forgiven.

However, what are sins that speak against the Holy Spirit, and why are they different?

While I’m sure many people have ideas and theories about this, my thought on this is partially based on what Mark tells us at the end of this passage. Verse 30, which comes immediately following this warning, tells us that “Jesus said this because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him”.

I believe the context for Jesus’ promise and warning have to do with where we attribute motives and actions on a spiritual level. If we learn that someone comes to God, repents, and puts their faith in Jesus, this can only happen if the Holy Spirit is involved. However, what if the context of this transformed life comes in the most unbelievable way? What if this person’s life transformation happens in a very questionable fashion?

Looking at what people were saying about Jesus, specifically that He used the power of demons and not the power of the Holy Spirit, we can conclude that speaking out against the Holy Spirit might refer to rejecting the Holy Spirit’s involvement in a situation where someone comes to God and claiming that this is really Satan working to deceive.

I will be the first to say that Satan is a master deceiver, but it is not up to us to judge the ways God chooses to work or chooses not to work, and God is not afraid of taking the most opposed person to Christianity and turning them into Jesus’ biggest supporter. For an example of this, we need to look no further than Saul in the book of Acts, and his conversion experience.

I believe this sin is unforgivable because the more we interpret the working of the Holy Spirit to Satan the more we will try to distance ourselves from whatever this work is. This has the effect of us distancing ourselves from God and when we are separated from God, we won’t have the belief or faith in Jesus that is needed to be saved – or to use another term: forgiven.

While we won’t have all our questions answered, and while some things God does might confuse us, it is better to hold onto our questions until we reach heaven than to reject God because He doesn’t fit into the box of our understanding or the box of our expectations. Let’s hold onto our faith in God and our belief in Jesus and accept that even though we don’t understand all of what God does, we can know that He loves us enough that Jesus came to redeem us from sin when we didn’t deserve redemption.

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 trust Him even if some of the things He does do not make sense. If God doesn’t make sense to you or I, then don’t reject Him because of this. Simply accept that God is infinitely bigger than you and I and that we likely are incapable of fully understanding Him. A god we can fully understand is not much of a God.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God. The more we spend time with God, the better we will be able to see and understand what He chooses to do. While we might not have all our questions answered, the only way to get any questions answered is to come to God with our questions and to let Him teach us through 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 deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

After Jesus finished healing at the synagogue, Luke’s gospel then tells us about someone else who needs healing. We also discover something we don’t often think of when we think of Jesus’ disciples, and we see the best response we can have when God has healed us. And this is all shared in just two short verses.

Let’s read this short, two-verse passage and discover some amazing truths about God’s character, Jesus’ love for us, and our response. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will be reading it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 38, Luke tells us that::

³⁸ Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. ³⁹ So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

In these two verses, we discover many things. In the first verse, we read that Jesus headed home with Simon after the synagogue service was finished, and when we compare this passage to Matthew and Mark, this Simon is Simon Peter, the disciple of Jesus. While Jesus and the disciples are at Simon’s home, we learn that Simon has a mother-in-law who has a fever.

It isn’t common to think of the disciples as being married and/or having families, but it is possible that some of them did. In this case, Simon Peter has a mother-in-law and the only way you have a mother-in-law is if you have a wife. Since this was Simon Peter’s home, it is likely that Simon’s wife was taking care of her mother even though she isn’t mentioned in this event.

When Jesus arrived, He is asked to help, and while help could mean a lot of things in this context, I believe Simon is asking for a miracle. Up to this point, Jesus has turned water into wine, He has cast out a demon, and He has promised a father that his son would be healed. While the gospels were written after the events had happened, it is unclear if word had returned to Jesus and the disciples that the long-distant miraculous healing had worked. All this is to say that Simon’s request for help might refer to a miracle, but it’s possible that he hasn’t seen any healing miracles at this point to base his faith on.

In the context of where this miracle is placed in the gospels, Peter simply places His faith in Jesus, specifically in who Jesus is, and not on a track record of seeing Jesus heal others. Having faith in Jesus because of who Jesus is and not what He can do is the way God wants us to have faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus shouldn’t be self-serving even if we occasionally ask for help in a personal way.

In the second verse of our passage, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and she “got up at once and began to wait on them”. (v. 39)

This event ends with one of the most appropriate responses we can see when God has touched someone’s life. Immediately following being healed, Peter’s mother-in-law gets up and says “thank you” by serving Jesus and the group of disciples. One of the most appropriate ways of saying “thank you” to Jesus and to God for everything He has done for you and I is through serving Him.

While the other primary way we can give God thanks is by praising Him and giving Him the credit for this miracle, those things are immediate responses, and responses of a temporary nature. Serving lasts longer and actions speak louder than words. In the case of us living over 2,000 years later, we serve God through serving others, and when we serve those who cannot repay us with more than a “thank you”, we are serving as God has called us to serve.

It is also interesting that this miracle would have happened on a Sabbath afternoon. That morning, Jesus and the early disciples were worshiping at the synagogue, and this happened immediately following this. This detail is interesting for two reasons. First, this detail is interesting because this was still the day set apart for rest, and on this day, Jesus should be resting. Healing people didn’t exert the same level of sweat as plowing a field or lifting a hammer, but it was one thing Jesus was known for, and while Jesus had been a carpenter before starting His public ministry, healing people became what He was known for leading up to His death.

This first detail teaches us that: Jesus helps others because He can and because they need help. Jesus wasn’t interested in making people wait because He needed rest and Jesus was more than willing to use the time set aside for resting to help those who needed help. We don’t have any indication that Peter’s mother-in-law would have died if Jesus had waited, but waiting to heal someone isn’t the impression Jesus wants us to have about God’s love for us. God wants us to know that He is ready and willing to help us when we need help, and He never waits when there isn’t a good reason.

The second detail is that when Peter’s mother-in-law is healed, she gets up and serves Jesus and the disciples. This serving is also not resting, but we don’t see any hint of judgment or correction given from Jesus regarding this response. Perhaps this service didn’t draw negative light because it was a normal level of service for someone who was a host or hostess, and perhaps because there were no Pharisees around to look down on this healing miracle and the response it prompted.

In these two short verses, we discover how God is more than willing to help us when we need help, and that serving God is an appropriate way to say “thank you” for what He has done for us. And all of this help, service, and response is more than acceptable on the day God set aside for worship and rest.

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

Always continue to seek God first and place Him first in your life. Don’t be afraid of asking God for help and don’t be afraid of saying “thank you” to God through serving Him and helping others.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. While other people can give you things to think about, always filter what you learn through the lens of the Bible – especially for the subject matters the Bible speaks most clearly about.

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