Reflective Bible Study

As we move through Matthew’s gospel looking at events that focus on Jesus, we come to an event where Jesus is more of a footnote in an event where the focus is completely different. In this event, Matthew records for us what happened to John the Baptist, who was Jesus’ forerunner in ministry. At this point of Jesus’ story, John the Baptist had been dead for a while, but Matthew breaks from Jesus’ story briefly to describe what happened to bring about John’s death.

While you probably know this story if you have spent any time in the gospels, let’s read it together and discover some things we can learn from what happened. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ At that time Herod, the ruler of Galilee, heard the reports about Jesus. ² So he said to his servants, “Jesus is John the Baptist, who has risen from the dead. That is why he can work these miracles.”

³ Sometime before this, Herod had arrested John, tied him up, and put him into prison. Herod did this because of Herodias, who had been the wife of Philip, Herod’s brother. ⁴ John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to be married to Herodias.” ⁵ Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they believed John was a prophet.

⁶ On Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod and his guests, and she pleased him. ⁷ So he promised with an oath to give her anything she wanted. ⁸ Herodias told her daughter what to ask for, so she said to Herod, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” ⁹ Although King Herod was very sad, he had made a promise, and his dinner guests had heard him. So Herod ordered that what she asked for be done. ¹⁰ He sent soldiers to the prison to cut off John’s head. ¹¹ And they brought it on a platter and gave it to the girl, and she took it to her mother. ¹² John’s followers came and got his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

In this somewhat disturbing passage, we learn how John the Baptist died. While John had likely been locked up for many months before His death, the impression I get when reading this event is that Herod did not want John’s death. Instead, He simply wanted John’s silence.

However, in this event, as I move through the characters present, we can discover some powerful themes that hold true today.

When looking at John and his interaction with Herod, we learn in verse 5 that “Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they believed John was a prophet”. From the verses prior to this, we learned that John openly challenged Herod on his marriage to his brother’s wife. From this section of the passage, we see the big themes that sinful people are intimidated by someone who speaks truth. We also see the theme that sinful people hate those who speak out against them and/or their actions.

At least one of the other gospels that include this event indicate that Herod wasn’t directly intimidated or hostile towards John, but was pressured and prompted by Herodias, his wife, because she hated John for speaking out against their marriage. Herodias had divorced herself from Herod’s brother, and Herod had divorced his first wife so the two of them could get married, and John challenged the validity of this arrangement.

The question remains whether this was a wise move on John’s part or not. In the big picture, John’s ministry led into Jesus’ ministry, and while many people understood this, John still kept followers even after pointing people towards Jesus. From the big picture, John could have been led to do this as a way of removing himself from the picture and emphasizing to his followers that they should follow Jesus.

However, unless God’s Holy Spirit is telling you to challenge someone in this way, this is not a wise move. While you might feel justified in your actions, calling someone out publicly for their sins or actions will only bring you hate and hostility in return. By calling out someone for the bad in their life, you only polarize people, and, more importantly, you likely misrepresent God’s love in the process.

While God is opposed to sin in any and every way possible, when we look at Jesus, we see a picture that separates the sin from the sinner, and through Jesus, we see a God who loved sinners and who called them out of sin. Jesus helped first then challenged second whenever He met a sinner who was hurting and needed help. I believe all of God’s people are called to model God’s love through Jesus’ example in this way!

Moving to the second portion of the event, when we look at Herod’s interaction with his niece, or adopted daughter depending on how you want to frame this, we can learn that we should be careful what we promise. Our promises may ultimately trap us in ways we didn’t wish or expect.

I don’t think Herod would have made such an open-ended promise if he knew beforehand what Herodias’ daughter was going to ask for. Because he had made a public oath, and because the request was well within the confines of the oath, Herod trapped himself into doing something he really didn’t want to do with this promise.

However, as a side-note, it is interesting that Herod believes Jesus to be a resurrected John the Baptist before he believes that Jesus is someone else entirely. This tells us that Herod believed the God of the Jews was powerful and that He could resurrect people, and that Herod believed John was worth resurrecting.

However, probably the most challenging theme I see in this passage is with Herodias herself. This theme challenges us with a simple phrase: Be patient. If you want something bad enough, an opportunity will likely arise when you can have it, even if it isn’t within God’s will, and even if everything about it will harm you in the long run.

This theme is challenging, because it places our desires and God’s desires for us as competing. God is not going to force His desires onto us. Instead, God is going to let us make the decision for ourselves, even if He knows that our desires will ultimately hurt us in the long run.

I don’t think God will protect us from every stupid decision we make that is outside of His will. Instead, I believe that more often than not, God will let us learn the results of our actions firsthand and face the natural consequences of our decisions. The challenge for all of God’s people is to lay our desires aside, and ask God to give us His desires for our lives. While God won’t always ask us to do things that make sense from our perspective, God is interested in filling up His Kingdom with as many people as possible. God works from the perspective of eternity, and He wants as many people as possible redeemed from this sinful world.

God’s ultimate goal is to save you, to save me, and to save as many people from this world as possible! God does not want anyone to perish. Instead, Jesus came to die for humanity and for all who are willing to accept God’s gift of salvation!

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, continue seeking God first and intentionally place His will and His purpose above your own. While we might not always understand why God prompts us to act in certain ways or do certain things, trust that God knows what He is doing and that His perspective will lead the most people possible into eternity.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. For a relationship with God to be personal, you must be spending time with God in prayer and study, and this must be personal and not dependant on someone else. God doesn’t want anyone standing between you and Him. He wants a personal relationship with you because He loves you with all His heart!

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 get tricked out of following where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, immediately following Judas Iscariot leaving to get the soldiers and mob to arrest Jesus, we read in John’s gospel that Jesus wanted to teach something new to the remaining disciples. Now that the final pieces were in motion leading to the cross, Jesus begins sharing more openly and plainly with the disciples now that they only have hours left together.

Let’s read our passage for this episode and discover the first thing Jesus wanted to teach these disciples. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, John tells us that:

³¹ When he [Judas Iscariot] was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

³⁶ Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

³⁷ Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸ Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

In this short passage, Jesus both challenges Peter and He gives a new command to these disciples. Both of these sections in our passage are worth focusing in on, so in the time we have together let’s start with Jesus’ “new command” and see how far we can get.

I’ve heard it said that this new command is not really all that new. Loving God and loving our neighbor basically summarize both this command as well as all the other commandments in the Old Testament. With this line of thinking, Jesus doesn’t really say that this is a new command, but that He is reminding and reemphasizing a familiar command that was already given. It’s possible that the original Greek language supports this interpretation, however I don’t know this for certain since Greek is not one of my language specialties.

However, while this reminder and reemphasis angle on Jesus’ command makes sense on one level, what if this really was meant to be a new command? What if Jesus wanted to elevate the standard that His disciples would model?

In the original summary of all the commands, Jesus taught that loving God and loving our neighbor were the two commands that all the other commandments can be categorized into. Every other commandment could be grouped as either being an example of loving God, loving our neighbor, or some combination of both. But what if there was a group that was missing, or a group that would be easy to exclude?

When looking at how Jesus described loving God and our neighbor, we have a religious expert ask for clarification regarding how to define the idea of neighbor. From this question, Jesus shared the well known parable of the Good Samaritan, which concluded with the least likeable character being the most helpful – and the one who modeled loving a neighbor the best. From the Good Samaritan parable, we learn that loving our neighbor not only covers the neighborly commands of the Ten Commandments, but also that it covers helping strangers who are in need.

But what about those we know but we don’t really like or get along with? What about those people who seem to get under our skin and those people who know how to push all of our buttons?

In my own mind, it is in many ways easier to love and help a total stranger who is in need than to help someone I know who repeatedly keeps messing up or abusing the system. It is also easier to help a stranger than someone who I don’t agree with.

Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples were about as diverse as you could imagine. While no Samaritans were included, we have fishermen, a tax collector, and a zealot – who was someone intent on overthrowing the Roman government. In the broader group of followers, there were former prostitutes, Samaritans, and even some political and religious leaders. Jesus’ followers included people from any and every section of society.

In the command Jesus gives to His disciples, I see Him challenging His followers to love others simply because they are part of the human family. While loving our neighbor is a part of this, this also means loving those who are clearly acting, living, and believing differently than we do. This challenge is a challenge to love others because Jesus loved us, and not because of who the other person is or could be. We love others because Jesus loved us, and because God lives in our heart.

However, as I read our passage, I find it a little humorous that Peter seems to completely miss Jesus’ new command. Giving Peter the benefit of a doubt, the best we could give Peter is that he agrees but pushes this new command to the sidelines.

Peter, like many of the other disciples, is troubled by Jesus telling them that they cannot go with Him. Peter correctly assumes that Jesus could be referring to death, but Peter believes that He is devoted enough to stay by Jesus’ side to the very end.

However, while Jesus is present in Peter’s life, this is true. A little later this very night, when the soldiers arrive to arrest Jesus, Peter is the first to jump to Jesus’ defense. However, after Jesus was arrested, Peter begins to doubt and the doubt leads to denial. Peter wants to learn and know what happens to Jesus, but he also wants to maintain a level of anonymity while being nearby.

When we look at the story of the cross and how it breaks Peter’s life, we discover that we all share similarities with Peter. We all are willing to do a lot more than what ultimately happens, but when Jesus enters our lives, as we see Jesus do through the Holy Spirit after His resurrection, a Jesus-filled-Peter becomes an unstoppable force for God’s kingdom.

In our own lives, we are forgiven like Jesus forgave Peter, and we are called to love each other because Jesus has loved us. Jesus loved us not because of who we were or what we would become, but because of who God is. In our own lives, God has called us to love others because it is who we are when He is in our lives, and not because those we love will do anything differently. This is probably the greatest and most challenge command in the entire Bible – and God modeled it perfectly through Jesus!

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

Be sure to always seek God first and to intentionally love others like He loved us. We see God’s love for us through Jesus coming and dying on the cross in our place. He has called us to love others because He first loved us.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself and discover who God is and what He is like through the pages of the Bible. God wants a personal relationship with you and the best foundation to have for a strong relationship with God is a strong prayer and study life. Don’t let your relationship with God be filtered through or dependant on someone else’s relationship with God!

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!

Following a long series of parables that Matthew includes in his gospel, we discover that Jesus makes a trip back to His hometown of Nazareth. However, the reaction He gets when He arrives is fascinating in my mind.

Let’s read about what happens and what Jesus experienced when He returns home. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 53, we read:

⁵³ When Jesus finished telling these parables, he left that place ⁵⁴ and went back to his hometown. He taught in the synagogue, and those who heard him were amazed. “Where did he get such wisdom?” they asked. “And what about his miracles? ⁵⁵ Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? Isn’t Mary his mother, and aren’t James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? ⁵⁶ Aren’t all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?” ⁵⁷ And so they rejected him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is respected everywhere except in his hometown and by his own family.” ⁵⁸ Because they did not have faith, he did not perform many miracles there.

In this passage, Jesus returns home to Nazareth, and when the Sabbath came, He went and taught in the synagogue. Two things stand out significantly in my mind about how this group of Jews responded to Jesus.

The first of these things is found in the questions they ask themselves about Jesus. Matthew tells us that they were amazed when they heard Him. This is powerful. They ask, “Where did he get such wisdom?” and “what about his miracles?” The initial response of those present is amazement. They appear to be very impressed with what Jesus was saying and sharing.

However, where this leads is just as amazing in my mind. Instead of seeing Jesus as someone who has grown in His relationship with God, they immediately seek to question where Jesus received His insight. Instead of simply accepting the wisdom Jesus shared, they are skeptical that someone as ordinary as Jesus could actually be extraordinary. These people look at Jesus’ family and they conclude that there isn’t anything special or abnormal in Jesus’ earthly parents or siblings. Because of this, they ultimately conclude that Jesus is not special at all, and not worthy of faith. These are the people who Jesus grew up with and around.

Mathew concludes by saying in verse 58 that “Because they did not have faith, [Jesus] did not perform many miracles there.”

This means that Jesus did perform some miracles while in Nazareth, but the miracles He did perform didn’t increase the faith of those present. Jesus helped those who chose to have faith, but the little faith that was present seemed to breed more skepticism rather than more faith.

I wonder if Mary and Joseph kept Jesus’ supernatural conception a secret. While Mary was definitely Jesus’ mother, I wonder if they didn’t openly share how Joseph was not Jesus’ father. Or, I wonder if those present simply assumed that Jesus and Joseph were biologically connected and they simply did not ask the question.

The other thing that stands out significantly in my mind when I read this is how we often fall into the exact same trap that those in Nazareth face. In our own lives, when we learn, hear, or read something new, the temptation is to quickly look deeper for a source, a story, or a motivation for what was shared. If new research comes to light about anything, we as a group instinctively will try to discern all the reasons we shouldn’t trust the research findings before looking at the findings itself.

If the findings validate what we already believe, they we blindly accept the research probably too quickly, whereas if the findings contradict what we believe, we challenge anything and everything about the research, the researchers, the funding source, and the motivation for the research itself. This is a characteristic of human nature, and it is as beneficial at times as it is detrimental.

The worst place we can find ourselves is listening or reading something about Jesus and choosing to accept or reject the idea based on our current beliefs. The next worse place we can go is to discredit the source of the idea. The best place to go to validate ideas about Jesus is to the closest source to Jesus we have, and that is the four gospels of the Bible.

There are more copies of the New Testament gospels than any other ancient written document. Also, the copies we have date more closely to the originals than any other ancient written source that I know of. This makes the Bible, probably the most controversial book in our world today, the best book to use when testing information and ideas about Jesus.

When Jesus arrived back in Nazareth, He was met with greater skepticism than if a complete stranger had arrived. Jesus came sharing wisdom and truth that was amazing and very impressive to those present. However, instead of accepting Jesus as Someone God sent to them with a special message, those in Nazareth decided it was best to dig into how Jesus could have learned or known what He shared, and when their search turns up empty, they decide to reject Jesus entirely.

We run the risk of this trap when we choose to reject Jesus based on anything but what the Bible teaches us in the gospels. The gospels are filled with information from eye witnesses and from those who were the closest to Jesus while He was on earth, and they are the best place to learn who the real Jesus was.

It’s also interesting in my mind that Jesus was rejected by people while He was alive on this earth. This means that we shouldn’t be surprised, hurt, or discouraged if we are rejected or if others reject Jesus in today’s world. Jesus didn’t come to please everyone or to get everyone to like Him. Jesus came to save all of God’s people, and to give humanity a better picture of God and His love for us!

Any message that paints Jesus as unloving towards those who were hurting, or unloving towards those who God loves, is a picture that does not match the Bible’s message about Jesus. With few exceptions, the only times Jesus speaks harshly are when He challenges those who believed they were better than others and who were self-righteously putting others down while trying to raise up their own status in God’s eyes. Jesus came to help those who were hurting and to give humanity hope for a future with God!

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 seek God first and place Him first in your life. Choose to accept Jesus and what He did for us when He came and died on the cross. Accept Jesus’ life as a picture of God’s heart and His love for you and for me.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and become more like Jesus. Through praying and studying the Bible, we are better able to be the representatives that God has called us to be, and we will be better equipped to love others like Jesus loved them.

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!

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He shares a supper with the disciples and while this supper was officially the Passover meal for Jesus and His disciples that year, Jesus takes this special, yearly meal, and He gives it new significance. This special meal, called the Last Supper, is one of the most symbolic and significant traditions Christianity has kept while moving forward through history.

Let’s read what Jesus does and how He turns this Passover celebration, and points it to His mission. While we could read this event from several of the gospels, let’s read it from Luke’s gospel. Our passage is found Luke, chapter 22, and we will be reading from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 14, Luke tells us that:

¹⁴ When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table with the apostles. ¹⁵ He said to them, “I have wanted so much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer! ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will never eat it until it is given its full meaning in the Kingdom of God.”

¹⁷ Then Jesus took a cup, gave thanks to God, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. ¹⁸ I tell you that from now on I will not drink this wine until the Kingdom of God comes.”

¹⁹ Then he took a piece of bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” ²⁰ In the same way, he gave them the cup after the supper, saying, “This cup is God’s new covenant sealed with my blood, which is poured out for you.”

What Luke has just described is the foundation of the Last Supper that is celebrated at various times depending on the church. I’ve visited churches that celebrate this as a part of their weekly meeting, and I have visited churches that celebrate the Last Supper only once a year.

There are churches who celebrate this meal with little tiny wafer crackers and half-an-ounce glasses of grape juice, while other churches celebrate this with a larger meal and/or different forms of wine. When the Bible speaks of wine, it simply means that it is juice from grapes, and it makes no distinction here whether this juice was fermented or not. In other places in the Bible, new wine likely refers to fresh grape juice, while old wine likely refers to grape juice that has fermented.

However, what is it about the bread and the wine that makes it special?

Well, first, Jesus tells the disciples that He will not drink this wine again until the Kingdom of God comes. This is an interesting thing to say, because it tells us that Jesus is waiting in Heaven for His return before drinking this drink again. This points us forward to the second coming as being something we should look forward to, and it tells us that Jesus is looking forward to sharing this special drink, and probably this very special meal that will go with it, when He returns the second time.

Between today and when that special meal will happen, we have symbols in both the bread and the wine that we can remember.

The first symbol Luke tells us is the bread, which Jesus gave thanks for, broke it, and gave it to the disciples. Jesus’ body was given as a sacrifice for others; Jesus’ body was given as a sacrifice for you and for me. When we eat the special bread that is prepared for this occasion, we remember Jesus’ sacrifice that took our place. We deserved death while Jesus didn’t. He died our death so that we could live His life.

The second symbol is the symbol of the cup with the wine in it. This wine represents Jesus’ blood, which is poured out for us. On the surface, this second symbol sounds very redundant to the first, because both symbols point to the death of Jesus. However, I believe when we look at what Jesus’ blood represents, we see a greater picture of what He did for us.

In the Old Testament, the blood represented the life of a person or an animal. It was partially for this reason that Jews were instructed to not eat or drink an animal’s blood. When we take this symbolic meaning and see that Jesus poured out His blood for us, we could just as easily say that Jesus poured out His life for us. This is significant because the symbol of the wine draws together both Jesus’ life and His death, and it leads us to the clear conclusion that everything Jesus did, said, or gave was for others. Jesus gave Himself both while He was alive as well as through His death for you and for me!

While the bread symbolized Jesus’ body and Jesus paying the price for our sins, the wine symbolizes the life Jesus lived and the life that He offers to each of us when we accept Him into our lives and our hearts! Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, and He offers to give us His perfect life and His perfect record in exchange for ours. Jesus also offers us a new life with Him in a new heaven and a new earth when sin and death have been destroyed!

This is definitely something I am looking forward to, and I imagine you are looking forward with me to the day Jesus returns and we share the first “Last Supper” together with Him for eternity!

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

As always, be sure to seek God first and always intentionally place Him first in your life. Be sure to remember what Jesus has done for you, through His sacrifice, through the life that He gave, and through the life that He offers to each of us. Remember that our reward will last longer than any trial or challenge we face today and that is one reason we keep moving forward with God!

Also, as I always challenge you to do, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn first-hand what God wants to teach you. Pastors, authors, speakers, podcasters, or anyone else for that matter can have ideas worth thinking about. However, with all the conflicting ideas present in the world today, test everything with what you read and study in the Bible. The Bible is the safest foundation to have when times, cultures, and traditions seem to change with each generation.

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