Reflective Bible Study

When reading the gospels, one might get the mistaken impression that everyone who Jesus invited to follow Him dropped everything they were previously doing to follow. While dropping everything to follow Jesus appears to be the case in a number of instances, within the few verses of the passage we are focusing in on, we discover that not everyone invited has an easy decision.

In many cases, as well as in my own life, the decision to follow Jesus involves giving certain things up from within this life. While I don’t believe God asks us to give up things of value in this life without offering us something greater in the future, too often, we find ourselves believing that following God isn’t worth it, or following Jesus is too difficult.

While it is easy to think about our own struggle with choosing to follow Jesus, it is surprising to discover that those in the first century also faced this dilemma.

Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 8, and we’ll be reading it using the Good News Translation: Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸ When Jesus noticed the crowd around him, he ordered his disciples to go to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ A teacher of the Law came to him. “Teacher,” he said, “I am ready to go with you wherever you go.”

²⁰ Jesus answered him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.”

²¹ Another man, who was a disciple, said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.”

²² “Follow me,” Jesus answered, “and let the dead bury their own dead.”

What amazes me about the event in this passage is one detail that is often missed.

Usually, when we read this event, we think all the people who faced tension on whether to follow Jesus rejected the invitation. I suspect this is because in the most notable case, the rich, young ruler leaves sorrowfully, even if his question isn’t directly about following Jesus. However, in the case of the verses we just read, there isn’t any clear distinction about what each man chose.

That is, except for one overlooked clue that only Matthew includes. Verse 21 begins with the words, “Another man, who was a disciple, said . . .”

Now in the first century, the word disciple was common and many rabbis and teachers had followers called disciples, but when we read the four gospels of the New Testament, the authors seem to reserve this descriptive term for those who were followers of Jesus.

In Matthew’s gospel, I think we are able to see a subtle clue that this was the unassuming call of one of the less famous disciples. This man took Jesus’ words to heart and chose to follow Him and let the dead bury themselves.

Some scholars say that this disciple’s request was not about simply attending an event that lowered a corpse into the ground, but a request that was asking if Jesus would be okay with him delaying accepting Jesus’ invitation until his father, who may have been old or on his deathbed, had died.

While I can understand the logic that these scholars use to reach their conclusion, I doubt this was the case in this instance. However, regardless of how long the disciple would have delayed accepting his invitation, I actually fully agree with the conclusion these scholars reach.

In His response, Jesus bluntly tells the man to get off the fence and make a decision on whether to follow Him, and because Matthew opens this man’s invitation by calling him a disciple, I logically conclude that this man accepted Jesus’ invitation, and followed Him from that point forward.

In a similar way, the invitation Jesus gives this unnamed disciple is the invitation that He gives to each one of us.

It is crucial that we don’t let anyone or anything delay us making the choice to accept Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. Our next moments are not 100% guaranteed, and while we are able to make the decision right now, this will not always be the case in the future.

While choosing to follow Jesus will redirect the focus of your life, this choice is not one that causes you to miss anything truly significant. Even though the temptation is to feel as though following Jesus means you will give up many things, almost everything we are called to give up can be categorized as something not really worthwhile. In the rare instance that we do give up something significant to follow Jesus, He promises us exponentially more and better things in return.

In other words, by focusing on Jesus, you will miss out on some things, but as I have learned, the things that are missed probably should be missed or skipped since they weren’t really beneficial for your life as a whole.

God wants the best life possible for us, both today and in the future, and the only things He wants us to miss or skip out on are the things that cheapen our lives, our relationships, and our value in God’s eyes.

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. If you haven’t chosen to live for Jesus yet, choose to do so today. At the very least, try living for Jesus for a few months or years. If you really don’t see the benefits after testing it out for yourself, nothing is stopping you from leaving. Christianity is free to join and free to leave for anyone who wants. While I don’t advocate leaving because of what God has promised to His people, God values your choice, and He loves freedom more than forcing you into a heaven that you wouldn’t want to live in.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to discover what God is really like, straight from the best source we have. While there is no shortage of opinions about God or the Bible, only by studying it for yourself can you personally discover what it says. Only by studying it for yourself can you really know if it is valuable for your life or not.

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!

When we imagine Jesus traveling throughout the countryside healing, teaching, and preaching to the crowds, in our minds, we always see the rag-tag group of disciples traveling with Him. We don’t ever get the picture that the disciples were anywhere but with Jesus.

However, in an odd turn of events, the gospel of John gives us a glimpse into a brief moment where Jesus was not with His disciples, but instead, He was with His brothers. While I don’t know what the context for this event was, it is interesting in my mind that John chose to include this event in his gospel.

Our event can be found in the gospel of John, chapter 7, and for our time together, we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

The big thing I find fascinating in this passage is what Jesus’ brothers imply through their words. In verse 4, Jesus’ brothers challenge Jesus by saying, “no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly”.

In essence, while Jesus’ brothers probably realize that Jesus is significant, and they probably grew up with the knowledge of Jesus extraordinary birth, and they also probably grew up hearing from Mary and Joseph that Jesus was the Messiah God had promised, none of these extraordinary things from Jesus’ past or present made sense to them when Jesus was not willing to be open or public about who He was.

In Jesus’ brothers’ minds, Jesus was going about the role of Messiah in the completely wrong way. If He was to be rallying people together in an effort to overthrow the Romans, staying out of Judea was not a practical plan, because, while Judea included people who wanted to kill Him, it also contained some of the people who were most likely to join a rebellion. In Galilee, which had a much higher concentration of Gentiles than other parts of the country, Jesus wouldn’t have had as much support, nor would He be as visible to the Jews that Jesus’ brothers likely believed He came to exclusively save.

But the error Jesus’ brothers make is that Jesus wanted to be known publicly. It is this error that catches many Christians and believers off guard, because while Jesus was famous because of the counter-cultural message He was sharing, and because He was able to heal almost anyone from almost anything that was bothering them, Christians today might incorrectly assume that fame was part of Jesus’ goals.

However, Jesus counters this very point by saying in verse 7, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it”. In these words, Jesus separates those present into two groups: Others and Himself. In this statement, Jesus also gives the counter-cultural message that the world hates Him.

Not everyone living in the first century hated Jesus, but a significant number of people living in the first century did. Probably the biggest source of hate towards Jesus both then and now is that His perfect life and selfless character conflict with the sin inside all of us. To reconcile this, we have to either accept Jesus’ offer of His new life, or try and fail to live up to the standard that He set through His life, or give up and not even try at all.

Jesus is hated because He calls evil by its true name, and His perfect life was modeled after the idea of loving the sinner while rejecting the sin. Jesus saw people as special, regardless of their past choices and sinful lifestyles. This love resonated with some, while it repelled a majority of others.

The majority of people who rejected Jesus did so because He either said things they did not agree with or feel they could live up to, or because they routinely built themselves up by putting others down.

Any fame Jesus received through His counter-cultural message and through the miracles He performed was not because He was trying to build a name for Himself. Instead, everything He did was because God directed Him to do so and because He wanted to give the glory to God. None of Jesus’ miracles were intended to bring glory or praise onto Himself; but every one of Jesus’ miracles was intended to focus the glory onto God who had worked in a mighty and powerful way.

In our own lives, for those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, Christians, or disciples, we are to reflect Jesus in our daily lives, and the only way we can truly reflect Him is if we are focused on Him, if we regularly spend time with Him, and if we intentionally love others like Him. The only way we can hope to accomplish anything for God is by doing what Jesus did and living like Jesus lived: Jesus depended on God for direction, guidance, power, love, humility, and He gave up self at every opportunity He could. When tempted, Jesus always pointed the focus elsewhere, and He never directed glory towards Himself.

Jesus’ brothers did not understand this because His brothers didn’t understand what God’s Messiah would be like. Similar to most everyone living in the first century, Jesus’ brothers believed He would be the military leader who would overthrow the Romans.

Only after Jesus’ death and the mold for their idea of who the Messiah would be was broken, do His closest followers, friends, and family realize that God’s Messiah came in a different way than they had imagined.

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

Continue to place God first and seek to do His will. Commit each day to living as selflessly as Jesus lived and loving others like Jesus loved. Know that you cannot succeed without God’s help, so lean on Him for the strength to reflect Jesus each day.

Also, prayerfully study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow more like Jesus. The only way for you to truly be like Jesus is to learn and discover who Jesus was, and who Jesus is. While you could take a podcaster’s or pastor’s word for it, it’s much better to study and learn personally, because God wants to know you personally and not as a “friend of a friend”.

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!

If you have ever had the picture in your mind of the disciples as being exceptionally godly people, or if you have looked up to them as being better than most people, it is likely you haven’t spent much time in the gospels. While many of the disciples end their lives as spiritual heroes, looking early on at their stories during the time they spend with Jesus, we get a completely different picture.

In our passage for this episode, we will look at a short passage where we see the disciples display a very negative character trait, and one that Jesus openly challenges them on. This character issue is jealousy.

While one or two of your friends might be surprised at this, I doubt you would be surprised to learn that jealousy was clearly visible in first century society. At the very least, when reading the gospel record, the Pharisees and other religious leaders were jealous of Jesus’ popularity. It is likely that some of those in the crowds who followed Jesus were jealous of Jesus’ disciples. Jealousy also was likely present even within the group of Jesus’ disciples, since periodically Jesus’ pulls aside Peter, James, and John to the exclusion of the other nine.

However, in our passage for this episode, we will discover a slightly different place jealousy showed up, and I am amazed at how Jesus responded to His disciples when they display jealousy towards other people who were not within their group.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 38, Mark tells us that:

³⁸ John said to Him [referring to Jesus], “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.

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. 

While I am tempted to read further, let’s stop here so we don’t miss the significance of what Jesus has just finished saying. Usually, this teaching is overshadowed by what comes next, and because of this, I don’t you to miss what Jesus is saying to His followers here in these few verses.

At this point in His ministry, Jesus has fame and credibility, and it is clear that His followers are able to cast out demons like Jesus can. Others have picked up on this as well, and had observed that Jesus’ disciples used Jesus’ name to cast out these evil spirits. This leads to at least one of these spectators to try casting out demons like the disciples and Jesus had and it’s likely that they succeeded, since watching a person fail does not prompt jealousy.

Since the other exorcism using Jesus’ name was successful, it prompts John, the famous disciple and author of one of our gospels to be jealous of this spectator’s success. In my mind, John likely shared this event with Jesus with enthusiasm, because He was able to curb the potential chaos that could have happened if people learned that anyone could use Jesus’ name to perform miracles and cast out demons.

However, Jesus surprises John with His response. Verse 39 and verse 40 directly address John’s heart and attitude. “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. For he who is not against us is for us.” Another way to state that last phrase would be to say, “Those who are not against us are on our side.”

Instead of congratulating John for maintaining order and the hierarchy of Jesus’ growing kingdom and ministry, Jesus challenges John’s motives and He addresses the pride that is present in John’s heart. An exclusive attitude is one form of pride, and Jesus wants to redirect John’s thinking on how God is inclusive not exclusive. While John wanted to exclude other people until they were directly part of their group, Jesus wanted John to learn that God is inclusive, and God is more interested in motives and hearts rather than on social or racial classes.

Jumping forward several thousand years to when we live now, if we model an exclusive attitude towards a particular faith, religion, or denomination, we are directly following John’s lead right before Jesus challenged him, and not paying attention to Jesus’ challenge of inclusivity. Jesus’ words and instructions for us are to not stop others from following Jesus, because if God is with them (which is evidenced by their performing a miracle from God), they will not be able to speak evil about Jesus.

As I say this, Jesus’ teaching here may be a clear litmus test to determine whether a miracle is from God or from Satan. It is unlikely that Satan could speak well of Jesus while at the same time performing God-like miracles. However, as I say this, I doubt Satan would ever speak well of Jesus, so any miracle or trick Satan does will almost certainly not point people to God, Jesus, or the Bible.

In this passage, Jesus’ instructions come with a promise and a warning. Jesus first promises us that those who help others simply because they follow Jesus will not lose their reward from God. The strongly implied tone in this promise is helping these other people regardless of their race, gender, orientation, hair color, attitude, political affiliation, level of wealth, lack of any wealth, or any other characteristic that groups people together. Those people Jesus promises that God will reward are people who helped others simply because they are followers of Jesus. Jesus’ promise is very inclusive, because God promises to reward not just His people, but anyone and everyone who is nice and hospitable to His people as well. Looking at the world today draws us to the clear conclusion that there are people who are nice and hospitable towards Christians and Jesus followers, while there are others who are outright opposed to anything even resembling faith or religion.

At the end of Jesus’ teaching that we focused in on, He also shares a warning. Jesus says that whoever causes another to stumble, it would have been better for that person to be drowned. In this warning, Jesus condemns anyone putting roadblocks in another person’s relationship with God. People placing themselves between others and God is clearly something God does not want, like, or tolerate. Jesus came to remove the great divide between heaven and humanity that sin caused, and if Jesus bridged this divide, who are we to recreate it.

Jesus’ sacrifice gives us a picture of God and His love, as well as restoring our ability to have a personal relationship with Him. This is something worth enjoying and inviting others to.

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. Choose to look at the world around you and seek to build others up, seek to improve those God brings into your life, and intentionally avoid being a stumbling block for other people. Understand that God loves you personally and He sent Jesus to show you His love.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to learn what Jesus really was like. While other people have ideas they want to impose on you, test everything you hear, see, and read against the truth of the Bible to know whether it is worth knowing.

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!

As I have found while reading and studying in the gospels, and as I’m sure you have noticed by now, when someone is looking for things that are special, significant, relevant, or even relatable, every one of the passages in the gospels has something that is worthy of paying attention to.

However, sometimes while reading a passage, I am inspired on a whole other level than on the surface of what the passage says. The passage and event we are focusing on in this episode is one such passage for me. Found only in Matthew’s gospel, while studying it, I came to the realization that in these four short verses, we have an almost perfect reflection of the salvation plan illustrated in a unique way.

I’m not sure why Matthew was the only one to include this event, but I am glad He did, because without this event, we would miss discovering a powerful lesson that the disciples learned. Let’s read what happened, from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 17 using the New Century Version. Starting in verse 24, Matthew tells us:

²⁴ When Jesus and his followers came to Capernaum, the men who collected the Temple tax came to Peter. They asked, “Does your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

²⁵ Peter answered, “Yes, Jesus pays the tax.”

Peter went into the house, but before he could speak, Jesus said to him, “What do you think? The kings of the earth collect different kinds of taxes. But who pays the taxes—the king’s children or others?”

²⁶ Peter answered, “Other people pay the taxes.”

Jesus said to Peter, “Then the children of the king don’t have to pay taxes. ²⁷ But we don’t want to upset these tax collectors. So go to the lake and fish. After you catch the first fish, open its mouth and you will find a coin. Take that coin and give it to the tax collectors for you and me.”

And this is how this event ends. Part of me wishes for another verse that simply said that Peter did everything that Jesus had instructed him to do and he found it exactly like Jesus had described. But Matthew doesn’t say this. In some ways, like Peter leaving the house and going down to the lake, we must believe that what Jesus described actually happened.

There are plenty of other events in the gospels where Jesus describes an upcoming event or interaction that plays out exactly as He describes. One example is with getting the donkey He rode into Jerusalem on; another is His death and resurrection.

However, even more significant in my mind than taking Jesus’ description to Peter on faith is looking exactly at what is described in this event – and exactly what takes place. But before digging into the passage again, let’s frame how we read this passage by asking ourselves the question, “Who exactly paid the temple tax?”

Some might be quick to point out that it was Peter, for Peter and Jesus, but the coin used to pay the tax didn’t come from Peter’s savings or checking wallet. Instead, it came from somewhere else. What does Jesus instruct Peter to do? Verse 27 tells us that Jesus told Peter to “go to the lake and fish. After you catch the first fish, open its mouth and you will find a coin. Take that coin and give it to the tax collectors for you and me.”

Now I am not good at calculating the odds of something, but this instruction is pretty unlikely. First, in order for a fish to get a coin stuck in its mouth, a coin would have to fall into the water somehow. Perhaps this happened days or weeks earlier. Perhaps, as a merchant or traveler was crossing the lake, a coin, or perhaps a moneybag full of coins, fell into the lake. This isn’t too unbelievable. This may have even been a moneybag lost during a flash storm as a boat was crossing the lake.

However, next, a fish would then need to find the coin or bag of money and think it was food, and try to eat it. I don’t know much about fish or fishing, but this seems unlikely to happen naturally. I would imagine that fish don’t try to bite more than they can chew, and a coin that is too big to swallow may have fit that bill. But even this is plausible in light of the next thing that would have needed to happen.

Next, that fish would have needed to swim over to the dock where Peter was getting ready to fish at, and be the first fish, with its mouth already full, to think about biting the hook or bait that Peter was using. Of all the fish in the lake, only one fit the description of having a specific coin stuck in its mouth.

When we look at the back-story of what would need to happen in order for Jesus’ description to come true for Peter, we cannot escape the probability that God orchestrated this entire event, and that means that essentially He (God) paid the temple tax.

Now why is this significant? Let’s look earlier at a question in the conversation Jesus has with Peter. Verse 25 describes Jesus’ question to Peter. Jesus asks Peter: “What do you think? The kings of the earth collect different kinds of taxes. But who pays the taxes—the king’s children or others?”

This question is significant because we are all adopted into God’s family, and the temple tax was a requirement to help maintain the temple in Jerusalem. We could call this temple God’s house on earth – because, at least at that time, this is what the purpose of the temple was.

Peter’s answer that other people pay the tax is correct, but this would then mean that Jesus, being part of God’s family, would be exempt from the tax — just after Peter had said that Jesus does pay the tax.

In an instant, Peter realizes that he had spoken incorrectly and had potentially incriminated Jesus. However, Jesus is quick to supply a solution. Peter doesn’t get off without having to do something, but he does get to keep his reputation and his word by delivering the money for the tax he said that Jesus supported.

In this event is a parallel of the entire gospel story. We could summarize it like this: We mess up, God provides a solution. Adam and Eve sinned and infected the entire human race with evil. Jesus came with the solution that He would take our place and our punishment onto Himself. We mess up, God provides a solution. Peter speaks without realizing the implication. Jesus steps in with a solution on how to get the coin to pay what Peter promised would be paid.

In both these cases, God provides the solution when we don’t deserve to be helped. In each case, we can see God’s love for us and how much He cares for us even though we don’t, or even can’t, thank Him enough for what He has done.

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

As I always open by challenging you to do, always place God first in your life and lean on Him to help you find solutions to the problems we face. While sometimes it may feel like He is silent, know that He has a solution to every problem, and His solutions will always conclude with you choosing a new life with Him – specifically a new life that leads into an eternal life with Him.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible to learn more about God and more about Jesus. As you pray, read, and study, look for examples of God’s love and God’s character. While God doesn’t always brush sin aside, we can find grace in every place He steps into history – but don’t take my word for it. Pray, read, and study it yourself to discover if I’m correct.

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!