Reflective Bible Study

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, we find the gospel writers tell us that Jesus hand-picks a number of those following Him to be apostles. However, in this event, we discover a couple of fascinating details about how Jesus chose these men, and what He does with a few of the followers He chose.

The passage we are focusing on is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 3, and we will be reading it using the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 13, Mark tells us that:

¹³ Jesus went up on a mountainside. He called for certain people to come to him, and they came. ¹⁴ He appointed 12 of them so that they would be with him. He would also send them out to preach. ¹⁵ And he gave them authority to drive out demons.

Let’s pause reading here because while this sounds fairly straightforward, Mark doesn’t include a key detail that one of the other gospel writers includes. In the gospel of Luke, we discover another interesting detail about this event. Here’s how Luke’s gospel describes this event, which can be found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 6, starting in verse 12:

¹² On one of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray. He spent the night praying to God. ¹³ When morning came, he called for his disciples to come to him. He chose 12 of them and made them apostles. Here are their names.

In these two verses, Luke describes how the night before Jesus selects the twelve apostles is spent in prayer, and we can logically assume that Jesus was praying about each of those in the crowd who had been following Him, and seeking God’s direction regarding who specifically to invite into the group.

The first big thing we can learn from Jesus here is that Jesus spent more time praying about important decisions than doing other research. Jesus desired to do God’s will and to select those God would want Him to select, and Jesus spent the night doing just that.

This also means that within Jesus’ prayer time, He would have asked God about Judas Iscariot, who would be the one to betray Him. I wonder if Judas Iscariot’s character represented Lucifer’s character in heaven before the fall. In Lucifer’s case, God gave him more than enough reasons to love him and more than enough time to return and repent. One could say that Earth and our human history is a result of God giving Lucifer a chance. But Lucifer guarded his hard heart and would not let God in, which results in his ultimate defeat.

In Jesus’ invitation to Judas Iscariot, we see a similar set of circumstances. None of the other disciples suspected Judas Iscariot to be the one to betray Jesus, and in the three or more years Jesus spent with all twelve of the disciples, Judas had every chance of letting God into His heart and mind in order to help him understand Jesus’ role and God’s humility.

But Judas would not have any of that in the end. In an emotional, revengeful decision over Jesus challenging his remarks over a gift, Judas decides to betray Jesus and let Satan win his heart. Jesus prayed about Judas Iscariot personally and the Godhead gave the betrayer a chance for redemption.

However, this isn’t the only thing we can learn from this event. Continuing in Mark’s gospel, in verse 16:

¹⁶ So Jesus appointed the 12 disciples.

Simon was one of them. Jesus gave him the name Peter.

¹⁷ There were James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. Jesus gave them the name Boanerges. Boanerges means Sons of Thunder.

¹⁸ There were also Andrew,

Philip,

Bartholomew,

Matthew,

Thomas,

and James, son of Alphaeus.

And there were Thaddaeus

and Simon the Zealot.

¹⁹ Judas Iscariot was one of them too. He was the one who was later going to hand Jesus over to his enemies.

While Mark describes Judas Iscariot as the one who would betray Jesus, Mark also describes how Jesus gives three of the disciples new names. To Simon, Jesus tells him that his name will be Peter, and to James and John, both sons of Zebedee, Jesus gives them the nickname, sons of thunder.

While this giving of new names might sound simple enough, I see in this action two important things we can look forward to:

First, by giving these first disciples new names, we can see a parallel and a symbol that Jesus is adopting them into His family. While we don’t know specifically the reasons Jesus chose Simon’s new name or the nickname for James and John, the whole idea of giving someone a new name can be found in what we see happen when a baby is adopted. The adopted parents choose the baby’s name, rather than the birth parent. When Jesus invited these followers to be disciples, He gave the closest three followers new names similar to what happens in an adoption scenario.

Secondly, this event foreshadows when God will give all of His people new names in heaven. When we have been recreated in the new heaven and new earth, we will be given a new name to go along with it. In this call of the first disciples, we see foreshadowing of what God will do for every believer who is saved for eternity.

In both inviting Judas Iscariot with the other eleven disciples, and by giving some of these first disciples new names, we see Jesus looking at the hearts of those present and showing us a little bit of what God is like. Part of me wonders if Jesus picked the least likely people to be part of His early disciples. We have a tax collector, a rebel, several fishermen, some introverted quiet guys, and the man who would eventually betray him.

Looking at this group of people, we see God, though Jesus, picking those who the religious, spiritual leaders would have written off, to be the ones to launch His Church into the last major section of history. God loves inviting the least likely people to make the biggest impact, and we can see His character revealed in how Jesus prayed the night before the selection, and how each of those Jesus picked revealed just a little more about who God is like and who Jesus came to this earth to save.

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

Be sure to seek God first and place Him first in your life. If you haven’t decided to follow Him fully, make that decision today!

Also, be sure to study the Bible for yourself to discover who Jesus really is. God has protected the Bible throughout the centuries so that we can know His Story, and we can discover who He is and what He is like through Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. A pastor or podcaster can give you things to think about, but God wants a personal relationship with you, with no one in the middle.

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

Occasionally, an event comes around where two different gospels include details that I want to include. It is that way in this event. While the disciples were walking through some fields with Jesus on the Sabbath, they decided to pick some grain to snack on because they were hungry. While this seems insignificant to us today, it violated a clear boundary line of acceptable vs. not acceptable things that should be done in the minds of the Pharisees living in the first century.

Matthew’s gospel, which is our focus passage for this episode, shares in greater detail Jesus’ counter argument to the Pharisee’s challenge, but I also feel like it would be a mistake to exclude Mark’s punch-line for this event, because it neatly summarizes Jesus’ key point so well. Because of this, while we will primarily read from Matthew’s gospel, which includes more detail, at the end of the passage, we’ll jump over to Mark to include his big conclusion for this event.

With that said, let’s read what happened. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ At that time Jesus was walking through some fields of grain on a Sabbath day. His followers were hungry, so they began to pick the grain and eat it. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, “Look! Your followers are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath day.”

³ Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and the people with him were hungry? ⁴ He went into God’s house, and he and those with him ate the holy bread, which was lawful only for priests to eat. ⁵ And have you not read in the law of Moses that on every Sabbath day the priests in the Temple break this law about the Sabbath day? But the priests are not wrong for doing that. ⁶ I tell you that there is something here that is greater than the Temple. ⁷ The Scripture says, ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ You don’t really know what those words mean. If you understood them, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong.

What I find interesting is that Jesus almost completely changes the subject. When the Pharisees challenge Jesus because of what His followers were doing, Jesus responds by focusing their attention on events in the past: focusing first on David, before then focusing on the priests who minister in the temple on the Sabbath. If the Pharisees are going to bring a technical challenge to Jesus, it seems as though Jesus technically challenges them back.

Jesus summarizes the intent of the law nicely when He wraps up these two points by saying in verses 6 and 7, “I tell you that there is something here that is greater than the Temple. The Scripture says, ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ You don’t really know what those words mean. If you understood them, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong.”

The point for us to grasp here is not that the law is irrelevant, because Jesus does not say that. Jesus says that in matters where the law stands in opposition of helping someone, the law takes second place in favor of helping the person needing help. That is what Jesus is saying in His quote. We could also summarize this by saying that kindness is more significant than ritual and symbolism.

Ritual and symbolism gain their meaning and value from looking at the past and looking into the future. The past brings value to these things when we look back and see how they helped those who came before us, and we look into the future and see what these things point towards.

In this passage, the Sabbath has been placed in the spotlight. Its significance comes from looking back and remembering creation, which the Exodus 4th commandment points us to do, and from looking at how God is a God who saves His people, as the Deuteronomy 4th commandment points us to do. The Sabbath as a symbol also gains value in the future because it reminds us each week that God is still present and working, and that He is preparing a place for us and will come again to bring us to Him.

For many living in the world today, the Sabbath has almost no value. While there are some people in the world today who look forward to taking a day each week to rest and focus on God, most people simply discount it as something that was pushed aside with Jesus dying on the cross.

However, while the Sabbath has value on the day itself, it also has value in orienting our lives throughout the week towards God. Every week, those who look forward to Sabbath experience the excitement and expectation of the Sabbath coming, and this is able to bring joy to the rest of the week. This would be similar to many people looking forward to the weekend when they are stuck in the middle of a difficult workweek. The Sabbath blessing extends both forward and backwards through time, both in the past as we have been able to rest and recharge, and into the future as we look forward to the next time we can rest, recharge, and remind ourselves of what God has done for us.

In contrast, kindness is only valuable in the present. Promising kindness in the future or remembering kindness that was done in the past is nice, and it may prompt us to change our actions in the present, but choosing to not be kind today in many ways invalidates the kindness that happened before.

All the kindness in the past means very little in light of the present moment’s opportunity for kindness.

I think this is what Jesus is trying to say here: in the present, God wants us to show kindness, but when remembering the past and planning for the future, we should focus on the truth of God’s teaching, and on the foundation He built for us.

The gospel of Mark nicely summarizes Jesus key wrap up statement for this event in chapter 2, verses 27 and 28:

²⁷ Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath day was made to help people; they were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day. ²⁸ So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.”

The Sabbath was made to help people. The Sabbath was mean to be something that people could stand on as a foundation to help their lives. At that time, the Pharisees and religious leaders had set up so many rules surrounding the Sabbath that it was no longer looked forward to. A Sabbath full of rules is dreaded not longed for.

This is not what God intended. God wanted the last day each week to be the high day, where people focused in on Him, on being with their family, and on everything He had blessed them with. I see nothing in the scriptures to change this focus for God’s special day. Jesus’ words here don’t diminish the Sabbath, they point to its true intent.

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 stop for a day each week to focus on God and spend time with your family, then choose to do so now. While in the Bible, the Sabbath meant a specific day of the week, if your life doesn’t allow you to take that day right now, don’t abandon the principle. Choose a different day, and if your life situation changes, then move towards aligning the principle found within this truth with the whole foundational truth of the fourth commandment.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, choose to take some time this week to pray and study the Bible for yourself. If you haven’t read or studied the Sabbath out before, choose this week to look for ways that Jesus interacted with the Sabbath. Our passage in this episode is one example, and there are many more throughout the gospels.

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!

While reading the gospel of John, one event happens to stand out in my mind not because of what is said in the Bible, but because of what is not said. One way this passage challenges me is through what is implied but not said. Our event only happens in the gospel of John, and if you are even remotely familiar with the Bible and Jesus’ life, you will likely have heard about this event.

Let’s read about what happened. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1:

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 [and then some manuscripts add a parenthetical note that says these people 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].

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!” ⁹ Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

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.

Let’s pause reading here, because I want to draw out what is not said but implied up to this point in our passage.

The scene is something like this: One Sabbath, Jesus walks by a pool of sick people, sees one particular paralyzed man, heals him, and then continues on leaving the rest of the sick people to wait for the angel to stir the water of the pool.

It seems amazing in my mind that Jesus would ignore all the other sick people here, and while the Bible doesn’t say how big the pool was or how many people could fit around it, I imagine that there was space for several dozen sick people as a low estimate.

John’s emphasis for including this event has to do with the religious leaders’ confrontation with Jesus over healing on the Sabbath, and this man ends up facing ridicule from the religious leaders over doing what Jesus had told him to do.

Was carrying his bed a sin in God’s eyes?

To the religious leaders, it was.

However, verses 14 and 15 finish off this passage in an interesting way by saying:

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.

We’ll stop our passage at this point, because John shifts into a bigger dialog Jesus has with the religious leaders in the next portion of the chapter.

Was carrying the healed man’s bed a sin in Jesus’ eyes?

I don’t think it was, because I don’t believe Jesus would have told the man to sin. However, the last thing Jesus tells the man is perplexing in many ways because we don’t know the man’s history aside from his paralysis that began 38 years earlier and that he had no friends to help him get into the pool in time.

Jesus tells the man to not sin anymore, because something worse might happen to him. This implies that the man’s paralysis was caused by some sin in his past. A truth we can learn from this idea is that sin can cause pain, hurt, and in some cases injury.

We don’t know what this man’s sin was that resulted in his condition, but what Jesus tells him is even more challenging. Jesus tells this man to “not sin anymore” which sounds a lot like Jesus telling the man to never sin again, which seems impossible in my mind.

However, does the Bible teach that life cannot be lived without sin? If you know of a place it says this, definitely let me know, because I am not aware of one. The Bible does say that everyone has sinned and has fallen short of God’s glory, but that simply means that everyone has at least one sin they are guilty of at some point in their past, but not that sin is guaranteed or impossible to avoid. Aside from Jesus, everyone has sinned at some point in our lives, but a sin that is in our past is not a reason to keep sinning in our present, and it is not a crutch we should use to excuse future sin.

This is not the only time Jesus tells a person to not sin anymore, and while Jesus might be simply saying to the man to not make a habit of sinning moving forward, He subtly challenges us reading this event regarding any preconceived ideas that our future lives are destined to have sin in them. Our future choices are ours to make, and while there will probably be some challenging choices to make at some point, Jesus describes a future where it is possible for us to never choose to sin again.

Heaven will be filled with people who always obey God’s law and who will never sin, and unless you believe heaven will be a legalistic place because of all of this obedience, choosing to obey God in your own life today is simply preparing to live in heaven. As a side note, legalism in my mind is living without love, grace, and holding others to the high standards you’ve set for yourselves, regardless of whether they asked for accountability or not. This is similar to hypocrisy which is holding others to a high standard that you choose to not abide by yourself. If obedience is legalism, then one must also view heaven as being a very legalistic place, which kinda doesn’t make heaven sound like heaven – at least to me.

Moving back to the topic we started this episode by talking about, what of all the sick people that Jesus seemed to ignore in this passage?

I don’t believe for an instant that God ignored them or that He didn’t love them. Instead, I wonder if some were not ready to accept Jesus’ healing, and I wonder if others were healed at other points in time, in other ways, and/or by Jesus that Sabbath day that simply did not make it into John’s gospel. John tells us at the conclusion of his gospel that he did not include everything Jesus said or did because it would be too much to write and too much to read.

John includes this healing and this event for specific reasons, and one of those reasons is a challenge for each of us who call ourselves followers of Christ: Will we believe that we can live the future portion of our present lives without sin?

Jesus thinks we can, and when we lean on Jesus for help, guidance, and strength to do so while drawing close to Him, His love that shines through us empowers us to live a future without sin in preparation for living in a sinless heaven. And when we’re living obediently in heaven, our lives won’t even come close to anything that looks like legalism.

As we finish off another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Choose to believe that a sinless life is possible starting today. While this doesn’t mean you or I won’t slip up or make mistakes along the way, this does mean that we choose to focus on modeling and reflecting Jesus’ love to those in our lives, and when making choices, we always choose the way of obedience.

To help keep our focus on God and Jesus strong, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself because a personal relationship with Jesus is the most important foundation to have in a life that leaves sin in the past.

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, because the life God wants to lead us into is a life without the pain, hurt, and consequences of sin!

All throughout the gospels, though we probably could extend this to include all of history, there has been a tension and debate over what God really wants. While many of us would be quick to say that God wants our hearts, it becomes less clear when you ask what that really means and what that looks like.

In the Old Testament times, outside of the Jewish nation, there were cultures sacrificing any and every sort of animal, cultures sacrificing humans, cultures that self-mutilated themselves, which is another way to say they cut themselves or harmed themselves in any number of ways, and cultures that did things that I don’t really feel comfortable repeating or even thinking about. In the Old Testament Jewish nation, there was sacrifice, but a clear boundary was given between what was acceptable sacrifice vs. what was not acceptable. This boundary was found within the writings of Moses, which they called “the law”.

When the New Testament writers were alive, there were fewer culture wars happening, but between the Roman and Greek cultures, there still was a huge gap between what they taught and what the Jewish nation taught. However, still at the heart of both cultures was sacrifice – either to an assortment of gods for the Romans and the Greeks, or to the One God for the Jews.

However, when Jesus steps on the scene, it seemed that He taught something different than all of the previous cultures. Though He was Jewish, the angle He saw the Old Testament writings clashed with the view the religious leaders in the first century had.

In our passage for this episode, we find one such place where Jesus challenged the religious leaders, and this place gives us an answer for what God really wants from us – specifically from Jesus’ perspective, and this helps us frame how Jesus lived His life.

This event is included in three of the four gospels, and I have picked Matthew’s version of it to focus on, because it includes a key phrase that the other two gospel writers missed adding. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 9, Matthew tells us that:

⁹ When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” and he stood up and followed Jesus.

¹⁰ As Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with Jesus and his followers. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus’ followers, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard them, he said, “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.”

Before getting into how Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ challenge, we learn that Jesus had just invited Matthew to be one of His followers. Perhaps as a “thank you” or because it was getting late, Matthew invites Jesus (and a number of his tax collector friends) over for supper.

However, like is very typical in the gospels, the religious leaders are watching, and like legalistic spies, the Pharisees are ready to challenge Jesus at every turn because He intentionally lived His life differently than they did. Inviting a tax collector to be a disciple was a shocking thing for Jesus to do, but it seems as though the Pharisees passed over this detail, perhaps because they didn’t realize the invitation was given, or maybe because they knew that a single person can change. Instead, the Pharisees focused most clearly on why Jesus then chose to hang out with Matthew’s tax collector and sinner friends, since this was very unusual and not something acceptable in their minds.

In a subtle challenge to Jesus, they ask Jesus’ followers a question instead of Jesus. Perhaps this is now late enough in His ministry that the Pharisees have realized Jesus is difficult to trap, or maybe they ask the followers simply because it was the cultural way to do this at the time. Either way, the question they ask is interesting, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (v. 11)

The implied question hidden within their question for Jesus is, “Jesus, if you hang out with the lowest people, you are liable to be tainted by them. And whether it is simply your reputation that is tainted, or your actions and/or attitude, don’t you realize it is better to stand apart and to call others to stand apart with you. Shouldn’t we separate ourselves from those who are actively living in sin?”

But whether the disciples don’t know the answer, or whether Jesus knows what is up and walks over at the perfect time, He has an answer for them: “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.” (v. 12-13)

Now on one hand, Jesus’ response is insulting to Matthew the host, and all of his friends. However, also tucked within Jesus’ response are two very profound ideas.

First, Jesus shares what God wants from us. Quoting from the Old Testament, Jesus shares the idea that God wants kindness more than animal sacrifice. All the symbolism in the world is worthless if the attitude is wrong. First, the attitude must be right, and only then can the symbolism be meaningful as God had intended it to be.

Secondly, Jesus shares a direct mission of His to invite sinners and not “good people”. Perhaps this is because the good people at the time did not need an invitation, but what is more likely the case in all points in history is that the people who self-identify themselves as “good” have chosen to stop their growth journey and have stopped being teachable.

“Good enough” is the enemy of where God wants to take us. God has so many amazing things in His mind for each of us, but if we settle for “good enough”, we stop short of the plan God has for our lives.

In contrast, those who recognize they are sinners are more likely willing to learn, grow, and be helped. Those who know they are sinners are able to understand they need help, and Jesus is more than willing to step in to help and invite them into the restoration plan God put in place to help them.

It is the same way for each of us today. Good enough is the enemy of God’s great plan for each of us, and it is up to us to be willing to be taught, helped, and led forward in our lives and our understanding of God and His plan for each of us.

With that said, 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, continue intentionally seeking God first in your life and choose to recognize your reality as someone who needs God’s help. While it is not pleasant to think of yourself as a sinner, only when understanding that you have sinned and have failed God will you be able to fully understand and appreciate what Jesus did for you on the cross. Someone who believes Jesus died for others when they didn’t need His sacrifice for them will ultimately miss out on salvation, believing they were good enough when they ultimately were not.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study your Bible – specifically the gospels in this case – for yourself to learn more of how much God and Jesus love you. Discover in the pages of the Bible a God who was willing to give everything for you because He loves you that much! Never let anyone get in the way of you discovering this God for yourself, and never think of yourself as not needing’ Jesus sacrifice. Jesus faced the cross for you because He loves you more than pain and death!

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 settle for simply “good enough” when God wants to lead you towards the great life He created you to live with Him!