Reflective Bible Study

At the start of Jesus’ public ministry, the gospel of Mark describes Jesus doing something that is very counterintuitive for someone just starting a ministry. While this isn’t the first miracle Jesus performed, something He tells the person He healed following the healing doesn’t make much sense from our perspective, especially if we were advising Jesus launching a ministry in today’s world.

Let’s read what happened, and discover what Jesus did following this healing. Our passage is from the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 40, Mark tells us that:

⁴⁰ A man with a skin disease came to Jesus. He fell to his knees and begged Jesus, “You can heal me if you will.”

⁴¹ Jesus felt sorry for the man, so he reached out his hand and touched him and said, “I will. Be healed!” ⁴² Immediately the disease left the man, and he was healed.

Let’s pause briefly here because a detail about this healing is worth paying attention to. We see a man coming to Jesus who had a skin disease, and chances are this disease was incurable. However, the man states his request in an interesting way. By saying “you can heal me if you will”, the man displays a faith in Jesus’ ability to perform the miracle, but he acknowledges that he might not be worthy of receiving such a life-changing gift.

I wonder if this man had a particularly sinful past, and the skin disease was something he believed was a punishment for the things he did wrong earlier in his life. If so, the way this request is phrased also hints at a request for forgiveness.

This event in itself is amazing to think about, because this was before Jesus had gotten the reputation of being a miracle-healer. Somehow, this man had learned about Jesus before Jesus was well known, and this man knew in his heart that Jesus could heal him. However, I wonder if this man questioned whether Jesus would want to heal him.

We see Jesus’ response first feeling sorry for the man, and then touching him, which was a big deal in that era. Touch is how skin diseases like this were spread, and getting a skin disease meant that a person was not touched in any meaningful way again.

Jesus’ response was as loving as His touch. Jesus tells the man, “I will. Be healed!” This is powerful because any doubt in this man’s mind about God’s love for him was erased in this moment. If the man’s past made him doubtful about whether God loved Him, Jesus’ actions and words emphasized God’s love and forgiveness towards this man.

The man did not doubt Jesus could heal him. This man had faith. This man also needed encouragement and a reassuring message of God’s love towards him.

But what comes next is fascinating. Immediately after the man is healed, verse 43 continues by telling us:

⁴³ Jesus told the man to go away at once, but he warned him strongly, ⁴⁴ “Don’t tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest. And offer the gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people what I have done.” ⁴⁵ The man left there, but he began to tell everyone that Jesus had healed him, and so he spread the news about Jesus. As a result, Jesus could not enter a town if people saw him. He stayed in places where nobody lived, but people came to him from everywhere.

When reading about this miracle, we can understand the healed man’s enthusiasm about what Jesus did for him. He tells everyone he can about Jesus.

But Jesus’ request to keep quiet about this healing does not make sense, especially when framed in today’s attention-starved world. In the 21st century, new products and ideas have a huge uphill climb in order to be known. The methods for sharing products and ideas have become endless, and the barriers for bringing a product or idea into reality are almost none. However, this has resulted in a flood of ideas into the market, and overwhelming people living today into ignoring 99% or more of what they see. In our minds, it makes no sense that Jesus would want to silence one of His best brand ambassadors.

This would be like visiting a church, having a physical miracle take place, and those present telling you to keep quiet about what happened. This makes no sense for the person who is excited to have been healed, and it makes no sense if this church wants to grow, get donations, and/or have enough to pay their bills.

I’ve heard some people say that Jesus told this man to keep quiet as a way to inspire him to share more, as though Jesus was challenging this man’s rebellious side to do more than he would have normally done. However, this doesn’t make sense in my mind with how the passage concluded. This man’s excessive sharing made Jesus so popular that He could not enter a town if someone recognized Him, and He had to stay in secluded places away from the cities and towns.

Jesus loved people, and I wonder if He told this man to keep quiet because He wanted the freedom of anonymity to be able to go to more people who needed help and who were not physically able to come to Him. This makes sense on one level. Jesus knew word would eventually spread about Him whether He liked it or not, but He wanted to slow the spread so that He could help as many people where they were at in the cities, towns, and villages.

Jesus also told the man to go to the priest, present an offering, and get the official bill of clean health. I think this also has a hint towards why Jesus wanted the man to stay quiet. Jesus says that going and showing himself to the priest “will show the people what I have done”. Who are the people Jesus is referring to? When we think about this, the first people who would learn about this would be all the priests and religious leaders, and it would spread out from there.

I wonder if Jesus had intended this miracle to be a witness and a challenge for the religious leaders. While there were some religious leaders who were already against Jesus, such as those who lived in the Nazareth synagogue we discussed in a previous episode, I wonder if this miracle was Jesus subtly reaching out with a message to the religious leaders about God stepping into history and that He was the Messiah who was prophesied about.

Regardless of what the reasons were, or even if that was all the reasons, this man chose to disobey Jesus and tell everyone about what Jesus had done for him. This is worth paying attention to as well because when God has done something for us, it is natural for us to tell someone else about it. It is actually unnatural to try to keep it a secret.

So with that in mind, has God done something in your life recently? If so, did you tell others about it?

Jesus had His reasons for asking the man He healed to keep quiet about this healing, but that doesn’t mean that this is Jesus’ message for us today. One of His last messages to His followers was to tell everyone about Him, and that means that we are called and challenged to tell others about what Jesus has done for us. While not everyone is willing to listen, we are all called to share. When we share, we should not put other people down in order to lift Jesus up. We should instead simply lift Jesus up for what He has done for us, and invite those we are sharing with to celebrate with us.

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

Always be sure to seek God first and pay attention to the things He blesses us with. When God does something for us, let’s celebrate it and invite others into our celebration. Our joy is a powerful witness in a world where joy is fading.

Also, be sure to study the Bible for yourself and discover what God wants to tell you though the pages of His word. A pastor or podcaster can give you ideas, but discovering truth straight from the Bible has no comparison, and humbly studying the Bible helps each of us grow closer to God in a personal way.

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 wondered how Jesus preached, you may be surprised to learn that the gospel writers tell us. Both Mark and Luke share an event that includes a phrase and a healing that demonstrate Jesus’ uniqueness and how He communicated differently from the other religious leaders at that time.

Perhaps this event stands out in my mind because I am a speaker who is constantly looking to develop and grow his skills, and in my mind, there is no better person to learn from than Jesus. While I cannot be identical to Jesus in this regard, there definitely are things in this passage worth paying attention to with regard to communicating effectively.

However, whether you are a speaker or not, or whether you have a message you want to share or not, let’s dive into this passage and discover some things that made Jesus’ teaching and preaching different from the other teachers and preachers in the first century. Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 21, Mark tells us that:

²¹ They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²² The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³ Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

²⁵ “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” ²⁶ The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

²⁷ The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”

Let’s stop reading there. Did you see what I saw that made Jesus’ teaching different?

It’s found in verse 22, where it says, “He [Jesus] taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.”

Even before the plot thickens with the demon-possessed man, the people recognized that Jesus was different. While I don’t know this for certain, I imagine the teachers of the law in this synagogue used a few verses from the scripture, before using other rabbi’s explanations to build their message. In this way, they are simply repeating those who came before them.

However, Jesus likely shared a portion of scripture before sharing a truth about God, God’s love, a parable-story, or some other deeper thought. I imagine Jesus sharing scripture as a way to describe God, rather than sharing scripture before sharing what others think about that scripture.

Also, the verse says Jesus spoke with authority, which I might be tempted to think simply means that He spoke confidently, but then we have the demon-possessed man showing up which shifts the focus of this event.

It appears that this healing happened to back up what the people were already thinking: specifically that Jesus spoke with authority. Not only did Jesus sound different when speaking, He communicated so powerfully that demons obeyed Him.

This leads us into the next verse, verse 28, which says, “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”

I’m sure if you saw a miracle like this, you would spread the word as well!

Skipping down a few verses to verse 32, which happened that evening, let’s continue:

³² That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³ The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴ and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

This event focuses in on Jesus’ power to heal the sick and demon-possessed. In the verses we skipped over, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law who had a fever, and these two healings prompt a steady stream of people bringing their sick relatives to Jesus to heal.

Of note is that word spread that afternoon about Jesus, but the people waited until after sunset to bring their friends, family, and relatives who needed help. Jesus didn’t shy away from healing on the Sabbath, since He healed the demon-possessed man in the morning at the synagogue, and Peter’s mother-in-law in the afternoon, but the people waited. It wouldn’t always be this way, but in these early months of Jesus’ ministry, the people wanted Jesus’ help in a way that would not upset the legalistic culture of the Pharisees and religious leaders.

Also, it is amazing that the first demon – with a crowd of witnesses present – would validate the claim that Jesus was God’s “Holy One”. It is one thing to discount the disciples’ belief, and the belief of the crowd, but when Satan’s angels make that claim, it is worth taking note.

Part of me wonders why Jesus would stop the evil spirits from speaking following this event, but I have a few thoughts about why this might be.

First off, Satan is a master liar, so everything that he or his angel’s say is suspect. He doesn’t have to lie, but he can easily choose to do so. This fact immediately makes whatever he says irrelevant, because whether it is the truth or a lie, it cannot be trusted.

Secondly, Jesus is interested in the focus and glory of these healings to go to God. He did not heal or cast out demons to get recognition for Himself; He was continually pointing people upward to God. While the demons were stating the truth, they were trying to take the focus away from God and place it onto Jesus.

Thirdly, the people had a popular belief about who the Messiah would be and what His role would take. However, this was not an accurate picture of the type of Messiah Jesus came to be. With a large enough crowd too early in Jesus’ ministry, the people’s preconceived ideas could derail what Jesus wanted to do in favor of them pushing for their belief in who they thought He should be. If this happened, Jesus would have been the cause of a massive uprising, and the Romans would have sent a portion of their army to quickly squash what was happening.

Jesus needed time to help people understand He was not like any of the other self-claimed messiahs that had come before, and that His view of the Messiah role was much broader than the Jewish stereotype.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. Regardless of what evidence you use to support your belief in Jesus, keep Him as first and most significant in your life. Your future self will thank you when looking back on what happened from the lens of eternity.

Also, as I always and regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to learn more about who Jesus is and what He is like. The gospels are the best place to learn about Jesus’ character, and the rest of the Bible draws our attention onto who Jesus really is and how God has directed history to focus on Jesus!

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!

As Jesus began His public ministry, we discover that one of the places He begins is right in His hometown of Nazareth. While Nazareth was not the first place Jesus had performed a miracle or done something significant, before stepping onto the public scene in a big way, we learn that He went back home to Nazareth, and when the Sabbath arrived, He headed to the synagogue to worship.

This event is significant because it is one of the first places where Jesus clashes with the religious leaders in His ministry. All this happens because of a powerful message Jesus shares about His ministry to His hometown synagogue.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 16, we learn that:

¹⁶ Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as he usually did. He stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. Jesus unrolled it and found the right place. There it is written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.
    He has anointed me
    to announce the good news to poor people.
He has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners.
    He has sent me so that the blind will see again.
He wants me to set free those who are treated badly.
¹⁹     And he has sent me to announce the year when he will set his people free.”

²⁰ Then Jesus rolled up the scroll. He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were staring at him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this passage of Scripture is coming true as you listen.”

²² Everyone said good things about him. They were amazed at the gracious words they heard from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

If we were to stop reading this passage right here, we might assume Jesus was welcomed back into His hometown spiritual community with open arms. However, I believe that Jesus could tell that at this point, the “praise” of those in the Nazareth synagogue and the good things they said about Him were shallow compliments. I believe Jesus knew the hearts of those present and that there was an unspoken sense of jealousy for what Jesus had done in a neighboring town.

I also believe Jesus knew that these Jews living in Nazareth, which happened to be one of the most secular towns in the nation of Israel, were among the guiltiest of racial arrogance. This meant that these Jews looked down on the gentiles that lived all around them, and this also meant that they didn’t love their neighbors like God had instructed His people to do through Moses’ writings.

So while Jesus heard their compliments, He knew their hearts, and He knew what message they really needed to hear.

Picking back up in verse 23:

²³ Jesus said, “Here is a saying you will certainly apply to me. ‘Doctor, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me this. ‘Do the things here in your hometown that we heard you did in Capernaum.’ ”

²⁴ “What I’m about to tell you is true,” he continued. “A prophet is not accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I tell you for sure that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. And there had been no rain for three and a half years. There wasn’t enough food to eat anywhere in the land. ²⁶ But Elijah was not sent to any of those widows. Instead, he was sent to a widow in Zarephath near Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel who had skin diseases in the days of Elisha the prophet. But not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Pausing our reading again, Jesus challenged all those present with very strong words that cut straight to the core of their racial arrogance. First, Jesus tells them clearly that while they may have said nice things about Him, they weren’t the least bit likely to accept Him for the prophet He was – not to mention the Messiah that God sent.

Next, Jesus pulls two of the most widely respected prophets in Israel’s history, and He draws the illustration that these prophets, under God’s direction, helped gentiles while appearing to ignore the Jews.

It is in this message where we find a powerful truth about God and about Jesus: Jesus came to help those people who are most in need who are also seeking and accepting of Him. In Elijah’s case, God directed the prophet’s steps to that secular, gentile town, but the widow placed God first by first helping Elijah and then she welcomed him into her home.

In Elisha’s case, I wonder if any of those living in Israel actually came to Elisha to be healed? If none came because they believed their situation hopeless or a punishment, then God would have been unlikely to have reached down to heal them. However, a gentile was willing to try the God of the Hebrews out and because of this, He was healed – even if He was doubtful at first about the instructions he received.

The undercurrent of this message is clear: God loves gentiles as well as Jews. This truth was challenging to those present in this synagogue because they lived in a religious culture that looked down on those who were not on the inside. The last portion of this passage tells us how they responded. Starting back up in verse 28, we learn that:

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were very angry when they heard that. ²⁹ They got up and ran Jesus out of town. They took him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They planned to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Those present were unwilling to accept Jesus’ message, and they would rather kill Jesus and face the consequences of murder than accept the reality that God loves gentiles too.

This is powerful to think about because this means that any “Christian” who does not love someone from another worldview, another political party, or even another denomination, is not acting as Christ instructed us to.

This also means that regardless of how someone identifies themselves as, as Christ’s ambassadors to the world, we are to love them for who they truly are. Everyone living and breathing today is a descendant of Adam who is a descendant of God, which makes everyone, regardless of what they say or think about themselves, a child of God. Even if we dislike someone else, we are called to love them because Jesus loved them and because Jesus died for them too.

Jesus came to fulfill a bigger mission than the Jews believed God would send His Messiah to do. The Jews believed the Messiah would come to build them up as an independent nation like they were centuries before. Instead, God’s Messiah came to make the way for everyone who accepts Jesus to be adopted into God’s family and God’s kingdom in the new heaven and new earth.

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

Intentionally take time to seek God first in your life and choose to look at those in your life as people who God loves. Regardless of what they do, know that God loves them because of who He is and not because of who we are or who they are. God loves you, me, and them enough to let Jesus come and die for us, and this is because God really wants all of us to be with Him in heaven!

Also, always be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. A pastor or podcaster can definitely give you things to think about, but never let your personal relationship with God slide to the sidelines while feeling spiritual because of a church service or audio recording. God wants a personal relationship with you, and one aspect of this relationship is time with you spent in prayer and in the Bible. If you need help with this, I’m happy to help you get started, or restarted, on your walk with Him.

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

As I have read from the gospel of Matthew, it seems as though Matthew, while he was a tax collector, may have had a childhood goal of being a Rabbi or religious expert. When reading his gospel, time and time again, he draws our attention to how an act or event in Jesus’ life fulfills one or more prophecies.

Reading this gospel helps draw our attention onto just how many prophecies about the Messiah there were, and Matthew helps us discover prophecies that we might not have thought of as being prophetic of the Messiah’s ministry.

Perhaps you have noticed this in Matthew, but if not, a couple of episodes ago, we focused in on some of Matthew’s prophecies surrounding Jesus’ birth, and in this episode, Matthew brings out another prophecy that is fulfilled when Jesus begins His ministry.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 13, Matthew tells us that:

¹³ Jesus left Nazareth and went to live in the city of Capernaum. It was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. ¹⁴ In that way, what the prophet Isaiah had said came true. He had said,

¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali!
    Galilee, where Gentiles live!
    Land along the Mediterranean Sea! Territory east of the Jordan River!
¹⁶ The people who are now living in darkness
    have seen a great light.
They are now living in a very dark land.
    But a light has shined on them.”

In these few short verses, Matthew brings our attention to where Jesus would begin His ministry, and he shows us specifically how this act was in direct fulfillment of prophecy. Whether Jesus chose this location because of the prophecy, or because God directed Him there because it was the home of a number of His first disciples, we don’t really know for sure, but regardless of the reason, this act sheds light on the focus of Jesus’ ministry.

Capernaum was a fishing hub on the Sea of Galilee and while it was part of Israel, it held a greater number of Gentiles in it than many other parts of the country. This is interesting, because while we might think Jesus began or centered His ministry in an area where there was a high percentage of Jews, this is not the case, because even the prophecy states that Galilee was the part of Israel where Gentiles lived. Gentile is simply a broad term for anyone who is not Jewish.

This was likely one of the first counter-messianic things that Jesus did in His ministry that didn’t line up with the traditional view of the coming Messiah. The popular thought among the Jews at that time was that the Messiah would come, rally the Jews together, throw off Roman oppression, and reestablish the nation of Israel as a permanent country that would never again be overtaken.

If Jesus would have been this type of Messiah, then centering the beginning of His ministry in an area that doesn’t have as many Jews in it does not make sense. For this military-messiah model to work, Jesus should have centered His ministry in the southern portions of Israel, where there was a greater concentration of Jews – as well as Jerusalem and all the Jewish leaders.

However, Jesus came as a Messiah for humanity, not just as a Messiah for only the Jews. It seems as though Jesus intentionally chose Capernaum because of its higher concentration of Gentiles. Perhaps there were more Gentiles in the city than Jews, or maybe it was a 50-50 split at the time Jesus was there. In the little research I did, I could not find an answer to this question.

However, what I do find interesting about this event is that by choosing Capernaum, Jesus is intentionally saying that He has come to reach not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. In this act, it is like Jesus is saying publicly that He values both the Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus valued the Jews because Capernaum was located in Israel and Jesus valued the Gentiles because Capernaum may have been one of the more Gentile-filled areas of the nation.

After Jesus moved and began His ministry, what did He do first?

Our passage continues and concludes with a summary verse that described how Jesus began His ministry. In verse 17, we read, “From that time on Jesus began to preach. ‘Turn away from your sins!’ he said. ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

Jesus’ first big message echoes John the Baptizer’s ministry. Repent and pay attention, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

This last verse points out something very interesting and important in my mind: In order to come to Jesus, we must turn away from our sins and recognize that He wants to “come near” to us. Moving towards Jesus will never move you towards sin, and moving towards sin will never move you towards Jesus.

In our own lives, God wants to be close to each of us, and He wants to have a growing, personal relationship with us because He sees each of us as special in His eyes. However, He also cannot stand sin, and because of this, He will prompt us to get rid of the sin in our lives so that He can move closer. If we are stubborn and don’t give up sin, then unfortunately for us, He does not move as close. By choosing a sin over a closer relationship with God, we are placing God in second or third place, and making that sin a “god” in our lives – which breaks the first of the Ten Commandments.

God loves us and He forgives us, but His forgiveness is when we have repented and turned away from our sin. I am unaware of a place where the Bible says that God forgives those who are actively sinning. God has chosen to delay punishment, and He chose to come into a world full of sinners to let us know how much He loves each of us, but in order for our relationship with Him to grow, we must be moving away from sin and into a closer relationship with Him.

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 to do, intentionally place God first in your life and choose to move towards Him and away from sin. Moving towards God is never the wrong choice from the perspective of eternity and while it might be a challenge to do in your life today, looking back on your decision from heaven will remind you that it was the best decision you could make.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying, reading, and studying the Bible personally so you are able to get a clearer picture of God. While other people would want you to adopt their opinions about God, choose to base your opinion about God on what the Bible teaches and on what the Bible reveals to us about Him. While the Bible has challenging passages, the more we study out passages we don’t understand, the better able we will be to understand what God is really like.

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