Reflective Bible Study

During the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, one evening, several of Jesus’ disciples approach Him wanting to know more detail surrounding His return. While Jesus shared several chapters worth of material about this event, including several parables, one piece of Jesus’ description has stood out to me as being more fascinating than most of the other details.

With that said, let’s look at how Jesus describes His return from the gospel of Mark, chapter 13, starting in verse 24, and we will be reading from the New International Version:

²⁴ “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

²⁶ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

²⁸ “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

While it would be very tempting to focus in on how Jesus finished this portion of His teaching, the portion of Jesus’ message that is most fascinating is the description Jesus shares in the second portion of verse 24 and in verse 25:

^24b “the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

This is how Jesus describes His return. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus says in chapter 21, verse 26 that, “People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” (Luke 21:26)

Ever since Jesus spoke these words, Bible scholars have wondered and speculated over the event Jesus describes. Those familiar with the Old Testament would have recognized similarities between Jesus’ description to these disciples and God’s words to/through the prophet Isaiah when He describes the sun darkening, the moon not shining, stars falling, and the heavenly bodies being shaken. Isaiah’s description is of the great day when God brings punishment onto the sinners of the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus took Isaiah’s imagery about the day of judgment and applied it to His return.

It is also interesting that scholars have speculated over whether Jesus’ words in His description describe separate events that will happen close to when He returns, or whether the four things Jesus describes will happen together at the exact time of His return.

I’ll be the first to say that I haven’t studied this passage out as well as other people have. Since I don’t know Greek and cannot pick up on the nuances of the language, I am left with the various English translations present today. Most of these translations, if not all, seem to describe a quick sequence of events that happen following the end of the distress of God’s people. If I were to choose the most likely timing for understanding this description, I would presume that it happens at the exact time of Jesus’ return – like the rolling out the carpet before the limo’s door opens to reveal who is inside. While there might be a slight delay following these events before Jesus appears, I would suspect that they are part of one continuous process and not broken into separate distinct events.

With all that we know about the universe, I wonder if the descriptions Jesus shares regarding the sun, the moon, the stars, and the heavenly bodies are to be understood from our perspective. The universe is huge, and while God could sweep it aside with His little finger, I wonder if the description in our passage is really describing what will happen from earth’s perspective as Jesus returns.

Describing Jesus’ return, Revelation, chapter 1 verse 7 tells us that “every eye will see Him”. While it seems obvious to say, everything I have witnessed tells me that our earth is round, specifically a large sphere orbiting our sun in space. Under normal circumstances, at most half of the earth is visible at any point in time. This is evident that half of the earth is visible to the sun and experiencing day, while the opposite half of the earth is invisible to the sun’s light and experiencing night.

However, Jesus’ return is described in Revelation, chapter 1 verse 7, saying that “every eye will see Him”. Just like the sun cannot see all parts of the earth at the same time, with the earth the way it is right now, Jesus would have to fly through the sky to all parts of the earth for every eye to see Him. Or Jesus would have to be present in multiple places at once for every eye to see Him. Or God would have to do something drastic and miraculous to allow for every eye to see Him.

Some people today might say that every eye seeing Jesus’ return would be easy with how the world is connected with technology and cameras being present everywhere. I won’t deny this possibility, but my thought regarding this angle of understanding Jesus’ return places this interpretation as being more likely something an impostor would use to imitate Jesus appearing rather than something Jesus would actually need to use. Our understanding of Revelation’s description of Jesus’ return should not depend on technology because none of Jesus’ other miracles depended on anything our world today would consider as technology.

Instead, I wonder if the description Jesus shares in this verse about the sun, moon, stars, and heavenly bodies going dark, moving, and being shaken, is really a description of God unwrapping the earth’s crust from its core. God, being all powerful, could keep our atmosphere intact and gravity in place throughout this process, and once the world has been unwrapped, it will face away from our sun, block the moon from receiving light and be faced towards Jesus’ return, so that every eye will be able to see His return.

For those alive on earth, a process this extreme would feel like an earthquake of epic proportions, and as the earth moved, stars would streak across the sky, and the heavenly bodies would appear to move as well. The sun would end up somewhere behind the earth’s surface, and the moon, if visible in the sky, would be blocked from getting any sunlight similar to what happens during an eclipse. During this process, every star and planet will be streaking across the sky, and as the earth reshapes, our atmosphere will collide with satellites and other orbiting debris causing plenty of shooting stars, or as some people call them “falling stars”.

I will be the first to say that this is pure speculation, and one way of interpreting the details that Jesus describes. While Jesus’ return may be completely different than this, the way I described this as far as I can tell fits all the facts that Jesus described surrounding His return.

The most important detail for us to take away from this discussion is not that anything I described is to be understood as exactly how Jesus’ return will happen. Instead, the most important detail for us to take away from this is that Jesus will return, that He will keep us safe for eternity, and that He will never forget about us.

More than we can imagine, God wants to take us home with Him, and regardless of how the details Jesus described actually happen, what comes after Jesus appears is more important. After Jesus returns in the clouds, He sends out His angels to gather His people, and we return home to be with Him!

As we come to the end of our 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. Don’t wait for disaster to happen before deciding to turn to God. While it might sound morbid or cliché, it is true that we have no guarantee that we will live to see the time of His return instead of being resurrected on the day Jesus returns. Because of this, today is the most important day for making your decision for God.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to learn and grow closer to God. While authors, bloggers, speakers, pastors, or even podcasters have ideas that they share, never let your relationship with God depend on another person. Instead, study the Bible for yourself and grow personally closer to God each and every day!

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!

As we continue moving through the events recorded in the gospels during the week leading up to the cross, we come across a powerful message that is easy to overlook and ignore after closing your Bible. While it is easy to orient your life and focus in alignment of this short teaching and challenge Jesus gives His followers while alone studying, it is more difficult to do so when living with others in community.

While the passage I have listed to cover this week is long, if we were to read it all, we would run out of time before being able to focus on Jesus’ challenge. Because of this, while I don’t like leaving parts of our passage unread, unfortunately most of this week’s passage will be unread on this podcast. I would encourage you to read the whole passage I shared in the intro, from verses 1 through 36, even though we will only spend time focusing on three verses tucked within this passage.

In our passage, while Jesus was transitioning between warning the crowd about being like the scribes and Pharisees to directly calling them out for how they are living without God’s love, Jesus makes a fascinating statement that we can easily miss because of the profound truths in the verses surrounding it. This truth is found in verses 8, 9 and 10 of Matthew, chapter 23. Let’s read this powerful idea using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 8, Jesus tells His followers and those present:

⁸ But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 

While, many of us are familiar with Jesus’ words in these three verses, as I read them in preparation for this podcast episode, something in my frame of mind or simply the Holy Spirit’s prompting lead me to see these three verses and phrases on a different level. Looking at the broader context of Jesus’ message warning His followers to be cautious of the scribes and Pharisees, I suspect that these three roles, rabbi, father, and leader, were roles and names that the Pharisees and scribes liked to be identified as.

However, instead of simply telling His followers to avoid these terms, Jesus shares each one with a reason why, and He ties that reason to a role God should be within our lives.

Jesus starts by telling them not to call each other rabbi, which would be another way to describe a spiritual teacher. I suspect that if Jesus spoke this message today, He would use the term pastor, because it is our modern day equivalent word for a spiritual teacher and leader. I don’t believe Jesus is challenging us to avoid calling people rabbis or pastors because we cannot or should not learn from them. Instead, I believe Jesus wants to draw us to a bigger truth and help us keep our eyes and focus on this bigger truth, specifically on the truth that we as a spiritual community worldwide have “One” who is our true Teacher. In John’s gospel, on their walk to the garden on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, Jesus promises that after He is gone, the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth. Because of this promise, I strongly suspect that Jesus intends for us to look to the Holy Spirit as our rabbi, pastor, and teacher.

Next, Jesus tells the disciples to not call one another using the word “father”. Again, this isn’t because we do not have a biological male parent, but because He wants to draw out “One” who is our true Father. Within the Old Testament, in Psalm 139, the writer of the psalm says to God in verse 13, “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” I suspect that Jesus wants us to view God the Father in Heaven as our “One” true Father, and as someone who is always there for us when we need Him. I wonder if this is one reason Jesus repeatedly described God in heaven as God the Father. God the Father is the One we look to as our Father because He helped create us in addition to our earthly parents.

Thirdly, Jesus tells His followers to avoid describing each other as “leaders”. I doubt Jesus said these words because He wanted to avoid any type of structure among His followers. When people group together, certain personalities are more leader-like than others. I doubt Jesus would want to erase the leader-like personalities from among His followers. Instead, I suspect that Jesus is more interested in having every one of His followers understand that regardless of the role we have in our spiritual community, we have a member of the Godhead who is our Leader. Since we have focused on the Holy Spirit and on God the Father, I suspect that the role of Leader in the Godhead is placed on Jesus Himself.

As the most visible member of the Godhead, Jesus is the easiest one for us to follow, and about the only thing that breaks through all the differences of opinions, conflicting ideas, and divisions in the body of Christ is the simple truth that we are to “follow Jesus”. In the broad history of Christian tradition, there are valid topics worth debating and there is room for differing opinions, but if we were to simply be like Jesus, love like Jesus, and act like Jesus, our differences of opinions would be minor in comparison to the love we would have for one another.

In these verses, Jesus takes three roles that the Pharisees and scribes probably liked using for each other to elevate themselves above the common crowds, and He tells His followers to only use those terms to describe God. God is our Teacher, our Father, and our Leader, and in a skillful way, Jesus shares these three roles in a way that connects each role with a member of the Godhead.

While we might be tempted to think this truth was only applicable for those in the first century, I believe that since Jesus spoke these words, and since Jesus did not give us a time constraint for this message, this challenge is just as applicable for us living today as it was for those living in the first century. I suspect that Jesus’ model for the role of each member of the Godhead in relation to Jesus’ followers will be the model used in heaven as we live together for eternity. While we live together here on earth, it is very easy for us to get caught up praising one another and developing a hierarchy where everyone fits in rank rather than simply taking Jesus’ words that we are all brothers and sisters with God as our Father, Leader, and Teacher.

I just had a thought. Part of me wonders if this was God’s original plan for the Israelite nation during the book of Judges and prior to them demanding Samuel to anoint a king. I wonder if God originally intended His nation to be a nation of brothers and sisters who continually would look to God to fill these three roles. If this is the case, then it is possible He is looking for this same model within in His church today. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that God’s model for His people is to view themselves as a group of spiritual brothers and sisters who hold God as our true Father, true Leader, and true Teacher.

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 done so, decide today to place God into the role of Father, Teacher, and Leader of your life. When each member of the Godhead fills these roles in our lives, our lives will be aligned with Jesus and with how He instructed His followers to live.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to intentionally grow closer to God and to learn what He is like. While other people can give you ideas to think about, take everything you read, hear, and see and in prayer and study, test it against the truths of the Bible to discover if it aligns with what God has taught us.

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!

As I read the gospels, I am continually amazed at how many different ways the chief priest, leaders, and Pharisees tried to trick and trap Jesus. A quick reading of any of the gospels will surface some group of leaders or Pharisees bringing a trick question to Jesus, and in every case, Jesus has a strong response.

Sometimes the response Jesus gives is an answer they didn’t expect, while other times, Jesus asks a counter question that derails or invalidates the original question.

As we move through Jesus’ last week before His crucifixion, we come to a last ditch effort to invalidate Jesus. After failing numerous times, the Pharisees come up with the perfect solution, or at least it looks like the perfect challenge when they were discussing this amongst their group.

Up to that point, I suspect some of these religious leaders believed Jesus was only saying what the people wanted to hear, which is a hard case to make if you have read any of the several challenging messages Jesus shared with the crowds that followed Him in the gospels.

However, in my mind’s eye, I suspect that some of the Pharisees plotted that a perfect approach to trapping Jesus would involve temporarily teaming up with a group they did not agree with at all – with a group of people they kind of hated, and then asking a question that would force Jesus to pick a side. Along the lines of this challenge, I suspect that these religious leaders believed that if Jesus was pressured in this way, He would have no chance avoiding disaster.

The event we are focusing in on for this podcast episode is found in three of the four gospels. While we could look at this event from any one of the three, let’s look at Matthew’s version of this event. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, and we will read it using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 15, Matthew sets the stage for us by writing:

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. ¹⁶ They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians. [As a sidenote, the Herodians were those who were loyal to Herod the governor and the Roman government] They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin. ²⁰ Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”

²¹ The men answered, “Caesar’s.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.

In this passage, Jesus effortlessly brushes aside this seemingly impossible challenge while also making a very profound statement.

I’ve lost count to the number of times I have heard this event, but as I was reading it in preparation for this episode, an interesting question entered my mind.

Jesus responded by saying, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.” Reading this prompted me to ask myself the question, “What things are God’s?”

When reading this event, it’s easy to understand paying taxes to Caesar, because there is a coin present, but too often, we are quick to skip over or brush past the other side of Jesus’ response. Do we really think about what Jesus means when He talks about giving God what is God’s?

One easy answer to giving God what is His might be returning tithe to Him. In several places within the Old Testament, God challenges the Israelites on their lack of generosity towards Him. In Malachi, God even goes as far as to say that not giving tithes is the same as robbing Him.

On one level, Jesus could be referring to tithe, which allows us to see the original challenge the Pharisees and Herodians bring as being exclusively focused on money. However, if we stop looking at what is God’s at the topic of tithe, we risk missing out on one of Jesus’ biggest challenges.

When we look at our lives, God has given us so much more than money. It is even true, perhaps even more true, that some of the things He has “given” us are really only things He has let us borrow. If we look at the biggest picture we can imagine, everything in the universe is God’s, from all the galaxies in the universe to all the grains of sand on a beach. Taking this big picture idea to its logical conclusion about ownership of things, anything we think we own that we are not able to keep past our short life span is probably only borrowed.

While reading this event, I am amazed that while Jesus challenges those present to give Caesar the things that are his, they are also challenged to give God the things that are His. Applying this truth into our own lives, we are challenged to give Caesar, or our government, the things that are theirs, and give to God the things that are God’s.

In the big picture of life in this universe, since we are unable to keep our money, our stuff, our relationships, or even our life after our time on this planet is over, all these things we might believe are ours are technically only loaned to us. Because God owns everything, He is the one who really owns all the things we might be tempted to thinks are ours.

While some might argue this point, within the way I see God’s blessings, the biggest thing He has blessed us with is our life. However at this time, life is not a permanent gift. At any moment, a life may return to God as a person gives their last breath. While it is sobering to think about, since we don’t know when our lives will end, this means that we all are living on borrowed time. If God is the one loaning us time, at the heart of Jesus’ challenge to return to God the things that are His, Jesus is really saying that we are to give God the time that is His – and as the cliché saying goes, time is more valuable than money.

We live in a world where the money carries the name of whatever country we live in, so according to Jesus, let the money be the governments’. But Jesus also says that the things that are God’s, which is really everything from the land, to the natural resources, to the life of every man, woman, child, and animal in every place within the entire universe is His, and that we should return our blessings to Him who has loaned us a handful of decades of time.

This is a huge truth with amazing implications. However, with that said, each of us carries with us a responsibility of this truth. This leaves us with a question: How are you returning to God the things that are His? It is only when we give back to God that we can become the person He created us to be.

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. Purposefully choose to give God the things that are His while also working to improve the things within society. Intentionally use the money you have to make the world a better place, and remember that everything we have is ours only because God has blessed us with the ability to have it.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to grow closer to God and to learn who He is and what He is like. Only through prayer and Bible study can we discover just how much God loves us and just how much He values you.

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!

As we continue looking at events within Jesus’ life and ministry, and specifically events Jesus faced during the week leading up to His crucifixion, we discover a challenge Jesus receives that has an unexpected outcome. While Jesus usually had a very intelligent response to challenges that He received, in the event we are focusing on for this episode, Jesus chooses a different style of response – one that the religious leaders had not anticipated.

Let’s read the passage and then uncover some things we can learn from what happened.

Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 21, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 23, Matthew tells us that:

²³ Jesus had gone into the temple and was teaching when the chief priests and the leaders of the people came up to him. They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

²⁴ Jesus answered, “I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. ²⁵ Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

They thought it over and said to each other, “We can’t say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn’t believe John. ²⁶ On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet, and we are afraid of what they might do to us. That’s why we can’t say that it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.” ²⁷ So they told Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said, “Then I won’t tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”

I really like reading about this event. When the chief priests and leaders challenge Jesus with an unanswerable question, Jesus responds with an equally unanswerable question.

What is brilliant about the way Jesus responded is that He leaves the outcome in the hands of the chief priests. Jesus knew these religious leaders didn’t believe John the Baptist was a prophet who spoke for God, while Jesus also knew that the crowd did believe John the Baptist was God-sent.

While pondering possible responses Jesus could have given to this question, I wonder if Jesus could have simply answered that He received authority from the same place John the Baptist received it. An answer like this would amplify the belief of the crowd in Him, since this passage describes this crowd as believing that God was behind John the Baptist’s ministry. However, I suspect Jesus did not choose this response because it would also negatively affect Jesus’ status among the leaders who did not believe John the Baptist was special or significant.

A different answer Jesus gave could have been simply the truth that God gave Him this right. However, the outcomes for this type of response would descend into either arguing or debating reasons, or it would result in Jesus being stoned by those claiming He spoke blasphemy. While Jesus did come to die, He came to die on a cross, not by being stoned inside the temple.

In many ways, Jesus’ response is perfect for this occasion. Instead of answering in a simple way, Jesus responded with an equally unanswerable question directed towards the religious leaders. The counter question, which has two easy sounding answers, is a question that these leaders cannot answer without also losing status and favor with those present. Either they give Jesus the upper hand because they did not believe John, or they lose status with the crowd who believed John was a prophet.

In this way, Jesus’ counter question is perfect, because the leaders ultimately give a non-answer of “We don’t know” which allows Jesus to leave the question they asked Him as unanswered.

Jesus left this challenge unanswered because answering it would close off discussion. If Jesus directly said that His authority came from God, then it would instantly polarize people – but it would also do something else: something Jesus was not willing to do in His whole ministry.

Throughout the gospel record, one theme that surfaces repeatedly is that Jesus always did things that minimized Himself while pointing glory to God. God, through the Holy Spirit, gave Jesus the ability to perform miracles. While this would logically draw attention to Jesus, we discover that Jesus almost always appeared to prefer doing miracles where God would get the glory.

If Jesus stated directly that He received His authority from God, that would deviate from what He had done throughout His ministry prior to this because instead of building God up, He would be using everything God had given Him to build Himself up. It isn’t surprising to say that this is exactly what the chief priests had done. The chief priests and leaders had built themselves up on the position God had entrusted to them. These leaders were using God as a platform for their own motives – and Jesus did everything He could to distance Himself from using God as a platform.

Jesus came to build God up, and that isn’t done by using God as a platform.

However, with that said, what should we learn from this event?

In my mind, while Jesus left the question unanswered in a public way, the question the religious leaders asked Jesus is a question everyone must ultimately take a side on. Each of us must answer the question: Who gave Jesus the authority, power, wisdom, and ability to do what He did?

If Jesus’ authority, power, wisdom, and ability came from Himself, then it is easy to discredit what He said and did as self-motivated. However, if God gave Jesus the authority, power, wisdom, and ability, then we need to see Jesus differently. If God was and is behind Jesus, then it would be wise for us to align with Jesus too, unless we want to align our lives against God, which doesn’t really seem all that wise.

Throughout His entire ministry, Jesus avoided drawing the attention onto Himself at the expense of God receiving glory. If Jesus erred on any side, it was that He gave too much credit to God, while not accepting any praise onto Himself. Jesus took the opposite position the chief priests and leaders took: He came to build God up, not use God to build Himself up like the other leaders at the time were doing.

It is interesting in my mind that if God chose to support anyone, it would be the person who is actively seeking to build Him up. Jesus modeled a life where God was placed 100% first, ahead of anything, everything, anyone, and everyone else. As followers and disciples of Jesus, we are called by Jesus to do the same.

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 we are going to be like Jesus, then God should come first in our lives – period. Both the glory and the credit should always be directed up to Him.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, because prayer and Bible study are the best ways to grow a personal relationship with God. While pastors, speakers, authors, or even podcasters can give you ideas to think about, never let your relationship with God rest on someone else’s relationship. God wants a personal relationship with you, and He doesn’t want anyone else getting 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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!