Reflective Bible Study

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!

During the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, it seems as though all the various groups of religious leaders collectively decided that now was the time to trap Jesus with His own words. Near the end of their challenges, after a religious group known as the Sadducees had given their challenge, the gospel of Mark tells us that one of the teachers of the law had a question for Jesus.

From this teacher’s question, it is unclear if other teachers sent him with this question, or if he had been present earlier in Jesus’ ministry when another leader asks a very similar question. But whatever this teacher’s background, the reaction he gives to Jesus’ response is powerful.

Let’s look a little closer at what happened and at what was said. This event can be found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 12, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 28, Mark tells us that:

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard the Sadducees arguing. He noticed that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer. So he asked him, “Which is the most important of all the commandments?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “Here is the most important one. Moses said, ‘Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ And here is the second one. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no commandment more important than these.”

³² “You have spoken well, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one. There is no other God but him. ³³ To love God with all your heart and mind and strength is very important. So is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. These things are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.” From then on, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

What stands out to me most in this conversation is that this teacher responds in a way that validates Jesus’ response. In this passage, we hear Jesus give an answer, then it is a little surprising that this teacher backs up Jesus’ response and agrees with Jesus’ words rather than following up with another question or idea to challenge Him.

Part of me wonders who this teacher was, and if this teacher may have been one of the secret Jesus-followers present in the religious elite. The phrase that stands out most in my mind is that this teacher concludes his remarks by saying that loving God and our neighbors are, “more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices”.

Earlier, this same question regarding the most important commandment had prompted Jesus to share a parable related to identifying who our neighbor truly is. In that case, it appeared that the question regarding the most important commandment was simply a set up question for the real one about defining who our neighbor is.

However, in this event, it seems that this teacher was truly interested in focusing the attention of everyone present onto the characteristic of love, and it seems as though Jesus was happy to do this.

Even though this teacher successfully shifted the focus onto the key portions of the law and commandments, Jesus comments at the close of this conversation in verse 34 that this teacher is “not far from God’s kingdom”. On the surface, it appears that everything this teacher asked, said, and replied was correct in Jesus’ eyes, but even with the right answer, Jesus implies that this man has still not found God’s kingdom. Close to God’s kingdom is good, but it’s better to be included in God’s kingdom.

From looking at the nuances included in this passage, I can come up with two things this teacher may have missed prior to this conversation with Jesus that would have led to Jesus stating that he still needed something more to make it into God’s kingdom.

The first is that this teacher had all the right answers, but nothing is implied or stated that said this teacher followed through with his love for God and his love for his neighbor with tangible action. Having the right answers is great, but they don’t mean anything when faced with reality. In my mind, Jesus might be challenging this teacher to live the life that is being described. While the teacher has said that loving God and others is more important than even sacrifices, Jesus may have known that this teacher had been poorly modeling this attitude in his own life. Love is only as valuable as it is visible and helpful to others. Love that is hidden does not have any value in the big picture.

The second thing that I could see Jesus implying with His comment that this teacher was not far from God’s kingdom is that all that was left for this teacher was to accept Jesus as his substitute and to make the commitment to put his hope, trust, faith, and belief in Him. Another way to say this is that it does not matter how much we say we love others, or how much we say we love God. The key thing that matters is that we have placed Jesus first in our life.

The most loving person in the world who has rejected Jesus will still be lost when faced with the judgment. This is because there is nothing we can do, say, act, or pay that will get us into God’s kingdom on our own merit. Instead, the way into God’s kingdom is by accepting Jesus into our hearts and lives, and perhaps, in the case of this religious teacher, he was not far from God’s kingdom because he was on the verge of accepting Jesus into His heart and life.

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

If you have not accepted Jesus into your heart and life, now would be a great time to do so. We accept Jesus into our hearts when have the realization that nothing we can do will earn our own salvation, and we make the commitment to depend on Jesus 100% for our eternity. We then choose to live moving forward with the faith that Jesus has taken care of our past, and that He has secured our future, and that everything we do today is done as our way of saying “Thank You” for giving us the gift we truly don’t deserve.

Also, as I always include in these challenges, be sure to continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to grow and strengthen your personal relationship with God and Jesus. When we have a strong connection with God, we will be able to clearly see Him working in our lives, and we will be more in touch with His will for each of 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 turn away from 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!

When I read from the gospels and focus on the parables Jesus spoke to the various crowds and other groups of people, I occasionally wonder how much of the underlying truth in what is shared actually gets understood by those in Jesus’ audience. There are some places in the gospels where we are told that the people would hear Jesus words, but miss understanding the meaning of His message, and this is quoting from an Old Testament Prophecy.

However, there are other parables that don’t seem to be as misunderstood. One example of a parable like this is shared during the week Jesus was crucified, and in some ways, I wonder if this parable helped build confirmation bias in the religious leaders that they needed to get Jesus out of the picture.

This parable and event is recorded in three of the four gospels, and for our time together, let’s focus on Mark’s version of what happened. We will be reading from the gospel of Mark, chapter 12, using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us:

¹ Then Jesus spoke to them in parables: “Once there was a man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. ² When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. ³ The tenants grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back without a thing. ⁴ Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ The owner sent another slave, and they killed him; and they treated many others the same way, beating some and killing others. ⁶ The only one left to send was the man’s own dear son. Last of all, then, he sent his son to the tenants. ‘I am sure they will respect my son,’ he said. ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Come on, let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ⁸ So they grabbed the son and killed him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?” asked Jesus. “He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others. ¹⁰ Surely you have read this scripture?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
    turned out to be the most important of all.
¹¹ This was done by the Lord;
    what a wonderful sight it is!’”

¹² The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

As I read the conclusion of this passage, it appears that the Jewish leaders who were in the crowd realized they were the villains in Jesus’ parable, and they did not like it. Some of these leaders even started to move towards Jesus in order to arrest Him before being pulled back by other leaders who were afraid of the crowd’s response.

But what I find most amazing about the leaders hostile response is that it essentially confirms the plotline of Jesus’ parable – and it subtly confirms the character of Jesus as the vineyard owner’s son. Whether they intended to do so or not, the reaction of these religious leaders in Jerusalem validate Jesus’ claim to be God’s Son, while in the same moment incriminating themselves as the hostile tenants.

While it seems strange to think of a landowner killing misbehaving tenants in today’s culture, I wonder if that was not as strange then. Perhaps this translation of the Bible tried to smooth over the idea of these “tenants” actually being slaves who were left with the responsibility of managing the vineyard. In this case, even if it is not politically correct in today’s western culture, killing a slave is not as unheard of.

However, note that regardless of the culture, these tenants or slaves, whichever term we want to use, have shown themselves to not value life or the privilege of managing the vineyard. They were given what some might call a dream job, and they let themselves become arrogant and prideful. While God doesn’t like those who are arrogant or proud, the real issue that we see with the tenants in the vineyard is that they are unwilling to return the owner’s share of the harvest.

In this subtle detail, we see a clue into a big truth that is just as applicable to western, non-agriculture societies as well as the culture Jesus lived in. When a tenant mistakenly believes himself or herself to be an owner, they risk becoming greedy and resentful towards the true Owner. While God isn’t making a statement against the concept of land ownership in this parable, He is instead pointing our attention to the truth that no one truly owns anything in this universe aside from the One who created it.

While we have been gifted with the freedom of choice, and the responsibility of managing various amounts of time, talent, money, stuff, and in some cases, even property, the truth is that we don’t truly own anything the government might claim we own. When we shift our focus onto thinking we are managers instead of CEOs, we have a better frame of reference for handling the times when God asks us to return His portion to Him.

The religious leaders during the generation Jesus walked on the earth might have verbally claimed to serve God. However, the way they acted and the organization they developed themselves into was one that acted like a CEO on spiritual (and non-spiritual) matters, rather than one that acted like a spiritual aid with the aim of helping others. With this mindset, it’s no wonder why God couldn’t step in with the truth that He was still the rightful landowner – the tenants had tricked themselves into believing a lie.

When a tenant mistakenly believes himself or herself to be an owner, they risk becoming greedy and resentful towards the true Owner. But when we shift our focus onto thinking we are managers instead of CEOs, we have a better frame of reference for handling the times when God comes and asks us to return His portion to Him.

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

Continue seeking God first in your life. Choose to see yourself as a manager who has been entrusted with things God values – things such as your time, talent, wealth, and property, as well as your spouse and children if you have them, and even your attitude. All of these things are things that God has entrusted you with. The challenge is to see yourself as a manager, and be open to God’s leading, guiding, and suggestions where He chooses to insert them.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can better recognize who God is and what He is like. By focusing on learning from God through the Bible, you will be equipped to handle times when the voices of culture try to speak their opinions onto what God has entrusted you to manage, and you will be able to discern the wise suggestions from the foolish speculation. Remember, God is the true Owner, and we are to defer to Him for the best way to manage what we have been blessed with.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never believe yourself to be more or less than the person God created you to be and 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!