Reflective Bible Study

If you have ever wondered what it means to be included in God’s family, our passage for this episode gives us a clue. While on the surface, how Jesus responds in this situation might have been considered offensive by some in the crowd, regardless of whether it offended someone, Jesus’ response gives us a powerful picture of what God’s family is like.

While I don’t hear many people talking about this passage today, an idea or theme hidden in this passage must have made it significant enough for three of the four gospel writers include it in their stories about Jesus. Part of me wonders if it has to do with the theme of being included in God’s family.

Let’s read this event from Mark’s gospel, chapter 3, using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Mark tells us:

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

In the first century culture, family was important – and especially honoring one’s parents – and in this passage, it sounds as though Jesus is blowing off or ignoring the family that has come to speak with Him. However, since the passage ends where it does, it is possible that Jesus uses His last statement as a conclusion to His message. All three of the gospels that include this event transition to something else afterwards.

However, regardless of whether Jesus stopped to go and visit with His mother and brothers, what Jesus shares about God’s family is powerful. The key point and key distinction Jesus makes which separates God’s family from everyone else is simply the test of whether someone is doing God’s will.

It sounds too simple, but Jesus rarely complicated things. In that culture, the religious leaders had complicated spirituality and religion to the point that many people simply gave up or resolved that they were already lost, so why even try. When Jesus steps onto the scene as God’s representative, He combats the complex with the incredibly, almost unbelievably, simple.

With this in mind, we turn to the question about why Jesus’ mother, brothers, and according to some gospels, sisters were there. While it is easy to speculate, included in this passage, and in their request, we can see a clue regarding why they had come.

Mark shares that the message that reaches Jesus is that His mother and brothers are outside looking for Him. If they had come to listen to what He was preaching, there would be no need to send the message. Also, taking from the theme of Jesus’ key point, members of God’s family do God’s will, and at that moment, God’s will for Jesus was to share about God with the people. Whether the Holy Spirit orchestrated this event to prompt Jesus’ words about God’s family, or whether Jesus knew the words to say while not knowing exactly when the opportunity would arise, the clue in this passage comes through the implied request for Jesus to stop what He is doing to go out and see His mother and brothers.

We don’t know the reason Jesus’ family had come. It may have been to share the bad news that Joseph just died or he was very sick. While this is a possible reason, it is unlikely, since a request like that would likely have come through a messenger or servant, and it would have been included in at least one of the three gospels that record this message. But, none of the gospels give any reason for their request. We don’t know, however, what we can see taking shape is a distraction from God’s will.

God’s will at that moment was Jesus teaching, and whatever reason Jesus’ family had for coming, their request appeared to interrupt and distract from Jesus’ mission.

With how each of the gospel’s end this event, and move on to something else, I am lead to believe that Jesus used this event to tie off the topic He was preaching about, and then He went out to see what they wanted. Jesus didn’t stop what He was doing because they had arrived, but He didn’t ignore it either. Jesus used this situation to draw our attention onto a bigger truth that we are adopted into God’s family when we are doing one specific thing. According to Jesus, when we are doing God’s will, we are Jesus’ mother, brother, or sister, and logically, we could describe this as being a part of God’s family.

This simple description about doing God’s will to be adopted into His family is a challenge for all of us. While there isn’t a specific action that makes us worthy of heaven, there is a set of simple things for us to do to align ourselves with God’s will for us.

The first is prayer, and the prayer I am referring to isn’t sporadic, whenever-we-need-God-to-do-something-for-us prayer. Instead, this prayer is regular, at the same time every day, and often first thing in the morning when we wake up. And this prayer is mixed with reading our Bible and just spending time with God looking for insights, inspiration, and encouragement from His Word.

The second is by making the commitment to depend on God and Jesus with whatever life throws our way. While it is easy to say we believe in God and trust Him for big things like our eternity, often times our actions don’t match our words, and we act like we are doing it on our own. God’s will is for us to live with Him, and He is more than willing to help us with our lives here on this earth. However, His help will always be focused on the ultimate goal of seeing us, and the most people possible, in heaven when history ends.

The third is by choosing to reflect Jesus’ character and His love to everyone God brings our way. The only way we can truly accomplish this is through the first two things. In order to reflect Jesus, we must know what He was like, which is found in the four gospels of the Bible, and we must depend on God and lean on Him, because that is what Jesus did, and that is where Jesus gained His strength for each day.

Being a part of God’s family is possible, and it is not complicated. However, it takes trust, faith, belief, and commitment, and sometimes it won’t feel easy or comfortable. But the challenges are easily outweighed by the huge truth that our ultimate reward for being in God’s family is living forever with Him!

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

Choose to depend on God today, for whatever life throws at you today, and make the commitment to do this each morning for this coming week. God wants to walk with us through life, and He is willing to help us when we need Him. It may be worth taking Him up on His offer.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn what God, Jesus, and doing God’s will is all about. The mission God has created us to live will have many similarities, but there will also be many differences. We are all uniquely created, and personal study mixed with personal prayer is the best way to begin discovering why God has placed you here on this earth at this point in history.

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 Jesus’ life within the gospel record, we come to an event where some religious leaders challenge Jesus. However, when I read each of the three gospels that include this event, each gospel writer included a detail that I wanted to focus in on.

While one possible way to solve this problem would be to read the event from each of the gospels that includes it, that would result in reading three very similar sounding passages, and we might lose what makes each passage distinct.

Instead, I thought it would be beneficial to blend the three gospels together for this podcast episode. At the very least, this makes for an interesting reading of this event, and it may even help us see something new in what happened.

The three passages I will blend from are the following: Mark 3:22-27 will be the base passage I’ll read from, and I will pull in details from Matthew 12:24-30 and Luke 11:15-23. For all these passages, we’ll use the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. For those who are interested in which verses are from which gospel, this info will be included in the transcript for this episode. Starting in Mark, chapter 3, verse 22, we read that:

^{Mark 3:22} Some teachers of the Law of Moses came from Jerusalem and said, “This man is under the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons! He is even forcing out demons with the help of Beelzebul.”

^{Luke 11:16} Others wanted to put Jesus to the test. So they asked him to show them a sign from God.

^{Mark 3:23} Jesus told the people to gather around him. Then he spoke to them in riddles and said:

How can Satan force himself out? ^{Matthew 12:25b} Any kingdom where people fight each other will end up ruined. And a town or family that fights will soon destroy itself. ^{Matthew 12:26} So if Satan fights against himself, how can his kingdom last? ^{Matthew 12:27} If I use the power of Beelzebul to force out demons, whose power do your own followers use to force them out? Your followers are the ones who will judge you. ^{Matthew 12:28} But when I force out demons by the power of God’s Spirit, it proves that God’s kingdom has already come to you. ^{Mark 3:26} So if Satan fights against himself, that will be the end of him.

^{Luke 11:21} When a strong man arms himself and guards his home, everything he owns is safe. ^{Luke 11:22} But if a stronger man comes and defeats him, he will carry off the weapons in which the strong man trusted. Then he will divide with others what he has taken. ^{Luke 11:23} If you are not on my side, you are against me. If you don’t gather in the crop with me, you scatter it.

When reading this compilation of these three gospels, we can see some significant themes and ideas. If you are interested in which verses went with each gospel, listen for the link I’ll share at the end of this episode, and look at the transcript for this information. In the transcript, I will have each verse and reference listed.

With this teaching pulled together from these three gospels, let’s look a little closer at it.

Mark’s gospel opens Jesus’ response by saying that Jesus spoke to the people in riddles, or other translations might say parables or illustrations. I find this detail significant because, at least for me, I remember the stories and illustrations that make me think better than the ones where I could correctly guess the punch line or conclusion.

I suspect that you and I may be similar in this regard. We might forget or ignore something that is too simple to be worth remembering or too abstract that we cannot even grasp it, but there is a window in between these two extremes that the right story or illustration can fit into.

Next, we switched over to Matthew’s gospel and discovered that Jesus didn’t just use riddles and stories, Jesus also defended His ministry using logic. In this short conversation-debate with the religious leaders, Jesus counters the challenge about whether He uses Satan’s power to cast Satan out using two logical conclusions.

First, Jesus says that Satan’s kingdom would self-destruct if it faced internal conflict with some sides casting out other sides. It would be similar to describing Satan’s forces experiencing a civil war, and internal wars between people on the same team never make the whole team stronger.

Secondly, Jesus says that the argument these religious leaders present, which suggests that Jesus uses Satan’s power to cast out demons, also incriminates their own priests and teachers who do the same thing. Jesus doesn’t discount God’s Spirit working through the priests and Pharisees who cast evil spirits out, but He challenges them on the idea that God only works through some avenues and not others when both outcomes are the same.

From Matthew’s gospel, we discover that Jesus taught a logical gospel, and that the gospel of Jesus is one that can be defended and supported with logic. As Christ’s disciples living in the world today, we should not fear or avoid defending our faith with logic. Christianity may be one of the most logical worldviews in existence today.

Next, we turn primarily to the gospel of Luke and discover another aspect related to how Jesus taught, which is illustrated by a strong man guarding his home. Not only does Jesus build on the parable-story and logic methods, He also brings in the method of having an overall theme that He is leading people to.

The theme that Jesus draws our attention to in this passage is that who we place our trust in matters more than we might realize: Will we trust in ourselves, like the strong man did, or will we trust someone stronger? This theme also is applicable to the logical arguments, because it matters who we place our trust in regarding God and Satan. Jesus is clearly illustrating that God is stronger, and that we should be placing our trust in Him.

The biggest key conclusion to Jesus’ teaching comes with a final punch: There is no middle ground. It is both a key point, and a challenge. Jesus isn’t trying to scare people into following Him, since fear is not a lasting motivator. Instead, Jesus brings this portion of His teaching to a very practical point of decision, and He leaves this decision in the hands of His listeners.

In these three gospel accounts of Jesus teaching on where His power comes from and on where we should place our trust, we find some excellent lessons on how to effectively teach others. Jesus shows us how to use illustrations, make people think, use logic, include an overall theme, and bring everything down to one single point that can be taken away and applied.

Jesus teaches us how to teach through His excellent teaching. If you are someone who leads, teaches, or who influences others, it is worth asking the question, “How can you use Jesus’ methods for your next presentation?”

However, before even beginning to apply Jesus’ methods, let’s briefly look a little closer at Jesus’ key point in Luke, chapter 11, verse 23: “If you are not on my side, you are against me. If you don’t gather in the crop with me, you scatter it.” Jesus’ key point in this teaching is that we must actively be gathering people with Him, because if not, we are against Him. There is no middle ground on this issue.

As followers of Jesus, we are called and challenged to point people to Jesus. If you are allied with Jesus, is leading people to Him the primary focus of your life?

While answering this question may be difficult to admit or accept, there is a right answer to this question, no matter how politically incorrect it may be in society today, and that right answer leads God’s people into eternity!

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. Intentionally look for ways to point people to Jesus and to tell others about Him. When our lives are over, the only thing that will have mattered is our personal relationship with Jesus.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow personally towards God. The only way we are able to effectively share Jesus with those around us is if we know Jesus for ourselves. The best way to learn about Jesus and grow closer to Him is through regularly praying and studying the Bible.

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!

Sometimes I wonder how Jesus would be received if He were alive today. If someone were to perform the miracles and healing that He did, would people living today (without having a historical Jesus to look back on) accept Him, or would He be rejected? Another part of me wonders if it was just the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus, while the majority of the average people living in that culture chose to accept Him.

It is while I wonder this that I come to a challenging passage in the gospel of Matthew. As I read it, in a way it answers both of these questions I occasionally wonder about. So let’s read this challenge, from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 11, and let’s use the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 20, Matthew tells us that:

²⁰ Jesus began to speak against the towns where he had done most of his miracles. The people there had not turned away from their sins. So he said, ²¹ “How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you, Bethsaida! Suppose the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon. They would have turned away from their sins long ago. They would have put on clothes for mourning. They would have sat down in ashes. ²² But I tell you this. On judgment day it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³ And what about you, Capernaum? Will you be lifted to the heavens? No! You will go down to the place of the dead. Suppose the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom. It would still be here today. ²⁴ But I tell you this. On judgment day it will be easier for Sodom than for you.”

Let’s pause reading here for a brief moment. Matthew tells us that Jesus spoke “against” the towns where He had done most of His miracles. These were the communities who would have clearly had enough evidence to tell them Jesus was significant, and the miracles would build the case that He was from God. However, apathy seemed to be alive and well in the first century. Jesus speaks out against these towns because even with plenty of evidence, the average, regular person discounted Jesus’ message and ministry and continued living as he or she had always lived.

Jesus compares these two towns with two historical communities who were known for their sinful lifestyle. God personally destroyed Sodom because of the community’s sinful behavior, and while I don’t know if the city of Tyre was still around when Jesus was alive walking on this earth, one of the Old Testament prophets connected the king of Tyre with Lucifer, who fell from heaven. While Ezekiel’s prophecy clearly is speaking about a being who existed long before Tyre’s actual king, the fact that Ezekiel connected the leader of this city with Satan speaks to the reputation that Tyre had for its sin.

What seems to be the difference between the present communities Jesus was speaking to and their historical counterparts was simply apathy. The people in the past, even those who were actively pursuing sin, would have turned their lives around if Jesus had been present and working miracles earlier in history. This challenges me to wonder if apathy is among the worst character traits we could possess. If we ignore and discount all that is happening around us, then how will God ever wake us up to what He wants for us? Perhaps this is one reason why trials come into our lives.

However, Jesus also said some other powerful things in this discussion. Continuing in verse 25, we learn that:

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father. You are Lord of heaven and earth. You have hidden these things from wise and educated people. But you have shown them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father. This is what you wanted to do.

²⁷ “My Father has given all things to me. The Father is the only one who knows the Son. And the only ones who know the Father are the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to make him known.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest. ²⁹ Become my servants and learn from me. I am gentle and free of pride. You will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ Serving me is easy, and my load is light.”

In this last part of our passage, we have three big ideas.

First, Jesus applauds God for hiding “these things” from the wise and educated people, while showing it to those who are childlike. The context for the phrase “these things” must then refer to His words against the two towns we had just talked about, and perhaps it relates specifically to our discussion on apathy. Part of me wonders if the more “educated” a person gets, the more apathy they can also display.

I really don’t think that education guarantees an equivalent or proportional level of apathy, but perhaps as we learn and grow intellectually, we learn that there is so much that we don’t know that it becomes easier to ignore the things we don’t understand in favor of the things that we do understand.

The second idea is that the Father is the only One who truly knows the Son, and while the Son is the only One who truly knows the Father, Jesus tells us that the Son reveals the Father to a certain group of people that He chooses. This means that you and I, if we have been chosen, can actually know who the Father is. However, in order to be chosen, we must be friends of Jesus, and the likelihood is high that friendship in this case also equals alignment and obedience. It’s hard to be friends with someone who is living in a way that is opposed to your character or a belief you have, and it may be this way with Jesus too. The closer we can live like Jesus and be like Jesus, the easier it will be to be friends with Him.

Concluding these three ideas is the idea of rest. Jesus invites those present to follow Him if they are tired of carrying a heavy load. While following Jesus might not remove a physically heavy load that one may have to carry, what Jesus is describing in this illustration is a load of spiritual rules and regulations that had become ever more confusing and convoluted as time had passed. What had been simple at one time was now more complicated than ever, and someone trying to live rightly according to the religious leaders of that era needed to be ever careful and cautious about breaking one of the countless laws that were present. The first century religious leaders had created laws that were designed to guard against breaking other laws, and that made the standard of right living even more confusing.

But Jesus comes with the message that His way is simple. Jesus does have a load for us to carry, but it is light. This means that it does matter what we do, what we say, and how we live, but the frame of reference Jesus uses is not one of restriction but instead it is one of freedom. Jesus wants us to avoid the lifestyles, activities, habits, and other things that will ultimately trap us in favor of the ones that give us life. By following Jesus, we can find rest for our inner selves and for our hearts and minds.

This passage, which opened with Jesus speaking out against the apathy present in the towns He did most of His miracles in, and which ends with an invitation out of the burden of trying to live up to an impossible standard, we see both apathy and self-reliance being opposite to the life God has for us. Education helps, but it is not the only key to breaking free from apathy and self-reliance. Instead, drawing close to Jesus, and learning to follow, obey, and depend on Him is the way into the life God intends for each of us to live!

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

If you feel as though you struggle with apathy, or if you are trying to live life apart from God, and in either case you feel tired, burned out, or empty, perhaps this passage and our discussion today is a challenge to seek God, follow Jesus, and commit to depend on Him for guidance, strength, and direction.

In order to learn what He wants from us, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, reading every verse and passage in context, and intentionally mixing your study with prayer, reflection, and ample time. Rushing Bible study is rarely productive, and it doesn’t ultimately lead to rest. Instead, choose to pray and open your Bible with plenty of time available so you can rest, learn, listen, and discover what God wants to show you in His word.

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 if Jesus clashed with first century culture, or if you have ever opened your Bible looking for examples of something Jesus did that would have been culturally upsetting, you don’t need to look further than the passage we will be looking at in this episode.

However, for our time looking at this passage, instead of focusing on the culturally upsetting nature of the event, allow me to think out loud with you about a question that we might not have any way of answering. The question that I have about Jesus revolves around what prompted Jesus to act in the way He did leading up to the miracle this passage includes.

In this passage, Jesus breaks some cultural norms, and it appears as though He says something we might think is really insensitive, before shifting the focus of this event with a miracle. From this event, we are able to see a glimpse into Jesus’ heart and His motivation that may be easily missed if we read through this passage too quickly.

Whether you have studied this passage before or not, we can learn a lot from spending time focusing on how Jesus acted and responded to others while walking this earth. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be like Him, and the first step is to understand who He is through how He acted.

The event we’ll be digging into is a short one, and it is only included in the gospel of Luke. Our passage can be found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will be reading it using the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us that:

¹¹ Some time later, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd went along with him. ¹² He approached the town gate. Just then, a dead person was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother. She was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. So he said, “Don’t cry.”

¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the coffin. Those carrying it stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to talk. Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶ The people were all filled with wonder and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” ¹⁷ This news about Jesus spread all through Judea and the whole country.

In this passage, Jesus resurrects the son of a widow. While it probably wasn’t commonplace to have a dead person being carried out of town, it wouldn’t be a stretch for me to imagine it was rare. Life expectancies were shorter during that era than they are now, which meant that there may have been dozens, if not hundreds, of these funeral processions every year. With this detail in mind, we could logically conclude that this was not the only funeral procession Jesus ever passed. If Jesus passed by dozens of funerals during His time on earth, not many resurrection miracles were recorded.

That makes this event extra special, extra important, and worth digging in to. While stopping a funeral processional is inconsiderate at best, Jesus does the unthinkable because He wants to do the impossible – specifically raise a dead boy back to life.

For this event, Luke sets the stage by saying that the deceased person was the only son of a widow. This detail may have pushed Jesus to act. The deceased individual could have been a young boy, a teenager, or a young adult, and we have no idea what caused his death. The fact that a large crowd was present could mean that this was a very prominent widow in this town, or perhaps that her late husband was well known and respected and the townspeople cared for the widows who lived there. At the very least, a large crowd in this procession meant that many people wished to support this woman in her loss, and that they felt sorry for her situation.

With the stage set and the funeral procession leaving town, Jesus enters the scene. The first thing Luke includes in this event about Jesus is that Jesus felt sorry for the widow and that He had compassion. He focuses first on the woman who has lost so much. This is important for us to note because what He says next could be seen as the opposite of compassion.

While feeling sorry for the widow, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth to the woman in verse 13 are “Don’t cry.” If you have wondered if Jesus was ever insensitive to someone, a quick reading of Jesus’ first words to this widow would be a very clear example. This widow has a very valid reason to cry. Her husband is dead, and now her only son is too. She has lost the two most important people in her life. With this phrase, Jesus could come across as sounding really arrogant and insensitive. Imagine walking into a funeral where a young child has just died and telling the mother to stop crying. In situations like these, context matters, and this is why Luke specifically tells us that Jesus felt sorry for the woman before He said anything.

In my mind, this woman was hysterical and overwhelmed with grief. I believe Jesus’ tone when He spoke to the woman was filled with compassion and sympathy. While it was shocking to stop the funeral procession and tell this woman to stop crying, this combined set of actions likely served the dual purposes of getting the woman to pay attention and shift her focus onto the life that God is able to give being more powerful than the death and loss she was currently experiencing.

From Jesus’ love and compassion for the woman, we ultimately are able to read about this miracle. After getting the woman’s attention, Jesus raises the young man from the dead and then gives him back to her.

Everything about this miracle speaks to Jesus having compassion for someone who was hurting. Raising the young man from the dead was not for the crowd’s benefit, or for the disciple’s attention, or even for the young man’s future – it was entirely centered on comforting a grieving mother and giving her back the most precious thing she had.

Seeing Jesus as someone who is moved to act when He sees people who are hurting helps us understand an important part of His character. Jesus was moved to help people not from a detached logical frame of mind, but from an emotional, compassionate love for individual people. As modern day disciples of Jesus, we are called to help people in an emotionally loving and compassionate way.

In our world today, we show Jesus’ compassion to others best when we help others who are hurting in compassionate and loving ways. By understanding Jesus’ heart and how He was moved by compassion, we are able to do the same for those we meet in our own lives.

For Jesus, it was first compassion, then comfort, then committing to help where He could. If all of us who call ourselves modern day disciples and followers of Jesus did just these three things, the world as we know it would be transformed.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to be a representative and model of Jesus to a world that is desperate for God’s love even if it doesn’t know how to show it, or even recognized it.

To accomplish this, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to discover what God is really like, and while you study, keep your eyes open for examples of how Jesus loved people. While other people have ideas about God and about Jesus, choose to study the truth out for yourself from the pages of the Bible.

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!