Reflective Bible Study

In our last podcast episode, we focused in on two of Jesus’ more well-known parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. For this episode, we will turn our attention onto the third parable in this set and spend a few minutes looking at the parable of the prodigal son.

As I have teased out, I believe this parable might warrant a slightly different name, and this is because this parable has more than one character. While this parable follows one son while he was away, it finishes by centering on another character.

Let’s read this parable and then draw out some big things we can learn from it. Our parable and passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 15, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 11:

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

From the opening line in this parable, to this parable’s closing words, the focus is not on the son who left, but on the father of these two boys. Jesus opened this parable in verse 11 by saying, “There was a man who had two sons.” Jesus concludes this parable with the father pleading with the older son to come and celebrate with him that the younger son has returned. Because the framing for this parable focuses more on the father and his response, we might be better served calling this parable the “Parable of the Patient Father”. This father shows an incredible amount of patience, love, and acceptance to the two extremes his sons go.

In this parable, we should best understand Jesus’ message by bringing back in the introduction verses Luke gave to open this set of three parables. All too often, this parable is pulled apart from the context Jesus shared, and it is too often looked at separately from the other two parables in this set. To help restore some of this context, let’s look at how Luke opens this set of parables in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 15. Luke tells us “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”

In our parable of the Patient Father, with Luke’s introduction in clear view, we begin to see the three main characters of this parable and who they are representing in Jesus’ mind. While the Father in this parable is understood to represent God, we have two groups of people present to represent the two sons. On one hand, we have a group of tax collectors and sinners who have gathered around Jesus to listen to Him, and we have a group of Pharisees and religious leaders who are muttering among themselves that Jesus would even associate with such people.

Looking at our parable, we have a son who is clearly sinful, who left and who then returned to the father, and we have a son who never left but who is bitter at seeing his brother return. With these two parable characters placed next to the two groups of people present who Jesus was speaking to, it becomes clear who each child represents. The sinful son who returned and who God celebrated are the tax collectors and sinners who gathered around Jesus, and the bitter older son is represented by the Pharisees and religious leaders.

In this parable, while Jesus frames this parable as a man having two sons, when we look at what these sons represent, I believe Jesus is sharing the two extremes. In an ideal parable, there would be three sons, and the third son is one who never left but who is also celebrating with the father because his brother returned.

However, this parable only gives us two options and I believe this is important.

When we focus our attention on the son who did not leave, we discover that this son, while he was now entitled to everything, he does not understand his father’s heart, he does not understand his brother’s transformation, and he does not understand his own failings. The older brother is blinded by an arrogant pride.

An arrogant pride is the biggest temptation for people who have been in the church for a long period of time and this arrogant pride is what ultimately formed in Lucifer’s heart. In a perfect heaven, Lucifer let pride and arrogance enter his heart and this ultimately lead to him being kicked out of heaven and becoming Satan. An arrogant pride looks down on others while ignoring one’s own faults.

In this parable, regardless of how long you have been in the church, never ally yourself with the older brother. While the older brother’s ultimate decision is left unshared, it is always better to realize that every single one of us has failed God. We all have sinned, and this makes us more like the younger brother who failed the Father but who ultimately returned.

When we fail God, let’s act like the younger brother and return to Him with a humble, repentant spirit, and reject anything and everything that looks like the older brother. The older brother’s attitude was that of the religious leaders, and the older brother’s attitude mirrors Satan’s attitude that looked down on others.

This parable focuses on how patient God is as the father of both sons, and let’s remember that while our lives are likely not going to be as extreme as either brother, we are best served by modeling the prodigal son’s return when we fail God rather than brushing over our faults like the older son did.

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

As I always begin by challenging you, continue to seek God first in your life. Choose to humbly return and repent when failing God and choose to model your return to God like the younger son who realized he had failed his father. Never ally yourself with the older son unless you are ultimately going to choose to celebrate with the father over your sinful brother’s return.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God and to let His Holy Spirit into your life. With the Holy Spirit in your heart, mind, and life, discover how He gives you the love you need to both return to God when making a mistake, and He gives you the love you need to accept others who choose to return to God as well. The Holy Spirit in our hearts, gives us God’s love we can use to bless others He sends into our lives.

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 reject where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving forward in our year looking at connecting points between Jesus’ life and the Old Testament, and prophecies that Jesus fulfilled while He was here on earth, we come to a prophecy that seems simple on the surface, while also being a prophecy that must have been overlooked or misunderstood for those living in the first century. Moving through the sequence of smaller events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, not only was the betrayal, oppression, and hostility predicted and foreshadowed, which we’ve focused some of our previous podcast episodes on, but so was Jesus’ response when He was accused.

Let’s read the verse that contains this prophecy. While I am tempted to read more of the chapter that this verse contains, the chapter itself is so powerful that it would be easy to let it derail us regarding this verse’s significance. However, don’t be surprised if we look back to this chapter filled with prophecy a few more times prior to the end of our year podcasting about Jesus’ life.

Our verse and prophecy for this episode is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 53, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible translation. In verse 7, Isaiah writes of the Messiah:

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.

In this brief verse, we discover that the Messiah God would send, when He was being accused and condemned, would not open His mouth to respond. In an amazing way, while the gospels do include a small number of statements Jesus makes during His trial, and John’s gospel includes a short conversation Jesus has with Pilate, it appears as though the gospels emphasize Jesus’ preference for simply remaining silent.

In Mark’s gospel, chapter 14, starting in verse 53, we read what happened when Jesus was brought before the religious leaders. Mark tells us that:

⁵³ They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together. ⁵⁴ Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire. ⁵⁵ Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. ⁵⁶ For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. ⁵⁷ Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, ⁵⁸ “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” ⁵⁹ Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent. ⁶⁰ The high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, “Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?” ⁶¹ But He kept silent and did not answer.

According to Mark’s gospel, Jesus stayed silent and did not answer the charges and false testimony that was being spoken about Him. Looking at the bigger narrative, it is only after the chief priest demands an answer in a way that Jesus could not stay silent that Jesus opens His mouth to speak. Oddly enough, if Jesus had stayed silent or acted mute for this entire event, I suspect that the religious leaders’ trial would have fallen completely apart, especially after what we just read in Mark’s gospel was happening during the point when Jesus was silent.

Moving forward, Mark’s gospel then describes Jesus’ trial before Pilate. Mark, chapter 15, opens in verse 1 by saying:

¹ Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. ² Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He answered him, “It is as you say.” ³ The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly. ⁴ Then Pilate questioned Him again, saying, “Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!” ⁵ But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed.

It would seem according to Mark’s gospel, that Jesus preferred to stay silent than to speak. Even the answer Mark tells us Jesus gave Pilate is not much of an answer. Jesus’ response doesn’t deny Pilate’s assertion, but it also doesn’t really speak strongly in its favor. It is almost like Jesus responded with something like, “Those are your words” or “If that is what you would like to believe or claim.” However, after the religious leaders start accusing Jesus, Jesus stops talking and remains quiet.

Jumping over to Luke’s gospel, we discover that Pilate sent Jesus over to Herod, who also happened to be in Jerusalem at that time. In Luke’s gospel, chapter 23, starting in verse 8, Luke tells us that:

⁸ [Now] Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. ⁹ And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. ¹⁰ And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. ¹¹ And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate.

In Luke’s description of this event, everyone present openly mocked and taunted Jesus while He stayed silent. Nothing Jesus could say would bring God glory, and nothing Jesus could do would fit better into God’s plan than simply staying silent.

In an amazing fulfillment of prophecy, while Satan used the religious leaders at every point in Jesus’ trial to push Jesus to speak, Jesus only truly spoke when He chose to, and the points in time where Jesus chose to speak that morning were few and far between.

It is interesting in my mind that Jesus would choose to stay silent. While staying silent when being accused does not technically admit guilt, one could logically conclude that it assumes guilt because it would be very easy to deny whatever accusation was claimed.

When Jesus stayed silent, He assumed our guilt without admitting to anything. If Jesus had cut through the accusations with the spoken word of truth, everything in the trials Jesus faced would be exposed as a fraud. Looking at every other challenge the religious leaders bring Jesus’ way prompts us to conclude that Jesus was perfectly capable of besting the logic and traps of the religious leaders. The only reason for Jesus to stay silent was because He actively chose to do so.

By staying silent, Jesus assumed our guilt on His journey to the cross. By dying the death He did not deserve, Jesus made redemption possible for those who choose to accept Jesus’ life in place of our own. For those who give up their lives in favor of Jesus’ life, He promises redemption and a home in a perfectly recreated New Heaven and New Earth where there won’t be any more pain, disease, sin, or even death.

Jesus stayed silent for you and for me, because His goal was making salvation possible for God’s people.

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

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. Accept the gift of His life in exchange for yours, and let Him transform you from the inside as you move through life with Him.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God and to Jesus each and every day. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even podcasters have ideas to share, take everything you read, see, and hear and test these ideas against the truth found within the Bible. Within the Bible, discover a God who loves you more than you could possibly imagine.

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 we continue through Luke’s gospel, we come to a chapter in Luke that contains three powerful parables. While it might be tempting to try to tackle all three parables in one episode, attempting this would definitely be too much for our typical time constraint – at least to cover these parables like how I would want. Because of this, we will focus on the first two shorter parables for this episode, and leave the longer, more famous parable for our next episode.

All three of these parables are shared because of what Luke describes in the first two verses of this chapter. Let’s read how Luke sets the stage and the first two parables Jesus shares. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us:

¹ Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. ² Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³ So He told them this parable, saying, ⁴ “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

⁸ “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

When reading these two parables, I cannot help but see the amazing theme that God values sinners and He intentionally seeks them out. Jesus shares both these parables, as well as the one for our next podcast episode, because some religious leaders began accusing Jesus of associating with the lowest people on the rungs of society. Both the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin conclude with Jesus sharing a summary statement telling us that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

However, as I read these two parables, I am amazed by how Jesus frames certain details in each. In the parable of the lost sheep, I am amazed that the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine in the open pasture to go looking for the lost sheep. For a long time, the picture that was in my head about this parable was that the ninety-nine left behind were safe in the pen and the shepherd was out looking for the only sheep that was not safe.

But this is not what this parable, or the similar parable in Matthew, describes. Luke’s parable of the lost sheep describes the shepherd leaving the sheep in the open pasture, while Matthew describes the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep in the mountains.

Regardless of where the ninety-nine sheep were left, the picture is that these sheep are together in community, and in a relatively safe place, but not in a place where they were trapped. While the shepherd was searching for the lost sheep, another sheep was free to wander away, and the group of sheep was vulnerable to predators.

It is interesting, because I wonder if this reflects how some people feel about church. I suspect there are people who feel God is silent or absent from church and they conclude that He is not present or interested. This parable does appear to suggest that God’s focus is on rescuing those who are trapped in sin more than on those who are in the church.

However, looking at the details in this parable suggest a different group God seeks after. This other group may be an even more challenging group. The lost sheep God seeks after is not one who has never been a part of the herd of sheep. The lost sheep is one who was a part of the herd, but then who left. The lost sheep represents someone who was part of God’s family, but who decided to leave.

In this parable, God leaves the big group in search of rescuing a single person who left Him. This is a powerful metaphor. One could say that God leaves the church in search of those who have fallen away from the church!

While I suspect that shepherding was not a single person activity, and that the remaining sheep did have others with them, nothing directly said in this parable suggests this. I wouldn’t be surprised if multiple people are involved with herding sheep, but I really don’t know anything about shepherding.

However, God doesn’t stay away from church, He instead brings those He rescues back into church. In order to do that, He must come back to church periodically at the very least. This then suggests that if God is bringing people back into church through your spiritual community, then you are doing something right in God’s eyes!

However, let’s shift our focus and look at the second parable, which is the parable of the lost coin. When reading this parable, I began to wonder how much this coin was actually worth. I probably wouldn’t be alone in saying that if this coin was worth only a few dollars, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. However, if this coin was worth a significant amount, then I might be like this woman who doesn’t rest until she has found this coin.

Doing a little bit of research, I conclude that this coin likely was worth about 4 days worth of work to those people who Jesus was speaking to. In the context of this parable, this woman had 40 days of work saved, which would be about two months worth of income using our current five-day workweek as our measure. With two months of income saved, this woman realizes that almost an entire week of income has been lost. If you lost a week’s worth of income, I suspect that this would prompt you to search your house for it. I don’t know about you, but when I frame the lost silver coin this way, I would be very interested in finding it.

However, one other way of looking at this silver coin that isn’t directly suggested in the parable is that these ten coins represented a set. These ten coins might have had more significance than simply just the dollar value they were worth. They could have been this woman’s last gift from a now deceased family member, or they could have been a set of coins that held significance in her eyes. With this framing, the lost coin isn’t valuable because of its literal value, but this coin is valuable because the set of coins would not be complete with it missing.

In a similar way, I believe that God looks down at His people and if one of His people wanders away, He earnestly seeks after them to bring them back. This is because when Jesus returns, God knows His set, or we could say His family, wouldn’t be complete without every one of His people. God wants you in His family, and because of what Jesus gave for us on the cross, we can be accepted into God’s family and become part of those who He ultimately redeemed out of sin!

Whether we intentionally wandered away like the lost sheep, or whether we drifted and discovered we were missing when God shows up in our lives, be sure to accept God’s invitation back into His family and be ready to return when He shows up in our life!

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

Always seek God first in your life and choose to stay with God or return to Him if you have drifted away. It is much more common to slowly drift away from God than to drop everything and leave Him. While we might switch church families, or move to different areas, these changes don’t mean we are abandoning God. However, if you have been without a church community for a while, I would suggest you seek one out that matches what you believe church should be like. For our spiritual lives to be healthy, we need a strong personal foundation on God and a relational connection with others!

To help keep your personal foundation on God strong, continue regularly praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. Through prayer and study, discover how to open your heart to the Holy Spirit and let Him into your heart and mind. With the Holy Spirit’s help, if you have not found a spiritual community you can connect with, He will help you do so!

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

For the last several podcast episodes, we’ve been focusing in on Jesus’ arrest, on Judas Iscariot the betrayer, and on Jesus’ arrest scattering Jesus’ disciples. However, before going any further into Jesus’ trial and condemnation, there is one additional prophecy or Old Testament connection that is worth looking at which ties Jesus’ earlier ministry together with His condemnation and crucifixion.

To set the stage for continuing Jesus’ path towards the cross, let’s take a look at not just one, but two psalms that both share a detail with Jesus’ life and ministry.

The first psalm we will look at was included in the introduction, and this is psalm 69. Reading from the New American Standard Bible translation and starting in verse 1, the psalmist writes:

¹ Save me, O God,
For the waters have threatened my life.
² I have sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.
³ I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
⁴ Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;
Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies;
What I did not steal, I then have to restore.

In this psalm, we find a powerful idea that connects with Jesus’ life and ministry. When the psalmist writes that he has enemies who hate him without a cause, and that these enemies are wrongfully his enemies, this not only would likely include the psalmist himself, but these descriptions are also equally applicable to Jesus. While Jesus did share some harsh words to many groups of religious leaders, the only people who were truly against Him were those who were more interested in gaining or keeping status and influence among their peers.

It is also interesting in my mind that this psalm includes the challenge that the one writing is expected to restore something that they did not steal. In an interesting parallel, Jesus came to pay a penalty for something He did not do, and to ultimately restore something He did not break.

Moving to the other psalm that we will draw our attention to, this one is included earlier in the psalms. Reading from Psalm 35, starting in verse 17, the psalmist asks:

¹⁷ Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue my soul from their ravages,
My only life from the lions.
¹⁸ I will give You thanks in the great congregation;
I will praise You among a mighty throng.
¹⁹ Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me;
Nor let those who hate me without cause wink maliciously.
²⁰ For they do not speak peace,
But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
²¹ They opened their mouth wide against me;
They said, “Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it!”

In both this second psalm and in the earlier psalm, we have the set of ideas shared which include a group of people being wrongfully enemies, and people who hate others without having a cause or a reason.

Jumping forward into the New Testament, earlier on during the night Jesus was betrayed, while Judas Iscariot was assembling the soldiers and mob to come arrest Jesus, Jesus was sharing a powerful message with His disciples as they were finishing up their meal and heading towards the garden.

In John, chapter 15, starting in verse 18, Jesus tells the remaining eleven disciples:

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. ²⁵ But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

In this message to His disciples, Jesus draws their attention, as well as our attention, onto the truth that when people hate Jesus’ followers, they actually, perhaps unknowingly, hate Jesus as well. When people hate Jesus, they also, regardless of whether they would admit to it or not, hate God.

I will be the first to say that this is a very strong message. This might even be too strong of a message. The reason for this thought is that as I look out at the broad Christian culture, there are plenty of “representatives for Jesus” that do, say, and act in ways that would be easy to hate. Christianity is made up of sinners, and included under the banner of redeemed are many who have less than reputable backgrounds.

However, while it would be easy to discount Jesus’ strong message because of the technical nature of those He invited to follow Him, it is worth pointing out two details that are not often focused on.

The first detail is that there is a difference between those who actually follow Jesus verses other people who claim that they are followers while not actually following. A different way to frame this is by asking a question that might sound a little uncomfortable: If one of God’s angels were to ask Him to point out who was reflecting His love and Jesus’ character in the world today, would you be included in the list of those doing His will and reflecting Jesus to others?

This question is challenging because it pushes past simply praying a prayer or making a one-time declaration. While prayers and declarations for Jesus are important, Jesus’ disciples didn’t say they would follow Jesus while doing their own thing. Instead, Jesus’ disciples left everything they would otherwise be doing in order to follow Jesus and learn what He wanted them to do. Becoming a disciple changed the disciples’ lives in a very clear and distinct way. If following Jesus hasn’t changed our lives, it begs the question: Are we really following Jesus?

However, there is another detail worth drawing our attention to, regardless of where we fall on the uncomfortable question about following Jesus. This second detail is looking at who Jesus was talking to when He makes this uncomfortable statement about those hating His followers really hating Him. Jesus did not make this statement to crowds of average people; Jesus made this statement to His most devoted disciples.

This tells us that when we are dedicated to Jesus, and seeking to do His will while also sharing the great news of what He accomplished with others, if other people reject us, we can understand and frame their rejection as them really rejecting Jesus. A different way to say this idea is that we should not take their rejection personally. Instead, we can write off the rejection that comes our way as others not rejecting us, but that they rejected the person we represent.

In a similar way to an ambassador representing the country they came from, and if that ambassador was rejected, it would be understood to be one country’s rejection of another. When we live our lives as ambassadors or representatives of God, when we are rejected, we can frame the rejection we receive as others simply rejecting a messenger God tried to send their way.

Jesus has challenged His disciples and His followers to be representatives for Him in our world. While that means that some people will choose to hate us, while other people may simply write us off, we are called to remember that Jesus faced hostility and rejection too. When people reject us because of our faith, this rejection extends all the way to a rejection of God, and this rejection says more about the person doing the rejecting than it says about the One they rejected.

Jesus came to redeem sinners, and as we follow Him, grow closer to Him, and share Him in the world around us, remember that Jesus loves humanity, and that He came to redeem sinners and to extend grace to those who don’t deserve it.

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

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Understand that when following Jesus, rejection will likely come into your life at some point if it hasn’t come already. Resolve today, to frame the rejection you receive because of your faith in an impersonal way, specifically as the other person rejecting Jesus. Resolve to continue growing closer to Jesus and to better reflect His light and His love to those He brings into your life.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. Through the Bible, God gives us a picture of Himself, and we are able to see His love through the grand story of Jesus and of 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 walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!