Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we come to a point where we are introduced to two very different individuals, and from the way Luke’s gospel describes this event, I am fascinated by some of the details we see when looking closely at what happened.

First off, this event focuses on two different women, and nothing in this passage is hinted at these two women being married. One of these women is described as having a home, which strongly implies that she was old enough to have an established life, and this is without Luke’s gospel sharing any evidence of a husband.

While it is possible she had a husband who traveled a great deal and who wasn’t present for this event, it is also just as possible that she was divorced or simply had chosen not to marry. There may be other possible explanations, but all the explanations we can think of are really distractions from the big contrast Luke wants us to see as he describes what happened when Jesus meets these two women.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 10, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 38, Luke tells us that:

³⁸ As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him talk.

⁴⁰ But Martha was upset about all the work she had to do. So she asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Tell her to help me.”

⁴¹ The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. ⁴² There’s only one thing you need. Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.”

In just five short verses, we are introduced to two very different women, and two very different responses to interacting with Jesus.

It is easy to condemn Martha for worrying and fussing while focusing on the details of being a good hostess. It is also easy for us to sympathize with Martha’s irritation over Mary’s lack of help or Mary’s decision to sit listening to Jesus. However, the biggest theme of this passage can get lost in the details if we are not careful.

It is worth noting that Jesus does not condemn Martha for serving or being a detail-driven hostess. While Jesus does call Martha out for where she has placed her focus, this only happens after Martha had become upset about what Mary was doing when compared with what Martha wanted Mary to be doing. In other words, Martha’s expectation for Mary was upsetting her when Mary wasn’t doing what she expected her to do.

This detail is huge, because it points us to a number of big spiritual truths.

First, we can see that our expectations for ourselves have an impact on our spiritual lives. In Martha’s case, the expectation she had placed on herself was that of being the perfect hostess. She wanted every detail accounted for because she knew how special Jesus was and what a big deal it was that He decided to spend time in her home.

Continuing in Martha’s example, we discover that when we don’t meet our expectations for ourselves, we often try to get others to help us meet our expectations. When Martha began falling behind with the details, she tried to get Mary to come and help her catch back up. While the details Martha was fussing and worrying about might have been very temporary things, the way she frames her frustration and request appeared to be more demanding than the situation might have warranted. I don’t believe Martha was in the wrong for asking for help, but she ultimately was called out for the way she demanded help from her sister.

This leads us to another truth: when others choose not to help us achieve our own expectations for ourselves, we can become bitter and angry towards them when they technically have done nothing wrong except for failing to abide by our expectations for them. In Martha’s example, Mary had done nothing wrong except that she chose not to help Martha achieve her expectations for herself. If Mary had gotten up to help Martha, then at the end of Jesus’ stay with them, Martha may have had the feeling of satisfaction, but Mary would definitely have had the feeling of regret and a missed opportunity.

Ultimately, what Jesus tells Martha is a message to all of us. While we may worry or fuss about a lot of things, it is more important that we connect with Jesus personally, and that we don’t try to dictate how other people connect with God. Every person will connect with God in their own way, and for a relationship with God to be truly personal, it must not depend on or include other individuals standing between us and God.

In Martha’s case, her expectation for herself stood between her and her relationship with Jesus, and when she was falling behind achieving her expectation, she expected Mary to help her rather than letting Mary focus on her own connection with Jesus. Jesus pushed back Martha’s upset remarks because Jesus knows that Mary’s simple choice to sit and listen is infinitely more valuable to her connection with Jesus than all the serving and hosting she could do!

In our own lives, we should intentionally spend time sitting and listening to Jesus to stay connected with Him. While serving Him is always a good thing in the big picture, we must never lose our connection with God while being focused on serving Him. In our lives each day, let’s take time to be with Jesus while we also spend time serving Him!

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 take time to spend with Him and simply be with Him. We can serve God in our lives, but if we serve God to the point of becoming disconnected from Him, we will ultimately lose the life He has called us to be a part of. We can become disconnected from God even while doing great things for Him, and the longer we are disconnected from God, the farther we can drift from Him.

This is one reason why I regularly challenge you to pray and study the Bible for yourself. Through prayer and Bible study, we can keep our connection with God strong, and when we prayerfully open the Bible to study, we are opening our minds to God’s leading and listening for what the Holy Spirit wants to teach us in God’s word. Prayer and Bible study are two of the best ways of staying connected with God!

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!

Before we transition to focusing on prophecies that are connected more directly with Jesus’ road to the cross, there is one prophecy I must include because it frames how Jesus’ ministry was ultimately received by those in the first century. However, while it is tempting to look at this prophecy and say it was only applicable to those in the first century, as we will soon discover, the way this prophecy was written makes it applicable both looking forward and looking back. In other words, this prophecy is just as relevant looking back on the past as it is looking forward to the future, though I will say that looking forward would hopefully teach us something we could use to escape the negative angle of the prophet’s words.

As I shared in the introduction, this prophecy is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, in chapter 6, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 8, Isaiah writes:

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” ⁹ He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
¹⁰ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive,
Their ears dull,
And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”

In this short message that Isaiah volunteered to deliver, we discover a very challenging message being sent to God’s people. Through Isaiah, God challenges His people to keep looking and listening, but know that their looking and listening won’t result in perceiving or understanding. It is as though God is actively turning the eyes, ears, hearts, and other senses of His people away from Him.

However, there is another interesting angle to this prophecy. This alternate angle is found when asking where the action is present in this prescription. Looking and listening are good first steps for gaining understanding, but nowhere on the surface of this passage do we discover any application of the understanding that is being seen and heard. This prophecy describes a people who have a hollow faith; a people who are simply going through the motions, but who are not interested in going beyond a surface set of rituals.

We can see the truth of this second angle in how the prophecy ends. This prophecy ends with the implication that if those being described really saw, heard, and understood the message, they would return and be healed.

In short, this prophecy is describing a scenario where a group of people think they can see, hear, and understand, but they have written off actually applying what they believe is being shared. Because they have written off any level of application, they choose not to return, which ultimately results in them losing out on healing, greater perception, and deeper understanding.

I suspect that Isaiah gave this message fully understanding and believing that the people in his generation were the ones who needed to hear this message the most.

However, when moving to the New Testament, we discover that Jesus pulls this Old Testament prophecy into that generation when answering a question from the disciples. In Matthew, chapter 13, which interestingly enough is a chapter full of parables, we find Jesus’ disciples come to Jesus and ask Him a question about His teaching in parables. In verse 10, Matthew writes:

¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. ¹² For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
¹⁵ For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.’

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

From the way Jesus frames Isaiah’s prophecy, we see a glimmer of hope. While some people might look at Isaiah’s prophecy and conclude that there is no hope for those who God actively chooses to give dim eyes and dull ears, Jesus frames the blindness and deafness of this prophecy not to God, but to those specific individuals. Jesus also draws attention onto this prophecy being for a specific, likely self-selected, group of people, and not for humanity at large. This means that it is entirely up to us whether we will be included in the group who misses out on healing and blessings, or whether we avoid that group in favor of being healed and blessed.

Jesus finishes off His answer to the disciples by describing how many people throughout history wanted to witness what the first century disciples of Jesus were able to witness.

However, while we are living over 2,000 years removed from when Jesus walked the earth in the first century, and while it is easy to wish we could have been alive back then, I am certain that God has placed you in history at this exact moment for a reason. While we might not know all the reasons for why God does what He does, Isaiah’s prophecy includes a powerful promise.

The promise found in Isaiah’s prophecy, which is also echoed in Jesus’ interpretation of this prophecy, is that when we apply the teaching of Jesus that we can understand, while also actively seeking to learn more, we will be blessed with more knowledge and wisdom. Those who actively discount Jesus’ message, Jesus’ teaching, and God’s truth found in the Bible, believing that they know and understand better, are the ones who will ultimately be found to have dim eyes and dull ears.

With the choice being ours to make, let’s together seek to hear, understand, and apply the truth God shares in the Bible, and seek to discover why God’s way is best by living out His plan for our lives rather than judging and discounting it from the sidelines. By living out God’s plan for our lives today, together we will grow into being the people God created us to be, and we will ultimately be welcomed into God’s kingdom, specifically into the New Heaven and New Earth, when Jesus returns.

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 ally and align your life with His. Accept the gift that Jesus made available for us, and choose to let this gift, and God’s truth, change your life. Intentionally apply God’s truth into your life to gain more knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, rather than letting your eyes become dim and your ears dull.

Also, as I regularly challenge you in one way or another, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, in order to grow your personal relationship with God. Through a personal relationship with God, He will open your eyes, strengthen your ears, and teach you His truth that is relevant for your life today. Through regular prayer and Bible study, we are able to open our hearts and minds to God’s Holy Spirit and let Him lead and guide us forward in life.

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 our journey through Jesus’ life as told through Luke’s gospel, we come to an event that includes one of Jesus’ most famous illustrations. However, if this event didn’t include a follow-up question to the one Jesus answered, Jesus may never have shared the amazing example of what it means to be a neighbor that we will soon read.

While it seems strange to think, this entire discussion hinges around a very legalistic view of the law.

Let’s read our passage for this episode and discover what we can learn from this event. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 10, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 25, Luke tells us that:

²⁵ An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to have eternal life?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?”

²⁷ The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”

²⁸ Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.”

²⁹ But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”

Pausing here before reading Jesus’ response, it is worth drawing our attention to the detail that this whole discussion is centered around a legalistic angle of observing the law. This expert in Moses’ law knew exactly the right answers, and he correctly summarized the essence of the Old Testament law as loving God wholeheartedly and loving our neighbors.

It is worth drawing attention onto Jesus’ first response, where He says the expert gave the right answer. Jesus tells Him and us that if we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind; and we love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, we will have eternal life.

However, because this expert wanted to push his own agenda, perhaps even trying to trap Jesus sharing an idea that was contrary to God’s character in the Old Testament, he asked a follow-up question wanting Jesus’ definition of neighbor. From the way Jews treated those who were not Jews in that culture, it was very clear that the Jews viewed the concept of neighbor as being exclusive to nationality, and perhaps even more exclusive than that.

In response to the question asking for a definition of a neighbor, instead of sharing a simple response, Jesus shares a story to illustrate this truth. Continuing in verse 30:

³⁰ Jesus replied:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.

Pausing briefly again, it is worth pointing out that we have no context for who this man is. The man who was attacked could have been Jewish or not, he could have been wealthy or not, and this might have been a premeditated attack on a specific person or an example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I believe this ambiguity is intentional because if we knew anything more about this individual, we might begin to rationalize the responses others have to seeing him that Jesus is about ready to share. For the purposes of the rest of the parable, feel free to imagine this man was exactly like the people who pass by, exactly opposite, or that each person who passed by could not tell whether this man was like them or not. It is actually an interesting exercise thinking about this parable from all three angles.

With this unknown man lying half-dead on the side of the road, Jesus continues His story in verse 31 saying:

³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. ³² Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.

³³ A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him ³⁴ and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. ³⁵ The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.”

³⁶ Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”

³⁷ The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”

Jesus said, “Go and do the same!”

In this illustration Jesus shares, three distinctly different people pass by this half-dead man. The first two people we would consider high social status individuals. Both the priest and the temple helper had strict rules and regulations on their lives making them fit verses unfit to serve in the temple. From the context of this story, we don’t know if these men were traveling to Jerusalem to serve in the temple, or if they had finished their service and were returning home. If we decide to legalistically look at the details in this event, then knowing the direction these men were traveling matters.

The brilliant way Jesus shares this illustration, and the context that Jesus shares, tells us a huge truth: Love God with all our hearts, minds, lives, and everything we are, and when we see someone in need, we should help them in whatever way we can – regardless of what others think or how it impacts our serving God. If the priest and temple helper were traveling to Jerusalem to serve in the temple, they likely wouldn’t have been able to begin right away if they stopped to help this man and they might have had to do a cleansing ceremony to become “clean” again to serve. Helping this almost dead man would have challenged their serving God.

However, the truth Jesus shares in this place as well as in other places is that when we help others, we are really helping God. I believe in this illustration and others, God is more than willing to forgive our sins when we happen to technically sin while helping someone else. God is more interested in us modeling His character of love than He is in us legalistically following His rules without love in our hearts.

The Samaritan man, the one described by the religious expert as the one who showed pity, demonstrated what it means to be a neighbor. The Samaritan helped because he could, he helped because there was a clear need, and he helped because that is what he would want someone to do for him if the roles were reversed. This Samaritan didn’t ask or think about what reasons he should not help. He simply saw an opportunity to help and then took advantage of this opportunity!

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 and choose to model His love towards others when you see a need in your life. When deciding the best way to help when help is needed, don’t worry about if you are crossing the line into sin because the line you are really aiming for is the line of serving and service. Helping someone in need is more important than legalistically following the rules!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Don’t accept an idea or thought simply because a pastor, speaker, author, podcaster, or anyone says it – including me. Instead, take the ideas you hear, see, and read and test them against the truth you discover in God’s Word the Bible to determine if they have any validity. The Bible is the best guide we have to determining God’s truth; it is the only guide that teaches how to ultimately gain eternal life through Jesus and His sacrifice.

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 talk yourself out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we have been working our way through this year, it seems to me that most of our time has been spent in either the Psalms, or in Isaiah. Well in this episode, it isn’t much of a surprise that we will be touching again within one of these two Old Testament books. This time, as I shared in the introduction, we’ll be looking at a prophecy in the book of Isaiah.

However, the prophecy we will be focusing in on for our time together has a much bigger perspective than simply Jesus’ earthly ministry. As I read it in preparation for this episode, it seems to me that this prophecy, shared with enough verses to give it context, describes an idealized time when God’s people have received the victory after the end of sin.

With this idea in mind, let’s read this Old Testament prophecy, and then unpack it in the context of Jesus’ ministry. Our passage is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 35, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, Isaiah writes:

¹ The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
² It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
³ Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
⁴ Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
⁶ Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
⁷ The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
⁸ A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰ And the ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

In this prophecy, the overall context concludes with those who have been redeemed traveling on the holy road, and this road leads to a place where there is everlasting joy and gladness. This road is described as being reserved for those who are walking with God, specifically those whom God has redeemed and ransomed out of sin.

However, while these verses make for great symbolic imagery about traveling the road of life, before transitioning to describing this road, Isaiah shares a message for those who are feeling down and depressed. In verses 3 through the first half of verse 6, Isaiah writes:

Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

Part of me wonders if the encouragement found within this set of verses is directed at one specific individual. While countless numbers of people living throughout history have felt exhausted, feeble, and anxious, one event found within the gospels seems to point back to this prophecy in a very tangible way.

The gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, opens with a short event about someone who is feeling down sending a message to Jesus. Starting in verse 1, Matthew sets the stage for us by saying:

¹ When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.

² Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples ³ and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” ⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵ the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. ⁶ And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

In this brief event within Jesus’ ministry, we see an interesting parallel to this passage in Isaiah. When John’s disciples come to Jesus asking for confirmation about whether Jesus truly is the One that prophecy pointed towards, Jesus responds by drawing John’s attention onto the healing miracles, and on the gospel that was being preached.

However, Jesus finishes His message with a little twist that John might not have expected. While the prophecy in Isaiah alludes to help coming from God for all of God’s people, Jesus gives a blessing for those who are not offended by Him based on what He chooses to do or not do. I suspect that in a subtle way, Jesus wants to draw John’s attention onto how God supported Jesus in ministry, but also let John know that it was not within God’s will that He be removed from prison.

Looking back on this situation, we can conclude why this is logical. If John was released from prison, then his ministry would draw attention away from Jesus. If Jesus petitioned for John’s release, while Jesus would be glorified in the short term, this decision would have been a political act that was unlike anything else within Jesus’ ministry.

With only very rare exceptions, Jesus avoided being swept into the politics of the day. There is more evidence in the New Testament that point to Jesus actively avoiding taking a stand on political issues than on picking a side to support. If Jesus were living today, there is ample evidence in the New Testament to suggest that He would focus on helping individuals, and that He would shy away from being in the spotlight. In the gospels, if the crowd appeared to get too big, Jesus would challenge the crowd in some way that prompted most, if not all the crowd, to leave. I don’t have any reason to believe this would be different at any other point in history.

However, moving back to Isaiah’s prophecy, within the message Isaiah shares is an amazing promise for you and me. In this prophecy, when we feel down, discouraged, anxious, or feeble, we can hold onto hope and courage knowing that God is still in control. Even if it seems as though everything is hopeless in the world, we can know that in the end, God wins. And in the end, God doesn’t just win by a little bit; in the end, God wins by such a big landslide that sin will never again reappear in the recreated New Heaven and New Earth God invites His people to live with Him in at the end of this age.

I believe that one thing Isaiah’s prophecy points us forward to is looking forward to that day when God puts an end to sin, and all of His people are redeemed out of sin and into eternity through the gift and blessing of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Until this happens, let’s stay strong, be courageous, and live our lives for God through whatever Satan throws at us. When we have allied with Jesus, regardless of how bad this life gets, we will outlast sin and we will get to experience eternity.

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 intentionally ally and align your life with God. Choose to live your life for God in this life, because living for God today opens the way for us to experience God’s tomorrow, whether that tomorrow is literally tomorrow, or a spiritually-figurative tomorrow within the New Heaven and New Earth.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself with the goal of growing a closer relationship with God. Through the pages of the Bible, discover a God who loves you more than you can imagine, and a God who is passionate about giving you the opportunity of eternity. Intentionally pray and study the Bible to keep your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus strong through everything Satan tries to throw our way.

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