Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Mark’s gospel, we come to an event where Jesus asks the disciples a question, and then when Jesus hears the right answer, He tells the disciples to keep the real answer a secret. However, this is only the first sliver of this event, and what comes afterwards is both amazing and it clashes with what they believed about the Messiah.

With that said, let’s dive in to our passage for this episode. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 27, Mark tells us:

²⁷ Then Jesus and his disciples went away to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Tell me, who do people say I am?”

²⁸ “Some say that you are John the Baptist,” they answered; “others say that you are Elijah, while others say that you are one of the prophets.”

²⁹ “What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

³⁰ Then Jesus ordered them, “Do not tell anyone about me.”

Pausing briefly, this point in the passage is where most people might stop reading. And I can understand this because what Peter has just declared about Jesus is amazing, and what Jesus responded is also amazing.

Peter has just declared that Jesus is the Messiah that had been predicted throughout the whole Old Testament, and specifically the Messiah God promised to send humanity when Adam and Eve sinned and were banished from the garden.

Equally amazing is Jesus’ response. Jesus does not deny being given this title, but He challenges the disciples to stay quiet about it. While some might think the Messiah would want to stand up, shout, and be recognized for being this person, Jesus knows that there is too much baggage with this role at this point in history.

To illustrate this, we need go no further than the next few verses. Continuing reading in verse 31:

³¹ Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will rise to life.” ³² He made this very clear to them. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But Jesus turned around, looked at his disciples, and rebuked Peter. “Get away from me, Satan,” he said. “Your thoughts don’t come from God but from human nature!”

Pausing our reading again, in these verses, we discover Peter, who Jesus praised for his earlier response in at least one of the other gospel records, is now being called out as Satan. Looking back on this event from a world that can see Jesus’ journey to the cross, and His death leading towards His resurrection and return to heaven, it is easy to look down on Peter and judge him like it appears Jesus does here.

However, while Jesus clearly told the disciples that He is the Messiah, and He emphasizes the Messiah’s death at the hands of the religious leaders, I wonder if Peter ignored or simply didn’t hear Jesus predicting His resurrection. Pushing back against Jesus’ declarations and predictions about Himself, we have a whole religious culture built on centuries of seeing the Messiah lead a revolt against Rome, and clear predictions that when the Messiah comes, He will last forever. The Messiah dying is something that simply could not happen to the true Messiah in the minds of those in the first century.

Also included in the mix of beliefs is the belief that the Messiah is God’s Son. While this wasn’t a belief on the forefront of culture, it is one that formed the basis for at least one of Jesus’ debates with the religious leaders. With Jesus being God, and God being immortal, it would also logically be impossible for God to die.

Everything culture told the disciples about the Messiah was focused on overthrowing the Romans and on living forever, while everything Jesus told the disciples about the Messiah was focused on a crucifixion, death, and a resurrection. In the minds of more than just Peter, what Jesus was telling them clashed with culture, with logic, and with everything they had previously believed about the Messiah and His kingdom.

Peter simply has the guts to speak what many of the disciples are likely thinking. Peter tells Jesus to basically stop focusing on His death because God’s Messiah will live forever. This temptation echoes some of Satan’s temptations in the wilderness when Satan challenges Jesus with the promise that God would not harm Him if He jumped from the highest point in the temple, and when Satan offers Jesus a shortcut that avoids the cross.

It does not surprise me that Jesus calls out Peter for representing Satan in his rebuke.

However, it also appears that the disciples were uneasy about how openly Jesus spoke about going to the cross. The cross was both the most humiliating way to die and it was one of the most painful ways to die as well.

Because of this, Jesus finishes off this passage by calling everyone present together to tell them a message. Continuing in verse 34:

³⁴ Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. “If any of you want to come with me,” he told them, “you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. ³⁵ For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it. ³⁶ Do you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! ³⁷ There is nothing you can give to regain your life. ³⁸ If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

In this concluding challenge, Jesus directly calls attention onto the idea of the cross – the most uncomfortable part of Jesus’ whole message – and He challenges everyone present that to be His follower, they must give up their own lives and carry a cross along with Jesus.

This challenge Jesus gives is powerful: You can try to keep your life in this world and lose out on eternity, or you give your life in this world to Jesus in order to gain eternity.

The big truth in this conclusion aimed at all of Jesus’ followers is that we should never be ashamed of Jesus and what He taught. If you think our world and culture today are godless and wicked, know that Jesus’ calls out the first century culture for being this way as well. If we choose to reject Jesus because culture has a louder megaphone, then we will ultimately forfeit the rewards God has promised His people.

Satan wants the whole world to reject God, to reject Jesus, and to live in rebellion of everything God stands for. Know that choosing Jesus is easy to say, and difficult to do. However, laying self down at the foot of Jesus’ cross, and picking up our own crosses – which means dedicating our lives to spreading the gospel message regardless of what culture thinks of us – is how we lose this life but gain eternity. Jesus didn’t focus on building His kingdom through force, but Satan is more than willing to use any type of force necessary to stop us from choosing Jesus and spreading the great news of salvation!

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, seek God first and choose to give up a focus on self in your life in order to focus on giving Him glory. If the world is hostile towards us for choosing Jesus, know that you have made the right choice. Never be ashamed or shamed out of choosing Jesus, because Jesus is the only way to experience eternity! Everything else is a lie Satan uses to trick or confuse people.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Culture speaks its messages loudly and frequently, and the best way to stay grounded in truth is to focus personally on studying God’s message through the Bible. What God has preserved for us in the Bible teaches us how to have hope, and how to live for God in sinful, godless, dark times. Studying the Bible for yourself is the only way to be certain what the Bible teaches because too many people today have twisted the Bible into teaching only half-truths.

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 be shamed out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Continuing forward in the miracles of the gospels, we come to a short event and miracle where it appears as though Jesus ignored those asking Jesus for help for a period of time prior to actually healing them. Not only this, but Jesus heals them with a somewhat strange statement. This statement is worth us paying attention to because it gives us a clue into the importance of faith in our own lives.

As we read this event, let’s focus on what this event teaches us about Jesus, about God, and about the faith we are called to have. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 27, Matthew tells us that:

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” ²⁸ When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” ²⁹ Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.” ³⁰ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: “See that no one knows about this!” ³¹ But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.

In these five short verses, we see a number of things that are worth paying attention to. In the opening two verses, we get the impression that Jesus was traveling between two places, and these two blind men were following behind Jesus crying out for help. If we didn’t know God’s love before this point, we might be tempted to think that Jesus, and by representation, that God too, is unloving. Why else would Jesus seem to ignore two people obviously crying out for Him to help them?

I believe the answer to this challenge is found in Jesus’ question and response to them. Verse 28 contains Jesus’ question and the blind men’s response: “Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’”

While I don’t know why it wasn’t already evident through their seeking Jesus out and following Him asking for help, Jesus asks these two men plainly if they believe that He is able to do this. In their response, which is just two words long, we see an amazing display of faith. It is easy to discount the response they give, which is simply, “Yes, Lord,” as something that is said with humility and respect to someone with authority. However, by using the word “Lord,” I see in this response that these men believe Jesus to be from God, and that the healing they desperately want to have will be from God as well.

To wrap up this healing, Matthew describes in verse 29 that Jesus then “touched their eyes, saying, ‘It shall be done to you according to your faith.’”

Interestingly enough, these blind men had clearly demonstrated their faith. They persisted when it appeared as though Jesus was ignoring them, and they acknowledged their faith in Jesus and God when asked. It almost seems redundant for Jesus, who would know they had plenty of faith, to tell them they would be healed “according to [their] faith”. It should not surprise anyone reading this event to learn that these men were healed.

In this event, we see an amazing truth that the level of faith we have in God will directly determine how clearly we see God working in our lives – and it may even directly affect how God is able or not able to work in us and through us. The faith of these blind men is clearly visible both before they are healed, and it is confirmed after they have been healed. This makes Jesus’ message to them a principle and a promise we can live by: Our requests of God will be done to us according to our faith.

While we are encouraged to pray for other people, this principle focuses on our personally focused prayers. If we want healing, freedom, or a specific opportunity, we must be willing to display a visible faith before we can expect it to happen.

However, the last portion of our passage is interesting as well. After healing these men, Matthew tells us in verse 30 that “Jesus sternly warned them: ‘See that no one knows about this!’” Since we are reading from the New American Standard Bible, there are two words in this command that are italicized. This means that they are not included in the original language, but have been added to smooth the reading. The literal response Jesus gives is simply, “See that no one knows”. While the context can imply that Jesus is telling these men to keep silent about this healing, it could also simply be Jesus telling these men to keep secret this extreme truth about faith.

Faith is powerful; more powerful than we realize. Faith can be placed in many things, and persistent faith is powerful enough to conquer virtually anything we face in this life. However, faith, when it is not placed in what God did for us through Jesus on the cross, is worthless in the context of eternity. These men experience healing because they had amazing, persistent faith and because they placed their faith in Jesus.

Matthew’s final statement in this event is that these men go and do the exact opposite of what it seems like Jesus asked them to do. Matthew tells us that these healed men “went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land”. If Jesus wanted them to stay silent so He wouldn’t be flooded with people needing help, we can understand His reasoning. And we can contrast this with also realizing that the formerly blind men’s enthusiasm to share what Jesus had done for them was their way of saying thank you to Jesus and to God for healing them.

But it is also possible that these men shared what Jesus had done for them without sharing that Jesus attributed their healing to their level of faith in Him. In this regard, it can be said that these men obeyed Jesus, while also enthusiastically giving thanks to God for healing them.

The big thing for us to remember in this passage and this healing is that our faith is a powerful tool that we are called to place in Jesus. Faith in many other things can be productive in this life, but only when our faith is in Jesus will we discover a future, eternal life with God in heaven.

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

Always seek God first and place your faith in Him. Bring your questions, problems, challenges, and concerns to Him and trust, believe, and move forward knowing that God will take care of them. Have faith that God works with a bigger picture in mind than we can even begin to imagine, and that His goal is as many people to be saved with Him as possible.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and mature towards God in your own life. While other people can give you ideas to think about, always filter what you learn, see, or discover through the pages of God’s Word to know whether it is something worthy of eternity. God’s goals is saving us for eternity, and the Bible teaches us everything we need to know to accept this gift He has offered us.

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

While moving through Mark’s gospel and comparing what Mark included in his gospel versus what the other gospel writers include, not much of Mark’s gospel is truly unique. However, the miracle that we will be focusing on for this episode is one of the few events that made it only into Mark’s gospel. I wonder if this is because this event was kept relatively secret, or if something within the event prompted the other gospel writers to exclude this event from their own respective gospels.

Whatever the reason for only Mark including this miracle, I am glad that he did. Of all the miracles Jesus did, this one may be the most fascinating one in my mind. So without any further delay, let’s read it.

Our miracle and passage are found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will be reading from the New International Version. Starting in verse 22, Mark tells us that:

²² They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. ²³ He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

²⁴ He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

²⁵ Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

This miracle is fascinating in my mind. This is the only miracle that I can recall where it takes Jesus a second try to get it right. While other miracles are attributed to faith, and at least one of the gospel writers suggested that the lack of faith in a situation could cause a miracle to not happen, this is the only miracle where the man is healed, but only after a second attempt by Jesus.

However, was this really a second attempt, or was there something happening behind the scenes that made the second try of this miracle distinctly different?

Looking at the details in this miracle, one set of details is easily overlooked. These details form the foundation for this situation. First, the man is brought to Jesus when Jesus has entered Bethsaida. Jesus then leads the man outside of Bethsaida. Finally, Jesus tells the man to go home and to not return through Bethsaida. Putting together these details points us to the high likelihood that the blind man was not from Bethsaida. It is possible this man lived close by, but it is also possible that those in this village searched out someone they knew Jesus could help, and then convinced this man to come to Jesus.

Another detail worth paying attention to is that this blind man was brought to Jesus. This detail is important because it shows more initiative coming from this group of people than from the blind man himself. Related to this detail is the detail that the group of people were the ones begging Jesus for the miracle, not the blind man.

With all these details put together, we can conclude that this group of people were more interested in seeing a miracle than on giving God the glory, or even on helping this man who was blind. Instead of seeing an opportunity for God to help someone in their presence, this group wanted to see Jesus perform for them. Oddly enough, knowing that faith is needed for a miracle to take place, I believe that if Jesus had attempted the miracle in the presence of this group of people, not only would Jesus have let the spotlight shine on Him, but also this miracle likely would have worked the first time. This would have been because those bringing this man to Jesus had the faith necessary to see him be healed.

However, Jesus wanted to heal more than this man’s eyes and He wanted to help this man without stealing the focus off of God. Jesus wasn’t interested in getting an audience or on gaining popularity. Instead, Jesus wanted to help people on an individual level as much as possible.

Up to Jesus asking the blind man a direct question after they are away from those who brought him to Jesus, we do not see or hear anything specific about this blind man. From the details leading up to this miracle, we don’t get the picture this man had faith or hope that he would ever be able to see. We are left to wonder if this man was born blind, or if he was blinded because of something that had happened earlier in his life.

However, when Jesus asks the man if he can see anything while they are alone, we start to get answers for some of our questions. This man responds to Jesus’ first attempt by telling Jesus that he can see people, but they look like trees walking around. If this man had never seen anything, I don’t believe he would know what a tree looked like. Instead, this detail makes me think something happened earlier in this man’s life that caused him to lose his eyesight.

This then leads us to another interesting conclusion. In this culture, people believed that sickness and disability happened because God was punishing people directly, or perhaps indirectly in the case of parents sinning and children being punished. If this man had eyesight then lost it, it is quite likely that he believed God was punishing him for something in his life that had happened.

If you believe God is punishing you, you don’t believe God would want to heal you. In the case of this man, I bet he was doubtful, skeptical, and probably reluctant to even be brought to Jesus. It is likely that this man told those people when they found him that God wouldn’t be interested in healing him because God was too busy punishing him instead.

This makes Jesus’ first attempt a successful attempt at healing this man. However, with the first attempt, while Jesus only partially heals this man’s eyes, Jesus healed this man’s hope, and I believe this man went away believing He had been forgiven. With a restored hope, this man had enough faith necessary for Jesus’ second attempt to fully heal his eyesight.

In our own lives, when bad things happen, it might be easy to let doubt tell us that God is mad at us and that He is causing the challenges we are facing. However, if we believe God is mad at us, then there is no reason to have any hope that our lives could be better. If God is truly mad at us, there is no hope, and if God was very mad at us, we wouldn’t be alive. If God had rejected humanity, Jesus wouldn’t have come to this planet.

However, Jesus did come. Jesus did heal someone who likely believed God was directly punishing him. Jesus gave His life as a substitute for our lives, and through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have the promise of a new life with God.

Jesus came to show us what God is really like. Jesus came to show us God’s love for us. And Jesus came to demonstrate for us that even if we are in open rebellion towards God, He still loves us and He wants to forgive us when we repent and return to 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 and choose to have faith and hope that God loves you and that He wants the best for you. When bad things happen, choose to see these things as a wakeup call from a God who loves each of us and not as a divine punishment from a cruel spiritual dictator. God loves us and He wants the best for our lives.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and Bible study, we can open our hearts to God and let Him into our lives. When God is in our lives, we will know how much He loves us and we will be fully equipped to show His love to a world that needs to see God’s love more than ever!

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!

In our last episode, we focused in on the miracle where a woman pushed her way through a crowd just to touch the edge of Jesus’ garment. However, that miracle is part of a much bigger miracle, because when that miracle happened, Jesus was on His way to help a local synagogue leader.

Let’s read about what happened from Mark’s gospel, chapter 5, using the New Living Translation of the Bible. Starting in verse 21, Mark tells us that:

²¹ Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. ²² Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, ²³ pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”

²⁴ Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him.

It is at this point in the event where we find the miracle we focused on in the last episode. While Jesus was headed to help Jairus, the woman from our last episode saw an opportunity to be healed without being noticed. However, Jesus did notice and He stopped everything and everyone in order to bring this woman’s story into the spotlight.

We don’t know how long this interruption lasted, but when we come back to Jairus’ portion of this event, we discover that it may now be too late. Continuing in verse 35, Mark tells us that:

³⁵ While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

³⁷ Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. ³⁹ He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

⁴⁰ The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. ⁴¹ Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. ⁴³ Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.

In this passage and this event, several things stand out in my mind. The first one is that Jairus might not have heard or been certain if Jesus could raise someone from the dead. Prior to this, Jesus had raised a widow’s boy who was being carried out of town to be buried, but it is possible that this event had been glorified, glamorized, or simply shared so often that people weren’t fully sure what about it was truth verses exaggeration as the story spread.

We don’t know if the girl would have died before Jesus could have arrived if Jesus hadn’t stopped to draw attention onto the woman, but the implication I see when reading between the lines is that Jesus likely could have made it.

Because of this, we might end up feeling a little like Jairus did when receiving the news that his daughter was dead. At that moment, Jairus likely felt as though Jesus was too distracted to help him personally. At times in our own lives, we might feel as though God is too busy helping other people to help us personally.

However, while thinking this way is a temptation for us, nothing could be further from the truth. If we can push back from the situation where God appears to be silent, even if just for a moment or two, we might discover that if Jesus had arrived in time, both Jairus and everyone present would have missed experiencing another resurrection miracle. In a similar way, if God was always quick about answering some of our requests, we might never realize how much God wanted for us.

But this also leads us to an interesting detail present in this miracle, and some of the other ones where people are raised. In this miracle, Jesus refers to the child as sleeping, even if everyone present considers her dead. I cannot escape seeing the irony that if someone were to describe death as being like sleep in today’s culture, they would be laughed at by both major crowds of people. One crowd firmly believes that death is the end, while the other crowd things that death is a quick transition into eternal life in heaven or hell – though most people in this crowd focus on the heaven part.

It is likely for this reason that Jesus stopped the crowd from following Him after learning that the girl had died, and it is also the reason that He kicked everyone else out of the house when going in to see the girl. In the case of the crowd, there was likely enough faith and expectation to see a miracle that Jairus would not have needed to have faith personally. In contrast, those present at the house had lost all hope and their belief in the child being dead outweighed the faith in Jesus’ resurrecting ability.

In some ways, by describing death as a sleep, Jesus points us to the idea that it is simply a pause on consciousness. We can easily understand sleep as being a time of rest between two periods when we are awake and conscious, and understanding death as being simply a deeper sleep that only God can wake us up from is a peaceful way of describing death. By describing death as a sleep, Jesus aims to strengthen Jairus’ faith in the resurrection, and He aims to give us comfort in His resurrecting ability.

According to Jesus, when we face the sleep known as death, we will be resting until the time God wakes us up. In the case of Jairus’ daughter, Jesus wakes her up minutes after her last breath, and in our case, Jesus will wake us up when He returns with a shout.

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

Always seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Him. If you are fearful about death, take Jesus’ advice in this passage and think of death as a deep sleep. Jesus has fully shown that He is capable of waking people from this sleep, and because of this, we can be assured that when we have fallen into the sleep called death, that Jesus is fully capable of waking us up when the time is right.

As always, and especially since this is a very controversial topic, I challenge you to pray and study the Bible for yourself to discover what it teaches. If you want a balanced view on the subject, find two or three sources from each perspective and choose for yourself which one matches the Bible the best. As always, use the Bible as your guide, and focus on accepting the Bible for what it teaches and don’t filter the Bible through any of culture’s theories or ideas.

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!