Reflective Bible Study

When reading this passage, I notice something interesting. Within Jesus’ examples of planning ahead, He includes the idea of a king receiving news that an army is headed his way with 20,000 soldiers. This king only has 10,000 soldiers and has to decide whether to fight or send a delegation asking for terms of peace.

In this example we see two contrasting ideas, and how we have the choice between these two options. We do not have the choice to avoid challenges, but we have the option of fighting – usually an uphill battle – with the chance of succeeding, or we can voluntarily submit to the challenge which leads us down the road of peace. In a battle, there are usually clear winners and clear losers, though one might argue that both sides lose in an adversarial situation such as this.

The problem with the battle option is that once one side has been declared the loser, they usually don’t experience peace, but instead bitterness, hostility, and/or anger as well as the desire for revenge.

However, voluntary submission, or at least being open to the idea, can lead to true peace, because through great communication we are often able to declare that both sides win. It is only when we are able to help the other side win in a way that we are also benefited that true peace can take place – and this is much harder to accomplish after one has chosen the “fight” option.

When challenges come your way, are you more likely to fight to win, or voluntarily submit to the challenge as a way forward to peace?

At the opening of His famous “Sermon on the Mount”, Jesus shares a list of blessings and He ties each blessing to a lifestyle and/or a character quality. For many years, I believed Jesus was sharing different blessings to different groups of people, and the conclusion in my mind was that someone could only be a part of one, maybe two, groups.

But as I looked closer at Jesus’ list, I realized that this list of blessings describes those who God wants to bless in specific ways. This list also describes a way of life that is different from the common culture during any and every period in earth’s history following the fall of Adam and Eve.

In the nine blessings Jesus shares, we see a picture of God’s love and a picture of how He interacts with us, and as I read this list, I see a progression in the order of the blessings.

• Opening the list of blessings is a blessing for “those who recognize they are spiritually helpless.” The reward is God’s kingdom of heaven. This reward is entirely based on the truth that we are fallen from perfection, and we cannot live spiritual lives without God’s help. (v. 3)

• Next is a blessing for “those who mourn.” People who are going through a difficult time or who have experienced loss are people who God wants to wrap His arms around and comfort. The world is a painful place, and God is not interested in sitting on the sidelines. He wants to comfort those who mourn. (v. 4)

• Third comes a blessing for “those who are gentle.” Jesus says their reward is inheriting the earth. While this sounds backwards, since it seems like the world is run by the least gentle people imaginable in most cases, Jesus may be referring to the recreated, sinless “new heaven and earth”. The people who ultimately receive the earth after sin has been destroyed will be known as “those who are gentle.” (v. 5)

• Following this is a blessing for “those who hunger and thirst for God’s approval.” Jesus says they will be blessed by being satisfied. This is another challenging idea for some, because if we feel we never are measuring up to what God wants from us, we will never feel as though He approves of us. However, Jesus came and His life met God’s standard, and Jesus offers His life to each of us. Through Jesus, we are approved by God and we can be satisfied. (v. 6)

• Half way through this list is a blessing for “those who show mercy.” The reward for those who give mercy to others is that they will receive mercy – maybe not from some people, but ultimately from God. Like a parable where a servant is forgiven a massive debt and the expectation is he would pay the forgiveness forward, God’s people have been shown amazing mercy, and we are to pay-it-forward by living a life where we give mercy generously. (v. 7)

• The sixth blessing is one for “those whose thoughts are pure.” The blessing they receive is simple: they get to see God. While this is obvious when we take a new heaven and new earth perspective, I wonder if it may also be true in the present world. I wonder if those whose thoughts are pure will be able to recognize God’s movement and what He is doing while those who have evil thoughts are blind to God’s presence and movement. (v. 8)

• As we near the end of the list, we find the seventh blessing is one for “those who make peace.” These people will be called God’s children. What is amazing to me about this blessing is it supports a God who is filled with love more than a god who is interested in war. The future God has in mind is one that is filled with peace, and only those who are willing and able to live peacefully will be able to join God’s family as children. This doesn’t mean we must be peaceful before we come to God, but it does mean we must let God work and create peaceful living within our hearts. (v. 9)

• Second to last is a blessing for “those who are persecuted for doing what God approves of.” Like the first group, these people will be blessed by receiving God’s kingdom. This is a promise to us that heaven is in our future when we do what God approves of – and it is something secular culture will never understand. This blessing helps keep us focused on what matters most – which is doing what God approves of, and it helps us remember heaven is our true home! (v. 10)

• Finishing off the list is a blessing that echoes the previous one while taking a slightly different approach. While all the blessings have been directed at “third-party” groups, Jesus finishes off the list talking directly to those present and those of us who are reading His words. Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, lie, and say all kinds of evil things about you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because you have a great reward in heaven! The prophets who lived before you were persecuted in these ways.” This last blessing takes the focus off of being on “someone else” and it directs the focus onto you and me. (v. 11-12)

In these blessings, we see God’s character through how He blesses those who are living within His will for their lives.

One of the few events that the gospels record following Jesus’ resurrection stands out to me as an incredible witness to us regarding our belief. Through Thomas’ example, we are able to understand another level of God’s blessing for those who follow Him.

John, who was present for both times Jesus was present records what happened. He tells us, “Although Thomas the Twin was one of the twelve disciples, he wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. So they told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’” (v. 24-25a)

We don’t know why Thomas was not with the other ten remaining disciples during that first meeting. He may have been getting supplies while they were hiding out in Jerusalem, or he may have been nervous to be with the remaining disciples as they feared their lives were in danger as well.

Whatever the reason was that he wasn’t with them, Thomas was not happy to have missed seeing Jesus. He responds to the other disciples’ joy by saying, “First, I must see the nail scars in his hands and touch them with my finger. I must put my hand where the spear went into his side. I won’t believe unless I do this!” (v. 25b)

Thomas stands out to me as a first-century example of many people living throughout time. Many people take Thomas’ approach to believing in God/Jesus. These people reason that if God cannot be seen, touched, or measured, then God does not exist and there is no reason to believe in Him. Skeptics throughout time have used this argument for their lack of belief.

However life itself, with all its complexities is one example of evidence that God exists. The notion that evolution took a single living cell and transformed it into all the life we see around us is irrelevant when we simply look at the millions of dollars that are spent creating and developing devices that can preserve living (and life-worthy) tissue. Once a cell has died, there is a point when it can no longer be brought back to life – and that is with the best science and minds living today. Evolution says that random chance started life from nothing that we cannot even replicate being “intelligent” beings.

Looking at life makes it easy to believe in a Creator. It is easy to believe that Someone or Something smarter than us started life on our planet. Those who want to reject God because they cannot see Him have to make up theory after theory to support their foundation for this planet’s life and even its existence. While some theories have lasted longer than others, believing in a Creator is the simplest explanation for life on this planet.

However, when we return to our passage and look at what happened next, we see an amazing picture of God and His blessing us. The following weekend, the disciples were back together and Jesus appeared to them again (and Thomas was with them). After Jesus has invited Thomas to touch the scars and after Thomas has made his statement of belief in Jesus for having seen Him, Jesus responds by saying, “Thomas, do you have faith because you have seen me? The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!” (v. 29)

Jesus elevates those who have faith in Him without needing to see Him personally. Faith in Jesus simply from looking at the evidence present in the world today brings blessings into our lives that those who require a visible sign cannot grasp. Too many scientists and people have rejected God because He doesn’t fit into their measurable picture of what He should be and by doing so, they miss the blessings that come from believing in Him – blessings that not only come in our present lives, but also blessings that come in the next age of “HisStory”.

While this is a short, four verse passage, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t multiple things we can pull out of it. The one BIG idea that we can focus on today is what is implied by the very last phrase of verse 44: “. . . because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you!”

This phrase jumped off the page (err screen) when I read it. With a simple “because”, Jesus hinges all the destruction of Jerusalem on their one failure to act/recognize/accept Him. Jesus is predicting Jerusalem’s destruction, which will happen a few decades from that point in history, but this phrase seems to indicate that if Jerusalem (we could probably include “Israel”) had accepted Him, God would have changed the course of history and Jerusalem would have been saved from destruction.

This big idea has real-time applications as well. We could ask ourselves the question, “Am I failing to recognize God moving in my life to save me?” Often times, we struggle with a nagging thought, a bad habit, or something else we would like to change, and while it is hard to admit, most of us do know what we need to do to remedy the situation. I might suggest that God has planted that knowledge in our mind (whether divinely or through observation/experience). By not moving towards the solution, are we delaying our spiritual growth – not to mention any physical, emotional, or relational growth that is also present?

We are holistic beings, and this means that our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives are connected. What we do in one area will affect the others. For example, if we are sick physically, it is going to be difficult to grow spiritually; or if we are locked up emotionally, it may affect our health long term.

In this passage, Jerusalem was spiritually locked and this caused them to not recognize Jesus. They were too set in their ideal image of a messiah that they missed the Messiah who came with a much bigger vision then they thought. Are we failing to recognize Jesus working in our lives to save us?