Reflective Bible Study

In Jesus’ prayer on the night He was arrested, He prays for His followers. The followers Jesus prays for are not just the small group of disciples, but all of His followers who live throughout history. A big theme of Jesus prayer is connection and unity. Just like Jesus is one with the Father, He wants to unite His followers into being one with both Him as well as God.

We can see this theme clearly throughout a number of the sections in Jesus’ prayer, but as Jesus begins to wrap His prayer up, we see a picture of oneness that is a little unique from some of the others. In His prayer to the Father, Jesus says, “I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world’s people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me.” (v. 22-23)

It is amazing to me that Jesus tells us that He honored His followers in the same way the Father has honored Him. Some translations say glory instead of honor. This idea is powerful because it reveals how God’s nature is to step down. When we give someone or something glory, we lift it up, and by doing so, we place it above us. While it might not technically be worth more than we are to someone else, honoring something or someone is more in the eye of the one giving the glory or doing the honoring.

As an example, if I give honor to a friend for something they accomplished, I am lifting them above me (or perhaps up beside me if it is something I had also accomplished). Honor and glory lift others up. My friend in this example might not feel as though he is worthy of the honor because he might be focused on someone or something else who is even better than he is. This means that honor is in the eye of the one giving honor – and Jesus says He has honored His followers like God had honored Him.

God the Father lifted up Jesus, and Jesus lifted up His followers, and we are called to continue the cycle of honor by returning it to God. We complete our connection and unity with God by giving honor to Him for everything He has done for us through the Father, through Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit. When we close this circle by returning honor to God, we become one with Him and this oneness becomes a witness to those living around us that God loves us.

While God’s love doesn’t always mean that we are protected from bad events, it does mean that we have Someone who is willing and happy to walk through life with us as we continue to live, learn, and grow towards being the person God created us to be.

Of the countless times Jesus healed people, I am always fascinated by one specific healing – the one included in this passage. Most times Jesus healed someone He would lay His hands on the individual, or in some way touch the sick person. In a few cases, He would give confirmation to the friend/family member when they came to Him on behalf of the sick person.

However, what is most distinct about this healing is that Jesus gives no confirmation, there is no contact aside from a distant shout, and what was shouted was simply a direction: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” (Verse 14b)

This healing contains no encouragement or confirmation that the command to go to the priest would result in healing, but just like the Old Testament record of Naaman being healed in 2 Kings, chapter 5, obedience to the command itself demonstrates the faith that is present.

Perhaps the men knew Jesus could heal them, but maybe they weren’t sure entirely if Jesus would want to. Perhaps doubt had clouded their thoughts, and maybe only one was brave enough to be the spokesperson for the group – the same one who later returned to thank Jesus. These are some speculations that I have in my mind as to why Jesus may have answered like He did – He was pushing back against doubt.

Doubt has a way of stopping us from moving forward. It can derail our progress and cause us to slow down. Doubt derails our active, continually-moving-forward faith. God wants us to have a relationship with Him, but doubt creeps in to sabotage and stop the relationship from growing.

What really stands out in this healing that I can take and apply to my own life is Jesus’ first command to these men: “Go”. Sometimes we need to step out and start moving for God to be able to act. Sometimes, when we are stuck somewhere, we simply need to start moving, and then believe that God will direct us – though hopefully not as creatively as He did in Jonah’s life (recorded in the short book of Jonah).

When reading from Luke’s gospel as Jesus shares the illustration of the Good Samaritan, I am amazed to learn that this entire parable hinges on a follow-up question – and this follow-up question might not have even been asked if it were not for the attitude of the religious leader who asked it. When I read about this event, in many ways Jesus’ parable overshadows the powerful truth He gives the religious leader in response to the leader’s earlier question.

To set the stage for what is shared, Luke opens by having a religious leader ask Jesus what must happen for a person to gain eternal life. This religious leader’s question is a question that most everyone who believes in an afterlife has had at one point or another.

Instead of answering the man’s question directly, Jesus asked the leader how he understood the scriptures. The leader replied by saying, “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.’” (v. 27)

What Jesus says next is incredibly powerful. Jesus replied to this saying, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.” (v. 28)

This should have been the end of the conversation, but because this leader wanted to justify himself and his knowledge, Luke tells us that he then asked how to define the concept of neighbor.

We are quick to look into truths and themes from the parable Jesus shares to help us illustrate the concept of being a “neighbor”, but when we pull the parable from the context of the conversation it was shared in, we miss the powerful truth that Jesus just shared and confirmed the way to gain eternal life.

The religious leader gave the standard, summary overview of God’s Law and Moses’ law that was given through Moses while the Israelites were in the desert, and Jesus confirmed that it was the way to heaven. Loving God and loving others as much as we love ourselves is the key. Since most people are pretty self-centered, it makes loving other people that much more challenging. However, it is what Jesus has just confirmed that we are called to do.

However, knowing the right answer (like this religious leader did) and obeying the right answer are two different things. Most of the Jewish world during the first century knew this answer, however they missed the truth that this answer needed to be obeyed. They also missed that the core idea of this answer was love.

In our own lives, we are called to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. In case we want a practical example of how to do this, all we need to do is look at Jesus’ life. He came to illustrate what these two commandments look like when obeyed!

Later on during Jesus’ ministry, He shared a parable about workers being hired to work in a vineyard, and the key ideas in this parable relate to God’s generosity, and everyone who worked receiving an equal level of pay. These two ideas are clearly visible in the Parable of the Vineyard Workers, but I believe there is another subtle truth hidden just under the surface of this parable that is powerful for all of us to remember.

In this parable, we learn about a number of groups of people who started working for the vineyard owner at various points during the day. Some of those who were hired worked all day, while others only worked for the last hour of the day. At the end of the day, everyone is paid equally as if they had worked for the full day.

When we read this parable, the big truth that Jesus shared is that it doesn’t matter when you started working, but it does matter that you finished out the day working.

Just under the surface of what is directly said in this parable is the idea that only those who were present at the end of the day were paid. This means that if someone started working at the beginning of the day, but then left at 2pm in the afternoon, they wouldn’t receive anything – because they were not present to be paid.

If this parable symbolizes how followers of Jesus are working for God during their lives here on earth, then this subtle truth is that it doesn’t matter when we start working; what matters is that we start working before the end of our day (i.e. life), and that we keep working until the end of our day.

God is incredibly generous with how He has chosen to reward us, but it is up to us to be present when He is rewarding those who worked for Him. A life that started with God but ended far from Him is not rewarded like a life that started far from God and ended close to Him. The direction of our lives matter, and this parable emphasizes that it is important for us to end our lives with God. Since we don’t know when our lives will end, it is up to us to live each day from this point forward with God, so that when our day of work is up, we will have ended it with Him.