Reflective Bible Study

The focus passage we are looking at today can be approached several (primarily two) different ways: we can approach this illustration as though it contains details to a much bigger theological discussion on the nature of death, or we can approach this illustration looking for the lesson only and leaving the details of the illustration as just the setting of a story. In this post, we will choose to approach the passage the second way, looking for truth and a lesson we can learn from this passage. We’ll leave the “details” side of the discussion for another time.

With that foundation laid, one really big lesson/truth stood out to me as I studied this passage. Summed up to a simple phrase it is this: A good life on earth does not guarantee a good “afterlife”.

In this illustration, Jesus flips an idea the Pharisees had upside down. The Pharisees believed that God’s favor rested on those who He had blessed with wealth. The wealthier one was to them, the closer they must be to God and His favor.

Jesus comes along and shares this illustration as a way of turning this idea around. What matters in the end, according to Jesus, is not what someone has earned, but instead how they treat others – specifically others who are not as well off as they are. God looks down on the world and He loves everyone, from those who are successful to those who are hurting as well.

The crowd who was listening was full of people who would have been much better off than a beggar with a disease. This illustration is less about the hurting man and more about the one who could help. The big problem we all face, both us today as well as those listening to Jesus, is that the “richer” and more successful we become, the less generous, compassionate, and approachable we are tempted to get. Our temptation, which is rooted in pride, says that because my balance sheet has a bigger black number on it, I must be better than you. This couldn’t be any further from the truth, but that doesn’t keep it from being a temptation.

It gets even worse than this, because mixed in with this temptation is a subtler temptation that wants to pull my trust away from Jesus/God and place it on my stuff, my success, and/or my wealth – basically on my own mind, ability, and track record of achievement. The Pharisees in Jesus time were falling for these two temptations, and these temptations were keeping them from being open to Jesus speaking truth in their lives.

Pride keeps people from being open to learning new things. Pride closes people’s minds to God’s truth. Pride kept the Pharisees in Jesus’ day from seeing the deeper truth that their success and status in this life was no indication of their status in the next one. Jesus kept sharing illustrations to try to wake up the religious leaders that they were headed for disaster, but they were closed to Jesus, being blinded by their pride and present circumstances.

It is a sobering thought that I can relate more with the rich man than with Lazarus. This means, at least to me, that I must learn generosity and show kindness towards everyone – especially those who are unable to “repay” me. This seems to be the biggest lesson I can take from this illustration, because “A good life on earth does not guarantee a good ‘afterlife’.”

During one of the times that the Pharisees challenged Jesus and His disciples, the issue was over food and hand-washing. While this may seem trivial for us today, imagine the person in your life who is the most obsessive about following the rules, and then multiply them by ten to get an idea of what these Pharisees were like. Not only did these Pharisees love rule following, they loved making up and carrying rules forward.

One such rule was washing your hands before you eat. On the surface, this sounds like a very practical and sanitary rule, but the Pharisees had elevated the idea of hand-washing and turned it into a salvation issue.

In Jesus’ response, He first challenges the foundation and the way these Pharisees were thinking before then dealing with the specific issue at hand. Jesus draws them to His main point by concluding with, “The food that you put into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.” (v. 15-16)

This response shifts the focus away from physical food that goes into our mouths and towards what we let come out of our mouths. What we consume as a part of our diet is less important than our character and the attitude we display.

Our diets are important for our health, but they are not as important for our salvation. Instead, our salvation is based on God working in us and through us in ways that our food cannot do. Our diets simply help us live better and healthier in our current life.

God wants our attitude towards Him and others to be genuine, loving, helpful, and thoughtful – and all this has to do with what comes out of our mouths more than the food we put into our mouths.

Of all the parables Jesus shared about the kingdom of God, one of the shortest contains one of the most powerful insights into God’s kingdom working in our lives than any other one. In the parable of the yeast, we can learn insights into God’s kingdom from something as simple as baking bread – a process that hasn’t changed significantly since the time when Jesus shared these words.

Luke’s gospel tells us that immediately following the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus continues by saying, “What can I compare God’s kingdom with? It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.” (v. 20-21)

Like with other kingdom parables, whenever Jesus shares something that describes God’s kingdom, God is one of the characters present. In this short parable, there are only three things that are shared, and really only one candidate for God’s character: the woman.

God’s kingdom is like God taking and hiding yeast in a large tub of flour. I’m guessing that moisture/water is also within this tub of flour because the “flour” becomes “dough” that rises.

With an understanding that God is the one hiding the yeast, what would the yeast represent in this context?

In other places, Jesus warns the disciples about the Pharisees having yeast, and in that context, yeast refers to the Pharisees’ teachings and beliefs about God. If yeast in that case represented teachings and beliefs, then in Jesus’ parable here, yeast could also refer to a person’s teachings and beliefs.

What we have been taught and what we believe is not directly seen from looking at us from the outside. If you had a lineup of people, with each person wearing different types of clothing, we might get an impression of what someone might believe, but at best it would only be a stereotype conclusion and not a true picture of what each person knows or believes. In this way, a person’s beliefs, unless they display them through their actions, is hidden within their lives like yeast hides in a ball of dough.

But yeast’s primary characteristic is that it grows. Yeast starts small, only a teaspoon or less in many cases, but it ultimately affects the whole ball of dough. In our lives, the ideas we hold onto will grow. The beliefs we have will expand. What we focus on will become a lens for our reality. What might have begun as a small, simple idea may just transform our life.

The Pharisees used logic and questions to plant seeds of doubt in the minds of others. They did this to bring people over to their way of thinking. In contrast, Jesus planted seeds of hope and love through stories that showed God, His character, and His kingdom.

We have the choice of whose yeast we will pay attention to. Will we pay attention to the ideas and beliefs in this world that grow into doubt, or will we pay attention to the ideas and beliefs that support a loving God who cares about humanity enough to sacrifice Himself for us?

There are a lot of great ideas in this passage that we could choose to highlight, but for this journal entry, I will focus on an idea that is a little baffling to me. It is found in Jesus’ words as this passage opens:

Once the Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom would come. He replied, “The coming of God’s kingdom is not something you can see just by watching for it carefully. People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ God’s kingdom is among you.” (v. 20-21)

“God’s kingdom is among you.” This phrase can be baffling if we think about it long enough. The Pharisees are expecting a coming kingdom, but instead they are faced with an already present kingdom – one that they don’t see.

In other places, John the Baptist, Jesus’ disciples, and even Jesus preach that God’s kingdom is “coming”, but here we read in Jesus’ response that it is already here. At least to me, this makes me wonder if one way of defining God’s kingdom is simply anywhere where “Jesus” is. Perhaps we could broaden it to be anywhere that “God” is – so that it includes God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

We also could broaden this approach even further, since Paul calls the church “the Body of Christ”. (1 Corinthians 12:27)

With this framework, I could easily wonder: Do I miss seeing God’s kingdom around me as I live life? Do I ever miss opportunities to be a part of God’s kingdom because I am not paying attention to what God is doing? Would I live any differently knowing that I can be a part of God’s kingdom today?