Reflective Bible Study

When facing the temptations in the wilderness, Jesus uses an interesting weapon that most people don’t think of when being tempted. While we might consider prayer as the ultimate weapon against Satan and temptation, it may surprise you that Jesus does not pray a single prayer while He was tempted in the wilderness. Some might also think running from the situation is appropriate, but Jesus doesn’t run either.

Instead, Jesus uses another weapon to push Satan back, and that is the weapon of the scripture – and not just any scripture, but Old Testament scripture. Luke’s gospel shares how the first temptation Jesus receives is one that challenges Jesus’ hunger and it is an offer or suggestion for Jesus to use His creative power to help His hunger. In response, Jesus tells Satan, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone.’” (v. 4)

Luke describes Jesus second temptation as being tempted with an offer of all the kingdoms of the world. Satan is willing to give up the earth for Jesus’ worship. Responding to this temptation, Jesus tells Satan, “The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’” (v. 8)

The third temptation Luke shares Jesus receiving has to do with jumping off of the highest point of the temple. Luke’s gospel reverses the order of the last two temptations from Matthew’s gospel, and perhaps the reason Luke does this is because Satan uses an interesting tactic in this “temple-leap” temptation. Noticing how Jesus has pushed back at his earlier temptations, Satan draws upon a spiritual promise that Jesus would clearly know. In Satan’s temptation to jump, he shares, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down from here. For the scripture says, ‘God will order his angels to take good care of you.’ It also says, ‘They will hold you up with their hands so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.’” (v. 9b-11)

Satan uses promises God had given in an attempt to get Jesus to sin. But even though Satan can twist scripture and use it in His temptations, Jesus still responded with scripture. When challenged with this third temptation, Jesus replied, “The scripture says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (v. 12)

Jesus succeeded at pushing the devil back by using and quoting scripture, and if this was Jesus’ method of fighting temptation, we may benefit from using it as well. With God’s help and His scripture by our side, we can see these tricks, traps, and temptations Satan sends our way and successfully push Satan back in our own lives as well.

All throughout the gospels, Jesus shared parables. A good number of these parables are tagged as describing the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God. Perhaps Jesus spoke in parables in this way to help us better understand ideas and characteristics of a big thing that would overwhelm us if we saw it clearly.

In many ways, these parables reveal God’s character and His perfect world that He wants to invite us into. At this point in our lives, if He were to show us a vision of this ideal world, we might not believe it to be possible. Instead, I think He may have given parables to give us glimpses of the perfection He has planned.

In the concluding set of parables about the Kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13, there is a common theme that runs through them. In these three parables, God’s Kingdom is represented by a treasure hidden in a field, by a merchant searching for fine pearls, and by a fishing net that catches all kinds of fish.

All three of these parables contain some common themes.

The first theme that unifies these parables is the theme of seeking. Each of these parables has a character seeking something that is valuable. While the man in the field is not expecting to find the treasure he found, he is quick to recognize its value and worth because he knows it is something he desperately needs. The merchant’s role is seeking valuable pearls, and the fishermen’s role is seeking valuable fish. God’s Kingdom is one that seeks out the people, thoughts, ideas, and things God finds valuable, so He can add them to His Kingdom.

The second theme that unifies these parables is the theme of filtering. Each of these parables has a character recognizing the valuable thing from the not valuable thing. The man in the field recognizes that the buried treasure is more valuable than the dirt covering it. The merchant recognizes the valuable pearl among the lower quality, less valuable ones. The fishermen catch lots of types of fish, but they filter their catch into the valuable fish and the not valuable fish. God’s Kingdom is one that sorts and filters the valuable from the not valuable and God keeps the things He determines are valuable before ignoring or throwing out that which is worthless.

The third theme that unifies these parables is the theme of sacrifice. Each of these parables contains a measure of sacrifice on the part of the main characters. The man in the field and the merchant sell everything they have to acquire their respective treasures. The fishermen have to take the time to sort the good from the bad in order to get their treasure. If fishermen could, they would prefer to only catch what they know is valuable, but that is not how a fishing net works. The sacrifice for a fishermen is the time it takes to sort the valuable from the worthless. God’s Kingdom is one that cost Him everything. God sold everything He had for the opportunity to acquire the planet filled with value.

These parables unify by describing a God who is willing to give up Himself to bring us into a relationship with Him. He values this blue planet and each of us as its inhabitants, and He spared no expense buying us back from sin. God’s Kingdom is filled with value because God gave everything He had to purchase it. We might not see the value in God’s decision, but God gives value to what He purchased by how much He was willing to pay. He bought this blue planet and us through the death of His Son. Never let anyone convince you are less valuable to God than this!

Have you ever told someone to do something, and instead they do the opposite?

Have you ever been that person – the one to do the opposite of what you were told?

In our passage for this post, we find an example of this type of disobedience displayed, but in this case, would we blame the disobedient person?

In this passage, Jesus heals Bartimaeus, a formerly blind beggar who lived in or near Jericho. Following the healing, Jesus says, “Go, your faith has made you well.” (v. 52a) However instead of going away, Bartimaeus chooses to “go” follow Jesus: “At once he was able to see and followed Jesus on the road.” (v. 52b)

Such disobedience: Bartimaeus chooses to follow the person who healed him.

If you are like me, I am not surprised at all by this reaction – even if it is counter to what Jesus said. When God does a miracle in our lives, following Him is a perfectly acceptable response.

However, is there something deeper in Jesus’ command to “Go”?

What if when Jesus said “Go”, the idea He was saying was “Be free [from your disability]”? In this angle, Bartimaeus was freed to see instantly, and this freedom allowed Him to choose whether to follow the One who freed Him, or choose to share what Jesus did with those in his community.

We could understand this also in Jesus’ similar command to, “Go, and sin no more.” We could angle this to say “Be free, and choose to never go back.” This then wouldn’t be a command to never sin ever again, but a challenge to not repeat the same mistakes we’ve made, to learn and grow from our mistakes, and to redirect our life towards God’s ideal for us.

In our own lives, when Jesus sets us free, will we thank Him and go our own way, or will we choose to follow Him—the One who set us free?

In the parable of the ten bridesmaids, there is a character who must be present, but who is never mentioned. For there to be a groom and bridesmaids, there would also have to be a bride. Otherwise, there really wouldn’t be a wedding.

Perhaps Jesus shared the parable in this way to allow for multiple people to fill the role, but if that were the case, then they all should be at the wedding itself. In first-century weddings, the bridesmaids role was to light the way at night between the wedding ceremony (which would be at a church or synagogue) and the reception hall (which would be in a home).

The bridesmaids had an important role in helping guests make their way from the ceremony to the celebration. If this wedding represents Christ’s marriage with the symbolic bride that is the church, then Christians everywhere would be a part of the wedding ceremony, and the role of bridesmaid would ultimately be composed of a different group of people.

Missing in this parable is the role of the bride. The bride actually links the bridesmaids with the groom. The bridesmaids know the bride, and they are interested in meeting the groom. With this idea in place, the bridesmaids may be composed of friends of Christians who are looking for evidence of their faith, and who desire to meet God themselves. Some of these friends may fall away, looking for something else, while others of them may persevere and find God.

This slight distinction in who fills the role of bridesmaid in this parable makes for an interesting question, but in some ways, it misses an important characteristic of our spiritual journey: No one starts life as a Christ-follower. Life does not begin with us as a part of the symbolic bride.

Instead, as we grow, we make the decision whether to align ourselves with God, Jesus, and those who have aligned themselves in this way, or we make the decision to reject God in favor of another option. Choosing to align with God takes us from being a bridesmaid to being a member of the symbolic bride and this only happens after we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives and joining with the bigger body of Christianity.

With the freedom to choose God we also have the freedom to reject Him. It is within our freedom of choice to leave being a member of the symbolic bride and walk away from being a bridesmaid.

With the freedom of choice, we will all fill the role of bridesmaid at some point in our lives, and while in that role, this parable gives us guidance for how to be wise, how to persevere, and how to ultimately and successfully meet the groom.