Reflective Bible Study

While reading Luke’s gospel account of Jesus’ last supper before His crucifixion, Luke includes a verse telling us that an argument breaks out among the disciples and he also includes Jesus’ response to this argument. Perhaps this argument was prompted by Jesus sharing that one of them would betray Him, but perhaps, this was just another flare-up of an argument that Jesus’ follower had debated many times before.

But here at the last supper, Jesus has a powerful response. After quieting the disciples and getting their attention, Luke tells us that Jesus said, “The kings of the non-Jewish people rule over them, and those who have authority over others like to be called ‘friends of the people.’ But you must not be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the leader should be like the servant. Who is more important: the one sitting at the table or the one serving? You think the one at the table is more important, but I am like a servant among you.” (v. 25-27)

Jesus draws our attention to something that we think today. This belief is as widespread today as it was in the first century. Jesus points us to this key idea when He asks, “Who is more important: the one sitting at the table or the one serving?” (v. 27a)

If we were to ask ten random people this question, almost all of them would say the person sitting at the table is more important. Those in the board room at the table must be more important than the factory-line worker. This is the widespread belief – and it is one that Jesus challenged with His life.

In Jesus’ follow-up statement, He shares the truth people think, and He contrasts it with how He has lived. “You think the one at the table is more important,” Jesus says, “but I am like a servant among you.” (v. 27b)

Jesus came and lived the life of a servant to illustrate how God sees greatness. While those at the table are important in God’s eyes, those serving are equally important. Without people serving, there would be no table for others to sit at. Because of this truth, the case could be made that service is more important than meetings. Jesus called each of us to be like Him, and this means that we are to take the servant role whenever possible.

Jesus focused on finding ways He could step down and serve. As His disciples, stepping down and serving whenever possible should be a priority for us as well.

In what may be one of Jesus’ most ridiculous comparisons, in the illustration of the plank and the piece of sawdust we find a clear description of the term hypocrite. In this comparison, part of me wonders if some of those in the crowd actually laughed at the mental picture Jesus painted for them.

While preaching the famous “Sermon on the Mount”, Jesus draws our focus onto a big truth using this illustration. Matthew tells us that He challenged the crowd by asking, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” (v. 3-4)

Then Jesus hits on the big point for this section of His message. He continues by saying, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (v. 5)

Here we have Jesus clarifying what it means to be a hypocrite. Jesus defines the person who pays more attention to other peoples’ faults than their own as a hypocrite. According to Jesus’ definition, to not be a hypocrite, one must focus more on personal growth than on helping others grow.

But we must be careful to not make the passage say what it doesn’t say. Jesus ends off by saying, “then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (v. 5b)

Helping others grow is important, but more important is that the one doing the teaching has also lived the message they are sharing. A hypocrite is someone who gives advice that they are not following themselves. A hypocrite rationalizes their situation as not needing the advice, but they don’t make any exceptions for others.

To break free from hypocrisy, we must be intentional about sharing our failures and our successes. We must be honest about where we struggle, and what we are doing to overcome these challenges. We must speak from our experience more than from our intelligence. This is one definition for the idea of “sharing our testimony”.

Most of us know what we should be doing, and to really break free from hypocrisy, we must start doing these things. Helping others without being a hypocrite means that we have lived our advice and found it to be beneficial. Only after living our advice can we then help others without being known as a hypocrite.

Have you ever read a passage and assumed a specific detail was present, only to realize later that it is nowhere to be found?

This passage is one that is like this for me.

Up until now, when I read in this passage, I always assumed that when the master “praised the dishonest manager”, he also chose to not fire him – but this is nowhere stated, and not really even implied.

The dishonest manager is praised for using his last ounce of position to make friends, but while this puts a little bit of social pressure onto the master to not fire him, these actions themselves make the manager less trustworthy for this position than even before. The dishonest manager’s actions, while they made him some friends, sealed the decision in place that he should no longer be employed.

However, just under the surface is an interesting truth that goes along with this idea: When we are facing significant changes in our lives (such as a job loss in this case), we recognize that relationships are more important than money, knowledge, fame, or a large estate. This single event caused the dishonest manager, who likely didn’t have any friends (dishonesty will do that) to shift his focus onto making friends over accumulating stuff.

Significant life changes cause us to review and reprioritize our focus.

In your life and in mine, when we see big changes coming, we begin to look for ways to manage these changes. Most often in this search, we look for someone who can help us navigate the unknown. Moving through life’s challenges with a friend is much better than facing these challenges alone.

Everyone learns this lesson at some point. It is better to learn it now, before a significant event forces us to change. Facing trials changes our character: we either become more of what we were before, or we choose to change directions moving forward.

This dishonest manager shifted his focus from the money to the relationships. Would these relationships last? Maybe, but only if this event changed his character. Without honesty and/or integrity, friendships don’t last.

Hidden in plain sight within this passage from Matthew’s gospel are two phrases that we may be tempted to skip over while reading. The first phrase directly relates to Jesus, and it focuses on something He has received from God.

Matthew tells us that following one of Jesus’ prayers, He says that “My Father has given all things to me.” (v. 27a)

This statement is a little perplexing if we think about it deeper, because what does Jesus mean by “all things”?

• Does “all things” mean everything organic and inorganic in the universe?

• Does “all things” mean all people, animals, and life?

• Does “all things” mean remove an individual’s free will or free choice?

While we could answer yes to some or all of these questions, a more important and deeper question for us to ask is what caused God to choose to give Jesus “all things”? Aside from being His own Son, what made Jesus worthy to be entrusted with everything?

The clue we have comes from an unlikely place – which is the other phrase we may be quick to gloss over. Several verses earlier, prior while describing the cities where He had been rejected, Jesus says that “the people there had not turned away from their sins.” (v. 20b)

In these cities where Jesus spent much of His time, and where a good percentage of His miracles had happened, the people had not changed. Perhaps they believed Jesus to be special, significant, and maybe even sent from God, but it was not enough to convince them to give up the sin in their lives and/or their sinful lifestyles.

These people are condemned because they chose not to give up something when Jesus came offering something better.

In contrast, it seems as though Jesus continually gives things up. Jesus gave up heaven and He came down to earth to be with us. Jesus gave up fame and popularity numerous times by intentionally challenging those present about their lives and their focus. Jesus gave up His life so that others could be saved.

It is in Jesus’ nature to give up, and because Jesus is more other-focused than self-focused, He can be trusted with everything. God gave Jesus “all things” and that includes you and me. We didn’t have a choice in this matter. But the first thing Jesus did following receiving us as a gift is return our freedom of choice. We cannot change the scope of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but we can choose whether we will accept it and let God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit work in and through our lives.