Reflective Bible Study

Have you ever heard a joke and missed understanding the punch line?

Have you ever listened to an illustration and missed the main point of what was being said?

I have, and I wonder if many of us miss the underlying themes present in some of Jesus’ most famous parables. In our self-centered minds, we turn an illustration about God into being a reflection of ourselves.

Our passage in this entry is not exempt from this challenge. In fact, it might be one of the main ones that gets twisted by our thinking. This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven – and that means it will show us a part of God’s character and how He acts. All too often though, we can miss the point and focus on the people in the parable who we can relate with – the jealous ones who thought they would get more, or the late-comers who are happy to even be paid at all.

All this time, we are missing the point. We love the cliché-quotation that “The last will be first”, but we ignore what this parable is trying to teach us: God is unbelievably generous with His gifts and blessings.

We can parallel this passage with our lives, and the reward God gives us at the end of our lives (which I’ve written about in a previous post on this passage), but even that is missing the point: God is unbelievably generous.

When we dig into how God is generous, we see a simple concept of “fairness”: You worked, He pays. [Period]

Our own human nature wants to complicate the scenario by bringing in other variables such as, “How long was each person working?”, “How hard was each person working?”, or even “How productive was each person being?”

This is not God’s character. It’s ours. It would seem that God’s definition of “fair” is way more basic than our complicated, ever-shifting-to-our-own-benefit version of fair. All too often, we will compare ourselves to the others who work alongside us and look at how we are more qualified, how we worked harder, or how we have been more loyal and expect to have a higher pay because of the variables. We like seeing situations where the “new guy” is paid less because of inexperience, and though we might not like it, we understand the environments where those who have been working the longest, are at the top of the pay scale.

But this is not how God works. He has a very simple concept of “fairness”: You worked, He pays. [Period]

While this does not appear “fair” to us, remember that this is God. He can do whatever He wants. [also period]

Jesus concludes this parable with a simple truth about God in the form of a rhetorical question: “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” (v. 15)

God is unbelievably generous. He pays us way more than we ever deserve. Don’t be “envious” because He is “generous”.

While walking through a grain field on the Sabbath, the Pharisees catch Jesus’ followers picking grain to snack on. While eating grain was technically okay to do on the Sabbath, picking and preparing it (i.e. rubbing it in your hands to remove the husk) was not. Picking and preparing the grain to eat was considered work, and the Sabbath day was a day for rest.

In response to the Pharisees’ challenge, Jesus first responds with an even worse example of someone breaking the law. David and his group of outlaws ate bread that was only for priests to eat. This was way worse of an offense than simply snacking on some grain.

However, after Jesus makes this counterargument, He then zeros in on the intent of the Sabbath commandment. Jesus tells the Pharisees, as well as all of us living today, “The Sabbath day was made to help people; they were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day.” (v. 27)

God’s Sabbath day was not meant to be a day that was filled with “can not’s”, “do not’s”, and “should not’s”. God’s Sabbath was supposed to be a day where God’s people could rest, remember, and reflect on Him. God’s Sabbath was to be the high point at the close of every week rather than something that was to be dreaded.

Jesus even tops off His statement by saying, “So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.” (v. 28)

Jesus used the phrase “Son of Man” as a way of referencing Himself. I think He also used it to draw our attention to His mission of coming as a representative of God. Jesus places Himself ahead of the Sabbath day, and in a similar way, He places us ahead of the Sabbath day as well. “The Sabbath day was made to help people.” People “were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day.” (v. 27)

These statements do not change the validity of the Sabbath commandment. Instead, they enhance the meaning behind it. While it is easy to turn the Sabbath into a series of rules, do’s, and don’ts, Jesus tells us that the Sabbath was meant for so much more. Jesus tells us that the Sabbath is His day, and it should be a day when we focus and reflect Him to others.

Of all the things in the gospels to challenge me, a phrase that Matthew includes in his gospel comes near the top of the list. While traveling with His disciples, Jesus asks them who people believe Him to be, and then He more directly asks them who they think He is.

Simon Peter responds with the correct answer when he replies, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (v. 16)

But Jesus’ response to Peter contains some baffling truths. Jesus begins by drawing our attention to the only way Peter could have known this response: God the Father revealed it to Him. Jesus then continues building on this theme with a three part phrase that may sound startling. Jesus continues by saying, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (v. 18)

Jesus starts small, and then He expands with each phrase. The name Peter means pebble or stone. Peter was to be a small but also significant part of God’s plan.

Jesus then moves bigger by saying on this rock (or giant stone, or cliff), He will build His church. Jesus is not saying that the church is to be built on Peter, but instead on the response Peter gave that God the Father had revealed to him. This declaration was focused on Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. Without directly pointing the focus onto Himself, Jesus takes this declaration and centers it as the cornerstone for His church.

Jesus finishes this statement by saying that the gates of Hades won’t overcome it. This is a tricky phrase to grasp. Gates are set up for protection and as a defense, but overcoming is an offensive maneuver. Perhaps Jesus is saying that whatever Satan releases through the gates of Hades, God’s church will not be stopped. Or maybe Jesus is saying that however strong Satan believes the gates of Hades to be, they will not be able to stand against the forward momentum of God’s church and the declaration that Jesus is God’s Son and the Messiah.

Jesus then clues Peter into His role in the next verse: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (v. 19)

Peter’s small but significant role is to be a like a gatekeeper. However, while this appears on the surface to set Peter up to be exclusive towards others, the truth is exactly the opposite. The religious system of that time was built upon rules and laws that separated God from the people. In the minds of the people, God would only pay attention to us once we had done enough significant things. The religious leaders had locked the gate to reach God from the people.

Jesus symbolically gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven so that Peter can open the gates of truth to let people into heaven. Peter does this in the book of Acts in a famous sermon shortly after Jesus is resurrected, and He does this again later in the book of Acts when He welcomes gentile believers in with another famous sermon. You and I can do the same when we welcome people into God’s family who were not with us before.

God’s family and His church cannot be stopped. God’s church is based on the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Son, and that is something that Satan cannot deny. The church moves forward though the Holy Spirit’s power, and nothing Satan throws at it will overcome it.

Have you ever been given a set of instructions to do a task you have struggled with for a while, and became excited when the task that was formerly difficult becomes easy?

Perhaps this has happened when trying to understand some other language (or programming language), or perhaps even when trying to get a simple crochet stitch figured out.

Well, in this passage, it appears as though a similar event occurs, though with some key differences.

In our passage, we read about ten lepers, and these men had little to no hope of ever being healed – until Jesus shows up in history. Leprosy at the time was not known or understood all that well as a disease – except to say that it was highly contagious and incurable. Our passage finds these ten men seeking Jesus out to be healed.

Other places in the gospels, Jesus uses touch to heal, but in this case, He sends them somewhere.

It is worth noting that all ten believe Jesus, and leave to go see the priest. What is really interesting in my mind about what Jesus tells them to do is that it is something they would have needed to do after being healed. Only an on duty priest could declare someone who previously had leprosy as clean, and all ten believed. Since Jesus told them to go, they will go – immediately, and without deviating from the mission since they all believed Jesus could/would heal them.

As they were heading to see the priest, they all realize they were healed. The mission was working. Jesus’ words were coming true. Here’s where we see a dilemma: continue on and finish the mission, making the healing permanent, or stop the mission and risk the leprosy returning. This is likely the question running through the minds of all ten men.

For nine, there was no question, because the answer was so obvious: finish the mission. But one man has a different thought: thank the healer. He knows that Jesus prompted the healing, even though Jesus never said anything to indicate that a miraculous healing would happen.

This one man intentionally breaks from the mission – risking the leprosy returning – because he wants God, and Jesus specifically, to be the first One to be thanked for his healing.

This brings us to our key point for this passage: Never forget to thank God and Jesus for the things that He has blessed you with, the things He has saved you from, and the things that He has promised for your future. Thank Jesus first when His blessings come into your life.

God’s blessings are not based on you being 100% obedient. Instead, what matters most is that you are intentionally growing closer to Him each and every day.