Reflective Bible Study

Have you ever read something and had your mind trail off into a funny scene or odd picture?

Surprised as you might be when that happens, even more surprising for me was that happened while studying this passage – specifically when reading the phrase: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (v. 38a)

The scene that jumped into my mind is the easy-to-imagine-for-many scene of a red devil with a pitchfork in a hot fiery place making things very uncomfortable for those who are with him.

Why might this scene have jumped into my mind? Well, if the dead are still conscious, and those who died without accepting Jesus have met with their final punishment, then that is where they would be – maybe.

This dualistic thinking sets up the idea that there is a kingdom that God rules over (the living), and a kingdom that the devil rules over (the dead), but if you take that simple idea that is so commonly believed just one step further, it makes Satan (the devil) a “god” to those who have died and it places his kingdom in a separate place where God has no power – and this logic does not fit with an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God. Why would God let anyone He helped to form be tormented forever in a place where He has no jurisdiction. Nope, this train of thought does not make sense.

So if this isn’t the case, should we scrap the idea and say that death is the end of all life?

If death was the ultimate end, then the promised “resurrection” would not be true – and this cannot be the case with the broad context in this passage being that of the resurrection.

So if neither of these ideas work, what thought makes more sense in light of the resurrection discussion?

The only thought that makes sense for a loving God who has promised a resurrection is that those who have passed away, and who are “resting in peace” are resting an unconscious state waiting for resurrection day. We could call this “sleep”, but it is a step further than that since it is a state where only God can awaken us from, and it is unlikely that we dream in this state – though I have never been there to know this for a fact.

However, this logic presents a problem with my imaginary scene: Unconscious dead people don’t make for very good subjects in the kingdom of the dead. Not only that, Jesus conquered death at the resurrection, so if anyone has jurisdiction over the kingdom of death at this point, it’s Jesus – making death something that we need not fear.

This promise then becomes this amazing, climatic truth: God is not the God of those who will die the second death; but the God of those who will be saved.

In the events surrounding the birth of John the Baptist, as Luke is setting the stage for what happened, he shares an interesting set of verses that we might miss if we are not paying close enough attention.

After setting the stage with a time period, and introducing Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, Luke briefly describes the couple, “Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.” (v. 6-7)

In these two verses are some important pieces of information. While we might be quick to focus on Elizabeth’s inability to conceive and their elderly age, we should not skip over the earlier details that Luke shares. This couple was “righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.” (v. 6)

For their entire lives, Zechariah and Elizabeth had faithfully followed God as best they could, but even with their righteousness and blamelessness, God never answered their prayers for a child. For decades of their lives, this couple must have prayed and wondered if God really cared about them personally. It would have seemed all that time that God was silent.

Too many of us try to barter with God. We might try to make a deal with Him that says we will be obedient to Him after He gives us something, or after He does something for us. While sometimes God accepts deals like this, there is no guarantee He will do so. If God waited patiently to answer the prayers of a righteous and blameless couple, who are we to think that He would answer our prayers when we are not even close to being righteous or blameless.

But the thing that stands out is Zechariah and Elizabeth’s character. While Zechariah displayed doubts when the angel appeared to Him, the many years of life and the majority of it facing God’s silence to his one big prayer had not turned Zechariah away from trusting God. Zechariah still obeyed even though it felt like God was ignoring his request.

However, God did answer Zechariah and Elizabeth’s prayer, but it was on His terms and in His timing. Nothing we can do or say can change God from answering our prayers in the best way possible for us. God waited because the time wasn’t right 20 years earlier, when Zechariah and his wife were younger, and perhaps when God is silent to our prayers, it is because the time isn’t right for us. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait 20 years for an answer, but whenever the answer does come, we can trust that the timing is better when it finally arrived than had it been when we first made the request.

Near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew’s gospel, Matthew shares with us a broad overview of what Jesus did. While Jesus would ultimately face death on the cross, there was much more to His ministry than simply slowly traveling towards the cross. In Jesus’ mind, there was likely a sense of urgency that there was too much to do and too little time to do it in.

In this broad overview passage we are focusing on, we see a simple three part plan for Jesus’ ministry. “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (v. 23)

Jesus taught in the local synagogues in the places He went. This would be like saying He was a traveling preacher or evangelist. But Jesus’ message was not to be only confined to a one day a weekend activity, because He also preached and taught in all the other places He went during the week as well.

Jesus shared with everyone He met about the good news about God’s kingdom. He wanted people to know that God loves each of us personally, and that we are all valuable to Him.

And most notably, Jesus healed every disease and sickness among the people.

This three part ministry, with the healing people being one of the foundations, had some side effects. The passage continues by saying, “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them.” (v. 24)

The miracles and healing attracted people who were hurting to Jesus. They came to be healed, they stayed to be loved on; Jesus first healed their physical bodies, then He healed their minds by sharing and showing people what God was really like.

Most people in that culture had a twisted idea of what God was like. Whether it was from the Roman and Greek influence with dozens of gods that controlled different aspects of life and death, or whether it was from the demanding legalistic Pharisees and Sadducees who were suppose to be representing the Jewish God, the one thing that nobody demonstrated was a God filled with love for His people.

Jesus came to change the stereotypes. He first loved by healing people, then He loved by teaching them about what God was really like. Jesus is our best example of who God is, and how He ministered to people is a model for us today: Love people and help them first, then teach them afterwards what God is really like.

Have you ever been confused by something someone has said? Has someone ever seemed to contradict themselves within a few short statements? Have you felt that God, or maybe even Jesus, has done this?

In my reading and my study of this passage on prayer, I see an interesting potential contradiction within this verse on prayer and persistence.

Our passage opens up with Luke’s version of Jesus’ model prayer, and immediately it moves into Jesus teaching about how to be persistent with our requests. This teaching seems to indicate that sometimes our persistence can change God’s mind and turn a “no” into a “yes” – however mixed in with this teaching is the idea that God is the perfect Father and He will never give us something that will hurt us.

If you put these ideas together, one might conclude that God is a loving God, but perhaps He is stubborn, set in His way, or maybe even deaf since we must repeatedly persist in our requests for them to be “heard” or paid attention to. However a stubborn or deaf father is not a model or “perfect” father and if God is our perfect Father, making us repeat a request doesn’t seem all that loving.

Is this a “test” that God gives us to see how devoted we are? I would hope not, because while I’d fail miserably, it paints God as a demanding deity who requires us to perform – and if that were the case, there would be little reason for Jesus to have paid the price of our sins.

Perhaps, what is going on in this passage has more to do with the request than it does the requester. If we look closely at what we have been promised, Jesus is talking about God giving the Holy Spirit, and that is His perfect Fatherly gift.

It’s possible that our persistently asking for “a snake” or “a scorpion” will be granted – even though God knows it will cause us harm, but instead, what God really wants to give us is the best gift He can: The Holy Spirit living in us.

It is also possible that God knows the best timing for granting our request, and that right now might not be the best time for us to receive this. At least for me, it might mean that a part of my character needs to develop more, or part of my life needs to become stronger for God’s gift to truly be a blessing in my life.

What is true in these times is that when God says “not yet”, and when we persist in our request, our character and trust in God is being formed – even though we might not see or feel it in the moment.

God really does want to give us the best gift He can, though the best gift in His mind might be different than the gift we are requesting. Persistence may be able to change God’s mind, but it doesn’t change God’s love for you and me, and it doesn’t stop God from waiting until we are ready to receive the gifts we want and need.