Reflective Bible Study

Every so often, as I am studying, a word or phrase jumps off the page at me, and in our passage for today’s journal entry, as I read through Jesus’ teaching, a single word jumped out at me that I had never noticed before.

As the King is responding to the “sheep” on His right, and how they ask Him when did they see Him hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison, or without a place to stay, He says the following phrase in verse 40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”

The word that jumped off the page as I was reading this is the word “brothers”.

Often we think of God the Father as the one sitting on the throne as King, but God the Father has no “brothers”. However, Jesus did have actual brothers, because He came to earth and was born into a young family. When Jesus returned to heaven following the resurrection, He was lifted up as King.

This means that Jesus is the one sitting on the throne as a judge. This is something that other passages in the New Testament shed light on, but I had never noticed that it is clearly pointed to in Jesus’ words in this passage.

I believe Jesus also uses the word “brother” to help draw our attention to helping each other out in humanity. God and/or angels are not going to sneak down to earth to test us and see if we will be kind to them directly. By using the word “brother”, millions if not billions of opportunities open up as everyone is connected under the umbrella of the human race.

So instead of judging or looking for ways that excuse us from helping someone in need, how would we act if we saw that person as Jesus’ brother or sister? Jesus is a brother to everyone in humanity, and by helping the brothers of Jesus who are in need, we are actually able to help Jesus, the one who sits on the throne as King.

While teaching people about the topic of worry, Jesus makes a very counter-intuitive challenge to everyone present. While Jesus’ message began by focusing on guarding against greed, He then shifted from greed to worry before making this challenge.

This detail makes me wonder if greed and worry are connected. I have not ever thought about these two ideas being related, but what if greed and worry were linked together? What if greed was the hidden source behind the temptation to worry in our own lives?

I believe these ideas are connected, because Jesus’ challenge to everyone – both His followers as well as those who were simply listening to His message – is this: “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.” (v. 33)

In this passage, Jesus basically challenges everyone to sell all their stuff and give it to charity. In the context of what Jesus is teaching, the word “charity” would be giving it somewhere where the money is needed, and it cannot be repaid. This would not include giving your money to your stockbroker to invest for you, or giving it to your rich grandparents in hopes that they will gift it back to you in their will.

Instead, Jesus shares a counter-cultural message that by scaling back and living on less, we can truly win in multiple areas of life. When we scale back, we win because we are pushing back against the temptation of greed; we win because we are more free to be led where God calls us; we win because we don’t have as much stuff to worry about; and we win because we are investing in heaven.

Not only do we win in this life, but our investments into heaven are powerful as well. Not only does God keep track of our gifts and add them to our heavenly savings account, when we give to charities that help spread the news about Jesus, we are indirectly helping to bring other people into a saving relationship with Jesus – which ultimately blesses heaven with more people who get to share eternity with God.

Accepting Jesus’ counter-cultural challenge is counter-intuitive because when we feel like we are losing by scaling back, we are winning in ways we cannot even begin to imagine, and ways we will only fully understand when history ends.

During one of the emotional high points the disciples had with Jesus, He pulls them aside to tell them a very sobering message. Oftentimes, the events of the short passage predicting His upcoming crucifixion are disconnected from the larger event that has just taken place.

To set the stage for what Jesus shares in this passage, Jesus, Peter, James, and John had just come down from the mountain where they had seen the event known as the transfiguration, a point in Jesus’ ministry where these disciples were able to experience a brief glimpse of Jesus’ glory. While this was happening on the mountain, the remaining disciples were unsuccessfully trying to cast a demon out of a boy.

Luke tells us that the following day, when Jesus came down from the mountain, He meets the disciples and the father of this boy and successfully casts out the demon. It is at this moment where Luke tells us: “But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, ‘Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’” (v. 43b-44)

The gospels of Matthew and Mark have Jesus conclude this sentence by saying: “and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” (Mark 9:31; Matthew 17:23)

This is powerful when we think about it. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, the thought of Jesus being killed was the last possible thing on their minds. To these disciples, especially Peter, James, and John who saw Jesus glorified less than 24 hours earlier, they may have perceived Jesus to be invincible. Regardless of the predicted resurrection that is also included in this statement, Jesus’ words seem to fall on deaf ears.

Luke tells us that the disciples were afraid to ask and that the meaning of Jesus’ words was hidden from them. It is possible that God hid the meaning of Jesus’ words from the disciples. Also, it is possible that the fear of asking stopped the disciples from learning the truth about Jesus’ message here. However, I wonder if the emotional high that is shared at the beginning of this passage is a clue about what blinded the disciples to the meaning of Jesus’ words.

Luke tells us that the events leading up to Jesus’ message prompted everyone present to marvel at what Jesus was doing. This was a high moment for Jesus and the disciples, and part of me wonders if Jesus reserved this direct message for this emotional high point to help ground the disciples onto the reality of the true mission of the Messiah.

If this is the case, we can learn a powerful truth from this short passage: During our emotional highs, it may be more difficult for God to share His message and His truth into our lives. While there is nothing evil about emotional and spiritual high points, we must not focus our lives towards always seeking after these types of events, because God may have something to teach us that can only be learned while we are facing the challenges of life.

Most times I read about Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, I am fascinated at many of the details that are included. However more than just simply looking at the details, I enjoy looking behind these details to themes that tell me more about what God and Jesus are like.

The big idea that challenges me as I read this event directly relates to who Jesus is: Jesus is a Life-Giver. All throughout the gospels, Jesus heals people, restoring them into a new life; He teaches people, helping them begin a new life and relationship with God; and He was trying really hard to train some difficult people (known as the disciples) how to live dependant on God – which was a new life compared with the life they left behind after accepting His call.

Jesus is a life-giver, and because of this, He is not afraid of death. Jesus first describes Lazarus as sleeping, which may give us a clue into what He wanted us to think of death. Verse 11 shares this initial description: “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.” However, like what usually seemed to happen, the disciples don’t get what Jesus is trying to say, leading Jesus to talk directly to them a few verses later with the fact that “Lazarus is dead!” (Verse 14)

One thing that challenges me is in this event has to do with how Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is sick. In verse 4, Jesus responds to the news by saying “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.” Verse 4 and verse 14 contradict one another, because Jesus said the sickness wouldn’t end in death, but then Lazarus died.

But when we look at what Jesus says, from the perspective He is trying to teach the disciples to grasp, we see something interesting.

For much of His ministry, Jesus was trying to help the disciples understand life from God’s viewpoint. God’s perspective on life looks at it through the lens of eternity, and knowing the whole story, or at least the portion of the story that John shares, Lazarus’ sickness included death as a pit-stop or detour on the path to a new God-given life. Lazarus’ sickness did not “end” in death, because death was not the end of His story.

Instead, Jesus gives us another insight into God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, death is like a sleep. A few verses later, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” (Verses 25-26)

There are two directions we could understand Jesus’ words in these verses. We could understand this to mean that those who believe in Jesus will never “fall asleep” like Lazarus did; or we may understand Jesus’ words to mean that those who believe in Him will not have their stories end in death, even if death happens to be a temporary resting place on the path.

Looking at the broad story and how in each conversation Jesus is trying to teach people truths from God’s perspective, and that Jesus begins by pointing us to the big picture by saying that Lazarus’ sickness won’t end in death, I am inclined to believe that Jesus describes what we call death as a sleep. This sleep-death is not the end, but merely a pause on life that will later be resumed when the resurrection happens. Death in Jesus’ eyes is when someone’s future contains no more life in it while sleep in Jesus’ eyes holds the promise of resurrection.