Reflective Bible Study

During one of Jesus’ famous parables near the end of His earthly ministry, He shares about a banquet feast that a king prepared and invited His friends to. However, all those who He thought were His friends ended up either rejecting the invitation because either they claimed to have more “important” things to do, or they were outright hostile towards the king’s messengers.

When the servants returned and told the king what had happened, the king responded to his servants by saying “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (v. 8-10)

As I read this portion of the passage, I am amazed by the broad, unrestricted invitation that was shared. While the original invitation was given to a select group of people, this second round of inviting has no limits. Matthew tells us in verse 10 that Jesus’ illustration has the king gathering “all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,” in order to fill His wedding hall.

In this parable, I believe the king represents God, and if this is the case, God’s invitation has no restrictions; God’s invitation is unconditional. The only criteria we can see present in this second round of invitation is simply the willingness to accept the invitation. Past performance is irrelevant when the invitation comes our way; our current habits, projects, and lifestyle are also irrelevant, provided that these things don’t interfere with us choosing to accept God’s invitation.

The only thing that matters in the framework of eternity is whether we will be willing to accept God’s invitation when He returns to invite us home!

At the close of Jesus’ prayer on the night of His arrest, He makes a powerful but odd request. This request might not seem possible when looking at His words on the surface, but when we look a little deeper, we see an incredibly powerful truth that we can take and apply into our own lives and perspectives.

John recorded Jesus’ prayer, and he tells us that Jesus finished by praying, “Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created. Good Father, the people of this world don’t know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me. I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.” (v. 24-26)

In the closing words of this prayer, Jesus touches on the single characteristic that makes us one with Him. Jesus prayed that “the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.” (v. 26)

Love becomes the key characteristic that unites us with Jesus, and when we are united with Jesus in love, we are also united with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Through this love, we are able to show Jesus to others and only with His love can we be an effective witness while sharing Him with others.

But Jesus starts this concluding section off in a challenging way. He asks the Father, “I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am.” (v. 24a)

Since Jesus was nearing the time when He would return to heaven, this request doesn’t make sense when placed alongside His earlier statement about not removing His followers from the world. Unless we are capable of being in more than one place at a time, we cannot be here in the world but also in heaven with Jesus – at least in the most literal way of understanding this concept.

Part of me wonders if Jesus is talking about something differently from being physically present with Him in heaven while also being physically present here on earth. I wonder if prayer and perspective hold the key to staying connected with Jesus while He is in heaven while we are living here on earth. Through prayer, the Holy Spirit, and a focus on growing within God’s love, we are able to be one with Jesus while also being present on this earth. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is able to be with us wherever we are, and through prayer, we are able to connect with Him wherever He is.

While here on earth, we are called to be Jesus’ representatives, and we do this by being connected through God’s love that He has given to us through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit. While we live lives that represent God, we help those in the world know God better – and while not everyone who we interact with will respond favorably to God’s love through us, we are not called to change, convert, or convince people into choosing God for themselves. Jesus has called us to love as He loved and the greatest example of this is that He came into a world that was hostile towards Him and He loved it even though it ultimately cost Him His life.

If you have ever wondered what the most important thing you should do is, or if you ever wanted to ask Jesus what should be your number one focus, you are not alone. As it turns out, there were a group of Pharisees, or at least one Pharisee, who had the same question, but while the Pharisees were more interested in setting a trap for Jesus, the response that Jesus gives is very powerful.

Part of me wonders if this Pharisee was sincere with his question, since this is one of the few places Jesus seems to give a direct answer when challenged, or perhaps Jesus is using this as another opportunity to teach truth to the crowd.

Either way, Jesus’ response is very profound. The top commandment, if we were to organize them into a hierarchy, is simple: “The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Verses 29b-30)

While Jesus quickly adds the second most important commandment, too often people interpret this most important commandment in light of what the second one is. This leads to the idea that we love God by loving others.

While loving others is important, and it is one way to love God, this top commandment is cheapened and distorted by narrowing it to this one viewpoint. We miss the big truth that God revealed through Moses initially, and then through Jesus repeating Moses’ words.

This commandment begins with a declaration: “The Lord is our God.” This tells me that first we must accept God to be our God. It is only when we have intentionally chosen Him that we will then be able to obey this command.

Next is another declaration: “The Lord is one.” This tells me that God is singular, and that loving/following/serving Him does not divide our interests between multiple places, but instead it unifies our actions/direction onto one purpose: serving one God. One God also unifies diverse groups of people. While many people have differing ideas about God, one God allows people to unite together under that heading instead of being divided like the other nations/religions were at that time.

Only after having accepted God to be our God, and acknowledging that He is singular and worthy of being the top priority in our lives are we then able to truly love Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Loving God with our heart is like loving your spouse or your children. It is an inner love that grows as a relationship develops.

Loving God with our soul is like attaching Him to our identity and/or our being. The label of “Christian” should be worn proudly as a badge of honor as we seek to be representatives and models of Christ-likeness to a world that doesn’t understand.

Loving God with our mind is like choosing to focus our intellect on learning more about Him. This is not skeptical science from a naturalistic viewpoint but a true desire to understand what nature, the world, and life tell us about our Creator.

Loving God with our strength is like stepping out towards Him in confidence, and by moving towards the path and life He created each of us to live. Someone who truly loves God will not be silent or stagnant, they will be active and helping others where they are able to.

God’s top commandment is not easy, but it is powerful. It is not painless, but it is rewarding. It is not trouble free, but it is what God has called us to do.

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, He sends His followers out on a short missionary trip to the surrounding towns to preach the good news about God with the people in that area. During His instructions to them before sending them out, Jesus shares an interesting word-picture that may describe how He wants all of His followers to be.

Luke shares Jesus word picture when He tells us Jesus said, “Go now, but listen! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” (v. 3)

This is a profound word picture because it does not give the picture of safety. Jesus did not call His followers into a life filled with safety and security. (Actually, in one way He did, because Jesus secures our future lives in heaven and our eternity is safe with Him. In this instance, I am referring to our lives here on earth during the present age.)

Jesus calls us to be “like sheep among wolves”. I doubt Jesus intended for this illustration to prompt us to huddle in groups awaiting persecution from the “wolves” of the world. I do think Jesus shared this illustration because sheep are peaceful, sheep are calm (unless frightened), and sheep are not aggressive.

When we look at God’s ideal for how His people should live, behave, and act, I believe peaceful, calm, and not aggressive are all character attributes He would want us to possess. This means that an aggressive, mean, domineering Christian might remind me more of a wolf living in the world than a sheep Jesus is challenging to go into the world.

Jesus describes His disciples as sheep, and I believe this is because God wants His followers to be more sheep-like in our behavior rather than wolf-like. We should model peace, calm, love, and community in our own lives and avoid modeling our lives after the aggressive, predatory nature of a wolf that many in culture display.