Reflective Bible Study

The road to Golgotha was filled with emotions. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, He has been arrested, accused, beaten, whipped, and sentenced to death. It is a morning filled with emotions from almost everyone in Jerusalem.

A crowd was present for Jesus’ trip to Golgotha and this crowd likely had people from almost every segment of society in Jerusalem present in it.

The priests, Pharisees, and religious leaders who were a part of the crowd could not be happier at how the morning had gone. They saw Jesus as competition and as a threat to their way of life, and He would now be crucified.

The soldiers and Romans in the crowd saw this as another job to do, and that some enemies of the empire would be put to death as an example to the rest of those living in Judea.

However, Luke also describes another group of people: some of Jesus’ female supporters. Luke tells us the large crowd of people included some women who were crying for Jesus. But when Jesus sees them, He stops and says, “Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. The time is coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the women who cannot have children and who have no babies to nurse.’ Then people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ And they will say to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ If they act like this now when life is good, what will happen when bad times come?” (v. 28-31)

During one of His greatest moments of pain and in one of the hardest tasks He did, Jesus focused on others who were hurting. In this message to these women, Jesus makes another startling prediction.

Jesus described the present time as being a good one, when “life is good”, but in this description is also a warning about a future time when the situation will be reversed. When life is good, those who are able to have children are blessed and they may also be envied by many women who cannot have children of their own.

But Jesus describes a reverse to this situation. He describes a time when those who can have children will wish they could not, and it sounds like it will be a time shortly before His second coming to earth.

In Jesus’ statement I see a powerful truth for everyone at every point in life: It is easier to focus on what we don’t have and look at other people with the thought that their lives are better than ours. It is easier to see how others are blessed while thinking that we are not. However, Jesus points us to look at our own lives and focus on what He has given to each of us. It is when we stop comparing ourselves to others that we can truly move into experiencing joy in our lives.

One fear that many people may have had in the first century was the fear of arriving too late to get help. In the gospels, this could be described as worry over whether one could make it to Jesus in time. If someone was very sick, then finding Jesus in time, with enough time for Him to come to help would be incredibly important.

However, with this fear, we have the temptation to get irritated or upset if Jesus gets delayed. The event we are focusing on in Mark’s gospel comes immediately following an interruption and delay. Jesus had been hurrying to Jairus’ home to help his daughter, but then they were interrupted with a woman trying to be healed secretly.

The woman wanted no recognition, but Jesus stopped everything to give it to her. Both the woman who was healed and Jairus wanted Jesus to continue without stopping in order to arrive at Jarius’ home in time to save his daughter. However, Jesus stopped and interrupted this mission to give recognition to the woman and her faith.

It is then that Jairus’ fear happened. Mark tells us, “While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, ‘Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.’” (v. 35)

Perhaps Jairus’ home was just around the corner of where they were, or maybe it was several blocks away. We cannot tell, but while this interruption likely didn’t take much time, it came at the exact point when Jairus’ fear came true: They were too late. The girl was dead. A healing would not be possible.

But Jesus overheard them, and in the next verse He says to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” (v. 36)

In the moment when Jairus had lost hope, Jesus tells him to hold onto his faith. Both Jairus and the messengers believed Jesus to have the power to heal, but they did not believe He could resurrect and return life. In the details of this event, we can see how Jesus sets the stage to stretch this synagogue leader’s mind surrounding Him – including foreshadowing His own resurrection.

I wonder if resurrecting Jairus’ daughter changed the heart of this synagogue leader towards Jesus. Most synagogue leaders were opposed to Jesus. While they probably thought He had some good things to say, Jesus would often go too far, and He would ignore rules they had put in place to protect their day of worship. I wonder if all these disagreements were pushed aside in Jairus’ mind when Jesus returned his daughter to him.

All this happened after Jesus was too late to heal the girl.

This prompts me to believe and trust in God’s timing. While it may appear to be too late from my perspective, perhaps God is setting the stage to do something even greater than I could imagine. Perhaps He is setting the stage to stretch my mind about who He is!

Tucked away in Jesus’ birth story, specifically in the angel’s visit to Mary, we find an interesting deviation from what normally happens when angel’s visit. While the message the angel brought to Mary was very unique, what I find fascinating is how the angel opens the conversation with Mary – because it is different from most of the other angel visits.

Usually what happens when an angel visits is that the person is probably shocked and the first words from the angel’s mouth are something like “Fear not” or “Don’t be afraid”. While the angel does say this to Mary, this part of the message is left for after the initial greeting. In Mary’s case, the angel begins by saying, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (v. 28)

What the angel says is among the highest compliments you can give someone. Receiving the message directly from an angel that says you are “highly favored” and that “the Lord is with you” is both incredibly encouraging, while also being a little overwhelming. Mary’s response is likely the response we would have to these words. Luke tells us how she responded: “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” (v. 29)

Mary is a little worried because she knows this sort of greeting only comes before a big challenge. Perhaps because the angel sees concern and hesitation in Mary, he decides to then follow up by saying, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.” (v. 30)

What really stands out in how Luke includes this order of events is that unlike most people, it would seem like Mary was only afraid after hearing the angel’s greeting. Perhaps the angel appeared a split second before beginning to talk, but when we look at how Luke describes this (and he likely interviewed Mary personally to get this event in detail), we don’t see any fear from Mary about the angel’s presence – only concern over what the angel’s message was.

Mary stands out as a role model for us because in this passage, while she was a little concerned with how the angel opened the conversation, she was willing to hear the message God had for her.

God has a message for each one of us. While we likely won’t get a personal visit from an angel to share the message in detail, God does offer to share it through the Holy Spirit. All we must do is be open and willing to listen for it when it comes.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, the leaders of a number of different segments of society try to trick and trap Jesus. Most notable among these groups were the Pharisees. Perhaps this is because the Pharisees were the strongest or the largest of these groups, but whatever the reason, the Pharisees seemed to be the most opposed to Jesus and His ministry.

One of the tricks the Pharisees brought stands out in my mind as being truly exceptional. Of all the tricks and traps that were ever brought to Jesus, this one stands out as extra significant, and incredibly insightful. Matthew tells us this was carefully thought out. “Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong.” (v. 15)

For this trap, they team up with a group of people that they really dislike, but instead of focusing in on the actual question they ask, I find how they set the question up as being very fascinating.

Before asking the question, they set the stage by giving Jesus a compliment. In the last part of verse 16, the Pharisees start by saying, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are.” This setup almost certainly tips Jesus off to the Pharisees insincerity. While Jesus probably already could tell this even before they begin talking, how these people set the stage for their question reveals their insincerity.

The insincerity comes from their first three descriptive phrases. First they address Jesus as “Teacher”, which is correct, but they have not really aligned themselves with what He taught. Next, they call Jesus “an Honest Man”, and while they knew this to be true from what they had seen, they were seeking out a way to make Jesus appear dishonest. Their ultimate question was designed to make Jesus appear dishonest to either God or to the government.

Lastly, these leaders describe Jesus as One who teaches “the truth about God’s way”. While this is also technically correct, nothing in the lives of these Pharisees says they believed this about Him. If they really believed Jesus spoke the truth about God’s way, they would obey and act upon what He taught. If they believed Jesus, they wouldn’t be bringing Him a trap.

This brings us to the idea that we should be cautious when anyone tries to compliment us in a way that is insincere or counter to their beliefs. We can learn from how these Pharisees open their challenge to Jesus that a trap is coming, and understanding how these leaders set up their question helps us be aware of traps that may come our way.