Reflective Bible Study

In one of His challenges to the disciples, Matthew records Jesus sharing an interesting description of the spiritual state of the people of Israel. In this description is also a direction for their upcoming task.

Matthew tells us that Jesus commissioned His 12 closest followers somewhere in the middle of His ministry with a mission: “Jesus sent these 12 out with the following orders. ‘Do not go among the Gentiles,’ he said. ‘Do not enter any town of the Samaritans. Instead, go to the people of Israel. They are like sheep that have become lost. As you go, preach this message, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”’” (v. 5-7)

This commission from Jesus is amazing in my mind. Jesus describes God’s people “like sheep that have become lost”. (v. 6)

Jesus was describing the Jewish nation with these words, but part of me wonders if Jesus could use the same phrase to describe the Church (i.e. the broad banner of everyone who claims the name of Christ). With the hundreds of different denominations, and a growing number of churches who act like denominations while claiming to exclude themselves from that label, it is not hard to conclude that there is just a little bit of confusion within the umbrella of Christianity. With each group believing themselves to be the closest to the truth, Jesus’ description of Israel may be even more applicable to us today as members of the Christian Movement.

This is why Jesus’ commission to the disciples is amazing in my mind: Jesus sends the disciples to the people of Israel.  This would be like Jesus sending missionaries to His Church. If God sent an evangelist or a messenger to His people living today, would we pay attention? Would God’s people pay attention to a message from Him specifically for us living after the 20th century, or would we ignore His words and simply refer back to our own interpretation of what the Bible says.

God has given us everything we need for salvation through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. God has given us the Bible, and He has kept its message safe throughout history. But what would happen if God realized that His people had become lost, even with salvation being accomplished and the Bible’s message being preserved? Would God send a prophet like He did in the Old Testament or would He send a disciple like He did in the New Testament?

God’s church has not been perfected enough to no longer need His guidance. This will never happen. Instead, God sends messengers, like He sent the disciples, to those in His churches to draw His people back to focusing on Him.

If you have ever wondered where to find/get joy, you don’t need to look any further than our passage in Luke’s gospel. This passage in Luke’s gospel opens by sharing Jesus’ source of joy. Luke tells us, “At that time Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit” (v. 21a)

For Jesus, the Holy Spirit was His Source of joy. Jesus was full of joy because of the Holy Spirit working in His life, and it gave Jesus even more joy to be doing the will of His Father.

But Luke doesn’t stop there, because while full of joy, Jesus makes a profound statement that both confuses and clarifies what we see in the world today. Luke continues by sharing Jesus’ statement, which is a prayer of thanks to God: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen.” (v. 21b)

In Jesus’ prayer, we see an interesting characteristic of God. It would seem that He hides knowledge from those who are wise and educated, while sharing this knowledge with those who are not educated. This idea challenges me because in many ways, I may fall into the camp of the educated (though still developing wisdom).

This idea challenges me because it makes me wonder what God may be hiding from me, but more specifically, I wonder what the unlearned people have that I don’t have.

There is one possible answer that stands out as being the most probable reason those who are uneducated have more knowledge of God – and that is because they have greater trust and faith in God. While it isn’t a universal idea, generally those who are less knowledgeable about a subject will have a greater need to develop trust in God. I must trust the doctors, nurses, and surgeons when going into surgery since I have almost no knowledge of their area of specialty. In turn, most medical professionals have no knowledge of how a website is programmed, and so they get to trust web developers with the building of their websites.

The more educated someone is, the less they will feel dependant on someone or something else. This also extends to God as well – and because the educated don’t tend to trust God as much, they miss out on seeing the ways God is working and moving around them.

God opens the eyes of those who trust Him and who are looking for examples of Him working. While skeptics may try to explain God out of the situation, too often God simply chooses to work within the structure of the world He created, rather than breaking the rules of nature that He set up. For someone who is looking, examples of God and His love are everywhere, but it takes a level of faith and trust to be open to seeing the world with these eyes. The more “educated” someone is, it seems the less likely they will have this perspective.

When I read the gospels, I am fascinated at how each gospel writer opens their narrative:

Matthew begins tracing Jesus’ ancestors all the way up from Abraham.

Luke begins by sharing how he has researched and organized Jesus’ life through interviewing eyewitnesses and those who were directly connected to Jesus.

John begins with a look at Jesus’ divinity and it echo’s Genesis’ creation account.

But Mark simply makes an opening statement before transitioning to introducing John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus at the start of His ministry.

While it is not all that glamorous or interesting to read, Mark opens his gospel by saying, “This is the beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (v. 1)

Whether the reader believes that Jesus Christ was God’s Son or not, Mark shares that this is his conclusion after what he has learned, seen, and experienced. Mark opens his gospel by stating the topic in a simple and direct way before diving right into the narrative – and this is important for us to pay attention to.

From how Mark opens his gospel, we are reminded that sometimes it is best to simply come right to the point we are trying to make. In today’s culture, there is the belief that we must be creative, different, or stretch the lines in some way in order to be noticed. Instead, Mark says to keep it simple, straight-forward, and clear.

If we were to draw a motto from how Mark introduces us to Jesus, we could say something like: “Clarity beats creativity”, “Communicating clearly is better than communicating cleverly”, or “If you can only pick one thing, pick clarity”.

Mark reminds us that clarity, especially with topics that people can get very opinionated about, is much better than trying to overly be creative. If there is a way that creativity can help a presentation be clearer, then that is great, but when deciding whether to make a presentation, letter, or message clear or clever, choose to make it clear first.

While Judas Iscariot is looked down on as the disciple who betrayed Jesus, the gospel of Matthew includes the final act of this disciple’s life. The events surrounding Judas’ betrayal happen over a relatively short period of time. It may have even been less than a week between the time when Judas first thought about betrayal and Jesus’ arrest.

But Jesus knew that He would be betrayed even before starting His ministry. Jesus even knew it would be Judas Iscariot who would be the one to betray Him when bringing Him in to the group of twelve disciples.

Some people believe that Judas’ betrayal was his way of trying to force Jesus’ hand. None of the disciples believed Jesus intended to face the cross. In their minds, the Messiah God promised would live forever – never facing death. In Judas’ mind, the thought is that an arrest by the Jewish leaders would push Jesus into taking the Messiah role that Judas believed He should step into.

Matthew tells us what happened to Judas after realizing Jesus was not moving away from death. “Then Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, regretted what had happened when he saw that Jesus was condemned. He brought the 30 silver coins back to the chief priests and leaders. He said, ‘I’ve sinned by betraying an innocent man.’” (v. 3-4a)

Judas realizes what he had done and he regrets his decision. Before leaving, he throws the money back at the chief priests in the temple.

Was this enough to cause him to turn back to Jesus and ask for forgiveness?

Was the regret simply that Jesus did not step up like Judas believed He should have?

I don’t think we really can know what happened in Judas’ mind at the realization that Jesus was condemned and was headed to the cross. We can see that he returned the money the priests had paid him, and in his words to them, he acknowledges his sin.

But there were four deaths that weekend. After leaving the temple, Matthew tells us that Judas “went away and hanged himself.” (v. 5)

In the list of people we should thank, we truly can thank Judas Iscariot. By betraying Jesus, which kick-started the events of crucifixion weekend, Judas’ actions ultimately led to Jesus’ death, and Jesus’ innocent death opened the way for everyone who has sinned to come to the Father for forgiveness.