Reflective Bible Study

If we were to dig into the gospels looking to find habits that Jesus had, one of the more notable ones we would find is found right near the beginning of Mark’s gospel. While Luke also includes this event near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, I imagine that we don’t read about it more because after a couple of days like this, the disciples would not see it as being as unique or significant to include in their gospels.

As I think about this, this event is included in the two gospels that were not written by members of the 12 disciples. I imagine the two disciple-authors simply understood this to be part of who Jesus was.

The habit Jesus had: early morning prayer: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (v. 35)

Perhaps, since this was early on in Jesus’ ministry, He caught the disciples off guard and this event stands out because they had to go searching for Him. While they were searching for Jesus, I wonder if many of the disciples were bothered that Jesus had asked them to follow Him, but now they couldn’t even find Him.

Eventually they did find Him, and they probably found Him praying. Jesus’ prayer life and His connection to the Father was His top priority throughout His entire ministry leading up to the cross. There are plenty of times Jesus spent the night in prayer, and I suspect that the times we know of are only a tiny sample of the times that He actually focused on prayer during the night hours.

If Jesus is to be an example for us like He was to the disciples, then we should also focus on our relationship with God through prayer as the first thing we do when we get up each morning, and as the last thing we do before going to sleep – not to mention keeping the communication open during the daytime hours as well. If prayer was a habit in Jesus’ life, we should make prayer a habit in our own lives as His followers.

Of all the challenging words Jesus ever spoke, one of the most challenging in the entire gospels comes at the close of this passage. After talking about loving our enemies and going the extra mile, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying something that sounds completely impossible: “So you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (v. 48)

If there is only one thing I know, it is that God is perfect and I am not. While I constantly strive to do my best, there is no way that I can ever reach perfection, because at the very least, my past is far from perfect.

However, what if we are missing something from this idea when pulling this verse and looking at it on its own? On its own, this verse sounds impossible.

But something does stand out in Jesus’ words in this paragraph’s worth of teaching. In the entire paragraph that contains Jesus’ thoughts on this, the only words that are past tense are at the beginning, when Jesus draws His audience’s attention onto something they have heard taught in the past. Aside from that, everything is either present tense or a promise for the future.

This is important for all of us. If the entire context of this statement is the present tense, then we must move past our “past” mistakes and focus on the decisions we make today.

However, while it is great to put the past in the past, another challenge we have in Jesus’ statement here is the question: What does it mean to be perfect in God’s eyes?

To help answer that question, we should draw from another gospel writer’s record of this event. In Luke’s gospel, he includes a similar closing phrase, but with a different, more tangible concept in place of perfection. In Luke’s gospel, we read “Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy.” (Luke 6:36)

One of the most appealing characteristics of God is that He is a merciful God. When we have made mistake after mistake, God is willing to show us mercy and forgive us. What if the mark of perfection in God’s eyes is not knowing it all, seeing it all, or controlling it all? What if the mark of perfection is having a love in our hearts that extends mercy to others?

Jesus’ teaching in this passage centers on the idea that God gives gifts to those who follow Him and those who don’t. God doesn’t selectively bless based on whether an individual is His follower. While following God’s ideal plan for our lives leads to happiness, peace, and contentment, these are simply the results of the steps He has laid out. God extends mercy to everyone, and this mercy gives each person the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they will turn their lives towards Him.

God has called us to be perfect like He is perfect, which is demonstrated by loving others like He loves them, and showing mercy towards both the people we agree with and those we don’t.

In Jesus’ entire ministry on earth, one event stands out in His mind as an example of great faith. Jesus even draws our attention to how extraordinary it really was. Our passage actually says the level of faith demonstrated “surprised” Jesus.

In this event, a Roman officer sends a message to Jesus that a servant of his is sick and about to die, and he requests Jesus’ help. Matthew shares that the officer came to Jesus personally, while Luke actually points us to this officer actually sending some of the Jewish elders from the local synagogue with the request to Jesus.

But when Jesus accepts the request and starts towards the officer’s house, another message is sent with a message that Jesus does not need to come personally, but simply delegate the healing to be done like he gives tasks and responsibilities to the officers below him.

“Jesus was surprised when he heard this; he turned around and said to the crowd following him, ‘I tell you, I have never found faith like this, not even in Israel!’” (v. 9)

The level of faith this Roman officer demonstrated is extraordinary. He likely had never met Jesus personally, and so he only had rumors and reports about Jesus to go on. But these were enough for him to know that Jesus was capable of healing his servant.

The Roman officer also realized that Jesus’ healing was not His own ability, but something that He only had because God (or the gods) looked favorably on Him. In this way, the Roman officer knew that Jesus wouldn’t need to come personally, but simply speak the command – and that when He did, God would do what Jesus had requested.

This is the basis for the Roman officer’s faith – and Jesus calls it extraordinary. The officer didn’t need Jesus present or in person and he didn’t need to see it personally. All he needed was a message back saying that the servant would be made well.

Our passage concludes by saying in verse 10, “The messengers went back to the officer’s house and found his servant well.” Before the messengers could even make it back to the house, the servant was healed. Extraordinary faith results in extraordinary healing.

This Roman officer is a model for the faith we should have. We haven’t seen Jesus in person – but we do know what He can do from the reports (gospels) that we can read. We are unworthy to have Jesus even pay attention to us – but we know that He loves us even though we don’t deserve it. We don’t need to see to believe – we simply should have faith that what we ask Jesus to do will be done according to God’s will. Just like this Roman officer did, you and I can live a life that shows an extraordinary level of faith that can even surprise Jesus! It starts by believing without needing to see with our own eyes.

One of the most profound conversations in Jesus’ life and ministry is shared in John’s gospel, and it is a conversation Jesus has with a Samaritan woman. While Jews and Samaritans disliked each other, Jesus chose to cross the national and gender divide by first traveling through Samaria, then by striking up a conversation with this woman.

It is in this conversation that I find something both profound and perplexing. During the conversation, the woman shifts the topic away from herself and onto something that she had wondered about: “‘Sir,’ the woman replied, ‘I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.’” (v. 19-20)

Basically, this woman is asking if the place where we choose to worship is important. She is asking if the “where” is as important as the “who”.

Jesus response is fascinating. He tells her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (v. 21-24)

In Jesus’ response we see something interesting. Jesus minimizes the “where” in her question, but He elevates the “how”. This makes the “who” and the “how” of worship the most important factors in Jesus’ eyes.

The “who” is God. God wants us to worship Him. While the context is Jesus talking about worship directed towards the Father, I believe that worship that elevates any member of the Godhead is appropriate.

The “how” is where things get trickier. The description Jesus gives is “spirit and truth” and He gives this description twice for emphasis. Jesus compares the spirit side of worship to God being spirit, so there must be not only a spiritual side to our worship, but something that draws our attention away from our “physical” selves. Not only this, the only way we truly can bring spirit into our worship is with the Holy Spirit living and moving within us. This one side to worship that God wants from His followers elevates “true” worship past what most worship services supply on a given weekend.

However, the “truth” side of this challenge is where things get really challenging. It seems that everyone has their own flavor of what “truth” is. In this postmodern society, truth – in a spiritual sense – is becoming viewed at a more relative and less absolute. But one thing that most people can agree on is that worship should be aimed at pleasing the one we are worshiping. If we are choosing to worship God, then our worship should conform to what He views as truth.

God wants worshipers who have the Holy Spirit and His truth in their hearts – and when this is the case, it doesn’t matter where they are when they turn to Him!