Reflective Bible Study

Perhaps it is just a matter of semantics, or simply looking too closely at the details of this passage, but in this passage is a subtle shift of wording that I find very interesting. As our passage opens, Jesus is teaching in a crowded home, and it is much too crowded to bring someone in to be healed by Him on a stretcher or mat. But this does not discourage this crippled man’s friends because they realize that the roof is not as crowded, and that there is ample “airspace” to lower their friend right in front of the One they know can heal him.

And this is what they do. What I find interesting is not found in the persistence of this man’s friends, but in Jesus’ words surrounding this healing and in the crowd’s response.

We are unsure what Jesus was teaching on immediately before being interrupted by the man and his friends, but Jesus’ first words don’t relate to healing but to forgiveness of sins. This causes a significant stir amongst the leaders present, because forgiveness of sins is an ability reserved only for God, and Jesus seems to be claiming He is capable of it as well.

The phrase Jesus says that stands in contrast to what the crowd reacted to is this: “Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? But now you will see that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.” (v. 23-24a)

This stands in contrast to what happens after the man is healed: “He picked up his mat and went home, giving thanks to God. Everyone was amazed and praised God.” (v. 25b-26a)

It seems as though Jesus was pushing the religious leaders about who He was, and subtly drawing the focus to His role and mission on earth. However, the crowd, and even the man who was healed, seemed to be more focused on praising the God behind the miracle instead of getting caught up in the tension present over Jesus’ forgiveness comments.

While the Pharisees and experts debated over Jesus, the crowd was praising God – and this is exactly what Jesus planned to happen. Jesus stumps the Pharisees while inspiring praise to God.

In my own life, when I see blessings come my way, it is less about thanking the specific source of the blessing and more about praising the God who is the ultimate source of this blessing. That is one lesson I see Jesus teaching us here.

While visiting Jerusalem part way through Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish leaders in the temple get into a debate with Jesus. John’s gospel records this debate as well as what we can learn about the opposition Jesus faced.

As the leaders were getting more and more agitated at Jesus’ claims, we come to an interesting part of the conversation. After calling these Jews out for being children of the devil, Jesus says, “Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (v. 45-47)

It is important for us to pay attention to Jesus’ challenge here. If these leaders – or anyone – could prove that Jesus had sinned against God’s law, then they would have the right to judge Him. However, without proof, then they have no case. If there is no case that can be made against Jesus, then what He is telling them must be classified as true.

However, these people don’t hear/understand Jesus, and Jesus comes out and cleanly says this by telling them that they don’t belong to God.

The leaders respond by trying to change the subject: “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” (v. 48)

Before this point, the idea that Jesus was a Samaritan was not even in the discussion, and this attempted maneuver is a sign that these leaders have lost ground in their debate. They are now trying to grab whatever insults they can in order to save their reputation and worldview that said Jesus could not be from God.

Seeing what is happening, Jesus simply answers the question that they appear to have asked each other: “I am not possessed by a demon, but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.” (v. 49)

In every conversation Jesus had, in every healing Jesus did, and in every word Jesus taught, He gave honor to God the Father. Jesus received dishonor from those living in that century and that culture, and He receives dishonor from culture today.

As Jesus’ followers, we should not be surprised when the world discriminates against followers of Jesus. In some ways, we should expect to find plenty of examples of it. However, we should also remember that when the world throws everything at us to try and derail our focus from Jesus, we can know that when time and history have ended, those of us who have stood with Jesus will be standing with Him in a newly recreated earth.

At the conclusion of His teaching the disciples about washing each other’s feet, Jesus shares a powerful statement that applies to not only what they just experienced and heard, but this statement also applies to basically everything else Jesus taught them over the previous 3+ years of ministry. John ends this portion of his gospel by telling us Jesus concluded by saying, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (v. 17)

The context of this verse is Jesus sharing about humbly following His example and washing the feet of other believers. In our discussion on this verse and promise, we must keep this context in our minds. At the most basic level, Jesus promises us that we will be blessed if we follow His example in our own lives.

Another teaching that is shared in this context is the one Jesus shares in the verse right before this one. In verse 16, Jesus tells His followers, “no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” When we move through life with the idea in our minds that we are humbly following Jesus who is greater than we are, it frees us up when we face rejection or hostility because we can lean on the truth that we have something better waiting in our future.

But also, when we look at some other details and truth shared in this event, we can see even more context for this promise Jesus shares. Further down in the chapter, Jesus tells His followers, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

We can take Jesus’ promise about blessing us for obeying His words and apply it to this new command as well. In some ways, this promise in verse 17 becomes a key for gaining blessing from every teaching Jesus shared.

However, with this promise, we must not begin thinking that obedience will always immediately translate into the blessing that we desire. God has many ways of blessing us and it would be foolish of us to limit what we are willing to call blessings. Also, we should not obey simply to get a blessing. While we can start here, we must not stay here because this path leads to legalism.

Instead, the frame we must use when looking at this promise is obeying Jesus because we are amazed at what He has done for us. Our obedience is a “Thank You” for having already blessed us. Any future blessing God wants to bring into our lives as a result of our obedience is simply extra toppings on the big way He has already blessed everyone who follows Jesus and believes in Him: The biggest blessing is the assurance and gift of salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. There is nothing God can bless us with that surpasses this, and nothing we can truly give Jesus that equals what He has already given to us.

The passage we will be looking at in this post is one that fascinates me. While walking along the road to Emmaus, two disciples, and these would be people who had followed Jesus for a year or more, walk with Jesus along the road and completely miss realizing who He was: “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” (v. 15-16)

These disciples longed to be with Jesus again, and they completely miss the fact that they were with Jesus again!

This tells me something interesting about ourselves as humans: We can blind ourselves to what is happening around us if we don’t believe the truth to be possible. These disciples did not believe that Jesus had rose from the grave, so recognizing Him as a traveler on the road would be impossible. It is only after they begin to understand what this “Traveler” was explaining from the scriptures that these disciples began to see how what happened to Jesus was what the Old Testament described.

However, this passage says that “their eyes were prevented”, which is another way of saying that God/Jesus hid Himself from them for the time it would take to explain the truth. Perhaps, if Jesus had simply revealed who He was, the disciples would have been too distracted by Jesus’ presence that they would have missed understanding what Jesus wanted to teach them from the Old Testament. This also means that sometimes God will hide Himself from us when He wants to teach us something.

Sometimes it feels as though the times when God is distant is when we want Him the most, and perhaps it is not that God is really distant, but that we are blind to His presence, and maybe it is because He wants to teach us something.