Reflective Bible Study

Jesus concludes His first big commission to His disciples by describing them as His representatives. In an interesting chain of statements, Jesus describes how people can truly help God, and this help comes through how we treat His followers. Jesus concludes this set of instructions by saying, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes God’s messenger because he is God’s messenger, will share in his reward. And whoever welcomes a good man because he is good, will share in his reward. You can be sure that whoever gives even a drink of cold water to one of the least of these my followers because he is my follower, will certainly receive a reward.” (v. 40-42)

In essence, the principle Jesus is sharing with His followers is that God rewards people based on how they treat His followers. This principle is profound, encouraging, and challenging.

The profound truth in Jesus’ words is that how people treat God’s followers is symbolically equivalent to how they treat Him. This is profound because it is a very practical measure for how God views human interaction. Someone who claims to believe God but who does not welcome or help people they know are His followers is rejecting God through their actions.

This is also encouraging for us as believers. If someone rejects us because of our belief in Jesus, this truth teaches us to not take it personally. In reality, the person rejecting us is really rejecting God, and we are free to move on in life. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time for them, or maybe we just planted some seeds that the Holy Spirit will grow later in the person’s life, but regardless of what God’s big picture is, when we face rejection because of our belief in God, we can move on freely because Jesus tells us they are rejecting God and not just us.

However, this principle is incredibly challenging too. The truth Jesus has shared has implications around how we as followers of Jesus treat other followers of Jesus. If we love sinners like Jesus did, but we are hostile towards those who are in the church, we are falling into the negative side of this teaching. While Jesus did share some harsh words aimed at the religious leaders in the first century, He was never hostile towards them. Many of the leaders were hostile towards Jesus, but Jesus didn’t return their anger. If we are to be like Jesus in this matter, we too are challenged to love and be kind towards those who are in the church – whether they believe the same doctrines as we do or not; whether they like the same style of music as we do or not; and whether they are friendly towards us or not.

The big truth in this conclusion to Jesus’ first big set of instructions for His followers is that how we treat others, and how they treat us when we are Jesus’ representatives on earth, is equivalent to interacting directly with Jesus in each and every case. This truth frees us up to not take rejection personally, and it also challenges us to be more kind and loving towards followers of Jesus who may look and act different from us.

As Jesus finishes His counter-challenge to a group of Jewish leaders who were upset about a miracle He performed on the Sabbath, Jesus shares a powerful – and surprising – statement regarding belief, faith, and judgment.

While reading the whole counter-argument Jesus shares, some of those present may have began to think that Jesus was allying Himself against them. Some may have begun to think that Jesus would stand against them when history ends and the Father returns. But Jesus closes by saying He is not their accuser; their accuser will be someone they wouldn’t expect. Jesus tells them, “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” (v. 45-47)

The Jewish leaders had verbally placed their faith in Moses. However, by doing so, they missed the point of Moses’ writings and they misled themselves. In this counter-challenge, Jesus tells them that when time ends, Moses will stand up and accuse them because he will tell them plainly that he was pointing them to Someone else.

Moses never claimed to be the Messiah for the people, and nothing in his writings implied this role for him. The unbelief of these leaders in what Moses wanted them to fully realize led to their rejection of the Messiah that God ultimately sent.

Unbelief is a slippery slope. When we start rationalizing ourselves out of a belief, we can find ourselves rejecting other things we believed as being true as well. Many of those who have left Christianity began their journey when facing one or two challenging ideas they could not reconcile in their minds. When left unchecked, these doubts ultimately led to them losing all their faith.

The way to combat unbelief and/or challenging beliefs that we don’t fully understand is not by ignoring the issue. Instead, the way to face these challenges is by studying the options.

At this point in history, there are dozens of angles regarding any belief or doctrine. Rarely is any belief or doctrine a yes and no proposition anymore. Most have three, four, or even five other angles we could take on the subject. While some people might want you to believe the only choices you have are believing the way they do or rejecting “the truth”, they are lying when presenting you with this approach. The way to push through unbelief and challenges are by replacing these things with something you can believe in.

The Jewish leaders fell into a trap that we all can fall into. Anytime we place our eternal lives in the hands of someone who isn’t part of the Godhead, we are opening ourselves up for disappointment and accusation. Only the most delusional people want others to follow them when they themselves are not following anyone else.

A mature leader is really a follower who helps others move forward while pointing them ahead of themselves. This is how Jesus led, and this is how He has called us to lead as well. A mature leader in the spiritual areas of life will not challenge what you believe without pointing you towards a bigger truth about God. True spiritual leaders don’t cut down someone’s faith; they strengthen it by pointing to Jesus.

If you have ever walked into in a dark room, or through a pitch-black hallway, you appreciate the times you had light a little more than before.

This is even truer if you have children who have used the room or hallway to play in, and I’m sure your feet and toes agree too.

When my children were young, and not as diligent at picking up their toys before going to bed, I have similarly begun to appreciate any and all bits of light as I walk around early in the morning while getting ready for the day. There may have been a time that it was safe to walk through the room in darkness to reach the light switch, but as those who have young children know, where children’s toys are present or played with, it is wise to be aware of where you are stepping.

Having grown to appreciate light even more, I have a new perspective on the theme running through this entry’s passage – especially the first verse: “No one lights a lamp and hides it. No one puts it under a bowl. Instead, they put a lamp on its stand. Then those who come in can see the light.” (Luke 11:33)

Having light, even just a little light or a small flashlight, is better than having no light at all – especially when more than one person is present.

Looking deeper at this passage, light is a metaphor.

For a long time, I believed this passage to be primarily about witnessing (i.e. sharing your “light”), but I think the metaphor goes deeper. While it can easily start with our testimony about what God has done for us, it quickly shifts to God Himself, and sharing about Him.

The gospel of John opens with a series of metaphors comparing Jesus as being a light coming into the world. If we place that idea alongside this one, Jesus might be wrapping a truth about His life mission into a broader truth about how we share God with others.

If we shifted the wording of this verse to focus on Jesus, we might come up with something that sounds like: “God didn’t send Jesus into the world to hide Him. That would be counter-productive. Instead, God lifted Jesus up, and let His life shine as an example for the universe.”

Tucked into this verse is a picture of God. In this verse, we see one reason why He sent Jesus. After seeing God and Jesus, we see in this verse a call on our own life to be lights pointing people to the great light.

Light is a metaphor. It represents God’s character, Jesus’ ministry, and our mission to point people back to Him.

During an unforgettable event known as the Transfiguration, Jesus takes the three closest disciples up onto a mountain and gives them a sneak peak at just who He really was. During this event, which terrified all three of these men, God speaks another message of approval about Jesus.

After this event was over, as Jesus and the three disciples were starting back down the mountain, Jesus tells them something that confuses them. “On their way down the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen. They were to wait until the Son of Man had come back to life. They kept in mind what he said but argued among themselves what he meant by ‘come back to life.’” (v. 9-10)

When I read these two verses, I am a little surprised at both Jesus and these disciples. In Jesus’ case, He has just told these three men to keep a secret from the rest of the group – which isn’t all that great for building morale in a group. I suppose that when one of the other disciples asked what they did up on the mountain, they needed to either lie (a bad choice) or say what happened is a secret (another bad choice, but at least truthful.)

They could blame Jesus and say that He told them to keep it a secret until He had “come back to life”, and perhaps this is what they chose to do, but as Mark tells us, these disciples “kept in mind what he said but argued among themselves what he meant by ‘come back to life.’” (v. 10)

As I read this, I get the picture that Jesus kept trying to push these disciples to ask Him for more details, but they avoid asking and instead, they simply argue and speculate amongst themselves.

We are tempted to do the same. When something Jesus said or promised doesn’t add up, or even when something happens in our life that we cannot explain, are we quick to talk it over with others and speculate, or do we bring our questions to God in prayer. Sometimes God will answer our questions through other people, while other times He might simply ask us to wait for an answer at a later time.

On this side of heaven, there will be plenty of things that we don’t understand, but I wonder if Jesus wanted to open the disciples’ minds to what would happen on crucifixion weekend before it happened, and we see them miss actually asking the question. This makes me challenge myself with the similar idea on whether I miss learning from God because I am too quick to speculate or ask the wrong people the wrong questions.