Reflective Bible Study

Leading up to one of the most politically incorrect conversation for Jesus to have with someone, the gospel of Mark sets the stage with an interesting verse that Matthew chose not to include in his gospel. In Mark’s gospel, this event opens up with the statement: “Jesus went from there to a place near Tyre. He entered a house. He did not want anyone to know where he was. But he could not keep it a secret.” (v. 24)

Opening this event in the way he does, Mark subtly suggests that Jesus wanted His presence in the region to remain hidden from everyone – including this woman who He would insult before agreeing to help with her request. While Matthew’s gospel includes more details regarding the conversation that took place, Mark gives us more detail about the back-story and setting for this event. Mark tells us that not only did Jesus want to stay hidden, but that this woman was a Greek, even including where she was born.

However, the key phrase in Marks gospel that jumped off the page when I read it was this: “But he could not keep it a secret.” (v. 24b)

This simple statement speaks volumes about God. Even when Jesus wanted to do something secretly, He could not do so. When God moves, nothing about it remains a secret. While Satan realizes this, he is quick to bring other explanations into our minds, and he does everything he can to rationalize, minimize, or trivialize God’s movements, but that is simply because when God moves, we cannot help but notice that something happened.

While Mark tells us that Jesus could not keep His location a secret from this woman, this also implies that others knew where Jesus was and perhaps other people came to be helped while Jesus was trying to hide in this house. Jesus had a hard time keeping His location a secret during the entire time He was living on earth after His ministry had begun.

But what about today? Is Jesus able to hide now that He has returned to heaven?

In my own mind and experience, the answer depends on the person asking it. While Satan is trying to eliminate Jesus from public discussion, he can do nothing to hide Jesus from those who are looking for Him. Just like Jesus could not stay hidden in a random home on the outskirts of a city He normally would not go near, Jesus cannot stay hidden from those who are actively seeking Him.

This is a promise and a challenge for all of us followers living today: The only way we will find Jesus in the 21st century is if we are proactive in looking for Him. While there will be a point when history ends and Jesus returns in person, if we want to find Jesus before the last day when it will be too late to change our decision, we must be intentional about seeking Him during the days we have left. Satan is doing everything he can to stop this from happening, but he cannot stop someone who wants to find Jesus and accept Him into his/her heart.

In this journal entry’s passage/parable, a subtle but amazing truth about God is shared. While most people simply think of this parable on the surface level of money and/or talents, Jesus gives an amazing hint into God’s character that is often missed.

This truth is found when combining something we know about God with something that is shared in the parable – specifically as the characters are being introduced. In verses 14-15, we read, “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities.”

What clued me into thinking there must be something is deeper is the very last phrase in verse 15: “dividing it in proportion to their abilities”. If we understand the man leaving on the trip to represent God, think for a moment about what God knows – which is everything, including the past and the future. While dealing out the money, He already knows that the first two servants will double their investments, while the third one would do nothing with it. This foreknowledge would affect His choice when determining the “abilities” of each of the three servants.

But while He knew that servant #3 would miss the intention of this exercise, what amazes me is that God still gives this servant the chance to prove Him wrong. Even if this third servant was the least promising one of the group, he still is given the chance to invest and grow the master’s money. Even with one bag of silver, this least promising servant could have doubled, tripled, or quadrupled the investment, and while it would have been harder for him, since he had the least ability, I don’t think the percentage difference would have been missed when the master returned.

The truth this tells me about God is simple: Even though God knows the future, He still gives everyone the opportunity to invest with Him, and to multiply the gifts He has given to each of us. Even the least “talented” person is given the chance to invest and grow.

While more than one of the four gospels shares about Jesus’ close friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, the gospel of Luke appears to share briefly about the first time Jesus met this group of adult siblings. In Luke’s gospel, we have a short passage that focuses in on the two sisters and how each of them has very different personalities.

But while reading this passage, I was amazed to notice a detail that is often completely overlooked. I have not ever seen this or heard anyone talk about it before. Luke tells us specifically that “As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.” (v. 38)

This is significant to pay attention to because I don’t think many women owned real estate at that time. Because none of the gospels share anything about these sisters having husbands, part of me wonders if they were single or widowed.

However, the specific detail is that Martha was the one who did the inviting. Martha typically gets picked on for playing the hostess role and for not ignoring the details to simply listen to Jesus, but we often miss the huge detail that if Martha had not invited Jesus into her home, neither one of these sisters may have gotten the opportunity to meet Him and become friends with Him.

In this passage, Martha is in some ways a hero, because she stepped out and invited Jesus and His disciples to stay with her. Mary gets to be the hero regarding setting priorities, while Martha is the hero for being the one to invite Jesus into her home.

Martha’s actions in this passage challenge me, because I am not naturally outgoing and am too shy to invite strangers (or even celebrities) into my home. I am more like Mary in that I can easily sit and simply listen to the conversations other people are speaking in and simply learn from what they are saying. If I were to invite others home, I might be Martha-like if no-one is paying attention to the details, but if someone else has the details under control, then I am happy to enjoy the company.

Perhaps the lesson for us in this passage is not just to prioritize well, but also to be open to inviting others into our lives. Both sisters display this big truth in their time with Jesus.

During one of the times when Jesus was teaching the disciples about prayer and faith, He shares a very startling truth that might be the reason some of our prayers have not been answered. In Mark’s gospel, following Jesus cursing the fig tree and it withering up, Jesus makes this bold statement about faith: “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, fall into the sea.’ And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, God will do it for you. So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you.” (v. 22-24)

This is powerful, but Jesus doesn’t stop there. Many people might stop reading here, but Jesus has something else to tell us, this time specifically about prayer in verses 25 and 26: “When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins. [ But if you don’t forgive other people, then your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.]” (Sidenote: Verse 26, which is in square brackets, is not in many early manuscripts, but I include it here because it simply repeats verse 25 using a different angle.)

I find this statement about forgiveness in prayer powerful because in the context Jesus shared these words, it is possible that forgiveness – or at least a forgiving attitude – is crucial for having complete faith and trust that our prayers will be answered. It is also powerful to think that when we are praying, and a name of someone comes to mind that we are angry with, this might have happened because God brought it to us. While Satan would love to distract us from praying and we might blame him for bringing that person into our minds, in this case, God is probably responsible.

When we pray, Jesus wants all of His followers to know that God has called us to forgive others because He has forgiven us. Forgiveness is the path to emotional and spiritual freedom, and God knows that holding resentment or hostility towards someone is spiritual poison in that person’s heart. In the context of Jesus’ message, praying with faith might even be the only way we can truly forgive those who have hurt us the most deeply!