Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus and His disciples were headed to Jerusalem for the final time, Jesus pulls them aside and shares with them what will happen. Jesus shares that He will be handed over to the religious leaders, He will be sentenced to death, and He will be mocked, flogged, and ultimately crucified. But Jesus finishes by saying, “On the third day he will be raised to life!” (v. 19b)

I find this entire passage amazing, because nothing about that weekend was a surprise to Jesus. This is because either God had divinely revealed all this information to Jesus, or Jesus was a better student of Messianic prophecies than the religious leaders were at that time and He had pieced the entire timetable of this mission to earth.

It is amazing for me to think that Jesus knew everything – including that He would be betrayed (and likely already knowing it was Judas Iscariot) before Judas even had the idea for betraying Jesus. It is also amazing to know that Jesus knew about His future resurrection as well.

Some of those living today believe Jesus’ life was cut short against His will and His ideal plan. This couldn’t be any further from the truth. Jesus lived the only life in history where Plan A was the only plan that was needed. Everyone else has messed up Plan A, and most of us have messed up plenty of other plans as well.

Jesus’ life was the most predicted and prophesied life ever in history, and Jesus faithfully walked the path that the Godhead had planned for Him to walk. This life included an incredible birth, and escape to Egypt, a normal childhood, a start to ministry at the age of 30, and the cross three and a half years later. Jesus’ life also included the resurrection, which was unprecedented. While other people in history had returned to life, none of these people’s return to life was predicted beforehand. Jesus has been the only Person in history to accurately predict his or her own death and resurrection.

We can trust Jesus because He lived the perfect life and He knows what God’s future holds for each of us!

While teaching the disciples how to pray and how God wants us to be dedicated and persistent with our prayers, Jesus shares in the gospel of Luke some of the most famous words about prayer and asking God for answers that are included in the entire Bible.

Luke tells us that after sharing a parable about being persistent with our requests, Jesus continues by saying, “And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks.” (v. 9-10)

If Jesus had stopped sharing here, which is where most people do, we would get the picture that God is like a genie in a bottle who is happy to grant any request we might ask of Him. This would include requests that are helpful, requests that are entirely selfish and self-serving, and even request that are harmful to us and/or others. Taking these two verses out of the context of what came before and especially what comes after distorts God’s character of love into being cheap, hollow, and something that can be easily abused.

Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t stop sharing in verse 10. He continues by giving a little more context in verse 11 and onward by saying, “Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (v. 11-13)

In this clarification, we find two key ideas that we should remember when looking for answers to our prayers. The first is that God, being the perfect Father, will only answer our prayers with things that are helpful and for our benefit. Sometimes the thing that is the most helpful for us is a trial that will help wake us up or develop some part of our character that is weak, while other times, the thing that is the most helpful is exactly what we are asking for. While the answers God gives us when we ask, seek, and knock are not always what we expect, we can trust that they are what God knows is the best for us.

The second key idea is that Jesus tells us the type of prayers He is referring to in the last verse. “How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (v. 13)

While God is free to answer or not answer any of our other prayers and requests, the whole context of this discussion on prayer, persistence, and asking, seeking, and knocking revolves around our requesting and desiring more of God’s Holy Spirit. In many ways, answering our prayers by giving us the Holy Spirit is God’s default way of answering our requests, because when eternity is on the line, the Holy Spirit is the best answer to help guide us into a saving relationship with God and Jesus. Every other possible answer is secondary.

So when we pray, when we ask, when we seek, and when we knock, don’t be surprised if God sends us the Holy Spirit as an answer to our prayers, because in the grand picture of History, saving us for eternity is the most important thing in God’s mind when He looks at us living in the world today.

For this journal entry, let’s look at a misconception that many people have about what God promises to give us when we follow Him. The headline for this passage is often something like the “Parable of the Rich Fool” for the first part, and then “Teaching about Money and Possessions” for the second part. With that frame of mind, many people latch on to the following two verses as a promise from God:

“For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” (Verses 30-31)

Looking out into society, we see nations and individuals seeking fame, power, prominence, glory, wealth, security, as well as a number of other things. Since we just read the headline and have a frame of mind that this must be talking about wealth and stuff, then these verses must then be promising us both if we seek His kingdom.

However, while the passage does open with the parable of the blessed, stingy fool (he would have not needed to build bigger barns had God not blessed him with an abundant crop), Jesus then begins to frame how we should view our money and our stuff, and what really matters. Jesus tells the disciples:

“For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. . . And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? . . . And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” (Verses 22-23, 25-26, 29-31)

The context of this promise is that God promises us food, clothing, and peace, and He will give these things to us when we seek His Kingdom as our number one priority. Money, status, fame, or luxuries are not included in this list. While God may bless some people with one or more of these things, there is no promise that He will do so for everyone.

Instead, we should be grateful for what God has blessed us with; we should seek Him and His kingdom into our lives; and we should seek to use what He has blessed us with in ways that would please Him. Gratitude is where we should begin, because one big truth I see between the lines in this passage is that when we are grateful for what God has done for us, we won’t be as inclined to worry about what will happen next.

Part way through His ministry, Jesus gets into a debate with some Pharisees over the validity of His ministry and the claims He was making. In this debate, which was one of the more strategic attempts of discrediting Jesus, the Pharisees challenge Jesus because He is only a single person making the claim, and in their court system, a case needed to be proven by at least two witnesses.

When facing this challenge, Jesus had plenty of options to choose from, but He decides to use His Father (i.e. God the Father) as His choice. Jesus tells the Pharisees, “I am one of the witnesses who speaks about myself, and the Father who sent me is the other witness.” (v. 18)

Perhaps the Pharisees were not expecting a clear answer like this, but not wanting to miss the chance to find someone else who may have been easier to discredit, they simply ask, “Where is your father?” (v. 19a)

While on the surface, their question sounds sincere, it is most likely a second level trap because if Jesus stated clearly that the Father who sent Him was God the Father, then the leaders would have had more reason to stone Him. If Jesus shared that His father was someone they could meet on earth, chances are high in my mind that these Pharisees would have used this information to find, discredit, and probably kill the “father” in question.

The response Jesus gives these religious debaters is simple while also incredibly profound. Jesus tells them, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father, too.” (v. 19b)

In Jesus’ response, we are introduced or reminded that Jesus and God the Father share the same character, the same love, and the same focus. This means that both God the Father and Jesus love humanity equally and they are both overwhelmingly merciful when it comes to dealing with people who have sinned.

The response Jesus shares tells us that when we truly know Jesus, then we will also truly know God the Father and we will understand what He is like. It is easy to miss out on knowing Jesus and God. Every religious leader who held to their preconceived ideas about God, and specifically about the Messiah He would send, missed truly knowing Jesus. Those living during Jesus’ ministry on earth who let go of their preconceived ideas were able to know and experience who Jesus was – and accordingly, these people then knew who God the Father is and what He is like and were blessed as a result.

Those of us living today cannot travel to see Jesus like those living in the first century, but we do have four accurate records that describe in detail Jesus’ love, His character, and His sacrifice. If we let go of our preconceived ideas about Jesus and God the Father, and simply pray and read what the gospel writers share, we will begin to understand who God the Father truly is. Many in culture believe Jesus is nice while God is mean, but that belief runs completely opposite of Jesus’ message in this passage. If we know Jesus is loving, merciful, and kind, according to Jesus, we also know God the Father is loving, merciful, and kind as well!