Reflective Bible Study

This journal’s passage contains one of Jesus’ famous statements on forgiveness. However, too often, we are quick to generalize and broaden Jesus’ words when we should instead keep them as specific as He spoke them.

In verses 3-4, Jesus says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

The difference I see in what this passage says when compared with how we see it is important. Jesus says “brother” (some translations, like the NIV, include sister); and we immediately generalize His use of this word to mean spiritual “brothers” (fellow Christians), neighbor “brothers” (those living near us), or teammate “brothers” (those we work/play with). However, Jesus says “brothers”, and while all the previous descriptions could work, the most often ignored is the biological family “brothers or sisters”.

The reason I think this passage refers first to the biological family is this: If someone sins against you and you then rebuke them, afterwards, if they repent and the relationship persists, then all is well; but if they repeatedly sin against you, you still must rebuke them, but they will be less likely to repent, and the relationship will likely end. But biological family members (“brothers and sisters”) often have arguments, fights, disagreements, but ending the relationship technically isn’t possible because of the biological connection. One could disown a family member, cutting all communication with them, but ignoring the other person does not break the connection that is still there.

It also is possible that Jesus said “brother” because He knew families are prone to having the most fights, disagreements, and arguments of any of the relationships. As the saying goes, “You can pick your friends, but not your family.” This means that while forgiveness is important in friendships, it is significantly more important in families.

Jesus came and died for you and your brothers and sisters. If God loves them that much, we should be willing to work out our differences.

Also with how this passage is worded, it implies that forgiveness isn’t necessary if the other person doesn’t repent. I see forgiveness being an internal decision, whereas working on the relationship is an external decision. If there is no way the person who sinned can repay their debt, then we should forgive, regardless of whether they asked or not because this frees us from the trap of bitterness. Only if they come to us and repent should we then be open to working on the relationship.

Forgiveness and repentance is important in friendships, and it is really, really important in families.

During Jesus’ ministry, He wanted to teach His disciples how to travel and do ministry following His return to heaven. While I don’t believe the disciples understood this reason at the time Jesus send them out on a mission trip, I believe they realized this later on.

Within Jesus’ send-off message to His followers, He describes how they should travel and how they should act. Luke tells us that Jesus instructed them to: “Don’t carry a purse, a bag, or sandals, and don’t waste time talking with people on the road. Before you go into a house, say, ‘Peace be with this house.’ If peace-loving people live there, your blessing of peace will stay with them, but if not, then your blessing will come back to you. Stay in the same house, eating and drinking what the people there give you. A worker should be given his pay. Don’t move from house to house.” (v. 4-7)

As I read this, I wonder if Jesus’ instructions to these disciples carry over to today. If I head out on a mission trip, should I avoid taking any money, any supplies, and not even a change of clothes? Also, if I am welcomed into a home, should I stay there until I’ve worn out my welcome and they kick me out?

Part of me takes this portion of Jesus’ instructions and attributes it to the time period and culture of the first century, but even as I do this, there are several things in this passage that are themes that apply to ministry an every point in history.

First, Jesus told His followers to not waste time talking with people on the road as they traveled. This does not mean that we should avoid God directed encounters with people, but it does mean that we should be extra intentional about what we spend time talking about. When we have a conversation with a stranger, while we might not want to immediately dive into deep theological matters, we should be extra intentional about the focus of our conversation and let God’s love shine through our words.

Next Jesus instructs His followers to bless the places they stay with a message of peace. This is done on the front end, before we really know the hosts, managers, or owners of the places we are staying. This teaches me to first assume love, acceptance, and peace from others instead of approaching a situation with the expectation of hostility or defensiveness. We are able to create the mood of our conversations through the expectations we bring to our interactions with others. God knows that our blessing will return to us if the person we offered it to rejects it, so we are called to freely bless those who are willing to help, because this is what God is like.

Thirdly, Jesus tells His followers to stay in the same house and accept the hospitality we receive. In today’s culture, I believe this means staying in one place as long as possible to give the impression of stability and certainty in those who hear about us. Staying in one place also helps people who hear about our ministry find us when they come looking. A restaurant that is constantly moving from place to place is likely to lose as many customers as it gains, and it is very hard on the managers and staff. A restaurant that has been at a certain place for a really long time implies that it is successful, well managed, and well liked. Our ministries should be consistent, stable, and long-term – and we should make it easy for God to send people our way by having a consistent location.

While some of Jesus’ instructions to His followers is redirected later on in Jesus’ ministry, the thing we should always remember, regardless of the point in history we live, is that we must depend 100% on God for help with the mission He has called us to. While He has challenged us to work and share His message with others, He wants us to depend on Him for help, direction, guidance, and strength to carry through with His work.

During the times when Jesus taught the crowds, sometimes He taught what He knew someone in the crowd needed to hear with only the Holy Spirit’s prompting, while other times, He taught based on what someone in the crowd had said or asked.

During one of the times that Luke’s gospel describes, Jesus shares a profound parable about greed that was inspired by a request from someone in the crowd. Luke tells us Jesus told the crowd the following parable: “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (v. 16-22)

Before jumping to the conclusion that God will require the souls of everyone who decides to build bigger buildings to store riches that they have been blessed with, it is worth looking a little closer at the parable itself.

Jesus opens by saying that “the land” of a rich man was very productive. This means that God is at least partly responsible for this man’s wealth. Just because this man was rich doesn’t mean that he was evil or bad. It simply means that he had been blessed.

However, what is missing from this parable is the man acknowledging that the blessings he received were from God. While the parable was inspired during a discussion about guarding against greed, oftentimes I think when we read this that the idea this parable emphasizes is that we must simply be generous with what God has blessed us with.

But this might miss Jesus’ point slightly. While saving for retirement is not ungodly, Jesus talks about this man not being rich towards God. This implies, at least in my mind, that there was no tithe being returned to God. One of the first things that we are tempted to let slide when we are giving to others is returning a tithe to God. This man might have been someone who faithfully tithed, but we would have no way to know this because this detail is not included in Jesus’ illustration.

Instead, it appears that Jesus wants to draw our attention onto the following truth: Our lives are far more valuable than our stuff, and that God is the only reason we are still alive today. God is not interested in stealing our stuff from us, but for our own good, He wants us to realize and correctly prioritize our stuff as lower than our lives. Jesus came to show us how much God values our lives and our hearts. Jesus died for you and me because He loves you and me, and He loves each of us more than He loves our stuff (i.e. the stuff that He blessed us with).

One thing that fascinates me about Jesus is how He carefully crafts out a response for the people who challenge Him. In this journal entry’s passage, some of the details stand out to me, and when we see these little details together, they paint an amazing picture of God.

First, the passage begins in verse 10 and tells us Jesus was teaching in the synagogue – however Jesus was not this synagogue’s leader, so perhaps the synagogue leader had invited Jesus to speak, or perhaps this event happened during a response Jesus was giving to something He or someone else had said.

Next, Jesus simply talks and lays His hands on the woman to heal her. There were fewer calories burned in this action then there were walking to the synagogue that morning. However that doesn’t stop the synagogue leader from being upset at this healing.

However, all this leads into a theme that is present in Jesus’ response. In verses 15-16, Jesus says, “You hypocrites! Don’t each of you free your ox or donkey on the day of rest—a holy day? Don’t you then take it out of its stall to give it some water to drink? Now, here is a descendant of Abraham. Satan has kept her in this condition for 18 years. Isn’t it right to free her on the day of rest—a holy day?”

In His response, Jesus makes a comparison to the value of people vs. the value of animals. Everyone in that synagogue, including the synagogue leader, would have known that it is important and acceptable to give their animals water on the Sabbath day of rest. From the way Jesus responds, we see that He takes the position that people are more important than animals, which then makes those who are opposing His actions sound as if they value their animals over other people.

Rationally speaking, most everyone will say that humans are more valuable than animals, but do our actions and how we treat other members of the human race confirm this?

Not only does Jesus say that humans are more valuable than animals in His response in this passage, but He does so from God’s perspective. In God’s eyes each one of us is more valuable than an animal. Evolution theory says that we are nothing more than a “more evolved” animal, while Jesus says we are more valuable to God than any other animal.

God’s Law, which Jesus was helping those present understand better, was not meant to discriminate between people, but to challenge each person to have a better, more authentic, relationship with God and others.