Reflective Bible Study

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, as He was speaking to a crowd of Jews in the temple during a festival, Jesus shares a powerful statement about slavery and sin. John’s gospel includes this message Jesus shared, as well as some details the Jews might not have been ready to accept.

John tells us Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (v. 34-36)

The first statement Jesus makes in these verses is profound: “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” While we would like to think slavery is something that we are erasing from the world, perhaps it is something that is not possible to do while sin is present in the world. Jesus’ statement doesn’t leave any flexibility when it comes to freedom for someone who is actively sinning.

The next statement Jesus makes is powerful as well: “a slave has no permanent place in the family.” While this sounds cruel to think about, someone who is a slave or who has been hired to help in a home may develop close friendships with those in the family, but they are not a part of the family simply because they are present. In this second statement, Jesus is drawing a parallel that someone who sins is a slave and as a slave, he/she is not part of the family.

The third statement switches our perspective because Jesus then tells us: “a son belongs to it [the family] forever.” While Jesus is hinting at Himself as a member of the family, He is really setting the stage for former slaves being freed and adopted into His family. In the third statement, Jesus begins to give us hope that we are not always destined to be slaves to sin.

The last statement in these verses tell us: “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus draws our attention now onto Himself being the original Son (or first Son, or eldest Son) in God’s family. This last statement is a promise that Jesus can free us from sin, and that He is willing to adopt us into God’s family where we are truly free.

But the catch we don’t often realize is that the freedom we are invited into when God adopts us is a freedom from sinful desires and from choosing sin. Jesus can set us free, and when He does, if we choose to return to a life of sin with our freedom then we essentially are telling God we reject His offer and would rather be a slave.

With God through Jesus, a sinless life is possible. This does not mean we live a life without mistakes, but it does mean we live a life where our thoughts and desires are focused on God and living as He directs. Living an entire life without sinning at some point is not possible for us, but focusing on Jesus and on living for Him can make our future lives sinless even if our future lives are not “mistakeless”. Living with Jesus in this way tells God we accept the adoption He offers us into His family.

For this journal entry, we will look a little closer at one of the events in Jesus’ birth, and uncover a truth that I found especially interesting. This truth is hidden in plain sight, but it is easy to miss if you read this story without paying attention.

In verse 25 we read, “but [Joseph] kept her [Mary] a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

While Joseph had planned to send Mary away silently to not publicly disgrace her, an angel in a dream convinced him otherwise. We don’t know if their wedding was the next day, or if it happened at a future date, or if Jesus was conceived weeks or months before. If Mary raced off to be with Elizabeth for three months prior to her wedding, then it would be very possible that Jesus would have clearly appeared to have been conceived outside of marriage. However, if all this happened before or right around the same time with Joseph and Mary traveling to see Elizabeth and Zechariah immediately following their marriage (a.k.a. honeymoon), then it would have looked to outsiders that Jesus was a honeymoon baby.

We know from reading Matthew that Joseph kept Mary as a virgin until after Jesus was born – but to everyone else looking at the scene, it probably would have looked as though Jesus was Joseph’s son.

This is significant because often times in our own lives, each family has secrets that they don’t want to share and/or they don’t feel are either believable or relevant for others to know. Perhaps it is simply a countercultural choice that the couple has made that they don’t want to share for fear it will cause division, or perhaps it is a dark secret that has brought the family shame in the past and they would rather it be erased from their history.

At any rate, Joseph and Mary had an incredible and unbelievable family secret, and Joseph accepted the reality that it meant, and chose to raise Jesus as his own Son. Joseph stepped into the unbelievable, and became the earthly father to the Savior of the world. For us, we cannot change the past, but we can choose to accept the place we are currently at (including all the craziness present) and see it as a step towards moving forward into a better future.

While washing the disciples feet on the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus has an interesting conversation with Peter about what was happening. John records their conversation, and in this dialog, we can discover a powerful truth about God’s love for each of us.

As Jesus was moving through the group of disciples washing their feet, “He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’” (v. 6)

Jesus responded by saying, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” (v. 7)

Peter then replies, “No! You shall never wash my feet.” (v. 8a)

Jesus then tells Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (v. 8b)

With probably a little bit of shock involved, Peter then responds, “Then Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” (v. 9)

We now come to the key part of this discussion I want to focus in on. Jesus then replies, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean.” (v. 10a)

In this conversation, we see Peter, one of Jesus’ most vocal disciples first saying that he never wants Jesus to wash him, while in the next breath asking Jesus to wash his entire body. This is amazing in my mind, not only because it gives us a glimpse into the type of person Peter was, but that it draws our attention onto an amazing spiritual truth.

When we look under the surface of this conversation, we discover this truth: When we come to God, He begins to transform our lives into the lives He created us to live.

However, like Peter’s conversation with Jesus, we must be willing to let Jesus wash us. God/Jesus knows the areas of our lives that are not clean, and we must be willing to let Him touch and clean those areas of our lives and hearts.

But with that said, God/Jesus does not want to wash our whole bodies, because He knows that some parts of our lives, our history, our character, and our mission are already in line with what He wants for us. God does not want to erase our character when He transforms our lives; He simply wants our focus to shift onto being more like Him while also being the person He created us to be.

When we accept Jesus and let Him wash us, we must be willing to let Him wash the areas that He feels need to be washed, and be okay with the areas that He says are already clean.

Later on during Jesus’ ministry, two of the closest disciples come to Jesus with a request. They ask Jesus if they can each have the two most honored positions when He has entered into His glory. On the surface, we can see why someone would think that they want this request answered, however, in Jesus’ case, I really don’t think these disciples understood what they were asking.

Jesus had a similar thought, because He responds, “You don’t realize what you’re asking. Can you drink the cup that I’m going to drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I’m going to receive?” (v. 38)

Both disciples respond in unison, “We can.” (v. 39a)

However, with this response, Jesus gives them this reply: “You will drink the cup that I’m going to drink. You will be baptized with the baptism that I’m going to receive.” (v. 39b)

On the surface, it appears as though Jesus sidesteps the request these disciples ask Him, but in Jesus’ counter question and response, we see a powerful prediction regarding the type of deaths these disciples would face. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, these disciples are still blind to the idea that the point when Jesus receives His glory is while He is hanging naked on the cross. The disciples believe their question relates to when Jesus has conquered Rome and set Himself up as King.

Jesus shifts the focus onto the struggle that comes beforehand. Jesus draws the attention onto the cup of suffering that He would face in the garden prior to His arrest, and to the torture and abuse He would receive prior to being hung on the cross. While these two disciples didn’t realize it at the time, they tell Jesus they can face all of it.

We might have given Jesus the same response if we were there with them asking Jesus that question, and what I find amazing is Jesus essentially grants this portion of their request. Jesus tells them: “You will drink the cup that I’m going to drink. You will be baptized with the baptism that I’m going to receive.” (v. 39b)

All of Jesus’ disciples died in ways that make me believe that Jesus answered this request for all of them. While each was put to death for their belief in Jesus, they all experienced emotional pressure like the cup Jesus faced, and they all experienced physical abuse like the baptism Jesus faced.

However, the disciples (and us) have an advantage. While Jesus faced His trials while feeling alone, we have the Holy Spirit walking beside us through everything we face. If we are facing a trial for Jesus, the Holy Spirit is present. Jesus agrees to allow these disciples to face the same challenges He faced because He knows that this life is temporary and what really matters is being with Him for eternity.