Reflective Bible Study

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, three of the four gospel’s writers record at least one time where the disciples began an argument about who would be the greatest among them. During one of these arguments, Luke’s gospel shares an interesting phrase that is incredibly profound when we stop to think about it.

Luke describes this event by saying: “An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.” (v. 46-47)

While I don’t know how Luke knew to include a phrase that he included, but he tells all of us that Jesus framed His response to the disciples because He knew their thoughts. This is significant in my mind because not only could Jesus specifically see into the minds of those closest to Him, He also chose to interact with those who He knew their deepest, darkest secrets. Nothing about the disciples’ lives was hidden from Jesus.

I’m not sure if Luke includes this detail because this was a onetime occurrence in Jesus’ ministry, or if this was Luke’s subtle way of suggesting that Jesus continually had this divine revelation into people’s minds, but when we look at other events in the gospels, I don’t think Jesus was ever truly surprised by something that happened. Even Judas Iscariot’s betrayal was not a surprise to Jesus.

Jesus knew the disciples better than they knew themselves, and Jesus chose to interact and associate with them. In a similar way, Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves – and He chooses to love us, forgive us, and give us the gift of salvation. Jesus knows our deepest, darkest secrets and He still chooses to love us. Nothing in our past or future is a surprise to Him, and because He still chooses to love us when He knows our worst, we can trust that He has the best future imaginable waiting for us when we accept Him into our hearts.

Some of Jesus’ teaching is compassionate and uplifting; some of His teaching is challenging; and there are a few places were Jesus’ teaching seem to rub up against culture and our experience in ways that make us uncomfortable.

It is in this last category that our passage in today’s journal entry falls, but while divorce is a real challenge in today’s culture, and it has affected almost every person alive today in one way or another, too often we take Jesus’ words here as a condemnation of those who have been divorced – which actually is taking the verses out of context.

This conversation would not have happened except for one thing that happened: the Pharisees open up the discussion. Verse 3 begins by saying, “Some Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trick him.”

In order to best understand the context of this teaching, we must first understand that Jesus probably would not have brought up the subject had He not been challenged with it. Other people came to Him with the question about the idea, so Jesus will answer with God’s ideal scenario. Verse 4 points to the original plan at creation, verse 5 recalls God’s words about how marriage would proceed, and verse 6 concludes with the challenge that we should not undo what God has done. This is the ideal scenario. We could call it Plan A.

But then, thinking they have Jesus firmly in the trap, the Pharisees respond with their follow-up question in verse 7: “Why then did Moses give a command for a man to divorce his wife by giving her divorce papers?”

The Pharisees have successfully contrasted Jesus’ teaching with Moses’ teaching, but instead of placing Moses’ revelation as being the one closest to God, Jesus draws out the contrast between God’s ideal and Moses’ exception. The original question in verse 3 included the phrase “for any reason he chooses”, and this is more what Jesus pushes back on.

Jesus gives one acceptable reason, but if we look closer at His one valid reason, we see something interesting. Verse 9, the one that makes people feel uncomfortable, says basically that adultery will be present at the end of a marriage. Either it will cause the marriage to end, or the marriage ending will result in it.

Jesus’ statement on divorce is not a condemnation; it is a challenging truth. Jesus says it to push His audience towards the conclusion He wants them to reach. Verse 10 shares this conclusion, “If that is the only reason a man can divorce his wife, it is better not to marry.”

Jesus wants His audience to be more intentional about following God’s ideal. Jesus follows up in verse 11 and 12 by saying it is perfectly okay for someone to choose to remain single. Reaching the place where a single person is okay with not marrying is the first step to becoming ready for marriage.

My own life experience has taught me that sometimes it is better to reach the place where I am satisfied being single before God will bring that special someone into my life. (Incidentally, this is exactly what happened to me in 2007 right before meeting Suzie, my wife-to-be.)

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, He passes through the city of Jericho and invites Himself to the home of one of the most disliked people in the entire city. When I read about what happened when Jesus met Zacchaeus, I wonder who was the most surprised in this entire event.

• Is Zacchaeus the most surprised because Jesus spotted Him in the tree and invited Himself over?

• Is the crowd the most surprised that Zacchaeus accepted Jesus’ invitation to Himself?

• Is the crowd the most surprised that Jesus would associate with someone as hated and distrusted as Zacchaeus?

Luke’s gospel summarizes both the crowd’s and Zacchaeus’ responses by saying: “Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to complain, ‘Jesus is staying with a sinner!’” (v. 6-7)

While Zacchaeus was grateful for the opportunity to meet Jesus even better, the crowd gets caught up over a situation they simply feel is not right. In the minds of those in the crowd, someone (Jesus) they knew was sent from God should only associate with people who clearly are associated with God. When Jesus chose to associate with someone they believed had no care for religious or spiritual matters, it breaks their stereotype and their view of Jesus.

However, in this event, while the crowd was complaining over who Jesus chose to stay with, Zacchaeus was getting ready to have a heart transformation. The crowd could not see this, but Jesus did. The crowd blinded themselves by believing Jesus would only associate with Godly people. The crowd missed out on what may have been the most high-profile life transformation of Jesus’ ministry.

Everyone in that region knew who Zacchaeus was, and it would not be a surprise in my mind if the news about Jesus’ time with Zacchaeus and the life-change that happened spread like wildfire throughout the entire city and surrounding area.

Reading about the crowd challenges me to ask the question: Am I missing out on something God is doing because it happens to be in a place I don’t think it should be and/or because it doesn’t fit into the mold of what I think it should look like? Am I more like the skeptical crowd when I hear about something God has done, or am I open to being transformed through what I see God doing in the world around me?

When teaching the disciples the importance of forgiving each other, Peter asks Jesus how many times we should forgive, and the answer Jesus gives surprises the whole group. Jesus then follows up this response with a parable about a servant who was forgiven an impossible-to-repay debt.

However, while it isn’t stated in the terms of this servant’s forgiveness, Jesus’ parable continues by showing how this servant chooses to not extend forgiveness towards a fellow servant who owed a very payable debt. The other servants see what happened and report the details back to the master/king. The parable ends with the original servant’s debt being reinstated and him being locked up until he repay the impossible-to-repay debt – or in other words, this servant would be locked up for the rest of his life.

Jesus finishes the parable with a one-sentence explanation: “This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (v. 35)

This parable is probably one of Jesus’ most challenging parables because the implication is clear: If we don’t forgive each other after learning how God has forgiven us, God will cancel the forgiveness He extended towards us and we will be left with an impossible-to-repay debt.

Because of this, we can conclude that while God offers forgiveness freely through Jesus, the forgiveness we are given comes with a condition: we must extend this forgiveness towards each other. Nothing we can do will ever come close to repaying God for His generosity, but we can show God we are grateful for what He has given to us by extending forgiveness towards each other. This will look different for each person and each situation, but at its heart, we are called to forgive like God forgave – which means that we forgive those who may even still be actively hurting us and there is no indication that will ever change.

Jesus entered a world that was hostile to God and His message and He was killed by humanity. When we forgive like God forgave, we must acknowledge that many times we will be called to forgive people who don’t deserve to be forgiven – and we can trust that God will sort out those who truly deserve forgiveness from those whose forgiven status will be cancelled because they lived an unforgiving life.

Forgiveness means we don’t hold a grudge and we don’t seek or expect the other person to pay back the debt we feel they owe. Forgiveness does not mean we blindly stay in a place where are being abused or hurt. Reconciliation is where we bridge and heal broken relationships, and while this concept is closely related to forgiveness, nothing in Jesus’ parable or teaching says that we must always reconcile a broken relationship when we forgive the person who hurt us.