Reflective Bible Study

During an unforgettable event known as the Transfiguration, Jesus takes the three closest disciples up onto a mountain and gives them a sneak peak at just who He really was. During this event, which terrified all three of these men, God speaks another message of approval about Jesus.

After this event was over, as Jesus and the three disciples were starting back down the mountain, Jesus tells them something that confuses them. “On their way down the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen. They were to wait until the Son of Man had come back to life. They kept in mind what he said but argued among themselves what he meant by ‘come back to life.’” (v. 9-10)

When I read these two verses, I am a little surprised at both Jesus and these disciples. In Jesus’ case, He has just told these three men to keep a secret from the rest of the group – which isn’t all that great for building morale in a group. I suppose that when one of the other disciples asked what they did up on the mountain, they needed to either lie (a bad choice) or say what happened is a secret (another bad choice, but at least truthful.)

They could blame Jesus and say that He told them to keep it a secret until He had “come back to life”, and perhaps this is what they chose to do, but as Mark tells us, these disciples “kept in mind what he said but argued among themselves what he meant by ‘come back to life.’” (v. 10)

As I read this, I get the picture that Jesus kept trying to push these disciples to ask Him for more details, but they avoid asking and instead, they simply argue and speculate amongst themselves.

We are tempted to do the same. When something Jesus said or promised doesn’t add up, or even when something happens in our life that we cannot explain, are we quick to talk it over with others and speculate, or do we bring our questions to God in prayer. Sometimes God will answer our questions through other people, while other times He might simply ask us to wait for an answer at a later time.

On this side of heaven, there will be plenty of things that we don’t understand, but I wonder if Jesus wanted to open the disciples’ minds to what would happen on crucifixion weekend before it happened, and we see them miss actually asking the question. This makes me challenge myself with the similar idea on whether I miss learning from God because I am too quick to speculate or ask the wrong people the wrong questions.

As Jesus was headed for Jerusalem, the gospel of Luke describes His decision to travel through the region of Samaria. As they were approaching a town, Jesus sends some messengers ahead to get things ready for Him to stay there.

However, since the Samaritans and Jews hated one another, Luke tells us that “the people there [in that town] would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem.” (v. 53)

While I am not surprised that a city of Samaritans would not welcome a Jew who was traveling to Jerusalem, I am amazed that this little bit of prejudice against a certain group of people caused this entire city to miss out on having the Messiah actually spend time with them.

By this point in Jesus’ ministry, word would have spread about Him being a great Teacher, an amazing Healer, and a miracle Worker who was blessed by God. None of these things mattered to those living in this Samaritan city – their hatred of Jews blinded them from seeing the truth because it could not get past the reality that Jesus was a Jew headed for Jerusalem.

It is in their decision that we are able to discover a powerful truth: Everyone living today is tempted to be biased and judgmental towards a certain group of “other” people. We must push past the hatred and distrust because perhaps those we are most hostile towards are the people we can learn the most from. Our hostility might cause us to miss out on seeing Jesus!

When reading and/or studying the Bible, I am always looking for themes, trends, or patterns that I can use to better understand God and His character. When I find such a pattern, I am then able to read familiar Bible stories but with a fresh pair of glasses on, and I look for ways that support or differ from the pattern.

In this entry’s passage, I spot both the support of one pattern, and a deviation from another.

For most of Jesus’ miracles, the level of faith that is present is a factor in whether the miracle is a success – either from the one wanting to be healed or from those who brought the disabled person. At least two of the gospels even go so far as to imply that Jesus’ miracles were limited by the faith present. (i.e. Matthew 13:58 / Mark 6:5.)

However, in this passage, there is no mention of the woman’s faith, of the crowd’s faith, or even of the synagogue leader’s faith. Faith is not the focal point here. I’m guessing there was a desire from the woman to be healed, but perhaps after 18 years of being disabled, she had learned how to adapt her life.

There isn’t even a mention or implication here that the woman is present because this is a setup – which could imply the faith of the synagogue leaders. The way the synagogue leaders respond to Jesus’ healing the woman make me believe they really didn’t want Him there healing or working miracles.

So this deviation from the pattern that faith equals healing is significant in my mind. This tells me that God can work in people’s lives without the presence of faith. While I believe He wants to teach us the importance of personal faith in Him, He also knows there are some instances where it is better if He acts regardless of the faith present. It appears as though this is one such instant.

So why might this deviation be present?

Perhaps it is because of the other pattern I see supported in this story: The miracle (and following dialogue) resulted God getting the glory. The passage clearly states that “she immediately stood up straight and praised God”. (verse 13)

In many of Jesus’ miracles, it seems as though He really focused on helping people in ways that would prompt them to give the credit for the miracle to God. I also see a pattern present through the gospels that Jesus never desired the focus or the spotlight to be placed on Him. Though everything He did, He wanted the people to see and know what God the Father was like; He wanted the praise to go to God not Himself.

Knowing the woman would praise God for the healing and that God would get the credit following the irritated response from the synagogue leaders, Jesus performed the miracle without the mention of faith. This deviation and pattern tell me that Jesus will work miracles in your life and in mine in ways where God receives the glory. Giving God the glory is Jesus’ primary objective with the miracles He performs.

One of the strangest conclusions to all of the miracles and healings that Jesus ever performed comes at the close of the healing by the pool of Bethesda that John includes in his gospel. In this healing, Jesus comes to a pool where sick people gathered, singles one person out who had been there for a long time, heals him, then disappears into the crowd before the healed man could thank Him.

However, one of Jesus’ instructions for the man was to pick up his sleeping mat, and that upset the religious leaders in the area. The main reason was that the day this healing happened was the Sabbath, and it was to be a day of rest – and carrying one’s mat was not resting.

But with all this said, the last two verses of this event conclude this story in a strange way. John tells us, “After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, ‘See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.’ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.” (v. 14-15)

After Jesus had healed him, this man goes and basically rats Jesus out for being his Healer. This doesn’t make sense, but even more confusing are Jesus’ final words to this man. “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” (v. 14b)

Perhaps the man believed that disobeying the religious leaders was sinning, and he felt he was obeying Jesus by communicating to the leaders that Jesus healed him. Or perhaps Jesus’ message was meant as a challenge for moving forward.

We don’t know anything about this man before or after this event. Implied in Jesus’ words is that the man was sick and/or disabled because of a past sinful life. Jesus’ final message to him is to stay away from that sinful life so that something even worse doesn’t happen to him.

In this warning and challenge Jesus gave this man is a theme we can all use in our own lives. While avoiding sin doesn’t stop bad things from happening to us, avoiding sin does stop a good percentage of bad things from happening. The principle Jesus is communicating is that who we associate with will either bring us health or will bring us harm. The quality of our friends determines the quality of our lives.

This man was given a fresh start after 38 years of illness. He had the choice whether to return to his old life, or start a new one. Each of us doesn’t have to face 38 years of consequences in order to choose to turn our lives around. This miracle teaches us that a new life with Jesus can begin today.