Reflective Bible Study

One thing I find amazing in the Bible is how we learn about prejudices people had at that time. On one hand, there were people who rejected Jesus because He grew up in Nazareth, but in this passage from the gospel of Matthew, it seems that a great number of people living in Nazareth also rejected Jesus.

In this passage, Jesus returns home to Nazareth and He visits the synagogue. The people present were impressed by His preaching, but it seems they “knew too much”. Many of these people watched Jesus grow up, and while that shouldn’t make a difference, it would seem that Jesus’ developing years were not spectacular enough to have made an impression of divinity on these people.

“When Jesus finished telling these parables, he left that place and went back to his hometown. He taught in the synagogue, and those who heard him were amazed. ‘Where did he get such wisdom?’ they asked. ‘And what about his miracles? Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? Isn’t Mary his mother, and aren’t James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? Aren’t all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?’ And so they rejected him.” (v. 53-57a)

Seeing Jesus grow up actually seemed to hurt His reputation in the people of Nazareth’s minds. While they were among the closest to His family, these acquaintances were not open to the idea that God’s Messiah would have been chosen to grow up in their midst. While Jesus needed to mature somewhere, they had written off the possibility that it would be in their small town.

And by writing this possibility off, they chose to reject the amazing gift God sent them. They had the opportunity to know Jesus before He was famous, and before He was the celebrity. But as it turns out, knowing Jesus and just thinking He was a good person with some good things to say doesn’t lead people into a life-transforming faith. Those living in Nazareth were stuck in their belief of Jesus being a carpenter’s son and nothing more.

There are people living today who believe like those living in Nazareth. These people believe Jesus was a great preacher, and He was famous, but His life 2000 years ago is not important or relevant to us today. Don’t let your preconceived ideas about who Jesus was impact who the Holy Spirit inspires Him to be to you. The people of Nazareth rejected Jesus because they thought they knew who He was, but in their rejection, they gave up the amazing gift God had given them that millions of people living afterwards would have loved to have: They got the chance to know Jesus before the fame and the ministry.

In what may have been one of the most heartbreaking events during Jesus’ ministry, after being challenged by Jesus, we read that many of His followers left Him. It seemed that while Jesus drew a crowd, if that crowd became too large, He would challenge them with something very difficult, and many would give up and walk away.

However, in this passage, while the crowd of followers are gathering their things to leave, Jesus says a very profound statement: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.” (v. 63)

Whether the crowd of followers didn’t grasp this, or they were too offended by Jesus’ metaphor-challenge about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we read that “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (v. 66)

But not all of Jesus followers left.

Perhaps seeing confusion in the eyes of the twelve disciples, Jesus turns and asks them, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (v. 67)

In one of his few moments of inspiration, Peter breaks the silence hanging in the air following Jesus’ question by answering, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (v. 68-69)

Whether Peter fully grasped the words he was saying, or whether Peter was simply echoing Jesus’ statement about His words being full of Spirit and life, it seemed that these closest disciples saw something in Jesus worth following.

In a way they might not understand until later, they believed Jesus’ statement in verse 63 that “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.” It is the intangible aspects of life, like our focus and our character that matter the most. Focusing on the tangible parts of life, such as on our clothes, our bodies, our hairstyle, and what we eat each day will only leave us chasing after things that don’t really matter in the long term. What does it matter what we wore two or three years ago on this day, or what we made for supper? These topics consume too much thought in our present lives when Jesus wants us instead to focus on more important matters, like our focus on God, our relationship with Him, and on the character we are developing through our habits.

Peter gets this key idea: Peter knows that the more time he spends with Jesus, the more like Jesus he will become and the stronger their relationship will be. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more like Jesus we can be as well – and the more life we will be given through the Holy Spirit and the truth Jesus spoke.

Of all the portions of the gospels that we might call boring, topping the list for most people would be the two genealogies of Jesus. Both Matthew and Luke include a record of Jesus’ ancestry, and while many of us might gloss over Jesus’ family tree, if we push ourselves to look for interesting details, we are able to find them – even in these boring lists of names.

For instance, if we push ourselves while reading Matthew’s version of Jesus’ genealogy, we might be surprised when we see a number of Old Testament women show up. Matthew includes Tamar, who was Judah’s wife (v. 3); Rahab, who was the wife of Salmon and who may have possibly even been the same Rahab who helped the spies in Jericho (v. 5a); Ruth was the wife of Boaz (v. 5b); Bathsheba was originally Uriah’s wife but then became David’s wife after Uriah’s death (v. 6); and last but far from least, Mary was Joseph’s wife and the mother of Jesus.

The interesting thing about these women comes when we ask ourselves the question: Why did Matthew include these women in a type of list that was usually limited to males?

Some of these women were born Jewish, while others left their own people and joined the nation of Israel. Each of these women lived in different time periods, and each woman came from a different background and a different social class. But with all this uniqueness, is there something that unifies all these women’s stories?

When I stop and think about it, one big unifying factor is that each of these women (except for Mary) was not in their first relationship:

• Judah and Tamar’s story is far from ideal – or even within the realm of God’s original plan (Genesis 38).

• If the Rahab that is included in this list is the same Rahab that helped the spies, then she becomes the only person (plus some members of her family) who was spared from Jericho when the Israelites entered the Promised Land. She was a prostitute, and also would have had a less than ideal past. (Joshua 6:22-25)

• Ruth, who was Boaz’s wife, did not start with that as her first marriage. She was first married to one of Naomi’s sons while Naomi was living outside of Israel, and she was the only daughter-in-law who returned with Naomi when she came back. Her marriage to Boaz was a second marriage, and her story is one that emphasizes the woman pursuing the man. (The short book of Ruth includes her story.)

• Bathsheba started out as Uriah’s wife, that is, until David took a liking to her. This was one of the biggest failures in David’s entire life, and one that God called him out on. (2 Samuel 11)

• Mary, Jesus’ mother, had the opposite issue. Everything appeared as though she became pregnant because she was unfaithful to Joseph, and while Joseph understood after the visit from an angel, the situation still didn’t look good to those who were close to this young couple.

All these women, and the men they are connected with, had less than ideal circumstances. They all had had relationships with men prior to their relationships with the men that they were connected with (except Mary), and for some reason, Matthew chose to include them in his genealogy for Jesus.

However, even more amazing is this: God took these four women with non-ideal pasts, and He draws them into His story, and into key places within Jesus’ family tree. This tells us that God redeems sinners, and that even with our failures, He still has a place for us in His story!

While all the gospel writers focus their writing on Jesus’ life, each gospel writer helps set the stage for Jesus by first sharing about Jesus’ cousin and forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. If there was ever a person who had a clear-cut vision for His life, it was John. The prophet Isaiah predicted John’s coming, and in the prophecy, John even knows what the mission for his life will be and where he should center his ministry.

Isaiah talks about John being “a voice shouting in the wilderness” with a mission that prepares “the way for the Lord’s coming!” (v. 3)

To fulfill these prophecies, Mark tells us a brief overview of John the Baptist’s ministry. “This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.” (v. 4-5)

According to Mark, baptism was an outward sign of repentance — which simply means that these people made a commitment to turn away from sinning. Mark also tells us that baptism was a visible message that these people gave that said they were turning to God and asking for forgiveness from their past sins.

In the sign of baptism, we see a past, present, and future picture of someone’s commitment. Someone being baptized is asking for forgiveness from past sins, they experience a present sign of humility towards God and symbolically taking part in burying their past life, and they make a commitment to live differently in the future.

Perhaps it was because John’s teaching and method was novel, or maybe it was the people of Israel’s longing to see the Messiah arrive, but our passage tells us that John’s ministry was effective, and “All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John.” (v. 5a)

John’s teaching was effective too. When the crowds heard his message, they were convicted of their sins, and “when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.” (v. 5b)

Baptism is a sign that symbolizes a turning point in life. Baptism is submitting to God and asking for forgiveness from our past sins, and requesting help while making a commitment to live differently in the future.