Reflective Bible Study

Part of me wonders about a concept Jesus shared near the end of His famous “Sermon on the Mount”. In this two-verse idea, we are able to see a contrast between two different ways of living, and two ultimate conclusions – but I wonder if part of this idea is lost in translation or has been left out, because it doesn’t seem to fit a number of other things that I see shared in the Bible and visible in the world.

While sharing this famous sermon, Jesus tells the crowd, “Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.” (v. 13-14)

What makes me wonder about this statement and idea is what Jesus means when He talks about a gate to life vs. a gate to destruction. Are these gates figurative for eternal life and eternal death, or is this something else? If only a few people find and go through the gate to life and this gate refers to eternal life, then what of the billions of people who call themselves Christian, and the multitude that cannot be counted in the book of Revelation? Is eternal life the best way to understand this concept Jesus is sharing, or is Jesus trying to teach us something different here?

Part of me wonders if Jesus is actually sharing a statement about those who are able to find the life that God has set out for them to live. There are plenty of people who simply live following the crowd, but not nearly as many people break apart from the crowd to live a life that is counter-culturally focused on obeying God’s will.

I wonder if the life that God created us to live is one that leads us to an amazing life in this world that also leads into an incredible, eternal life in the next world. If this is the case, then most people, while they have placed their belief in Jesus, are living and walking down a road that leads to destruction. Their lives are like a walking time-bomb that could explode and harm them at any given moment. I wonder if this broad group includes those who are not living for Jesus, regardless of whether they have given their hearts to Him.

But a case could be made against someone who says they are a Christian, but who has not truly given their heart to God. There may be millions of people like this, and this group of self-professed Christians actually cheapens what the Christian name is all about.

A case could also be made against those who simply refer to themselves as “believers”. They have taken Christ out of their identity. If we look at the name “believer”, it could refer to any number of things. I can believe that if I water and fertilize the grass in my yard, it will grow. Believing that grass grows with proper care is a far stretch from believing in Jesus and identifying my life with His.

I don’t know the way to the narrow gate, but I am intentionally looking for it. Jesus tells us that it is a gate that is hard to find and a gate that is counter-cultural, so these are the places I will start. It might not take me down a popular road, but living a life with God is the only life that brings true life, in both the present and the future. A life with God is the only path that leads to eternal life.

As I read the gospels, I am surprised at the number of times Jesus foreshadows His death on a cross. Very early on in His ministry, He talks with Nicodemus about this, and He also alludes to this in a conversation He has with a group of Jews a little later in His ministry.

In this later conversation, Jesus says, “You will lift up the Son of Man. Then you will know that I am he. You will also know that I do nothing on my own. I speak just what the Father has taught me.” (v. 28)

In the verse before this, we learn that the crowd was confused by what Jesus was saying about His Father. In this statement, Jesus begins to unpack the idea that everything He was doing and would do while on earth was intended to share what the Father is like. This even includes the crucifixion which is what Jesus is hinting at when He talks about being lifted up.

Jesus concluded this conversation by saying, “The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.” (v. 29)

Even when it appeared as though He was standing alone, Jesus knew the Father was with Him. In Jesus’ mind and heart, alone was simply a way of describing the time that He had to be with His Father. He was never without the Father’s companionship. Because of the words Jesus says, John tells us that “even while Jesus was speaking, many people believed in him.” (v. 30)

Jesus’ closing statement has amazing relevance for us if we are willing to apply it. If we choose to place God first, to believe in Jesus, and to live a life that gives God glory, even if we end up standing for God “alone”, we are never alone because God is with us and He is always by our side. He is with us because we do what pleases Him!

Have you ever felt picked on or put down by someone?

Or let’s turn this around. Have you ever picked on or put someone else down?

In this short passage, the setting is that Jesus witnesses some individuals (intriguingly the passage does not describe who they were) who were over-confident in their standing with God and who looked down on others. It’s possible they were Pharisees, since Jesus uses one in His example, but it’s possible they were not, and instead were people who looked up to the Pharisees as models for their lives.

I am sure that seeing this scene irritated Jesus and it is what prompted this really short illustration about who God really accepts. Woven through these two prayers is a theme that is vital for us to understand: Don’t compare yourself to others!

Yes, it is a little simplistic, but it is 100% the truth.

In our lives, it is so easy to make this comparison, but with only one or two exceptions, this comparison trap never leads to anywhere good. By looking at others, we might be inspired to live a better life, or interested on learning how they achieved success, but with these two potential positive comparisons, there still are an uncountable number of differences between our life and the life we are looking at.

It is like comparing a potato with a banana. Both are edible and both have an outer skin, but almost everything else is different between them. This is what it is like when you compare yourself to someone else – way more differences than similarities can be found.

This is even more important in the spiritual areas of life – especially within our own relationship with God. If we look at the Pharisee’s prayer, he is all about comparing and validating himself. He starts off by comparing himself to others – even someone standing nearby before comparing himself to the requirements of law that he keeps. His prayer is a “look-how-good-I-am” prayer.

In the Pharisee’s prayer, God doesn’t need to justify him – he already justified himself. But the trap is that God looks only at two areas: individuals and large groups of people (i.e. cities and/or nations). The personal relationship is important to Him, as well as the corporate, community relationship as well. What we never see God doing in either case though is making a comparison between individuals.

Any sin in an individual’s life is important – not only because it affects that individual, but also because it affects the community as well.

If God doesn’t compare us to others, we should not make that comparison either!

The tax collector (or really anyone on the opposite side of the social status scale) had a different focus – and that was on receiving help/mercy from God. The focus of the tax collector’s prayer was not on building himself up; it was on admitting where he really was and that he needed God’s grace. If he made a comparison, it was not between himself and the Pharisee; it was between his current life, and the life he knew God wanted him to have.

We should not compare ourselves to others. If you want to compare yourself to something, compare it to God’s ideal life for you – that life where you never make any mistakes. Only with that comparison in mind will you have the right attitude for God to accept your prayer.

Tucked within Jesus’ birth story is an amazing passage and declaration of who Jesus would be. This declaration is more of a side-note that Matthew breaks from the story to share with his readers, and it contains a name for Jesus that is surprisingly absent from the rest of the gospels and the New Testament.

While Joseph slept on his decision to divorce Mary secretly, an angel came and visited him with the message: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (v. 20-21)

Matthew then adds some commentary into the story at this point. He tells his readers, “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’” (v. 22-23)

We don’t see the name Immanuel used for Jesus in the New Testament anywhere else that I could readily find, however, the theme of Jesus being “God with us” is one of the big key themes that every gospel writer includes in their writing.

The theme of God with us should be important for those of us living 2000 years later. This name that was given to Jesus by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14) draws our attention onto who Jesus came to represent.

Jesus was not simply a good man who pointed people to God. Jesus was God living among us. That was who the Messiah was to be. When the religious leaders rejected Jesus, they were rejecting that their God would live and act like Jesus. They had taken God and placed Him in a box of their own making, and Jesus didn’t fit their man-made picture.

Isaiah reminds us with His words that Jesus truly was God, and in this Old Testament prophecy, we see a picture of a God of love because God chose to come and be with us rather than watch us from the sidelines.