Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Two Responses, Two Offerings: John 21:1-14

Published May 6, 2022 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 21:1-14 (NIV)

¹Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: ²Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

⁶He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

⁷Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. ⁸The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. ⁹When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Read John 21:1-14 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During the disciples fishing trip following the resurrection, I see an amazing response and reaction at the point Jesus is identified. In this event, there were two ways that the disciples respond, and while we may focus more on one of the responses than the other, both are acceptable, because both ultimately lead to Jesus.

After the disciples throw their nets on the other side of the boat and catch more than a boatload of fish, they realize that the stranger on the shore must have been Jesus. John describes what happened next by saying, “Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, ‘It is the Lord,’ he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.” (v. 7-8)

It would be easy for us to focus on Peter’s response. As soon as he had confirmation of his suspicion that Jesus was the man on the shore, he leaves everything and focuses on moving towards Jesus. In a similar way, we should never let anything stop us or distract us away from moving towards Jesus.

However, the other disciples in the boat dragging the net full of fish also come, but at a slower rate. While they were not far from the shore, they come with their catch. At this point, they don’t realize that Jesus already has fish cooking, and they are more than happy to supply fish for their breakfast meal.

We can see two offerings in this event as well. When Peter arrives at Jesus, he has only himself to offer, and he is happy to do so. When the other disciples arrive, not only do they have themselves, but they also have their catch of fish.

Both gifts are accepted, and both are examples for us. First and foremost, we should offer ourselves to Jesus so we can be used by Him as part of a much bigger plan than we could even imagine. But also, if we have things that God can use, we should be willing to give them up for Him as well. Nothing should get in the way of our focus on Jesus, and if we have things that Jesus can use, we should bring them as gifts for Him.

Our lives, our stuff, and our wealth are all acceptable gifts to God – but the thing He wants the most is our hearts, because that is what He ultimately will save for eternity, and this is the most valuable gift we can bring Him. It is a gift that anyone can give, and it is the most important gift we have to offer.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Faith Meets Hostility: Mark 7:24-30

Published May 5, 2022 in Audio Journal Entries

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Continuing our year in Mark’s gospel, we come to one of the most shocking events in Jesus’ life, and an event that likely stood out in the disciples’ minds for how Jesus appears to be mean in this case. While Jesus routinely has harsh words for religious leaders who should know better, this case is different. Jesus chooses to be mean to someone coming asking for His help.

Those of you who have listened for a while or who are familiar with Jesus’ life will likely know what event we are focusing in on in this passage, so let’s dive in and discover what we can learn, and what Jesus is trying to teach us in this event. Our passage and event are found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 24, Mark tells us that:

²⁴Jesus went from there to a place near Tyre. He entered a house. He did not want anyone to know where he was. But he could not keep it a secret. ²⁵Soon a woman heard about him. An evil spirit controlled her little daughter. The woman came to Jesus and fell at his feet. ²⁶She was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹Then he told her, “That was a good reply. You may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰So she went home and found her child lying on the bed. And the demon was gone.

In this short event and miracle, Jesus first does something that is very uncharacteristic of Him. We might even call Jesus out for being not politically correct on multiple levels. Not only does Jesus subtly call this woman a dog, but He alludes to her entire race as being lower than that of the Jews.

As I have read the gospels, this event stands out as one of the meanest things Jesus ever does. This event oddly paints Jesus as being unChristlike, if that is even possible.

However, since Jesus is Christ, why might Jesus have insulted this gentile woman like He did? Since this is Jesus, He must have a reason for this cruelty. In at least one other gospel that includes this event, I believe it alluded to this woman following Jesus asking repeatedly for help while Jesus initially ignores her. So not only do we see Jesus ignore this request, but He also insults the requester when finally acknowledging her.

But why? Why does Jesus seem to single out this request and push back in what appears to be a mean way? Could we even call this love?

In this event, I see two big questions that challenge us to look deeper than the surface. Both of these questions would not be possible to ask if Jesus had responded in a more typical fashion. Like the gospel writers share in other parts of the gospel, Jesus was aware of the hearts and minds of those around Him and I believe He sensed He could use this event to teach His followers a couple of lessons.

The first lesson we can learn from this passage is one of the most challenging lessons we face in our lives. This lesson comes from the question: Does your faith persist if it meets resistance or hostility?

While it is never pleasant to think of Jesus being mean or hostile towards someone, we discover through this woman’s persistence that she wouldn’t leave Jesus alone until He had helped her. From what the gospel writers include, I can conclude that nothing Jesus would have done or said would have stopped this woman from persisting in her belief and her request for Jesus’ help. When our faith meets resistance or hostility, will we give up and abandon our faith, or will we continue persisting. We were never promised easy, simple lives, and one reason this might be the case is that an easy life produces only weak faith. Persistence and resistance together strengthen faith, and because of this, our faith can only be strengthened in less than easy environments.

Through Jesus’ resistance to this woman and her request, we see a faith that persists regardless of the obstacles present. This woman is an amazing example for us to model!

The second lesson we see in this passage is one that focuses more on Jesus. While the first lesson teaches us through the woman’s example, the second lesson teaches us through Jesus’ example. While we might look at this event and call Jesus out for being unloving, when we do this, we are met with the question: Is true love based on what you say, or is love based on what you do?

While it is easy to say that both what you say and what you do are important in the discussion of love, if you could only pick one, which would it be? If we look at what Jesus does in this passage and ignore what He says or doesn’t say, we simply see a miracle. Except that we don’t see a miracle directly, but we see Jesus promise the miracle and the woman accepting Jesus’ word.

This leads us to conclude that if we were to define love based on this event, love at its core is more about what we do and less about what we say. While Jesus didn’t walk around looking for people He could be openly mean to, in this event Jesus draws our attention onto the stereotype of the culture that looked down on others, and Jesus challenges us to help other people, even if culture tells us that we should be hostile or mean to them instead.

Jesus came as a Messiah for all humanity, not simply for a single race, religion, or sub-group of people. Jesus came to redeem sinners, and everyone in this world is defined this way regardless of whether you belief in God or whether you believe sin even exists.

As a follower of Jesus, we are called to display Jesus’ love. While this love should also include being kind with our words, it is much more important for us to be kind in our actions. Jesus was clearly kind with what He did in this event, and this was in spite of culture pushing Him to be cruel or mean.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally and purposefully seek God first in your life and choose to show His love to the world around you. Understand that love is more than simply words. Love includes our actions, our kindness, and our stepping out to help others who are from a different social group or social circle. Jesus helped people who were different from Him even if society told Him He should be exclusive, and Jesus challenged His followers to help others like He did.

Also, like the woman, we should be persistent in our faith and not let resistance or hostility change our faith, our hope, or our belief in Jesus.

Continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow and strengthen your faith and your relationship with Jesus, and don’t let anyone or anything get in between you and God. God wants a personal relationship with you. For a relationship to be truly personal, it cannot have anyone standing between you and God, or specifically you and Jesus. Intentionally focus on growing your personal relationship with God!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year in Mark – Episode 18: When a gentile woman comes asking for Jesus’ help, discover in Jesus’ response a very unChristlike behavior, and what we can learn from both the woman and Jesus in this very unique event.

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Keeping Track of Forgiveness: Matthew 18:15-35

Published May 4, 2022 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 18:15-35 (NCV)

¹⁵ “If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again. ¹⁶ But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you. ‘Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.

¹⁸ “I tell you the truth, the things you don’t allow on earth will be the things God does not allow. And the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows.

¹⁹ “Also, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about something and pray for it, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ This is true because if two or three people come together in my name, I am there with them.”

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, when my fellow believer sins against me, how many times must I forgive him? Should I forgive him as many as seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven.

²³ “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who decided to collect the money his servants owed him. ²⁴ When the king began to collect his money, a servant who owed him several million dollars was brought to him. ²⁵ But the servant did not have enough money to pay his master, the king. So the master ordered that everything the servant owned should be sold, even the servant’s wife and children. Then the money would be used to pay the king what the servant owed.

²⁶ “But the servant fell on his knees and begged, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’ ²⁷ The master felt sorry for his servant and told him he did not have to pay it back. Then he let the servant go free.

²⁸ “Later, that same servant found another servant who owed him a few dollars. The servant grabbed him around the neck and said, ‘Pay me the money you owe me!’

²⁹ “The other servant fell on his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’

³⁰ “But the first servant refused to be patient. He threw the other servant into prison until he could pay everything he owed. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very sorry. So they went and told their master all that had happened.

³² “Then the master called his servant in and said, ‘You evil servant! Because you begged me to forget what you owed, I told you that you did not have to pay anything. ³³ You should have showed mercy to that other servant, just as I showed mercy to you.’ ³⁴ The master was very angry and put the servant in prison to be punished until he could pay everything he owed.

³⁵ “This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Read Matthew 18:15-35 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In today’s journal entry, we will be looking at a passage that emphasizes forgiveness and reconciliation. There is an interesting “big idea” that I saw while studying this that I want to touch on in this journal entry.

On hearing Jesus tell His disciples that they must forgive others who have sinned against them, Peter has a question: “How many times is too many times to forgive someone?” Jesus had just shared the process for forgiveness and helping there to be reconciliation, but nowhere did Jesus specify a number of times to forgive a wrong.

Thinking he has picked a number that is most generous, Peter suggests seven times in his question. It is in Jesus’ response that we get our big idea: Forgiveness is not about counting or keeping track of the wrong, but about letting go and moving forward.

Jesus tells Peter, “You must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven.” Jesus does have a formula, but it is one that we don’t really like thinking about. (Hint: The formula is not 490 times.)

Jesus’ formula for forgiveness is whatever number we are thinking of times that number times ten. So had Peter said 5 times, Jesus’ response would probably have been something like “fifty times five”. We can illustrate this by saying (5 x 10) x 5, or (7 x 10) x 7, or even (15 x 10) x 15 if we are really generous.

The point really isn’t about the number though, because as soon as we have our number, we have to redo the formula because Jesus isn’t interested in counting or keeping track of how many times we have been hurt.

In order to understand forgiveness, it helps to look at it from a financial angle. Let’s say Frank owes money to Bob. When forgiving the debt, Bob is being released from the obligation for payment, but not only that, Frank is also released from having to keep track of Bob and pressuring him for payment.

This is an easy explanation, but what if Bob hurt Frank in a way that was not so easy to repay. What if it resulted in a long-term injury or even a death? How could Bob ever fully repay his debt?

This is where the true power of forgiveness comes into play, because it actually helps the person forgiving more than the person being forgiven. Bob knows there is no way he could repay the debt, so he avoids the issue and moves on. Frank though has to live with this issue, and avoiding forgiveness turns the hurt into anger, which left unchecked turns into bitterness, which will then infect all of Frank’s interactions with others. By forgiving, which is completely unnatural—especially the longer one takes to forgive—Frank is able to move forward in his life and let the past be the past.

The number of times we should forgive then becomes irrelevant because forgiveness benefits the forgiver much more than the person being forgiven.

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Unraveling the Mystery: John 20:11-18

Published May 3, 2022 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 20:11-18 (GNT)

¹¹Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb ¹²and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³“Woman, why are you crying?” they asked her.

She answered, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!”

¹⁴Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵“Woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who is it that you are looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (This means “Teacher.”)

¹⁷“Do not hold on to me,” Jesus told her, “because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God.”

¹⁸So Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and related to them what he had told her.

Read John 20:11-18 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During Jesus’ conversation with Mary Magdalene, He tells her something that is fascinating, and it challenges how we understand one of Jesus’ earlier conversations. If Jesus ever contradicted Himself, this might be the place to focus our attention on.

In the conversation, immediately after Mary recognizes that the gardener really is Jesus, in my mind’s eye, she gives Him a big hug and this is a hug that she never wants to end. She had lost Jesus once in her mind, and she doesn’t want to let that happen again.

But Jesus’ response is perplexing. “‘Do not hold on to me,’ Jesus told her, ‘because I have not yet gone back up to the Father.’” (v. 17a)

On one hand, Jesus’ response sounds a little cruel. “Don’t hold onto me” is like saying “don’t touch me”, and this is uncharacteristic of Jesus, but how Jesus follows up this statement is even more perplexing. The reason Jesus gives is because He has not yet gone back up to the Father.

But then where was Jesus while He was dead – and more importantly, what happened to the thief on the cross who Jesus promised immediate eternal life “with Him”. Later on in the New Testament, we read that Jesus witnessed to spirits while in the tomb (1 Peter 3:18-22).

Some commentators point to the paradise Jesus promised being connected with “Abraham’s Bosom”, and Jesus first went there before going to the place of torment (using the Rich Man and Lazarus parable as a literal framework), but this idea breaks down when we read that the tree of life is in paradise (Revelation 2:7) and that the tree of life is in the presence of God’s throne (Revelation 22:2, 14, 19). Jesus simply cannot tell Mary that He didn’t return to the Father if He took the thief on the cross with Him to paradise when He died – because the tree of life is in paradise and that is also in the presence of His Father.

However, the hinge word in Jesus’ promise to the thief is the word “today”. Most translators punctuate this word as tying into the fulfillment of the promise; but by translating Jesus’ words in this way, these translators turn Jesus’ words to Mary in the garden into a lie when we look closer at the scriptures describing paradise.

Instead, if the word “today” is instead attached to the time Jesus gave the promise, then everything is smoothed out, because the thief is promised eternal life, Jesus is able to witness to spirits in the tomb (something I probably will never fully grasp what Peter is describing), and Jesus’ conversation with Mary gives context for the future fulfillment of the promise He gives to all His followers of a future with God.

This conversation in the garden may challenge our thinking regarding what happened on crucifixion weekend, but when we look closely at what the gospel writers and disciples describe, we can be more certain and assured of the future resurrected life with Jesus in paradise, eating from the tree of life, while spending time with God the Father by the sea of glass.

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