Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus nears the end of His famous Sermon on the Mount, He challenges those in the crowd, as well as His followers, about a couple things before giving them a big promise that directly relates to how God answers prayers. If you have felt condemned by God, or if you’ve felt as though your prayers are going unheard, perhaps this portion of Jesus’ sermon was shared just for you, and perhaps for people who have felt similar to you.

Let’s dive in and discover what Jesus taught those present about God. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Jesus tells the crowd of followers:

¹ “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Let’s pause briefly here to focus on some of what Jesus has just shared. In this portion of our passage, Jesus challenges His followers to only judge others in the same way they would like to be judged. What is interesting about this challenge is that when we judge others, we look at their actions and we assume their intentions from their actions.

However, when we judge ourselves, we look at our intentions and filter the meaning of our actions through our intentions. This is like saying that we judge others by what they did, but we expect to be judged for what we do by why we did it.

This is what Jesus warned us about, because if we judge others by their actions, we will ultimately be judged by our actions as well. Knowing this spiritual rule, we should be even more forgiving and loving towards others, because if we “judge” others through the filter of “forgiveness” and “reuniting people together” then that is how we will be judged, which is another way of saying that we will also experience forgiveness and acceptance.

When we look at other people, we are quick to see even the tiniest fault they have, but when we look at ourselves, we are blind to the biggest faults of our own. If we want to help others with their problems, we should first be conscious, aware, and working to remove the huge faults from our own life as well. We probably should also be careful and cautious about how we approach offering our help to others. If the person we want to help is aware of their speck but also aware of our plank, then it is unlikely they would want our help and it is unlikely they will change their minds regardless of how insistent we are offering our help.

Before moving to the second section of our passage, Jesus shares an interesting metaphor warning us to not throw sacred things to dogs or pearls to pigs. While this has been understood to mean a number of things, or to suggest a number of different things, I think Jesus is warning us to not be too quick about sharing spiritual things with those who are not interested in spiritual matters. This would be like advising us to not take what is precious to us and give it to a pack of dogs or a herd of pigs. Neither group of animals would value it like you might hope they would, and in the same way, people who are unconcerned about spiritual things are not going to care about the spiritual things that you want to share. They might even hate you for it.

However, Jesus then turns his attention onto prayer and onto how we should expect God to answer our requests. Continuing in verse 7, Jesus tells those present:

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

In this passage, when we pray and when we ask God for the things we need, sometimes it seems as though He is ignoring us. However, according to this promise, God will give us what we ask for, help us find what we seek, and will open the doors we knock on. This seems simple enough, except for what Jesus then follows up by saying.

Jesus challenges those present when they think about a parent/child relationship that those in the parent role want to give what is good, helpful, and safe to their children. Jesus says that this is even the case with evil people. However, what about God, who knows the end from the beginning, and who knows exactly what we need even if what we need is not what we are asking for?

If we are asking for what God sees as a snake or a stone, which in this context are two things that are not beneficial for us, do you think God will give us something He knows will hurt us? While our requests are sincere and from our perspective, we are asking for what we believe we need, God has a much bigger perspective and a much bigger goal for our lives than we can imagine. God’s ultimate goal is saving us, and as many people as possible for eternity, and with that perspective, if what we are asking for will put God’s goals in jeopardy, then He isn’t going to answer our prayer in the way we think He should answer it.

When we pray, we should pray with trust in God that the answers He sends are exactly what we need to help us, and those around us, to be saved for eternity – even if the answers He sends are not the same as the prayers we prayed.

It is interesting in my mind that Jesus concludes this idea by saying that the law is summed up in the phrase “do to others what you would have them do to you”. Jesus has just been talking about prayer and about God’s gifts to us. It is as though this thought could extend beyond just our interaction with each other and it give us a frame of reference to understand God as well.

Within the context of Jesus’ message, we can understand Jesus telling us that God gave us everything He had, including His own Son to take the punishment for our sins — and while God doesn’t require the same back from us, it is what He desires to see. God did for us what He would want us to do for Him!

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, be sure to seek God first and to love God like He has loved you. When looking for examples of how God has loved you and placed humanity first, look no further than what Jesus did for us. Jesus left Heaven, became human, suffered ridicule and rejection from those who should have known better, and ultimately Jesus gave His life. The Bible teaches that after Jesus’ resurrection and return to heaven, He is still ministering on our behalf before God’s throne in the Heavenly sanctuary. Jesus has given Himself entirely to humanity!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word for anything, or anyone else’s word for that matter. Instead, study out God’s truth for yourself in prayer and Bible study to know for yourself what He teaches us through His Word.

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 leave where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Coming right after the passage we focused on last week, we discover in our passage for this week that Jesus has a question for the religious leaders. When reading about this event, our last few weeks of episodes most likely cover one long event, and this event finds Jesus facing a series of questions challenging His ministry and His role.

However, the passage we focused in on last week didn’t seem to be much of a challenge. A religious teacher asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is and Jesus answered by quoting the law where it talks about loving God and Jesus follows up with the second most important commandment which is love for our neighbor.

The religious teacher agrees with Jesus, and it appeared to be the end of the discussion. However, part of me wonders if our passage for this week has Jesus speak up with a counter question before the religious leaders can regroup with a new question. Perhaps Jesus knows the next question that will come and He wants to short-circuit it before it gets asked.

Let’s read our passage and discover what Jesus asks the crowd of people who are present and what we can learn from what is said and the question that might not have had the chance to get asked. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 35, Mark tells us that:

³⁵ While Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard, he asked, “How can the experts in Moses’ Teachings say that the Messiah is David’s son? ³⁶ David, guided by the Holy Spirit, said,

‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    “Take the honored position—the one next to me [God the Father] on the heavenly throne
        until I put your enemies under your control.”’

³⁷ David calls him Lord. So how can he be his son?”

The large crowd enjoyed listening to him.

In this short question and quotation, we discover some profound ideas. Right before our event and Jesus’ counter question, Jesus had just shared the most important commandment, which in verses 29-30, Jesus quotes in full by saying “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. So love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

This commandment stresses the singular nature of God. The question that likely was being formulated in the religious leaders’ minds was the question challenging Jesus on this very idea. If God is One and Jesus claimed to be God, then they had successfully trapped Jesus in His own words. While Jesus was both God and man, this union of Creator and creation isn’t something we can really understand. If Jesus was asked this question, it is possible there is no good, easy to understand answer.

So Jesus jumps in with His own question that challenges the premise of the question the religious leaders are all thinking, and in His response, He subtly gives Himself a role in the prophetic words David spoke.

Jesus attributes this psalm to David being guided by the Holy Spirit, and we discover in this psalm a conversation between God the Father and God the Son. This psalm has messianic connections because God the Father is pictured as being a deliverer and letting the Messiah sit next to Him while He deals with the Messiah’s enemies.

This psalm describes an event in Heaven, and it is a discussion among the members of the Godhead. This detail challenges the notion that God is one singular being. This detail also challenges the idea that God is singular but different at different points in history. This detail draws our attention onto two member of the Godhead, and Jesus alludes to the third Member of the Godhead in the opening statement to His question.

Not only does this question and quotation challenge the argument the religious leaders were forming about God being One, singular Being, but it also suggests that the Messiah existed before David, and that in itself challenges the idea that the Messiah is David’s descendant.

The only way all these details can be reconciled is a union between God and humanity, through a virgin birth. This detail makes sense on one level to us living thousands of years later, but it is still about as difficult and unbelievable as it was to someone hearing it for the first time in the first century.

Since the religious leaders didn’t believe God liked humanity enough to become a human, they could not fathom the idea that the Messiah could be a descendant of David, while also being a member of the Godhead. It is in this dilemma the religious leaders create for themselves that Jesus steps into. With the religious leaders’ preconceived ideas, Jesus asks them a question they want to answer, but they cannot. This question is perfect because it silenced both the question they were planning on asking, and it silences all their future challenges because it challenged the foundation of their entire tradition.

This conversation, and this question, challenges us today. While there are many people who believe Jesus was simply a good teacher who had some nice things to say, will we be willing to believe that God actually became human, and as a human, that God lived and died to take the punishment for our sins?

Meeting Jesus and knowing who He is can be discovered up to a point, but past that point, we must have faith. Knowing how Jesus can be both human and divine is something we cannot fully comprehend, but we don’t have to understand it to believe that it is true. All that matters is that God knows how it is possible, and that He made it possible for us.

Because Jesus became human and because He died the death we deserved, we have the hope of an eternal future life with God in heaven.

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

Always seek God first and have faith when faced with ideas we cannot understand. Always push forward to learn and discover more, but know that time will end before we reach the end of what God wants to teach us.

As always, pray and study the Bible for yourself, and don’t take my word, or any pastor, podcaster, author, or speaker’s word for it. Discover God’s truth straight from the Holy Spirit inspired Bible, and study it in preparation for learning directly from God when Jesus returns!

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