Reflective Bible Study

As we continue our journey focusing on the week leading up to the cross, we come to one of the most well known events in Jesus’ entire life, which was the point in time where He rode into Jerusalem on a young donkey.

While all the gospels describe Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a young donkey, only Luke’s gospel includes an interesting detail about this event and where Jesus had placed His focus. However, before we get to that, Jesus first needs to get the young donkey to ride on.

Let’s read about what happened from Luke’s gospel, chapter 19, using the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 28, Luke tells us that:

²⁸ After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. ²⁹ As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. ³⁰ “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

³² So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. ³³ And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?”

³⁴ And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

Pausing briefly, I always find it amazing that Jesus knew exactly what would happen, and that He tells the two disciples exactly what to say when faced with the donkey’s owners who probably thought they were catching two not-so-bright thieves. While we don’t know any of the back story regarding this donkey colt, from how the owners’ responded, we can tell that these owners are willing to trust God with their stuff.

This portion of our event also reassures us that when faced with difficult circumstances surrounding what God has asked us to do, we can trust that He will give us the words to say to bring about His purposes in the world.

Returning to our passage in verse 35,

 ³⁵ So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

³⁶ As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. ³⁷ When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

³⁸ “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

³⁹ But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

⁴⁰ He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

⁴¹ But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. ⁴² “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. ⁴⁴ They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

In Luke’s gospel, we discover that during the celebration of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, the Pharisees in the crowd had something to disagree with. Actually, this shouldn’t surprise us at all, except to say that it might be a little surprising to discover that there were Pharisees present in this situation. The fact that Pharisees were present in this event makes me think that Jesus likely had his own dedicated team of critics that followed Him wherever He went. I also wonder if some of these Pharisees were commissioned with the task of seeing where Jesus would be staying, just in case the religious leaders decided on a time to arrest Him.

However, this is not all Luke describes. While the crowd cheers for Jesus’ entrance, and the Pharisees sneer at the crowd glorifying Jesus as a coming King, we see a different response from Jesus Himself. Luke tells us that when the city comes into view, Jesus weeps for it.

There are only two places in the gospels where Jesus is recorded as weeping, and this is one of them. The other is when Lazarus was in the tomb and everyone else was crying about His death. While Jesus weeping over Lazarus’ death is significant in its own way, Jesus does something that turns that crowd’s tears into joy.

However, in this instance, there isn’t anything Jesus can do for the city He loves. Jesus knows that His death is the only way for the city’s survival, but more important than Jesus’ death is that the religious leaders must recognize and acknowledge who Jesus is. Jesus’ hands are tied as He realizes that nothing He can do will save the city of Jerusalem from facing destruction.

God offered salvation to His people through Jesus, but they chose to reject Him and this ultimately led to Jerusalem’s destruction when they rallied against Rome and ultimately failed.

In this event, we can learn that when we depend on God and lean on Him for guidance, He will teach us what to say, and He will bring us His peace. While Jesus wept when realizing that the city He loved would ultimately be destroyed, He still loved the city and the people living within its walls. Even if our own lives cause Jesus pain, He still loves each of us and He wants to help heal our hurts.

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

Be sure to always seek God first, and intentionally depend on Him for help facing the challenges that life brings our way. Know that the only place we can find true, lasting peace is through Jesus.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus personally. While someone else can give you ideas to think about, never let your relationship with Jesus depend on anyone else. Praying personally and studying the Bible personally help grow your personal relationship with Him.

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

While it might seem strange starting out the new year looking at a passage from the Christmas story, this happens to be where Matthew begins. Well actually, before looking at Jesus’ birth story, Matthew takes a look at Jesus’ genealogy and traces it back to Abraham. While planning for this year, I quickly realized that Matthew has too many events in it than we are able to cover in our year. Because of this, I thought we could move through this gospel looking at some of the highlight events, and focusing in on some of the events that only Matthew includes.

This then leads us to focus a couple episodes here at the beginning of our year in this gospel on Jesus’ birth, because while Luke also focuses on this event, both gospels share different details.

Matthew sets the stage by including the tension that was present when it was discovered that Mary was pregnant. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 1, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. ²⁰ But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “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. ²¹ She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” ²² Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³ “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.” ²⁴ And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, ²⁵ but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

While reading this, I am amazed at Joseph. This passage gives us a glimpse of Joseph’s character, and it is one of only a few passages that focus on Jesus’ earthly dad. In this passage, Matthew describes Joseph as a “righteous man”, but the subtle implication is also that he did not believe Mary when she insisted that her pregnancy was of divine origin. Joseph decides to send Mary away secretly because he does not want to disgrace her in a public way. This choice shows us a piece of Joseph’s character. While Joseph had every right and opportunity to publicly shame Mary for her pregnancy before his dream, he resolved to keep the issue as a private matter in order to help Mary keep her reputation more intact.

However, after resolving on a plan of action, Joseph has a dream that changes his plans. The timing of this dream is interesting in my mind. I wonder if Joseph had been deliberating on a plan of action for several days or weeks before making up his mind, or if this was something Joseph had decided on the same day he learned about the pregnancy.

Regardless of the timing details that are not included in this passage, it is fascinating that the angel appeared in the dream only after Joseph had made a decision. I wonder if this shows us a little piece of how God acts. Sometimes, God will wait for us to make a decision before He steps in to help us shift our decision onto His path for us.

If this is the case, then it does us no good to wait and stall making a decision because we want God’s input, because God is waiting for us to make the decision for ourselves before stepping in if needed to help us shift our choices onto His paths.

After Joseph had the dream, he changed the course of His life to match the message he was given. Instead of sending Mary away quietly, Joseph moves through the marriage proceeding, and it’s possible he accelerated the plan simply to help this situation be less awkward for his new wife. It is possible that Joseph wanted this pregnancy to be less obvious that it was not his, even though he kept her a virgin as Matthew described.

This dream completely changed the course of Joseph’s life. Joseph took this dream to heart and he followed through with what the angel told him. In this dream, we have an angel validating Mary’s unbelievable story, and the angel also, interestingly enough, calls Joseph a “son of David”. I’m curious if Joseph knew his genealogy enough to know that he was a descendant of David. I wonder if this is one reason why Matthew opens his gospel by not only connecting Joseph to David, but also to Abraham as well. Either way, this greeting is a powerful one to pay attention to because the Messiah that God promised was to be one of David’s descendants, and if I’m not mistaken, one of Abraham’s descendants as well.

The angel validates Mary’s testimony about the pregnancy, and the angel also gives Joseph the name that they should give the Baby. When we look at the story of Zechariah and the birth of John the Baptist in Luke’s gospel, we discover that the father was the one to officially name the child. It is only after Zechariah officially writes down John’s name that he is able to speak again.

Bringing this information over to Joseph and Mary’s story in Matthew, it is as though through this angel, God the Father is telling Joseph, the earthly dad, what to name His Son. This is a powerful exchange between these two father roles and we can easily miss this detail if we are not paying attention.

Joseph’s role is a significant role in Jesus’ story. Joseph’s role is similar to an adoptive step-father, since Jesus is not directly his, but Joseph is also responsible for raising Jesus. While we don’t know much about Joseph’s character, we do know that Joseph succeeded at his role of being Jesus’ dad because of the man Jesus grew up to be.

As we come to the end of this first passage in our year in Matthew’s gospel, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to let Him lead and guide you along the path He wants you to take. While sometimes God will show us a decision we should make before we have made it, don’t wait to make decisions, because God might be waiting for us to make the decision before stepping in if necessary. We should intentionally move through life and be open, willing, and expecting God to step in and correct our course when necessary.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day. While other people can give you things to think about, only through personal study, personal prayer, and time can someone grow a personal relationship with Jesus. Continue growing your personal relationship with Jesus, starting today!

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 wander away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!