Reflective Bible Study

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!

First off, as we begin, happy new year to all of you. After having finished all four years of chronologically moving through Jesus’ life, I have to admit that it is a little weird to be beginning this year not actually looking at something from Jesus’ birth story. However, if your experience was anything like mine, we probably spent plenty of time focusing on Jesus’ birth this past Christmas season.

However, as I’m sure you know, the main reason Jesus’ birth was so special wasn’t just because of God stepping down and becoming human, as hard as that is for us to grasp. The main reason we should pay attention to Jesus’ entrance and time spent in our world is what we will be focusing on during this year of podcasts. This year, we will be focusing on the week leading up to the cross, and what we can learn about Jesus and God from this key piece of time in our world’s history.

To start our year of podcasting through the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, we will turn our attention to John’s gospel, to a special supper that takes place in Jesus’ honor, and what we can learn about what happened. Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will be reading it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. ³ Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” ⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

⁷ “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

⁹ Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, ¹¹ for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

In this passage, alongside Mary’s amazing gift of perfume, we discover how this event both predicts what is coming, as well as it setting the stage for Jesus’ crucifixion a little less than a week later.

To set the stage for this final week, the way John concludes this passage is about perfect. John reminds us that a large crowd found out Jesus was there and they came to see Him, and not just Jesus, but Lazarus as well. Because of Jesus’ renewed popularity and because this resurrection miracle was prompting people to believe in Jesus, the chief priests not only focused on looking for a way to kill Jesus, but to kill Lazarus as well. As we move from this point forward, we discover how everything the chief priests do is focused on trying to discredit Jesus, on planning His death, or both.

Also, the stage is set in this passage for Judas to betray Jesus. In this event, we discover that Jesus pushes back at Judas Iscariot over his condescending remarks about Mary’s gift. John tells us Judas did not say this because he was interested in helping the poor, but because he would help himself to the money they had collected for the poor. I don’t know how this wouldn’t have been obvious to the other disciples and to Jesus because they traveled everywhere together, but perhaps Judas thought he was being secretive, but instead, it was something that all the disciples knew, but that Judas simply denied regardless of the evidence.

Regardless of what had led to this point, Jesus’ response to Judas over Mary’s gift challenges Judas and it gives Judas the opportunity to take the challenge personally instead of focusing on what Jesus had just told everyone.

When we look at this passage, Jesus sets the stage for our whole year of podcasting the week leading up to His crucifixion by directly attributing Mary’s gift of perfume for the day He would be buried. Many of those present might have missed this foreshadowing, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t present. In Jesus’ statement, we see Him drawing attention to the idea they didn’t want to accept that He would die. This wasn’t the first time Jesus tried to forewarn the disciples about His upcoming crucifixion, but like many of the other times, the significance of Jesus’ words escaped those present.

With the stage set leading into the week of the cross, and our year of podcasting the events of this week, Jesus also shares a powerful statement that would be wise for us to keep in our minds. Jesus tells His followers in verse 8, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

This phrase is powerful in my mind because it challenges our perspective in a number of ways. The first and most obvious way is that Jesus’ followers will not always have Jesus. This sounds counterintuitive because Jesus promised to be with His followers forever in the great commission, but the truth we must face in Jesus’ words is that we might not always feel or see Jesus’ presence. In a physical sense, Jesus is not always going to be visible in our lives or in our situations.

However, to contrast this, Jesus tells His followers that there will always be those who are poor living among us. Being poor is not a problem that can be solved because being poor is simply standing at a specific place on a scale of income or wealth. While we can look at those at the bottom and desire to help them increase their standard of living, this doesn’t change the definition of being poor as being at the bottom of the wealth spectrum.

However, feeling poor is a different story. Almost everyone feels poor, and that is because most people live right up to the edge of their income, and most people focus on looking at those who have more than they do – which makes most people feel poor even if they are among the richest people in the world.

But the biggest perspective challenge Jesus shares is a challenge to focus on what God has blessed us with and to focus on our relationship with Jesus above everything else. There will always be problems and challenges in our lives similar to how there will always be poor people living in the world. Jesus challenges His followers, you and I included, to focus on our relationship with Him first and then only after we have a strong relationship with Him should we then focus on helping those around us.

Yes we should help other people, but the truth of this life is that the most generous person who doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus will be worse off when this life ends than the person who could have been more generous, but they chose instead to focus on and grow towards Jesus. We might not always feel God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit’s presence, but we know from Jesus’ challenge that this is where we should focus our attention.

As we come to the end of our first episode in our year focusing on the cross, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always prioritize your relationship with God, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit first. Accept Jesus’ challenge that helping others is important, but it should never take the place of our relationship with Him. Even the most generous life lived without Jesus is counted as a loss when we look at what is needed for salvation. Because of this, the challenge for all of us is to place and prioritize Jesus as first in our lives.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself because this is the best way to grow closer to God each and every day. While an author, speaker, pastor, or podcaster can give you things to think about, they should never replace your personal relationship with Jesus.

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