Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Insights from a Pagan: Matthew 27:45-56

Published November 26, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 27:45-56 (GW)

⁴⁵At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ⁴⁶About three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” ⁴⁷When some of the people standing there heard him say that, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸One of the men ran at once, took a sponge, and soaked it in some vinegar. Then he put it on a stick and offered Jesus a drink. ⁴⁹The others said, “Leave him alone! Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

⁵⁰Then Jesus loudly cried out once again and gave up his life.

⁵¹Suddenly, the curtain in the temple was split in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split open. ⁵²The tombs were opened, and the bodies of many holy people who had died came back to life. ⁵³They came out of the tombs after he had come back to life, and they went into the holy city where they appeared to many people.

⁵⁴An army officer and those watching Jesus with him saw the earthquake and the other things happening. They were terrified and said, “Certainly, this was the Son of God!”

⁵⁵Many women were there watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee and had always supported him. ⁵⁶Among them were Mary from Magdala, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Read Matthew 27:45-56 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Of all the people in the gospel record, one non-Jewish person who witnesses Jesus’ death seems to stand out in the gospels. This individual is mentioned in three of the four gospels, and he is known specifically for his reaction to how Jesus died.

If we are reading through the gospels in the order they are found in most Bibles, we first read about this individual in Matthew: “An army officer and those watching Jesus with him saw the earthquake and the other things happening. They were terrified and said, ‘Certainly, this was the Son of God!’” (v. 54)

That is a pretty significant statement coming from a Roman soldier – someone who was very familiar with death and crucifixion.

Next we come to the gospel of Mark, and he quotes a slightly different statement here: “When the officer who stood facing Jesus saw how he gave up his spirit, he said, ‘Certainly, this man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39)

Mark’s quote is similar to Matthew’s, but it emphasizes the human-nature of Jesus. Mark doesn’t tell us about the earthquake, but he does draw our attention to the army officer realizing that Jesus was different.

Lastly, we come to Luke’s gospel, and while he tells us a very different statement, it also points us to an important truth: “When an army officer saw what had happened, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly, this man was innocent!’” (Luke 23:47)

Luke’s quote doesn’t emphasize Jesus’ divinity or His humanity – it emphasizes His innocence. This is incredibly important because this is what our salvation hinges on. A “guilty” Jesus could not be a pure sacrifice for us, but an innocent Jesus, who died the death He didn’t deserve, could pay for our sins.

In these three unique statements from a Roman soldier, we see a picture of someone who had a very pagan worldview realizing Jesus was both God and human, and that He was innocent. This is probably one of the strongest testimonies we could find in the Bible about who Jesus was.

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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Freed to Forgive: Matthew 6:14-18

Published November 25, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 6:14-18 (NIrV)

¹⁴Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.

¹⁶“When you go without eating, do not look gloomy like those who only pretend to be holy. They make their faces look very sad. They want to show people they are fasting. What I’m about to tell you is true. They have received their complete reward. ¹⁷But when you go without eating, put olive oil on your head. Wash your face. ¹⁸Then others will not know that you are fasting. Only your Father, who can’t be seen, will know it. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.

Read Matthew 6:14-18 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In this passage is one of the most challenging sets of verses that I can think of in the whole Bible. The passage we will be focusing on opens with two verses that emphasize the importance of forgiveness and having a forgiving character:

“Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (v. 14-15)

This is about as strong of a statement that Jesus can make to emphasize the importance of forgiving others. If we don’t, God won’t forgive us.

Is this a condition for getting into heaven?

Is God sitting in heaven with a list of people who you and I have neglected to forgive and if we end up dying before forgiving the people on the list, we won’t make it?

On the surface, this is what these verses appear to be saying, but I think this idea runs a little deeper than the literal surface. What if these verses aren’t describing God as the keeper of a list of people who we must forgive and instead it is emphasizing something that we must develop as a part of our character?

Part of God’s nature is that He is a forgiver of sins, and He has called us disciples, which is another way to say imitate, or copy, the Master. As disciples, we must try to be like God as much as possible, because we are His representatives here on earth. This means that if God has forgiveness as a key part of His character, we should also place forgiveness in a similar place.

Forgiveness simply means not holding someone’s past against them. If someone has hurt you, simply move on. Don’t dwell on what happened, don’t seek revenge, and don’t badmouth that individual to others. But also, don’t feel like you need to keep a relationship going with that person. Forgiveness does not mean reuniting with that individual or even compromising on what happened.

Forgiveness can also mean leaving yesterday in the past and starting fresh today. Jesus’ death on the cross gives God the freedom to forgive the past and begin each day as a fresh day with us. Without past baggage dragging you down, what could your walk with God be like?

In this passage, we learn that God forgives as we forgive – He wants us to be forgivers of others. This is because He wants us to experience freedom from our past – from both our mistakes and our hurt from others.

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Flashback Episode — Spiritual Bias: Luke 22:66-71

Published November 24, 2025 in Audio Journal Entries

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Moving from the night of Jesus’ arrest and to the morning Jesus was ultimately crucified, we arrive at Jesus’ trial before the religious leaders. In order to condemn Jesus to death, the religious leaders needed to find something Jesus was guilty of.

While many of the gospels share different details about what happened during the twelve hours between the garden and the cross, the way Luke’s gospel frames Jesus’ trial is fascinating. Let’s read what happened.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 66, Luke tells us:

⁶⁶At daybreak all the elders of the people assembled, including the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. Jesus was led before this high council, ⁶⁷and they said, “Tell us, are you the Messiah?”

But he replied, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. ⁶⁸And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer. ⁶⁹But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand.”

⁷⁰They all shouted, “So, are you claiming to be the Son of God?”

And he replied, “You say that I am.”

⁷¹“Why do we need other witnesses?” they said. “We ourselves heard him say it.”

In Luke’s version of Jesus’ trial, I am amazed at what the religious leaders actually latch on to as a condemnation of Jesus. While other gospel writers share this event differently, if we were to take and focus on Luke’s gospel alone, nothing in Jesus’ response sounds worthy of death in my mind.

Oddly enough, according to what we just read in Luke’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t really even claim to be the Son of God.

In case this didn’t stand out for you, let me read this passage again and pay close attention. Reading again from verse 66:

⁷⁰They all shouted, “So, are you claiming to be the Son of God?”

And he replied, “You say that I am.”

⁷¹“Why do we need other witnesses?” they said. “We ourselves heard him say it.”

In this passage, all that these religious leaders actually hear is Jesus predicting that God would honor Him, which might not be acceptable in their minds, but it certainly isn’t worthy of death in my mind.

The only other thing Jesus says is that the religious leaders themselves are pressing the specific title onto Him. Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man, while the religious leaders are claiming Jesus’ title is the Son of God.

However, is there something happening behind the scenes in this passage that the religious leaders understand but we might not fully grasp living in a different culture and thousands of years removed from the first century world?

I suspect the answer is a yes.

While the conclusion of this trial was a clear setup according to Luke, because Jesus never really says what they claim to “hear” Him say, perhaps there is something lost in translation, or perhaps this was really the only sliver of an opening these leaders had to condemn Jesus.

The something I suspect that gets lost on us living so far removed from this event is that it appears as though Jesus references back to the unanswerable question He asked the Pharisees just a few days earlier. In Luke, chapter 20, verses 42 and 43, Jesus quotes David from the Old Testament who said: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”

While this passage also doesn’t sound that significant, it is believed that David was quoting this conversation as being from God the Father to God the Son. With God the Son being the one to be honored at God’s right hand, we now have a solid context for why these religious leaders were upset with Jesus’ claim.

David has predicted that God’s Son would be the one to sit at God’s right hand, and Jesus has just stepped into claiming that position for Himself from that point forward.

When reading this passage, I am continually amazed at the religious leaders. I am very confident that these leaders understood Jesus’ reference to the position He would be given as equal to Jesus claiming to be God’s Son – even if nothing Jesus directly says claims this title. The religious leaders were smart enough to connect the dots when they wanted to find Jesus guilty of something.

However, the religious leaders were not smart enough to keep connecting the dots to realize that the Messiah God was sending to them would be rejected and killed by them. They didn’t realize that they would ultimately reject the Messiah that they were desperately longing would arrive.

It is the same with us today. Too often, we get so focused on one way of thinking that we stop being able to think there are other options, or other ways of interpreting the facts. Like these religious leaders, we know lots of information, but we have overlaid this information with a thick layer of bias that we cannot begin to see that the same information could really be telling other stories. It is this way when two people with different worldviews look at the same fossil record, or when two different people who are both very opinionated on opposite sides of the political spectrum describe the same political event.

The lenses we have on our eyes called our biases filter our lives through our beliefs. These biases lead to the religious leaders in the first century ultimately killing the Messiah God sent to them because Jesus didn’t fit their biased picture of who the Messiah would be.

Our biases today can just as easily cause us to miss out on signs God is sending or on amazing things He is doing in the world around us. Because our biases and beliefs filter the world around us, we must be extra diligent about what we use to form our biases and our beliefs. If left unchecked, our biases will stop us from truly learning anything new, and these same biases will trap us into missing out on seeing God.

The best way to combat bias in your life is to open up the Bible and read it for yourself. The amazing thing about the Bible is that it challenges every single bias we might have. The Bible challenges every area of science, every angle of politics, every angle of service, every angle of business, and every area of human interaction. The only thing the Bible doesn’t really cover is technology. The only way for you to know whether what I just said is actually true or not is to pick up the Bible and read it for yourself.

With that said, let’s wrap up this podcast with some direct challenges related to this big truth:

As I always begin by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life and intentionally place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. Ask God to help remove any unhealthy biases from your life and ask Him to help you better reflect His love and His character to the world around you!

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself. Everyone has an opinion of the Bible, and it can be easy to simply take someone else’s opinion about what the Bible says and agree with it. However, with eternity on the line, accepting someone else’s opinion about the Bible is the worst thing you could do. It is like having a beautifully wrapped present in front of you and a stranger telling you it is just an empty box. If you believe the stranger and never open the gift, you will never truly know what was inside the box!

It’s the same way with the Bible. Don’t let someone else trick you out of discovering God’s gift to you through the pages of 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 fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Luke – Episode 47: When looking at Jesus’ trial before the religious leaders on the morning He is crucified, discover how the religious leaders’ bias causes them to actually condemn an innocent Jesus, or perhaps rightly condemn Someone who claimed much more than they should have.

Assuming His Guilt: John 18:28-40

Published November 21, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 18:28-40 (NIV)

²⁸Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. ²⁹So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

³⁰“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

³¹Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. ³²This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

³³Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

³⁴“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

³⁵“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

³⁶Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

³⁷“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

³⁸“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. ³⁹But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

⁴⁰They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

Read John 18:28-40 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Of all the gospel writers to share about Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the gospel of John includes the version that may be my favorite. Matthew and Mark both share similar, very abridged versions, while Luke goes into details about how Pilate sends Jesus to see Herod, who then sends Jesus back.

However, the gospel of John is the only gospel that includes an actual conversation between Pilate and Jesus. All the other gospel writers simply include one question and one response Jesus gave. In John’s gospel, we learn that there was a brief discussion, but what is amazing in this discussion is not the discussion itself, but a subtle shift ended up happening that turned Pilates focus.

The passage opens with Pilate asking the Jewish leaders, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” (v. 29)

The Jewish leaders sidestep the question by saying, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” (v. 30)

The Jewish leaders give no charge or accusation, but instead simply press Jesus’ guilt. This simple detail is one that by itself makes this case unique. But a subtle shift happens during Jesus’ conversation with Pilate, because when we read Pilate’s verdict at the end of their conversation, we see something that is easy to miss.

Following their conversation, Pilate comes out and addresses the crowd of Jewish leaders by saying at the end of verse 38, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” But Pilate doesn’t stop there. He continues by saying, “But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” (v. 39)

Now, Jesus would have been a free person had these leaders not arrested Him, so it makes no rational sense for Pilate to offer to release Jesus as though He was a prisoner. If Jesus was unjustly arrested, then He should be released as a separate action aside from the custom of releasing a prisoner. It is in these two verses that we see the shift from Pilate believing Jesus is innocent to assuming His guilt.

In this way, we come to the big realization I had when reading this passage: While Pilate eventually bends to the crowds demands for crucifixion a few verses later, in these two verses, Pilate becomes just as responsible for Jesus’ death as the Jewish leaders themselves. The Jewish leaders may have been the ones to arrest Jesus, but Pilate, in assuming His guilt from His status as a prisoner when he directly says that he finds no fault in Jesus, also is just as responsible because he chose to not set Jesus free.

In this passage Jesus’ death is not only because of the Jewish leaders present, but the gentile leaders as well. In this way, both groups of humanity (Jews and Gentiles) are responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross.

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