Reflective Bible Study

During Jesus’ final week leading up to the crucifixion, He shares a parable that has a number of fascinating characteristics. In this parable, we discover that simply having an invitation is not enough to guarantee our salvation. Instead, we discover that there is another detail present that we need to include when discussing salvation.

To set the stage for discovering this big truth, let’s read Jesus’ parable before unpacking what it means for each of us. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

We can learn many things from this parable, but the one I want to focus our time on for this episode is specifically on the last section. While Jesus could have ended the parable after the banquet hall is filled with everyone the servants could find who were willing to come, He continues by describing how the king then enters the banquet only to find someone who isn’t properly dressed.

At this point in the parable, all the king’s “friends” who had rejected his invitation are dead and their city was burned, and the banquet hall is full of random people from off the streets and this assorted group of people contains both bad and good people.

Setting the stage in this way leads us to a somewhat obvious conclusion: I doubt any of those who ultimately came to the wedding hall were dressed for a wedding when they accepted the king’s invitation. The timetable of this parable suggests that those who were invited, if they were to get a place in the hall before it was full, would need to come immediately, and not go home to get ready for a wedding.

We find this idea in the detail that when a banquet is ready, there isn’t any time to stop to actually get ready. If those the king invited had gone home, taken showers, gotten into their best clothing, and then came, chances are the food that had been prepared would no longer be good. Those who were invited at the last minute only had time to come.

But this gets tricky when we transition to talking about the king’s harsh response to someone who is present who doesn’t have the proper clothing on. The only way this makes sense with the details included in this parable is if the king offers wedding clothing for everyone to change into when they arrive.

If the king invites anyone and everyone to fill his banquet hall, he shouldn’t be surprised if some of those he invited were not wealthy enough for clothing. We don’t know anything about the man who the king confronts, but the question the king asks seems ridiculous if the king expects something that the man could not afford while accepting the invitation that was “free”.

In contrast, if the king offered everyone wedding clothes on their arrival, then he does have a say regarding who should be included. Accepting the invitation is free and the wedding clothes the king offered are free as well. Why this man decided to accept one gift and not the other is as informative as his “speechless” response. The only rational explanation is that he believed one gift was significant while the other one was not.

However, this detail is powerful for us to pay attention to because it describes how many Christians believe their faith in Jesus works. Many people today believe all they must do is accept God’s invitation through Jesus’ crucifixion. These Christians accept the first gift of salvation correctly, but when they are offered new clothing – the King’s clothing — which represents the King’s character, they determine this gift is optional. They are represented by this man who ends up standing speechless before the King of the universe when He calls them out for refusing one of His gifts.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to accept the invitation Jesus gives us through His death on the cross, and accept the gift of His character that is freely offered to all who decide to come to Christ. We accept the gift of clothing by intentionally focusing on God, on Jesus, and on growing closer to Him. We accept Jesus’ life when we put our sinful lives in the past and start fresh with God. When we accept Jesus’ invitation, we would be fools to not accept the free gift of His character, because Jesus’ character is sinless, perfect, and it is the only thing that makes us “safe to save for eternity”!

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

If you haven’t accepted Jesus’ invitation, or the gift of His character, do so today. Know that God has done everything necessary for our salvation, but we must accept His free gifts in order to be accepted into His kingdom.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself because it is through prayer, study, and walking with God that we demonstrate we have accepted His character and “clothing” into our lives.

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

In our walk through the gospels looking at Jesus’ miracles, it seemed that a disproportionate number of miracles happened on the Sabbath. While this may accurately reflect what actually happened, this also could be because no other day of the week prompted the religious leaders to challenge Jesus on what He was doing. Perhaps the friction Jesus created because of His views regarding what was acceptable and not on the Sabbath pushed the miracles Jesus did on the Sabbath into the spotlight and memories of those present.

However, when Jesus healed people, rarely did He ever actually do something that would even remotely have been considered work. In the miracle for this episode, nothing even hints at Jesus doing any action that would be thought of as work, even though a healing took place. In this event, not only do we discover a miracle, but we also discover Jesus sharing a new picture regarding how we should view the Sabbath, or as our chosen translation describes it, as a day of rest – a holy day.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will be reading it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 10, Luke tells us that:

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the day of rest—a holy day [most other translations simply say on the Sabbath]. ¹¹ A woman who was possessed by a spirit was there. The spirit had disabled her for 18 years. She was hunched over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her to come to him and said, “Woman, you are free from your disability.” ¹³ He placed his hands on her, and she immediately stood up straight and praised God.

Let’s pause reading here for a moment because what this last verse said prompts us to why Jesus may have healed this woman on this occasion. This verse tells us that when the woman stood up straight, she “praised God”.

Probably the best reason Jesus healed and helped people was to bring God praise and glory, and this formerly disabled woman was happy to lead those present to praise God for what He had healed her of.

But not everyone present was happy with what happened. While the synagogue leader could not argue with praising God, he did take offense to Jesus healing on this day. Continuing in verse 14, we learn that:

¹⁴ The synagogue leader was irritated with Jesus for healing on the day of worship. The leader told the crowd, “There are six days when work can be done. So come on one of those days to be healed. Don’t come on the day of rest—a holy day.”

¹⁵ The Lord said, “You hypocrites! Don’t each of you free your ox or donkey on the day of rest—a holy day? Don’t you then take it out of its stall to give it some water to drink? ¹⁶ Now, here is a descendant of Abraham. Satan has kept her in this condition for 18 years. Isn’t it right to free her on the day of rest—a holy day?”

¹⁷ As he said this, everyone who opposed him felt ashamed. But the entire crowd was happy about the miraculous things he was doing.

In this event, Jesus challenges the notion of what is work and what isn’t. Nowhere in this miracle does Jesus deny the synagogue leader’s reference to the Sabbath commandment and it being a commandment about resting from work.

Instead, Jesus challenges the idea of what work included and what it didn’t include. The woman didn’t pay Jesus for the healing, and nowhere that I know of was Jesus ever paid for healing someone. In contrast, doctors earn a living through healing and helping others. By looking at the income angle of this passage, we can see one filter for what is work and what isn’t – and even though the synagogue leader had reduced Jesus to a doctor who could teach the scriptures, Jesus was more likely a teacher of the scriptures who healed people as a hobby.

The comparison Jesus makes in His reply is interesting. Jesus responds to the synagogue leader by first calling them hypocrites, then giving them an example of why. It is likely that everyone present would bring water to their animals on the Sabbath for the animals to drink. This isn’t work. Instead, this is kindness.

However, this act takes more time than Jesus took and more energy than Jesus exerted. But Jesus doesn’t challenge the idea of work based on the difficulty level or on the level of income earned. Jesus challenged the idea on the angle of freedom. If those in the first century were more than willing to untie their animals to let them get a drink, how much more applicable would it be for God, through Jesus, to untie this disabled woman who had been bound up for 18 years. In this miracle, Jesus not only redefined what was acceptable on the day of worship, but He also elevated this woman’s status above that of the animals.

All this is summarized nicely in the verse we focused on part way through this passage. Immediately when the woman was freed from her disability, she praised God, and she led those present who were willing in praising God as well. The only people present who were upset were the ones who held their opinions about what were acceptable activities for the Sabbath over the wellbeing of others.

This idea is powerful. It tells us that when we let our opinions of the world or of certain people become greater than our desire to help the world, this person, or this group of people, then we will become more hostile, bitter, angry, and withdrawn. We see this happen in people who are so far removed from those who struggle that they cannot even grasp what others are going through, and we also see this from people who have grown calloused towards helping others.

God doesn’t want His people to be calloused from helping others, but instead, He wants love, help, kindness, and compassion from all His people, and He has called us to help others because we can help. We are to help both Christians and non-Christians alike, and we are to be known for our love over our religion, our faith, our politics, or any other measure that we can think of.

We are Jesus’ representatives in the world today, and Jesus came and He loved and helped those who needed help.

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

Always seek God first and look for ways you can show love and help to others. Through Jesus, God stepped down to earth, down to the cross, and down to the grave for you and me. If we accurately model Jesus, we should be stepping down and helping wherever we can, and we should look for people we can help who need help, love, and encouragement.

Also, to better reflect Jesus to others, we should always pray and study the Bible for ourselves to learn what Jesus is like. While it is easy to take someone else’s word for it, the best, most trustworthy source for what Jesus is like is in the pages of the Bible, specifically the pages of the gospels, and in the Bible we can truly discover God’s love for each of us!

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

As the week before Jesus’ crucifixion begins, one of the early days in this week finds Jesus doing something significant, while also very disruptive. It is as though leading up to the cross, Jesus starts pushing emotional issues with the religious leaders in an attempt to get them to pay attention, to return their focus onto God, or to seek to kill Him. We know from history, and from our passage for this episode, that they picked the last option, but while it might seem like Jesus pressed for death, when we read our passage closely, He was more focused on something other than death.

The event we will be looking at is found in three of the four gospels during the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, and for our episode, we will focus in on Mark’s version. This passage is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 11, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 15:

¹⁵ When they came to Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple courtyard and began to throw out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the chairs of those who sold pigeons. ¹⁶ He would not let anyone carry anything across the temple courtyard.

¹⁷ Then he taught them by saying, “Scripture says, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves.”

¹⁸ When the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings heard him, they looked for a way to kill him. They were afraid of him because he amazed all the crowds with his teaching.

¹⁹ (Every evening Jesus and his disciples would leave the city.)

Several things stand out in my mind when reading this passage. The first is that Jesus opposed commerce in God’s place of worship. While some might be quick to say that it wasn’t the buying or selling Jesus opposed, but the deception and thievery, the impression I get from this passage is that you cannot have one without the other. In other words, not all commerce is thievery, but in this context, thievery can only be present when there is commerce present.

Those in the temple had transformed God’s house into a market place, and a market place where people weren’t focused on God.

The only words Jesus says in this passage are also very profound. Verse 17 tells us Jesus’ message: “Then he [Jesus] taught them by saying, ‘Scripture says, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations,” but you have turned it into a gathering place for thieves.’”

In Jesus’ message, we discover what God intended His temple to be known as. Jesus tells us God’s intention for His temple is a house of prayer for all nations. Jesus quotes this from Isaiah 56, verse 7 where God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “Then I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, because my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

It is fascinating in my mind that in the heart of the Old Testament, in the writings of one of the most significant prophets God sent to the Jewish nation, we find the goal that God’s house on earth, otherwise known as the temple, was intended to be a place of prayer for all nations. This meant that everyone would be welcome, regardless of their background or their nationality.

In an odd twist, a group of thieves would be welcome in the temple in God’s eyes if they came not to practice thievery, but to pray and ask for forgiveness. Those coming to the temple with repentant hearts and a desire to be forgiven have been drawn there by God and the last thing God would want is to give them reason to stop short or reject God based on what was happening in His temple.

The biggest issue Jesus has with what was happening in the temple is that it kept people from focusing on God, on prayer, and on bringing their hearts to Him with their gifts.

I’m not sure if it was how Jesus said the statement, or whether it was more based on the chief priests rejection of Isaiah’s message, but when they heard Jesus’ statement, verse 18 tells us that “they looked for a way to kill him”. Other religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus based on His raising Lazarus from the dead, and how that miracle drew large numbers of people to place their faith in Him. Now in this passage, we have another place where the religious leaders resolve to kill Jesus.

Jesus’ presence represented a challenge to the status quo in the religious leaders’ lives, and it appeared as though Jesus was more interested in changing their way of life than He was on simply letting them carry on as they had always done. It seemed that Jesus was there to take away their income and their standard of living – and in a way, this was true.

Jesus didn’t have an issue with the religious leaders earning money, but He did take issue with them earning money in deceitful ways, in God’s name, in God’s house. When coming to God’s house, the focus should be on praising God, praying to God, thanking God, giving to God, and learning from God’s word. Any action or activity present in God’s house that takes our focus off of God should not be present in His house of worship.

Does this extend to today’s churches? Maybe.

I will be the first to say that people meet to pray and worship together in almost every conceivable location, and in some places it is not possible to remove all distractions. A group of people who rent out space in a theater to worship likely are not able to remove all the distractions present when people walk through the lobby. The location of a theater is one example of a place where we can worship God but where the space probably shouldn’t be confused with being “God’s House”.

In contrast, a dedicated church building that was built with the purpose of worshiping God, or a dedicated space that has been renovated with the intent of exclusively being used to worship God probably should be viewed as being a part of God’s house. In situations like these, I believe Jesus’ message to the religious leaders and those present in the temple makes sense. God intends for His house to be a place of prayer for all people, and anything that distracts away from focusing on God should be removed.

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

The next time you go to church, pay attention to what you see and feel when you arrive. Intentionally focus on seeking God first when you arrive and if you notice anything that draws your attention away from focusing on God, work to remove it if possible. Remember that God intends for His house to be a place of prayer and acceptance of people from every background and nationality, and if acceptance, love, and prayer are not characteristics of your worship experience, then it may be worth looking for a new place to worship.

However, with that said, also be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, and let God’s word challenge your heart, your mind, and your life. Just as when we go to church, when we study, know that God loves each of us, and He welcomes us as we are, but He doesn’t ever want to leave us as we are. If God’s word challenges your heart and mind with something it says, that is likely God’s Holy Spirit drawing you to Him and challenging you to leave something that might be sinful or unhealthy for you.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, when God calls you to move forward with Him, 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!

As we continue moving through the gospels looking at miracles Jesus did to help people, we come to a miracle where Jesus helps someone, but where He receives pushback from those present. While this isn’t new at this point in Jesus’ ministry, and our next several miracles include pushback from people who were present, the way Jesus receives pushback in this miracle is interesting. Also, the specific pushback Jesus receives is fascinating when we look at how Jesus responds. After Jesus has responded, those present who opposed Him have only one logical response, even if the logical path is the one they had predetermined they would never take.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 14, Luke tells us that:

¹⁴ Jesus forced a demon out of a man who could not talk. And after the demon had gone out, the man started speaking, and the crowds were amazed. ¹⁵ But some people said, “He forces out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons!”

¹⁶ Others wanted to put Jesus to the test. So they asked him to show them a sign from God.

Let’s pause reading here to first look at the claim that was being made against Jesus. On the surface, this argument does make sense. It is logical to conclude that the ruler of the demons would have the power and authority to force the demons out. However, this argument breaks down because it would not be logical for the ruler of demons to intentionally shrink his dominion by willingly sending demons out of people unless there was a greater purpose or deception in mind. Looking at Jesus’ life and teaching, we don’t see any greater deception present because Jesus kept pointing people back to God and Jesus kept telling people to give glory and praise to God.

It is along these lines that Jesus responds to this latest angle of challenges. Continuing in verse 17, Luke tells us that:

¹⁷ Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said:

A kingdom where people fight each other will end up in ruin. And a family that fights will break up. ¹⁸ If Satan fights against himself, how can his kingdom last? Yet you say that I force out demons by the power of Beelzebul. ¹⁹ If I use his power to force out demons, whose power do your own followers use to force them out? They are the ones who will judge you. ²⁰ But if I use God’s power to force out demons, it proves that God’s kingdom has already come to you.

It’s interesting in this event that Jesus turns their own words, and their own allies against them. No one present questioned God’s greater strength and ability to force demons out, and because of this, Jesus has unlikely allies in the religious leaders who were able to cast demons out of people.

In a partially humorous way, Jesus strengthens His argument by breaking apart the unified front of the religious leaders. The religious leaders claimed Jesus was a rogue demon bent on breaking apart the demonic forces (which isn’t logical at all), while Jesus shines light on this fallacy before separating His accusers from those in their own midst who could also cast out demons. In essence Jesus says He is on the same side as those in their midst who cast demons out, and this is on God’s side.

This angle leaves only one option for His accusers, and it is not one they are willing to take. The option that is left is that they have sided with Satan and that Jesus is Someone God sent to grow God’s own kingdom. Since these people have already accused Jesus of being one of the demons, I have no reason to believe that they immediately would correct themselves and apologize when the flaw in their argument is revealed. People changing their opinions or beliefs in a debate rarely happens, and the only places we find examples of it happening are in people who are very mature, in people who are still deciding what they believe, or in situations where the belief or idea being debated is insignificant.

I don’t see maturity, open mindedness, or an insignificant idea present in this situation, and I also don’t see any hint of these people changing their opinion of Jesus. Instead, when faced with logic, they harden themselves to their illogical beliefs.

Some people probably believe Christians hold onto illogical beliefs, and I would agree with them. Some of our beliefs don’t make any logical sense at all. However, not all things are logical, or even understandable by us.

Probably the biggest illogical idea in all of Christianity is Jesus Himself. It is illogical that God would send Himself to take the punishment of a bunch of rebels when it would be much easier to simply wipe the slate clean and start over. The only answer we have defies all logic, because it is the key description we have of God’s character. The answer we have is love.

Love in its very nature is illogical. Lust, procreation, and a number of other ideas that are often linked to love have some elements of logic, but selfless, other-focused, enduring love that looks past faults and past the negatives is not logical at all. However, God’s love for us can only be described as selfless, other-focused, and looking past all our negatives in order to see us as the people we were created to be.

Jesus came into this world to die for sinners in the least logical way, but historical records all confirm Jesus did in fact die and that He did rise from the dead on the third day, regardless of how illogical or impossible this is.

God defied all logic because He loves us. It was illogical to come and redeem us from sin, but that logic didn’t stop God from coming to save us.

However, just because God sometimes defies logic doesn’t mean our faith should be illogical or that we should throw out logic when we become followers of Jesus. Instead, we should be willing to accept that some things we will have to take on faith because they simply cannot be understood. It also means that sometimes God steps in to history in supernatural ways that also cannot be explained.

We are called to have a logical faith, pressing forward to understand all that we can and having the faith that God will help us understand the things we don’t yet understand as we intentionally grow closer to Him. We also admit and look forward to the time when all our questions will be answered as we stand face to face with Jesus. Some questions simply cannot be answerable before heaven, and in the case of these questions, we have faith that God knows what He is doing moving the world towards eternity and the end of sin.

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

Always seek God first and trust that even if we don’t have all the answers, He still knows what He is doing. Instead of distrusting God because of an unanswered question, claim, or idea, choose to trust in the truth that He is smarter than we can even imagine, and that His picture of history is bigger than we could ever think or dream. God’s ultimate goal is you, me, and as many people as possible redeemed with Him in heaven, and we can trust that with whatever happens on this earth during the reign of sin, it happened now so it will never have to happen again.

Also, always be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Trust that God is able to keep you safe for eternity, and that if He wants us with Him forever in eternity, He is more than capable and willing to keep His Word the Bible safe for a few thousand years. Distrusting the Bible is almost like distrusting 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 walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!