Reflective Bible Study

In one of the more well-known stories from the gospels, we meet two sisters, and from what we learn, these two sisters are opposite in many ways. However, what we discover in our passage is that one of the sisters is praised by Jesus, while the other one is challenged.

Those of you who are familiar with the gospels probably already know the event we will be focusing in on in this episode. Our passage comes to us from the gospel of Luke, chapter 10, and we will be reading it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 38, Luke tells us that:

³⁸ As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him talk.

⁴⁰ But Martha was upset about all the work she had to do. So she asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Tell her to help me.”

⁴¹ The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. ⁴² There’s only one thing you need. Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.”

In just five short verses, we find a powerful example about how damaging distractions can be in our lives. Looking at this event, Jesus pushes back against our to-do lists, and draws our attention to the importance of our relationships.

However, I think many people stop short when looking at this event. While it is true that we should focus on Jesus and not worry or fuss about all the details, I am certain that Luke chose to include this event for more than simple reminding busy people to stay connected to Jesus.

This event has plenty of other themes present, and some of these themes are very powerful when we look at them a little closer.

The first theme we see is one of the more obvious ones. While both Martha and Mary realized they had the opportunity of a lifetime to get to spend time near Jesus, we see two completely different attitudes from each of these sisters. Even though the passage opens up describing how this was Martha’s house that Jesus was welcomed in to, we learn that Mary sat and listened to Jesus. In Mary’s mind, the best thing she could do was listen and learn from Jesus.

In contrast, we then discover that Martha was focused on housework and all the busywork that was expected (in her mind) from a good hostess. Martha’s focus was on making a good impression to Jesus and His disciples. This contrast is significant. Mary’s goal was to learn from Jesus, while Martha’s goal was to please Jesus. With this contrast, we see the theme that it is more important for us to focus on learning from Jesus than trying to please Him through our actions.

However, this isn’t all we can learn from this event. In Martha’s outburst, we discover something else. Martha asks Jesus, presumably because Mary has ignored her direct requests, to tell Mary to get up and help her. The powerful theme and truth here is that it is easy for someone focused on a task to get upset when others don’t help them with their own goals.

Regardless of the significance of the goal, the goals we set in life feel more important than the goals that other people set. Martha had the goal of being a good hostess, and when Mary didn’t share the same goal as she did, Martha gets upset. Jesus’ response challenges Martha’s focus and tells her that Mary’s goal of resting, listening, and learning is more important than the busywork.

But this isn’t everything we can learn from this event. In Jesus’ response, we can discover two additional themes. In the first part of Jesus’ response to Martha, He says, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. There’s only one thing you need.” This statement draws our attention onto the damaging nature of distractions. Jesus tells Martha that there is only one thing she really needs – and the implication is that one thing is not found on her to-do list. The one thing that Martha needs, and we all need this, is time with Jesus away from the distractions of life. Martha let the distractions of her to-do list get in the way of what was truly important, and while being a host or hostess has its responsibilities and challenges, we should never let distractions steal time away from what is truly important.

Martha’s case is the same as ours. The most important thing we can focus on is developing a relationship with Jesus. In this way, Mary made the right choice by sitting and listening at Jesus’ feet – and ignoring the distractions.

The second theme we can learn from Jesus’ response is in the last portion of what Jesus says. Jesus finishes by saying, “Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.” In a subtle way, we discover that when we make the right choice, and that choice is spending time with God each day, He will help us keep the connection strong. While other things might try to distract us, or make us too busy to spend time with God, those distractions are the work of Satan trying everything he can to keep us from focusing on what is truly important.

Even good things can distract us away from spending time with God, but when a “good thing” is used as a distraction, we discover that this thing really isn’t good in the big picture. When we ask God for His help to focus on what is truly important, He will help us prioritize and He will help minimize the distractions we face. Know that God is never going to distract us away from spending time with Jesus.

While I’m sure there are other themes we could focus in on, this is a great theme for us to end on, and it is the perfect theme to transition into our challenges at the end of our podcast episode:

As I usually start by challenging you, be sure to seek God first, and intentionally focus on spending time with Him each day. Don’t let distractions steal you away from the one thing that is truly important for each of us. By intentionally spending time with Jesus, you are focusing on the one thing that is the most important thing for anyone and everyone in this life – and that is on growing a saving relationship with God.

As you spend time with God, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, and let God teach you what He wants you to learn from the Bible. While a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas and themes to think about, only through personal study can you discover and grow a personal relationship with 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 get distracted while going to where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we are approximately half way through are year focusing on the miracles Jesus did within the gospel record, we come to the only official miracle that all four gospel writers include. While we could argue that all four gospel writer’s include the resurrection and that the resurrection was a significant miracle, interestingly enough, most lists of miracles don’t include the resurrection. However, that won’t stop us from including it near the end of our year of miracles.

Instead, the official list of miracles only includes one miracle that all four gospel writers include, and this miracle is the one where Jesus feeds a crowd of over 5,000 men, plus women and children. Since this miracle is significant enough for all four gospel writers to include, we’ll spend a couple of episodes focusing on this event to draw out some powerful truths we can apply into our own lives.

When reading from how each of the gospel writers sets the stage for this miracle, I was fascinated by how Mark describes this event for us. Following sending the disciples out on their missionary training, and following learning that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed, Mark sets the stage for this miracle in a unique way.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 6, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 30, Mark sets the stage for this miraculous event by telling us that:

³⁰ The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) ³² They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Let’s pause reading here because while it is very tempting to jump forward to get to the miracle, we would miss the significance of what Jesus intended for His disciples. From these opening verses, Jesus wanted to go away with the disciples and simply rest with them. They had successfully completed their missionary outing, and the next best thing they could do was to rest together.

From how this passage describes what was happening, Jesus and the disciples were so busy with people coming and asking for help that they didn’t even have time to eat. If this were to extend too much longer, Jesus and His disciples would experience burnout and crash.

The big lesson we should learn from this opening is that it is critically important for us to take time away from our mission in life to simply rest. We should never feel guilty taking time to rest and recharge. While there is always a never-ending to-do list, it would be wise to remember that the list is literally never-ending. While we shouldn’t ignore the list, we also shouldn’t focus on it so much that we burn out. In these opening verses, Mark describes for us how Jesus wanted to give the disciples the opportunity to rest after they had successfully finished their missionary journey to the surrounding region.

However, we will soon discover that even Jesus didn’t get to experience His ideal plan for their group. Continuing in verse 33, Mark tells us that:

³³ The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵ When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” ³⁸ And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

Let’s stop reading here because we are coming up to the end of our time for this episode. While we had focused on how Jesus intended for He and the disciples to spend some downtime together to simply rest and recharge, we discover that this wasn’t to happen at this point. Instead, we read that those on the shore followed Jesus around the lake and they beat Him to the other side.

While Jesus could have sent them away because He and the disciples needed to rest, Mark tells us that Jesus felt compassion for them and instead of sending them away, He begins to teach them, and then this teaching ultimately concludes with an amazing miracle. With how Mark’s gospel describes the foundation for this miracle, we discover that it is critical for us to take time regularly to pause our mission and our lives to simply rest and recharge. But with this miracle, we also discover that when God brings people into our lives who need help, it is our responsibility to help them similar to how Jesus helped the crowd even though He would have rather been resting instead.

In our own lives, we should regularly rest and recharge, but we also should always be willing to help those God has brought into our lives.

In our next episode, we’ll continue looking at this miracle, and we’ll focus in on some details a different gospel writer includes in this event, and learn more about what made this miracle significant and special.

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

If you haven’t taken the time or made the opportunity to rest recently, set time aside today. Working yourself to death today will only lead to your death sooner than God may have intended, and you won’t have been as effective or healthy while alive. Regularly schedule times to rest, recharge, and unplug from your mission, while always being ready to help if God sends someone needing help your way.

Also, always keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and discover God’s truth for your life. While many people have interesting ideas, filter everything through what you read in the Bible because the Bible is God’s story laid out across this world’s history. If there is ever a conflict in ideas, traditions, or theories, choose the side that aligns with the Bible over any and every other theory.

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

During one of Jesus’ times was in the temple teaching and challenging those present, He describes who He is, where He came from, and also what He came to accomplish. However, with all these details shared to this group of people, we find out that they were not as ready to learn the truth about Jesus as they thought they might have been.

Our passage comes from the gospel of John, chapter 8, and we will be reading it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, John tells us that:

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Pausing really briefly, I want to draw our attention to this opening line. John opens this passage by describing those Jesus shares this message to as “the Jews who had believed Him”. I believe this is significant, especially when we start seeing them push back at what He tells them.

Rereading Jesus’ challenge in the second part of verse 31, John tells us:

^31b Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸ I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. ⁴³ Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴ You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! ⁴⁶ Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”

⁴⁹ “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

⁵² At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

⁵⁴ Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵ Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷ “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

⁵⁸ “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Looking at this whole event, I am amazed when realizing it is framed as Jesus talking to some Jews who believed in Him. This is significant because it sheds light on human nature and on how God wants us to grow.

While I don’t know why Jesus specifically decided to share this message, I suspect it may have had to do with wanting to challenge these Jews on whether their belief or faith was willing to take the next step. Chances are, this group of Jews had faith that Jesus was able to heal the sick and teach the crowds truth about God. However, we clearly see that when Jesus challenges these people regarding obedience, they push back.

This whole teaching hinges on the opening statement Jesus makes: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (verses 31-32)

Following this statement, we learn that sin’s goal is to enslave and trap us. Jesus came to set us free and adopt us into God’s family.

Following this statement, we learn that Satan is the father of lies and that when we pay attention to him for too long, we will not be able to hear the truth God wants to share with us. Jesus came to expose Satan as a liar and to draw God’s people together.

Following this statement, we learn that death is reserved for those who disobey Jesus. Jesus came to honor God, and to set us free from the fear of death.

Following this statement, we learn that all the petty excuses that people try to use to discredit Jesus, like calling Him a Samaritan and demon-possessed, doesn’t change who He really is. Jesus is God who came to earth as a human.

While this truth is impossible for us to fully understand how Jesus is both completely God and man, we are called to accept this truth, and all the other ideas Jesus taught and challenged His followers with, through faith. While faith in Jesus can start on the basic level of what can Jesus do for me (such as teaching and healing), it truly grows into maturity when we discover that faith in Jesus becomes a “what can I do for God because of what He has already done for me” type of faith. Obeying God and obeying Jesus is not legalism any more than obeying your spouse when they ask you to do something for them is legalism. Obedience demonstrates love, and while there are plenty of exceptions to this truth, the principle is solid.

We demonstrate to others that we love God when we are obedient to Him. Through obedience, we learn the truth, and like one of my favorite Bible verses says, “the truth will set you free”.

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

Be sure to continue seeking God first in your life. Choose to believe in Jesus and be willing to take your belief and turn it into obedience. Let God lead you into His truth and follow His leading and guiding in your life.

As you grow your relationship with God, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself, because through personal study, you will learn, grow, and discover who God really is, what He is like, and how much He loves you. As you study and grow closer to God, God will send His Spirit into your life and He will lead and guide you moving forward in life.

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

In our last episode, we began looking at the event where Jesus healed the paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda. However, like many of the previous events we have looked at this year, this one contained more than one episode could handle, and we finished our last episode before the event had finished.

We left off immediately following Jesus healing the man, but before we discovered what happened next. Let’s read this whole event, and then focus in on the conclusion and what we can learn about what Jesus felt was important for us to pay attention to.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of John, chapter 5, and we will be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ^9a Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

In our last episode, we stopped reading at this point, but this is the point in our event when things are about to get even more interesting. Continuing in the second half of verse 9, John tells us that:

^9b Now that day was the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”

¹¹ He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³ But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

In this passage, we discover that Jesus had the audacity to heal this hurting man on the Sabbath, the day set aside for rest and for focusing on God. Work wasn’t just discouraged, it was prohibited, and the religious leaders kept a long list of what we could call “clarification laws” in place to determine whether an activity could be classified as work or not. One such prohibition was carrying your sleeping mat.

This then prompts the question in my own mind of why Jesus would heal this man on the Sabbath when any other day of the week would do? If you are remotely familiar with the gospels, you will know that many of Jesus’ healing miracles were done on the Sabbath, and Jesus didn’t seem to even remotely consider healing to be against the day God set aside for rest.

Since Jesus seemed to be so relaxed about what it meant to honor and remember the Sabbath, should we be as relaxed as Jesus was? If God set the Sabbath aside as holy, and Jesus acted indifferent towards it, does that mean that we can act indifferent towards it as well?

This is where many Christians are today, but it is important to pay attention to the small detail that Jesus never acted with indifference towards the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus didn’t pay much attention to the religious leaders’ extra laws they had constructed around determining if one was properly keeping the Sabbath.

A great way to describe this attitude was if we were to drive along a road where the speed limit was 75 miles per hour, or for our friends outside of the United States, let’s say the speed limit was 120 kilometers per hour. Knowing that people like to push their limits, the religious leaders decide it’s best to set and enforce a lower speed limit, just to make sure the people don’t actually break the real speed limit. In our example, the religious leaders set their cautionary speed limit at 50 miles per hour, or 80 kilometers per hour.

Then Jesus comes along, and while everyone has gotten use to the idea of driving at the slower limits, Jesus decides He will drive at 70 miles per hour, or 110 kilometers per hour, which is within the actual speed limits of the road, but beyond the religious leaders’ arbitrarily imposed limits.

When we look at how Jesus treated the Sabbath, we never see Him break any of God’s laws regarding Sabbath observance, but we do see Him instruct others, we see His disciples, and we likely could even see Him break some of the religious leaders’ extra laws in place for the Sabbath. In the case of our miracle, nothing in God’s law prohibited a person from carrying their sleeping mat on the Sabbath. This was clearly a cautionary law intended to keep people from coming close to actually breaking the real laws. Jesus knew this, and the man probably knew this too, which is why he didn’t hesitate when Jesus told him to pick up his mat and go home.

It is also interesting that this man does not have faith in Jesus knowing who Jesus is. Perhaps he had prayed earlier that day for God to help him, and that is what prompted Jesus to stop by. Whatever the case was, when the man is challenged by the religious leaders for breaking their laws, he doesn’t know who Jesus was to be able to identify Jesus to these leaders.

Regardless of this detail though, the leaders almost were guaranteed to have attributed this miracle, and the lawlessness they saw in this healed man, to Jesus before the man even knew it was Jesus.

Does Jesus want us to break the law? No. When we break the law, we will face consequences. When we break the law of the country we are in, we face civil punishments; and when we break God’s law, we will face spiritual punishment. Jesus never advocated breaking civil or spiritual laws, but He was very clear that when there was a conflict between civil and spiritual laws, we are to abide by the spiritual laws and their standard over the civil laws that conflict.

In this event, we might think Jesus broke the spiritual law by healing on the Sabbath, but it is best for us to remember that the only laws broken in this passage were the unrealistic laws that the religious leaders had built up around the Sabbath in order to appear superior to others. Jesus never broke God’s law, and Jesus upheld God’s law to a level the religious leaders never even came close to. Jesus obeyed God’s law and He modeled obedience based on love and gratitude – and as followers of Jesus, we are called to obey, not because God will kill us if we don’t, but because we are thankful, grateful, and happy God sent Jesus to redeem us.

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

As always, intentionally seek God first and place Him first in your life. Choose to obey God’s law because you love God, and because you are thankful to God for everything He has already done for you. Obey because of what has already been given and not because you expect to be given anything more. Sure, God has promised us so much more, but obeying with the expectation of what we will get leads us towards the path of legalism and away from love. Obeying because we are grateful for what God has already done for us keeps us on the path of love.

Also, be sure to keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God. While others can give you great ideas to think about, filter everything you learn and see through the lens of God’s Word and use His word as your guide in life.

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