Reflective Bible Study

On the night Jesus was arrested, as He and His disciples were walking to the garden where He would pray, Jesus began telling the remaining eleven men what they could expect to face in the coming years, and He encouraged them that they would not be alone. Of all the four gospels, only John’s gospel shares in detail the message Jesus told the group of disciples.

Matthew, who was also there, for some reason did not include it in his gospel, and perhaps the reason for this was that Matthew was writing to a different group of people at a different point in the first century. It is likely that Matthew knew that either his audience did not need to hear Jesus’ last message to the disciples before His death, or that something in Jesus’ message would keep someone in Matthew’s audience from choosing Jesus.

While reading what John tells us Jesus said, it’s possible that the part of Jesus’ message we will be focusing on in this episode might be one reason why Matthew chose to leave out this message from his gospel record. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 15, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Beginning in verse 18, John tells us that Jesus told His disciples:

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates Me hates My Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. ²⁵ But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

Let’s pause reading here for a moment to draw our attention onto a really big idea. In this portion of Jesus’ last message, He points the disciples to a powerful idea that the more openly for Jesus that we live, the more opposition from the world we will face.

It is a strange paradox in that we could take the nicest individual, and place them doing one of the most noble acts we could imagine, let’s say saving starving children in Africa. If this is their mission, many people would rally behind it and there would be little to no opposition. But if this person adjusts their mission to include Jesus, while they still would have support, they would also attract hostility from others.

The more openly this nice individual uses Jesus as the reason for his compassion for these children, the more polarizing his ministry will be. Some opposition he might face would be people saying that he is trying to convert or brainwash the children he claims to help into believing what they believe to be the Christian lie. Others might say this nice individual is trying to earn his salvation through what he is doing.

While the actions of this individual never changed, the more openly for Jesus that one lives, the more opposition from the world the person will face.

However, while Jesus shares with us this warning, He also tells us that we are not alone. When we openly increase how we are living for Jesus and including Him in our lives, Jesus continues in verse 26 by promising us a Helper. Jesus tells the disciples:

²⁶ “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, ²⁷ and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Jesus promised His disciples that a Helper would come from the Father, and that this Helper is also known as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus also says that the role of this Helper-Spirit is to testify about Him. God the Father, through the Holy Spirit – another name for this Helper-Spirit of Truth – will testify and teach the truth about Jesus. The Holy Spirit draws nearer to us the nearer we draw to Jesus – living for Him.

I wonder if at this point some of the disciples wondered why Jesus was sharing this with them. Jesus continues at the start of chapter 16 by saying:

^16:1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. ² They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. ³ These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. ⁴ But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

In this passage, we have come full circle. We can see why Jesus shared this message with His followers on the night He was arrested, and we also have a reason why Matthew may have chosen to exclude this info from his gospel letter.

John includes this message from Jesus because he is writing to Christians, giving them a message of encouragement, and challenging them to grow their faith. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are written with the goal of sharing about Jesus with someone who might not yet know who He is.

This message from Jesus in John’s gospel emphasizes that for all of Jesus’ followers living through the centuries, trouble and opposition will come. There is no way around this because Satan opposes Jesus – and Satan is happy to give power, status, and fame to those who do anything to distract people away from who Jesus is and what Jesus would want from us and for us.

The promise Jesus shares is that when opposition comes, we are not alone – we have the Holy Spirit. We should also not be surprised when opposition comes because the leadership and system in place when Jesus walked the earth was opposed to Him. If the world opposed Jesus for living for God, it will oppose us for living for Jesus.

The choice we all get to make from Jesus’ message is whether we will choose Jesus and opposition in this life, with the promise of a new life with God in the next life, or whether we will reject or hide Jesus so that we will be accepted in this life and risk losing the promised new life with God.

Living openly for Jesus is the key to living the Christian life. While the decision to put your faith, belief and trust in Jesus is a private matter, open Christian living is how you know your faith is certain. Facing opposition in this world is one test you can use to gauge whether you are on the right track.

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

Be sure to decide if you want to live for Jesus and face opposition in this life. While for some making this decision isn’t easy, this decision is the most logical decision anyone can make when looking from the perspective of eternity. After all, what are a few short years of opposition and rejection in the face of a dozen millennia of years with God? If you choose God and eternity, then be sure to seek Him first each day, and then openly live for Him in a practical, loving way.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can truly know what God is like. While living for God will be an incredible adventure in spite of the opposition, be sure that you are connecting with Him personally each day. A pastor or a podcaster can point you in a good direction, but only the Bible can teach you about how God has moved throughout history, how He doesn’t change, and how this makes Him trustworthy.

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

When we began moving our way through Jesus’ final week, we’ve seen how every one of the four gospels has been building up to the moment Jesus is hung on the cross. For most of the other episodes this year, I’ve picked one or two of the gospels to focus in on, but since this entire year has been leading up to the point when Jesus is hung on the cross, it seems like we should take a little more time on this event. Also, all four gospels share unique details regarding the time Jesus spent on the cross.

While we don’t have enough time left in the year to devote an episode to each gospel for this event while also concluding the year with Jesus’ resurrection, let’s take the next couple of weeks and focus in on some big themes we can learn about Jesus and about God through what is shared about Jesus’ time on the cross.

Since Matthew and Mark are the most similar, let’s group them together in this episode, then in the following two episodes, let’s look at Luke and then John respectively.

With that said, let’s read Mark’s version of Jesus’ crucifixion to discover how he describes Jesus’ time on the cross. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will be reading it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 25, Mark tells us that:

²⁵ It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the Jews.

²⁷ They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. [^[28]  Some manuscripts add a verse here that says: “And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘He was numbered with the transgressors’”] ²⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! ³² Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

In Mark’s version of this event, we discover that Jesus faced a different type of temptation during the last hours before His death. Up to this point, the temptation Satan has thrown at Jesus the strongest is the temptation to abandon both the cross as well as the human race. However, now that Jesus is on the cross, the temptation Satan throws at Jesus is one challenging Jesus to come down from the cross.

The only way this temptation makes sense is if it was within Jesus’ power to do. The fact that Jesus received hostility and insults from all angles suggests that this was prompted by Satan because Jesus could come off of the cross if He wanted to. Out of the challenges Jesus receives, the one Mark chose to include hits all the angles of a solid temptation.

Mark quotes the challenge by saying in verses 31 and 32, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”

The first part of the temptation hits on pride. This angle of temptation challenges Jesus regarding His ability to come down, and it suggests that Jesus doesn’t come down because He cannot come down. Satan ignores the detail, hoping we will ignore the detail as well, that while Jesus can come down, He chooses not to because the cross and death was His mission and the way we can be saved.

The second part of the temptation hits on Jesus’ mission. This angle of temptation challenges Jesus regarding the mission and role He came to the earth to fulfill. Jesus came as the Messiah that was promised, and Satan challenges Jesus that His death is a failure of His role – especially in the eyes of the Old Testament scriptures and the current generation’s understanding of these scriptures. Satan ignores the detail, hoping we will ignore the detail as well, that the Old Testament describes Jesus’ rejection, betrayal, and death, and that His death was part of the Messiah’s master plan for humanity’s salvation.

The third part of the temptation hits on Jesus’ divinity. This angle of temptation challenges Jesus regarding His right to receive worship as a member of the Godhead. Satan challenged Jesus through this temptation that if the Messiah dies, He is not worthy of receiving worship. In contrast, if Jesus displays His divinity by coming down from the cross, He will receive worship and praise from those present. Satan ignores the detail, hoping we will ignore the detail as well, that while Jesus is worthy of our worship, Jesus isn’t interested in receiving our worship or praise. Jesus would rather point all praise and worship to the Father, and Jesus didn’t come with the goal of being worshiped.

Also, it is significant to note that any praise or worship Jesus would have received would mean nothing if He came down from the cross. Either the worship itself would be empty because it was from shallow, unrepentant hearts, or it would be empty because Jesus would have failed His mission and He would have failed humanity.

Jesus overcame this big temptation because His mission was to redeem humanity. Jesus triumphed over every temptation Satan threw at Him from the temptations at the start of His ministry after His baptism, to this last temptation Satan was saving for Jesus’ time on the cross. Jesus overcame temptation and sin to make it possible for us to accept the gift He offers to each of us.

Mark’s gospel tells us that not only did Jesus receive insults and challenges from the religious leaders and soldiers who were present, but also from those who were crucified with Him. However, not all those who were crucified with Jesus were convinced that Jesus deserved these insults or challenges, but we’ll wait until our next episode to discover what happens when one of the people near Jesus decides to ask Jesus for a favor when they are both about to die.

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

Be sure to always seek God first. Know that Jesus faced and overcame temptation so that when we are tempted, we can lean on Him for the power to resist temptation in our own lives as well. Also, we can know and trust that when we have failed God, He is more than willing to accept us back and forgive us because that is one of the big reasons why Jesus came.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with Jesus. Through a personal relationship with Jesus, He helps us overcome temptation in our lives and He helps us live the life He created us to live.

Which leads us into the challenge 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 the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, He shared a special meal with His twelve closest followers. Included in this number, at least for the first portion of the meal, was Judas Iscariot, the disciple who was already plotting to betray Jesus. The reality that Judas Iscariot was the betrayer was not a surprise to Jesus, but neither were the failings and faults of the rest of Jesus’ disciples.

The passage we will be focusing on in this episode happens right after Judas the betrayer had left. Jesus knew that Judas’ departure signaled the countdown to the cross, and it also signaled an urgency in Jesus’ teaching with His disciples. We will be looking at this event using John’s gospel and it is found in chapter 13. Reading from the New International Version and starting in verse 31, John tells us:

³¹ When he was gone [that is, Judas Iscariot], Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

³⁶ Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

³⁷ Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸ Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

What I find amazing every time I read this event is that Jesus knows Peter better than Peter knows himself. Peter was quick to speak that he was willing to go anywhere Jesus went, and even giving his life for Jesus – and I believe Peter meant it. Just a few hours later, as the mob was coming to arrest Jesus, Peter is the first and primary one to resort to violence when defending Jesus. It appears as though Peter is bold and strong when he is with Jesus, but just a few hours later, when he is alone by a fire and not next to Jesus, his boldness has completely evaporated – allowing for Jesus’ prediction to come true.

But looking back on our passage, it appeared as though Peter derailed Jesus’ thought, and his question overshadows the powerful statement Jesus had just shared before.

In verse 33, Jesus tells the disciples: “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” Peter responds to this statement in verse 36 by asking Jesus where He is going. It is likely that Peter completely missed hearing the two verses between Jesus’ statement about leaving and his response – and if Peter missed this two-verse message, I wonder how many of the other disciples missed it too.

We are also tempted to miss it, but less so because we already know that Jesus was referring to His death and then future ascension.

Let’s focus for a moment on the message that is included in these two verses. In verses 34 and 35, Jesus tells His followers (and this is all of His followers; not just His eleven remaining disciples): “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

On the surface, this new command seems redundant. After all, earlier in Jesus’ ministry on at least two separate occasions, Jesus referred to the two great commands as loving God and loving one’s neighbor. It really appears like Jesus is simply reemphasizing these two other commandments and grouping them into one. I have heard scholars who are much smarter than me with the original languages of the Bible present the case that Jesus is reemphasizing this command rather than introducing something completely new.

However, while the “loving your neighbor” command covers how we should relate to every other human being, I wonder if Jesus is taking the original command to love your neighbor and pushing it deeper. While no one would argue with Jesus’ explanation of the Good Samaritan being the best example of being neighborly, this too can be rationalized away because many times, the idea of loving our neighbors must also be present when there isn’t a clear need. Showing love was clear in the illustration of the Good Samaritan that the man dying on the road needed help. In cases where clear help is needed, we are called to help – even if it is a stranger we are helping.

In some ways, it is easier for us to help strangers and more difficult to help those we know really well.

As I read Jesus’ “new command”, I am challenged to think Jesus may be commanding his followers specifically to love each other – even if the other person has a strange or different understanding of a certain doctrine than we do.

In some ways, while Christians can rally together when helping a social cause, like caring for those who are homeless, defending the rights of those who are being persecuted, or even adopting orphans from countries on the other side of the world, some of the harshest criticisms come from scholars of different “Christian” backgrounds who are stuck debating the validity of certain doctrines. I wonder if Jesus’ command to “Love one another” has to do with Jesus telling His followers to love those other followers who believe something different about a certain doctrine or passage of scripture. If this is the case, Jesus’ command is a very high calling that has not been obeyed very well at certain points in history.

Jesus’ command does not mean that we must agree with everyone on every doctrine, nor does it mean that we must erase all differences and distinctions and be 100% united in thought, belief, and doctrine. In some ways, when any group – sacred or secular – does not allow for debate or challenges, that group stops being able to grow. If Christianity were to ever unify 100% in thought, belief, and doctrine, it would be inevitable that eventually the church would stop growing towards God because it would close itself off from all opposing thoughts. In some ways, certain denominations have closed themselves off in this way and have stopped growing as a group.

But Jesus’ command is for all of His followers, regardless of denominational affiliation, doctrinal obedience, or church attendance. The true test of whether we are Jesus’ disciples is if we will be loving towards others who call themselves followers of Jesus, but who live, look, believe, and/or act differently than we do. If we truly love like Jesus loved, we will look past our differences and towards how we are unified through what Jesus did for us on the cross.

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

Choose to intentionally seek God first by obeying Jesus’ command about loving one another. Be sure to love and help your neighbor when they need help, and be doubly sure to love those who are Christians but who don’t believe along the same side of an issue as you do. Focus on where we are together, and be civil on the issues we don’t agree with.

Also, as I always say, pray and study the Bible for yourself and take to heart the other side’s argument for or against a certain doctrine. Only when we truly look at the positives of both sides of an issue will we be able to decide what is most likely accurate for us to believe. Rarely is one side 100% wrong while the other is 100% right. Usually both sides have valid arguments that must be reconciled.

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

We’ve taken almost an entire year moving up to this point in the gospel narrative, and we now come to the passages that describe the road leading to the cross. However, in this event that all four gospels include, we discover something amazing: The four gospels don’t describe the same thing. In a unique turn of events, one of the gospels seems to contradict the other three.

Let’s read together this event and discover what happened. To represent the first three gospels, let’s read from the gospel of Mark, chapter 15, using the New Century Version. Starting in verse 21, Mark describes to us what happened by saying:

²¹ A man named Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming from the fields to the city. The soldiers forced Simon to carry the cross for Jesus. ²² They led Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull. ²³ The soldiers tried to give Jesus wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he refused. ²⁴ The soldiers crucified Jesus and divided his clothes among themselves, throwing lots to decide what each soldier would get.

The road to Golgotha in Matthew, Mark, and Luke all include a previously unknown character. Simon from Cyrene had been minding his own business and was simple coming into the city when the soldiers spotted him and perhaps because Jesus was having difficulty carrying the cross because of the whipping and beating that they had done earlier, the soldiers force Simon to carry Jesus’ cross.

The way Mark describes this scene, and specifically that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus implies that the early church members knew who both Alexander and Rufus were. This makes me think that carrying Jesus’ cross had a powerful impact on Simon, and being forced into this situation drew Simon to Jesus in a way that no other event could have.

We don’t know if Simon had known, followed, or heard Jesus preach before this point. It is very possible. All we do know is that Simon, possibly reluctantly, steps into the pages of history to help Jesus when He needed help, and that at least two of Simon’s children were known among those in the early church.

However, John’s gospel describes Jesus’ road to Golgotha differently. John, chapter 19, verse 17 tells us that:

¹⁷ Carrying his own cross, Jesus went out to a place called The Place of the Skull, which in the Hebrew language is called Golgotha.

Is this a glaring contradiction between the gospels and a reason to distrust what John wrote? On the surface it might be, but part of me wonders if John is describing something different from what the other gospel writers included.

First off, John was the disciple who was most likely present for this. The other disciples had scattered and were hiding, so they would have learned about this event from others, and the gospel writers, specifically Mark and Luke who were not direct disciples, learned about what happened from other sources.

On one level, we could understand John to be clarifying a misconception that had been growing among the early church that Jesus barely made it very far with the cross. At the most basic level, John could be describing how Jesus successfully carried the cross all the way to the hill He was crucified on, but then lacked the strength to carry it up the hill. On seeing this, that is when Simon is recruited. This is one possible way we could harmonize this supposed contradiction.

However, on another level, John could be speaking more spiritually than literally here, and John could be describing Jesus’ “cross” not as the wooden structure that He would be hung from, but the burden that He carried taking all of humanities sins with Him to the crucifixion. In this symbolic understanding, Simon, while helping with the wooden beams for an undetermined length of the trip, could not have helped Jesus carry the emotional weight of the cross weighing on His heart.

John doesn’t give us many, if any, clues about how literal we should take this verse. The verses that surround it sound pretty direct and not symbolic, so it makes sense that this would be more of a literal description, but why would John be so direct about this when the other gospel writers are clear that Jesus received help?

It’s possible John emphasizes the event this way because he wants to draw our attention onto how Jesus bore His cross, specifically the cross that only He could bear, because that is what He challenged His followers to do as well. Luke, chapter 14, verse 17 records Jesus telling the crowd of followers: “Whoever is not willing to carry his cross and follow me cannot be my follower.” This challenge is problematic when we read in three of the four gospels that Simon carried Jesus’ literal cross to Golgotha.

However, Jesus’ challenge to His followers includes a layer of symbolism mixed within the literal. Many of Jesus’ followers were crucified on crosses, however not every one of them. Some of Jesus’ disciples traveled outside of the Roman Empire to share the good news of Jesus, and while they were persecuted for what they shared, they didn’t face any literal crosses.

But every one of Jesus’ followers, from the first century to where we are today has faced challenges, and our faith in Jesus that pushes us against the current of the world’s culture challenges us, and some might describe it as a cross we bear for Jesus. Earlier this year, we read about Jesus telling His disciples and His followers that they would be hated because of Him, and that if the world hated Him, it would not treat them any better.

In this regard, John’s gospel describes Jesus carrying a burden that only He could carry, and the only burden that He alone could carry is the sins of humanity. This is the strongest case for a spiritual reading of John’s somewhat contradictory passage.

However, regardless of whether Jesus only received a little help with getting His literal cross up the Golgotha hill, or whether Simon helped Jesus with His literal cross while Jesus was struggling with the emotional, spiritual cross that only He could bear, we can know that Jesus pressed forward towards the cross to take the punishment we deserved.

Jesus bore His cross like He challenges us to do. We have been brought into the world to do something that only we can do, and while each person’s responsibility will look a little different, Jesus has challenged each of us to carry the cross of His commission like He carried the cross of His big mission to this world!

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

As always, be sure to seek God first and place Him first in your life. Know that God brought you and I into this world for a reason and He challenges each of us to live out His mission for our lives. If we don’t know His mission for our lives, we are challenged to grow closer to Him to learn what His mission for each of our lives is, and to then step out in faith as He slowly reveals to us what He wants us to do for Him.

Also, always be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn from God directly. The Bible is the best place to learn about what God is like, and the Bible is the best foundation to have when growing closer to Jesus. Don’t take anyone else’s words or ideas about the Bible and let them distract you from reading and discovering the Bible for yourself. As I always challenge you to do, read the Bible for yourself to discover what it teaches you about God, about Jesus, and about what He has promised 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 deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!