Reflective Bible Study

In today’s hypersensitive society and culture, it’s hard to imagine Jesus being intentionally offensive towards someone. After all, since God is love, and Jesus came to represent God, shouldn’t Jesus love everyone equally?

In my mind, the answer to this question is a yes, but with this answer, we find several examples where Jesus simply is not overly interested in being kind or nice to everyone. When reading the gospels, we quickly discover that Jesus reserved some harsh comments for the religious leaders. I can understand challenging those who claimed to represent God on earth when they were doing a bad job, however, the passage we will be focusing on in this episode is not about Jesus insulting the religious leaders.

Instead, against all politically correct, hypersensitive advice, our passage focuses in on Jesus insulting a gentile woman who came asking for His help. While this sounds very un-Christlike, I wonder if this insult and the conversation that surrounded it, can teach us something about God’s character.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it using the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 24, we learn that:

²⁴ Jesus went from there to a place near Tyre. He entered a house. He did not want anyone to know where he was. But he could not keep it a secret. ²⁵ Soon a woman heard about him. An evil spirit controlled her little daughter. The woman came to Jesus and fell at his feet. ²⁶ She was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Pausing our reading briefly, so far, this event is normal. Jesus goes to a place, wants to keep a low profile, but was unsuccessful. When word spreads that He was in the area, people came requesting help. It would not be logical to think that only Jews would come if Jesus is capable and willing to help everyone, so here we have a Greek mother coming to ask for help for her daughter.

So far, this event is pretty straight forward. But in the next verse, Jesus shocks everyone present, and His response should shock us living over 2000 years later. In verse 27, Jesus replied saying:

²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

This might just be the most offensive statement Jesus ever made in His entire ministry. In just a few words, Jesus lowers the status of all non-Jews to be equal to dogs – at least that is how our hypersensitive world today would interpret this statement.

Part of me wonders if this is not Jesus’ analogy. While it certainly seems as though Jesus is validating this prejudice by repeating it, I wonder if the Jews, as an unwritten national rule, believed themselves to be God’s only children, and every gentile person was equal to dogs. I don’t believe there is a different scripture in the Bible to support this exact idea, but we do know the Jewish leaders had a very clear “us vs. them” attitude and that they believed themselves to be superior.

I wonder if Jesus made this statement, not for the woman herself, but for those standing around witnessing this request. The implication in Jesus’ words is that this woman should wait in line till the very end – specifically after all the Jews who had come to be helped were through – and if there was time left, and perhaps a little bit of Holy Spirit left after everyone else had been helped, then maybe Jesus would help her. This interpretation of Jesus’ words doesn’t really sound like Jesus, except that Jesus might simply be speaking the thoughts of those witnessing this event.

Perhaps there was a long line of Jews needing help, and first-century culture didn’t say first come, first served, like our culture today. Instead, they had a Jews first, no exceptions mentality.

Once Jesus had everyone’s attention with His harsh response, we discover the woman’s quick reply. Continuing in verse 28, the mother responds:

²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “That was a good reply. You may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ So she went home and found her child lying on the bed. And the demon was gone.

In this event, if we can step back from Jesus’ insult, we see some amazing themes at work. While it would be easy to focus exclusively on Jesus’ insult and ignore the rest of the event, we would miss an amazing truth that is contained within this passage.

While the woman’s response to Jesus’ insult might have had a feeling of sarcasm, her response displayed an impressive amount of faith. Her response basically says that any crumb or sliver of help will be enough. She isn’t interested in the scraps after the meal, if any “food” is left, but instead she is content with the crumbs that might fall during the meal. Pulling the idea outside of the meal metaphor, this woman tells Jesus she is fine with any help He can offer, and if one of the upcoming miracles doesn’t need all of its required elements, she is happy to have the leftovers.

This level of faith is amazing when we think about it. Looking at the faith of this woman, and the centurion that Jesus helped earlier in His ministry, I get the impression that Jesus’ gentile miracles displayed more profound faith than His miracles for those of Jewish ancestry.

But this isn’t the only theme we see hidden within this short conversation. Within this conversation is the idea that God came to bless the Jews, but that the Jews were to bless others with their blessings. The woman’s response challenges this ideal, saying that this bless-it-forward attitude is not happening. If anything, the Jews give them – the gentiles – crumbs, but generally nothing at all.

This gentile woman exposes the failures of the Jewish people in her response. While Jesus alludes to how God intended for the Jews to model God’s attitude and bless others, the woman’s response shows how this original plan was failing. I wonder if Jesus used this event as a teaching point later in His ministry with the disciples, telling them that they were to help and bless those that God brings their way, regardless of the person’s nationality or ethnicity, or even their race, gender, or beliefs.

The big truth for us living today is to not mess up this plan like the Jewish people did. God loves all people, and He has called His people to love others and bless others. In God’s eyes, His people will not display an “us vs. them” attitude, but instead God’s people will display an “us blessing, helping, and loving them” attitude. This is God’s ideal for His people, and as followers of Christ, it is our challenge living 2,000 years later.

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

Be sure to intentionally love and bless those who God brings into your life. Believe that God wants you to be a blessing to others like He has blessed you, and intentionally choose to be loving, kind, and compassionate to those in the world around you because God has been loving, kind, and compassionate towards you.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God and your connection to the Holy Spirit. We grow closer to God through praying and studying His Word, and while a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas, and things to think about, only through prayer and personal study will you grow your personal relationship.

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!

In our last episode, we ran out of time before covering all I wanted to cover, so this episode will pick back up where the last one left off. We were looking at the miracle where Jesus heals the man who had a “legion” of demons in him, and who was living outside of society on the far side of a lake.

Let’s read the whole event and miracle first to give us context, then focus in on what we didn’t have time for in our previous episode. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 26, Luke tells us that:

²⁶ [Jesus and His disciples] sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷ When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” ²⁹ For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. ³¹ And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

³² A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. ³³ When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴ When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, ³⁵ and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ³⁶ Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. ³⁷ Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

In our previous episode, we focused on how Jesus made this trip for one particular person. He arrived on shore in a place where only one person lived, and here at the end of the passage, the people from that region ask Jesus to leave, so Jesus leaves. On the surface, this trip might look like a failure, since only one person was healed – and Jesus doesn’t even let that person join the ranks of followers before being asked to leave. This was at least partially because Jesus allowed the demons to kill the pigs. However, Jesus simply allowed the demons to enter the pigs, Jesus didn’t tell the demons to run the pigs off the cliff.

We then might ask the question, why let the demons enter and kill the pigs. Jesus could have cast them out without letting them possess anything else. While I don’t know all of God’s reasons, one likely reason in my mind was to alert those in town to Jesus’ presence. A miracle like this would definitely turn heads, and it would cause those present to discover the crazy guy they feared was now sane and healed – and that Jesus was the source of that healing. A miracle like this could have prompted those in the area to have faith in Jesus’ God-given miraculous ability and bring all the sick and hurting people to get help. Instead, those who owned the pigs only saw Jesus as someone who was to be feared more than the formerly-demon-possessed man and they ask Jesus to leave.

This event appears to be a failure on many levels. Jesus was only able to heal one person before being asked to leave. Those in the region lost a herd of pigs. Those in the region also missed out on the opportunity of receiving more of God’s help through Jesus. And the man Jesus healed wasn’t allowed to follow Jesus.

However, while we might consider this entire event a failure, Jesus had something else in mind, and this other thing was not what those who were fearful expected. Jesus had just healed and commissioned one of His greatest evangelists. While Luke concludes this passage by saying that “the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him,” Mark’s gospel shares a little more detail.

In Mark, chapter 5, verse 20, Mark concludes this miracle and event by saying, “So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.” The name Decapolis means the Ten Cities, so while those in Gerasenes did not accept Jesus because of this miracle, the man was from a very populated area. In one of the next places the gospel writers mentions the Decapolis, we discover a unique miracle that takes place – which is the focus of one of our future episodes.

The miracle of the healed demoniac is an amazing miracle. While those who owned the pigs felt that their loss was greater than the healing of an outcast, in the big picture, the healing of this man represented so much more in the eyes of God.

In this miracle, and in all the disappointment that happened, we discover that in our own lives, things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes, we don’t get what we want or ask for. However, just because we experience failure, disappointment, or a “no” answer to prayer doesn’t mean that God dislikes us. All it means is that God’s plan is bigger than we realize, and that He is working in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine.

While the man experiences disappointment because Jesus didn’t let him join the group of disciples, we discover that this man became a much better evangelist sharing what Jesus had already done for him. In our own lives, when we receive disappointment, we can trust that God has something bigger in mind, and that when we look back on our lives, while some things might not make sense, and while we will have experienced plenty of disappointments, we will likely agree that God’s plan was better than ours.

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 Him with the path He wants you to walk through life. If we experience disappointment because God has closed a door, trust that the time isn’t right, that there is a better door further down the path, or that we have something more we need to do, learn, or help with where we are at right now. Let’s trust God with our disappointments, and trust that His big picture plans are better than our limited perspective.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow personally towards God. Let God teach you through the Bible and use the Bible as your filter for life. While other people can give you ideas to think about, always filter what you learn through what the Bible teaches to know whether it aligns with God’s truth.

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!

After one of the most famous miracles in Jesus’ ministry, we discover a second miracle that happened that night. While the famous miracle where Jesus fed a crowd of over 5,000 people prompted the disciples to believe more fully that Jesus was the Messiah, the miracle that happened that night challenged their impression of Jesus even more.

Immediately following having the disciples collect the leftover bread from the feeding of the 5,000, we come to our passage for this episode. While this event is included in all 4 gospels, let’s read what happened from Mark’s gospel to discover some things Mark chose to focus on. With that said, our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Jumping into the event in verse 45, we read that:

⁴⁵ Jesus quickly made his disciples get into a boat and cross to Bethsaida ahead of him while he sent the people away. ⁴⁶ After saying goodbye to them, he went up a mountain to pray. ⁴⁷ When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land.

⁴⁸ Jesus saw that they were in a lot of trouble as they rowed, because they were going against the wind. Between three and six o’clock in the morning, he came to them. He was walking on the sea. He wanted to pass by them. ⁴⁹ When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought, “It’s a ghost!” and they began to scream. ⁵⁰ All of them saw him and were terrified.

Immediately, he said, “Calm down! It’s me. Don’t be afraid!” ⁵¹ He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped blowing. The disciples were astounded. ⁵² (They didn’t understand what had happened with the loaves of bread. Instead, their minds were closed.)

⁵³ They crossed the sea, came to shore at Gennesaret, and anchored there.

This miracle is amazing in my mind. We read that as soon as Jesus steps into the boat, the wind, which had been blowing against them, simply stopped. While other gospel writers include Peter’s big water walk during this event, Mark’s gospel ignores this detail while instead adding some details about what happens after they landed the following morning.

However, I paused reading our passage here because Mark’s gospel also chose to include the side-note about the disciples’ minds being closed. With the amazing miracle of the loaves of bread, and the astonishing miracle of the calm sea, we discover that the disciples’ minds were closed to understanding the significance of these miracles.

This detail challenges me to wonder if my mind is ever closed to what God wants to teach me. If those who were the closest to Jesus while He was alive on earth had their minds closed, who am I to believe that my mind could not fall into a similar trap.

While I read these two miracles, I cannot escape the detail that each miracle points to Jesus being the promised Messiah, and that Jesus is God. In the Old Testament, we find one of the prophets, Elisha, feeding 100 people in a miraculous way. For those of you who are curious, this relatively unknown event happens at the end of 2 Kings, chapter 4.

While I don’t know if the minds of the disciples were closed to seeing this connection, or if their minds were closed to seeing anything but this connection, the connections are mind-boggling. When looking at 2 Kings, chapter 4, we discover a miracle where oil is multiplied and it allows a widow to pay her debts. This miracle in some ways echoes Jesus turning water into wine, which was Jesus’ first miracle.

Also in chapter 4 of 2 Kings, we find a miracle where the prophet Elisha raises a child back to life. In Jesus’ life and ministry, there are several instances where Jesus raised a child back to life, and I imagine that many of those present saw this connection between Jesus’ ministry and Elisha’s.

Another notable miracle in Elisha’s ministry is making an axe head float. This miracle happens a couple chapters later in 2 Kings chapter 6. In Jesus’ ministry, we just read about Him making Himself “float” as He walked on the water. Peter even gets to experience this miracle when reading about this event in a different gospel.

I don’t know if what we see described in Mark’s gospel about the disciples minds being closed relates to them not seeing these connections to Elisha’s ministry, or if they could not see that Jesus came to fulfill more than what Elisha had accomplished. Whatever the case is, if those closest to Jesus fell into the trap of being closed-minded, we should be extra cautious about being closed-minded as well.

With all that said, Mark includes another set of details about what happens when Jesus and the disciples reach the shore. Picking back up in verse 54, we learn that:

⁵⁴ As soon as they stepped out of the boat, the people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran all over the countryside and began to carry the sick on cots to any place where they heard he was. ⁵⁶ Whenever he would go into villages, cities, or farms, people would put their sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch the edge of his clothes. Everyone who touched his clothes was made well.

The last phrase in this passage jumped off the page at me when I read this. Mark tells us that those who were sick begged Jesus to “let them touch the edge of his clothes. Everyone who touched his clothes was made well.”

Just a couple of weeks ago, we talked about a woman who snuck up to Jesus believing that if she just touched the edge of His clothes, she would be made well. When I read this passage in Mark’s gospel, I couldn’t help but wonder if the news about the woman’s almost secret miracle had spread like wildfire, causing people to believe that they simply needed to touch Jesus’ clothing to be healed.

The way Mark’s passage concludes, we learn that even though the disciples struggled with closed minds regarding who Jesus was, those who were sick didn’t let doubt about Jesus get in the way of their faith that He could heal them. Jesus honored the faith of those present by letting them be healed simply by touching His clothing, because Jesus knew that this faith would grow into a life-saving belief in Him.

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

Be sure to place your faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus does not worry about how or why we place our faith in Him, but simply that we place our faith in Him. While we might be tempted to over-think what it means to place our belief in Jesus, in the context of how our passage concludes, faith in Jesus simply means trusting that He will help us and/or heal us in the ways we need help and healing.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself because through it, the Holy Spirit will teach you way more than any author, pastor, or podcaster ever could.

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 doubt your way out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our last episode, we focused on the trip Jesus takes across the lake and how a severe storm sweeps across the water scaring all the disciples while Jesus slept peacefully. I had not realized the connection between that event and the one we will be focusing in on in this episode, because when we look at how the gospel writers structure this event, the miracle we will be focusing in on in this episode happens when Jesus and the disciples reach land. It is as though Satan did not want Jesus to reach this shore and meet the man who lived there.

But remember, one big theme in all of Jesus’ miracles and ministry is that God is stronger than Satan, and nothing would stop Jesus from making this trip to someone who needed God’s help.

While this miracle is included in three of the four gospels, let’s read it from Luke’s gospel to discover what happened. This miracle is found in Luke, chapter 8, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 26, Luke tells us that:

²⁶ [Jesus and His disciples] sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷ When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” ²⁹ For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. ³¹ And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

³² A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. ³³ When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

Let’s pause reading here to focus in on what has just happened. When reading this event, it appears as though Jesus has made a special trip across the lake just to meet this demon possessed man, and from the description Luke gives us, there was no way this man would have gone to Jesus. The legion of demons living inside of him would not have allowed it.

However, I bet this man had friends or relatives who wished he would be made well, and in the absence of a family or friend’s prayer, this man had a Creator who loved him very much.

We discover in this passage that when this man was unable to come to Jesus, Jesus makes the special trip to visit him. When we are unable to come to God, God is more than willing to come to us. While we were actively sinning and rebelling against God, Christ came to this earth. This event displays on a small scale what God did through Jesus for all of humanity and we’ve barely scratched the surface of the miracle itself!

Another theme we’ve looked at previously in this year of miracles, is that we cannot trust what comes from a demon’s mouth. However, it is interesting that we don’t read Jesus telling this demon to be quiet. Perhaps this was because there was no crowd around and no one to misinterpret the demons’ message.

When Jesus met this demon, we discover more details regarding what all the demons might have collectively said if given the chance. This legion of demons acknowledges Jesus’ divinity, and then they make the claim that Jesus would send them into the torturous abyss when given the chance.

What is interesting in my mind is where the demons’ get the idea that Jesus would sentence them to torture if He wanted to. I don’t see any hint of Jesus sentencing any demon who He cast out of a person to a place of torture or to an abyss. This then strongly suggests that this is the devil’s lie in the words that are spoken. Satan likes to mix truth and lies, and when we look for the lie, we need look no further than here. While there is a judgment reserved for Satan and His angels, there is no hint anywhere in scriptures that this judgment happened the moment a person was freed from an evil spirit.

Judgment happened when Jesus faced the cross, and another phase of judgment happens when Jesus returns. Neither of these things had happened at the point we are looking at in this event, and that means that we now see a big piece of the devil’s lie.

Through this legion of demons, we learn of a place of eternal torment given to those who reject God. Does this sound like today’s cultural description of hell?

While Satan and his angels have every right to fear a place like this if it exists, if the only places we see scripture describe a place like this is through the mouths of demons, then the very existence of this type of hell could also be an elaborate lie Satan has used to turn God into a villain. God definitely describes a time of judgment in the Bible, but God’s description of this judgment is one that has an end. God doesn’t ever describe a continual judging or condemning of sinners throughout eternity.

(I will point out here that the Old Testament description of smoke continually rising that is oftentimes used in support of a place like these demons describe in this passage simply describes smoke. Smoke can exist after a flame has been extinguished, and a flame that has finished consuming its fuel will ultimately go out. In other words, Isaiah’s concluding remarks only give evidence that a fire has occurred, but not that there is one that is forever burning.)

However, we have hit a place in this episode where we have run out of time. While there are plenty of other things we could focus in on in this passage, instead of trying to rush it into the last little portion of this episode, let’s wait and focus on the last portion of this event in our next episode.

With that said, as we come to the end of this podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Intentionally seek God first and trust Him to keep you safe throughout eternity. When faced with ideas or theories that contradict God’s character or what we can clearly read in the Bible, choose to believe the Bible over what culture wants to push us to think and believe. Culture jumps between fads. The Bible stands as an unchanging anchor that represents God’s love, His character, and His interest in saving you and me for eternity.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and mature into the person God created you to be. Intentionally study to grow closer to God and take your questions to Him and His word. God is more than happy to meet you in the pages of your Bible.

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