Reflective Bible Study

When describing all that happened following Jesus’ arrest and leading up to the cross, all four gospels describe the details differently. Each gospel writer has the details in a unique, but similar order, and some events that are placed in different places in each gospel’s “order of events” may actually describe the same event.

While these discrepancies might be reasons for a skeptic to doubt, all this uniqueness in my own mind speaks to four independent investigators asking witnesses questions of a single event. It’s possible that the order of the details is different, and that makes piecing the timeline of the event together a little more difficult.

This brings us to our passage for this episode. Two weeks ago, we read Mark’s gospel, which described a trial Jesus faced at night. This trial had numerous false witnesses contradicting each other, and when it looked like the trial was about to fall apart, in almost desperation, the high priest challenges Jesus on His claim of being God’s Son.

However, in Luke’s gospel, the first trial we see take place is after Peter’s denial and it happens when morning came. Luke doesn’t describe any false witnesses, but he does draw our attention onto the direct challenge of the religious leaders that they use to condemn Jesus.

In my mind, as I piece the gospel record together, there were two trials. The one during the night was a practice trial to get information that these leaders could then challenge Jesus on during the official trial in the morning.

Let’s read about the morning trial that Luke describes. This event is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 66, Luke tells us:

⁶⁶ In the morning the council of the people’s leaders, the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings, gathered together. They brought Jesus in front of their highest court and asked him, ⁶⁷ “Tell us, are you the Messiah?”

Jesus said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. ⁶⁸ And if I ask you, you won’t answer. ⁶⁹ But from now on, the Son of Man will be in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.”

⁷⁰ Then all of them said, “So you’re the Son of God?”

Jesus answered them, “You’re right to say that I am.”

⁷¹ Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.”

Let’s stop reading here because this marks the end of this trial. Following this, the religious leaders take Jesus to Pilate.

However, what I find interesting in Luke’s trial that makes me think this was a different trial than what Mark describes is that the religious leaders open with a direct question and Jesus responds with a similar, but distinctly different answer.

The religious leaders are working against the clock because they have the Passover to get ready for, and they want Jesus condemned to death as quickly as possible, since this is likely the only chance they feel they will get.

After fishing for information and for a charge to bring against Jesus during the time they had Him at night, the religious leaders settle on Jesus’ claim of divinity and His role as God’s Messiah. They take this information to the official trial that is first thing that morning.

In Luke’s official trial, I am amazed at Jesus’ response, especially after a passage we read earlier this year. In this response Jesus gives, I believe He directly references the question He asked the religious leaders that they could not answer.

Earlier that week, Jesus had presented a divine picture of the Messiah when He quoted David saying in the Psalms: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Take the honored position—the one next to me [God the Father] on the heavenly throne until I put your enemies under your control.’” (This event can be found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, verses 41-44.)

Now with that in mind, let’s read Jesus’ response again during Luke’s trial. Verses 67-69 tell us that Jesus responded by saying, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. And if I ask you, you won’t answer.  But from now on, the Son of Man will be in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.”

Do you see the similarities in these two verses?

Reading these two passages together gives me a picture of what Jesus is doing right now. Following Jesus’ return to Heaven, God the Father gives Him the honored position next to Him and Jesus is reigning in Heaven as the “Defeater of Sin and Death”. These two passages together describe the time we are currently living in, which is a time where Jesus is victorious but sin hasn’t yet been destroyed.

In this passage, we discover that Jesus not only responded strategically here, but He responded in the exact way that the religious leaders needed Him to respond to condemn Him to death.

Also, with this response, the religious leaders condemn themselves. Not only do they reject that Jesus is God’s Son, but they also reject Jesus as God’s Messiah, and they reject God Himself because they don’t believe Jesus fits their picture of God.

By rejecting both God the Father and Jesus as the Son and the Messiah, their judgment displays their allegiance to the powers of this world and not to the religion they claimed to follow. These religious leaders had taken their tradition and formed it into their religion in place of the religion God had given to Moses for the people.

It is no wonder the religious leaders rejected Jesus. Jesus came with an accurate picture of God that said every human being is a sinner who needs a Savior. While the religious leaders intellectually believed this, otherwise they would not have judged Jesus as a sinner, they disliked this truth being shared openly by an outsider.

It is the same way with us today. While it is not pleasant to see ourselves as sinners, that is who we are. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we are victorious sinners who have had our sins washed away, but until Jesus returns to rid the world of sin, sin will always be something our lives are challenged with, and sin is always something that is included in our past.

This is the way God designed it to be, because if there was no sin in our past, not only would we be deceiving ourselves, but we also would be rejecting the need of a Savior to wash us clean. Jesus came to save sinners, and those who don’t see themselves as sinners needing a Savior won’t accept the gift that Jesus freely offers to those who place their faith in Him.

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

Always seek God first and place Him first in your life. Be sure to recognize that you are a sinner who needs a Savior and that your past needs Jesus’ sacrifice to cover it. Choose today to live a victorious life that doesn’t look like your sinful past, and choose to live each day moving forward for Jesus.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God and to Jesus each and every day. Through prayer and Bible study, you grow your personal relationship with God and through the personal relationship with God, you are able to discover and learn the truth that God wants to teach you. While others can give you ideas to think about, filter everything you learn through the truth of God’s Word.

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

At the beginning of the week where Jesus is crucified, the idea of Jesus’ death approaching seemed ridiculous. Even Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would ultimately betray Jesus, didn’t think at the beginning of this week that Jesus would be dead in a tomb the following Sabbath.

All the disciples could tell that Jesus’ ministry was pointing towards a specific moment, and how crucifixion week began gives just one more piece of confirming evidence in the disciples’ minds that Jesus was the promised Messiah – even if they believed the Messiah’s role to be different.

The gospel of John describes Jesus’ trip to Jerusalem at the beginning of the week of His death. Let’s read how John describes it from the gospel of John, chapter 12, using the New International Version of the Bible. Beginning in verse 12, John tells us that:

¹² The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

¹⁵ “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
    see, your king is coming,
    seated on a donkey’s colt.”

¹⁶ At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

Let’s pause and look at what John has just told us. In his description of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey, John states that the disciples did not catch the significance of this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize more fully all the subtle prophetic words that pointed towards Jesus as God’s Messiah.

But while this symbolism was lost on the disciples until later, another group of people could see the symbolism, and they did not like it. John describes the crowd of people who joined Jesus on His journey into Jerusalem. Picking back up in verse 17, John transitions back into the events of Jesus’ entrance by saying:

¹⁷ Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. ¹⁸ Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

While the Pharisees had openly rejected Jesus as being anyone but a sinner who happened to perform some coincidental miracles, the symbolism of Jesus riding a donkey was not lost on them. These religious leaders knew the scriptures better than anyone else alive at that point (excluding Jesus), and they easily saw what He was trying to do. However, they could not rationalize away Jesus’ latest miracle: raising Lazarus from the dead. The crowd that had been present to mourn Lazarus’ death had become a powerful witness to Jesus’ cause.

Word of Lazarus’ resurrection prompted many people to rethink their position and which side of the Jesus-debate they were on. While the Pharisees had the temple and the status quo, Jesus had the ability to bring life, and that was a bigger draw. Verse 19 describes the Pharisees response when they hear that Jesus is approaching Jerusalem on a donkey. John tells us that they said to one another, “This is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

The Pharisees recognized at this point that arguments, logic, and rhetoric were no match for a clearly witnessed resurrection miracle. While they had been able to push many of Jesus’ other miracles aside and rationalize the significance out of them, they could not brush Lazarus’ resurrection away so easily. Jesus’ journey to and entrance into Jerusalem was just confirmation that they were losing the status quo that they had tried to delicately achieve as spiritual leaders who wanted to remain peaceful with the Romans publicly, but who hated the idea of their presence in their country privately.

Had Jesus shown signs of rallying people together against Rome, these leaders might have lessened their opposition of Him, even if they politically could not side with Him. The leaders subtly supported those who wanted to rid their country of the Romans, and if a military leader was successful at this, they would have been the first to proclaim that individual as the Messiah.

The leaders missed out on the Messiah God actually sent because they only looked at that role through the tiny filter of a leader who would liberate them from Rome. They could see Jesus claiming kingship, but they reserved their support for someone who was willing and able to conquer Rome.

Looking at the Pharisees in this passage, tells me that it is way too easy for us to miss seeing Jesus in our own lives when we choose to use a filter for identifying the places He is working.If we only look for clearly spiritual blessings, or financial blessings, or extraordinary events in our lives, using that filter, we are guaranteed to miss how Jesus has led us through other points, like through a tragedy, challenge, or series of disconnected events that we ultimately learned something from.

Sometimes it is impossible to see God in the moment, but we make seeing Him even less likely when we choose to filter our eyes and only look for Him in certain places and circumstances.

John told us that the disciples also missed out on seeing symbolism in this portion of Jesus’ ministry. While they do remember it later and then assemble the pieces of prophecy together, while they were in the moment and in the celebration, they were oblivious to what this celebration meant, and to the death that was about to happen just a few short days later.

The disciples in this passage prompt me to be okay if I don’t see God in everything that is happening in my life. While I should be looking and keeping my eyes open, and while I shouldn’t put a filter onto what I am looking for, it is okay if I don’t see the evidence in the moment for God being present in my circumstances. If we are focused on looking for God, and we are continually drawing close to Him, then the Holy Spirit will help remind us of those times in our past where we may have missed seeing God working, and He will help us reframe the pain from our past into purpose, and the trials we faced into triumphs for God.

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

Continue seeking God first in your life and keep your eyes open for evidence of His leading you. When looking for God, don’t put a filter over your eyes in an attempt to force God to fit into your small picture of Him. Instead, look for ways He has led, taught, guided, and protected you through both the high points of life as well as through the low. While God doesn’t like it when we face horrible circumstances, He sometimes allows Satan to bring evil into our life to remind us of our need of Him.

Also, continue to regularly pray and study the Bible for yourself, and focus on growing that personal relationship with God. Through prayer and personal Bible study, you are able to grow closer to God, and the closer you are to God, the more clearly you will be able to see evidence of His leading in your life and its collection of various circumstances.

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 miss out on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

While Jesus was being tried in the religious court, Peter is outside warming himself by the fire. Even though He and the other disciples scattered and left Jesus to be arrested, Peter is one disciple who wants to know firsthand what the results of this trial will be. Peter knew Jesus had sidestepped every other encounter with the religious leaders, and I wonder if he wants to be an early witness of one more brilliant evasive maneuver that Peter knows Jesus is capable of.

However, this also sets Peter up for what he feared the most, and that fear was letting Jesus down. Let’s read about what happens.

Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 66, Mark describes the scene to us:

⁶⁶ As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came, ⁶⁷ and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” ⁶⁸ But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch. ⁶⁹ The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!” ⁷⁰ But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.” ⁷¹ But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” ⁷² Immediately a rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he began to weep.

In this passage, all Peter wanted to do was be close to Jesus while also being anonymous. Peter wanted to be present if Jesus needed him, but otherwise, he wanted to remain unknown.

However, a perceptive servant-girl speaks up and blows his cover. Whether this servant-girl was with the crowd and soldiers who went to arrest Jesus, or whether she happened to have seen Peter with Jesus at some point earlier in the week when Jesus was teaching and preaching in the temple, we see in this passage, that Peter could not escape being recognized for His presence with Jesus.

It’s quite possible that many of the crowd that Peter was mingling with were among those who were part of the crowd that had arrested Jesus. Peter’s outburst with the sword during Jesus’ arrest would be enough to single him out in the memory of those present. However, it was dark out, and perhaps not many people were able to see Peter clearly enough to recognize him at first.

In this passage, in spite of Peter’s big declaration the previous evening that he would never deny Jesus, we discover that Jesus’ prediction rings true regardless of how insistently Peter denied Jesus’ words to the contrary.

However, Peter’s big failure in this passage gives us hope. It is likely we are not as arrogant as Peter was. Someone who had walked with Jesus for over three years and who knew all about Him was the only one who we clearly read about openly denying Jesus. The rest of the disciples deserted Jesus, but Peter is the only one who denied knowing Him.

In our own lives, while we walk with Jesus in a spiritual sense, we walk by faith. God has called us to be His representatives in the world we live in. When people ask whether we know Jesus, it might be easy to simply minimize our connection to Him, but the easy path leads us to regret.

When Peter realized that Jesus’ words came true, and that he had denied Him the three times, it breaks Peter’s heart. Peter regretted his mistakes and his denials. If we deny Jesus when we know Him and claim to follow Him, we walk Peter’s path of regret.

It’s hard to say if Peter’s fear of being recognized would have been realized if those present knew he had been with Jesus. Peter’s fear was that he would be pulled in and put on trial next to Jesus.

In an interesting way, this is also the fear many of us face today. If others know we love, follow, and believe in Jesus, will they ridicule us and make fun of us? Will we be laughed at or abused by others because of our belief?

Sometimes, our fears describe an illusion. Sometimes we can say these fears are simply false evidence that appears real. However, other times, our fears may be realized. Sometimes standing up for Jesus does mean that we lose something in the present world.

However, when we stand up for Jesus in this life, we gain much more than we lose. If we stand up for Jesus and we lose friends, we can look forward to the promise of new and better friends in the future. If we stand up for Jesus and lose family, God has promised us a new family – His family, that He adopts us into. If we stand up for Jesus and lose our lives, nothing worse can happen. Instead, when we lose our lives for Jesus in this world, we gain eternal life in the next one. And given the choice between life in a sinful world or a sinless one, always pick the world and life without sin!

Denying Jesus is never the right choice. Denying Jesus leads to regret. However, when we deny Jesus, we can still turn back to Him and experience forgiveness. When we fail God, He doesn’t fail or reject us. Instead, He’s standing with open arms waiting for us to repent and turn back to Him! Our failures are opportunities to experience God’s forgiveness.

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

Always seek God first and declare your allegiance to Him. When faced with the choice to acknowledge or deny Jesus, always choose to share your connection with Him. Telling people you love, believe, and have faith in Jesus is never the wrong choice from eternity’s perspective!

Also, always be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to keep your personal connection with God strong. While other people can give you ideas to think about, filter these ideas through the truth of God’s Word. Never let anyone discount, belittle, or shake your connection with God!

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!

All throughout Jesus’ ministry, people of all types and from all backgrounds came from near and far to see Him. However, one man stands apart from the rest, because while he wanted to see Jesus, instead of seeking Jesus out, he waited until Jesus was traveling through the city he lived in, and he figured out the route Jesus was taking through town.

After figuring all these things out, this man ran ahead and climbed up a tree just so he could see the celebrity Preacher who everyone was talking about. The gospel of Luke shares the story of Jesus’ encounter with the man named Zacchaeus, what happened when Jesus came to the tree that Zacchaeus had climbed, and how Jesus surprised this notorious tax collector.

Let’s read what happened, from Luke’s gospel, chapter 19, using the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd. ⁴ He ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come, and he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. ⁵ When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”

Let’s pause reading here to draw our attention onto a couple fascinating details in the first part of this event. Luke tells us that Zacchaeus simply wanted to see who Jesus was, and perhaps hear a glimpse of what Jesus was preaching about at that time. While trees are great when one needs to climb above the crowd and see past other people, trees are not great for people who want to hear the entire message of someone who is walking along a road while sharing a message.

All the time Jesus was slowly approaching the tree Zacchaeus had climbed, the anticipation of finally seeing Jesus and even hearing a little portion of Jesus’ teaching built. I suspect that in Zacchaeus’ mind, it would be amazing if Jesus happened to stop, or pause near enough to the tree, so that he could hear just a little more of Jesus’ message.

But while Zacchaeus may have wanted his tree climbing adventure to remain hidden, Jesus was not oblivious to what this tax collector was looking for. In reality, Jesus knew what Zacchaeus wanted and needed even better than Zacchaeus himself did.

Picking back up in verse 6, on hearing Jesus invite Himself to his home, Luke tells us that:

⁶ Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. ⁷ All the people saw this and began to complain, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”

I am always surprised when reading this, since this was not the first or last time Jesus would take the time to associate with sinners. However, it is interesting to note that this reaction is not a reaction by the religious elite, but of the crowd in general. The crowd likely had Pharisees, Sadducees, and others in it, but Luke simply describes the complaint coming from the crowd, with no specific spiritual hierarchy present. Even though there was a clear hierarchy present in the first century, Luke doesn’t draw our attention to it in this portion of this event.

However, with that said, the people in the first century are like us today. There are some people we cannot help but look up to, while there are other people we cannot help but look down on. There are people we want to associate with and people who we would rather not associate with.

Jesus’ counter-cultural attitude where He associated with everyone, regardless of their lifestyle or background, would be just as counter-cultural today as it was back then. While tax collectors are not the most likable people in our world today, it was much worse in the first century. I suspect that if this event were to happen today, Zacchaeus could represent any number of marginalized or looked down upon groups.

But Jesus didn’t go to Zacchaeus’ home just because Zacchaeus was hated by those living in Jericho. Jesus invited Himself over because He knew what was in Zacchaeus’ heart, and He wanted to give this tax collector a second chance.

While the crowd was complaining about Jesus’ time spent with a sinner, Luke tells us that Zacchaeus made a bold statement. In verse 8, we read:

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. ¹⁰ The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”

Zacchaeus’ response has several interesting angles we can learn from. First, let’s do a little math. Zacchaeus begin’s his response by pledging half of his wealth to the poor. This is a big deal because in an instant, Zacchaeus loses half of his net worth. We could say that with this pledge, Zacchaeus is now at 50% of his former wealth.

Next, Zacchaeus promises to pay back 4 times over anyone who he had ever cheated. The only way for this statement to be possible without Zacchaeus becoming indebted to the entire city of Jericho would be if he had cheated less than twelve and a half percent of his wealth. While it is possible that Zacchaeus cheated to accumulate 10% or so of his net worth, that still leaves almost the entire fortune Zacchaeus had accumulated to business deals and transactions that were fair for all parties.

In Zacchaeus’ response, he challenges those present, and everyone else that he had ever dealt with using the word if. Zacchaeus says that “if” he had cheated anyone, he would pay them back four times more. By saying “if”, Zacchaeus challenges the stereotype that all tax collectors were cheats and extortionists because using the word “if” implies that he had conducted his business differently.

After hearing Zacchaeus respond, Jesus replied by saying in verse 9 that, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham.”

We might be tempted to think that Zacchaeus just pledged to buy his way into heaven, but this is not true. While Zacchaeus’ statements and promises regarding a newfound generosity seem to prompt Jesus’ statement of approval and salvation, I believe there is something deeper at work here.

From looking at how Zacchaeus responded, it doesn’t appear as though he would shift how he conducted his tax collecting business. Before Jesus, Zacchaeus pushed away the stereotype of a cheat, and this shouldn’t change afterwards.

Instead, I believe it is the first part of Zacchaeus’ response that brought salvation into his home. When Zacchaeus blanket-pledges to give away half his wealth, this opens the door to another realization. Likely up to that point, Zacchaeus might have been known as a saver, and instead of being generous with the money he earned, he horded it away in case he would ever need it. Zacchaeus had lots of money, but it was at the expense of being generous.

The 180-degree turn in Zacchaeus’ life is that after meeting Jesus, the money seemed to matter less, and instead of building a hedge of protection with a large, nice looking balance sheet, Zacchaeus shifted his foundation onto Jesus. Echoing the truth that we cannot serve both God and money, Zacchaeus makes the leap from serving and saving money to serving God and giving money.

Zacchaeus’ shift towards having faith in God and redirecting the focus of his heart led to Jesus’ statement about Zacchaeus now being saved. Salvation is never bought through anything we can pay or do, but we can receive it when we place our faith, trust, hope, and belief in Jesus – which means that we trust in Jesus regardless of the size of our net worth.

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

Intentionally place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. Look to Him first when facing struggles or difficulty, and lean on Him for help with the problems you face.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn more about Jesus, and to grow closer to Him, because when we have given our hearts to His, money, stuff, and status become less important.

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 let money steal you away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!