Reflective Bible Study

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!

As we come near the point in Jesus’ ministry that He is crucified, it seems like many of the gospels slow down their narrative and focus on all the details they can about what happened. If we look at each gospel, it would seem – at least to me – that the gospel writers focused heavily on the last week, and even the 24-hour period prior to Jesus’ crucifixion.

The time of year that this happened was during the annual Passover celebration, and this commemorated the last plague in Egypt where the angel of death passed over the homes that had a lamb’s blood spread on parts of the doorway. It was this last plague that marked the Israelites being kicked out of Egypt, and as a result, they celebrated this event each year as a reminder of what God did for them, and as a memorial of the blood that was put on their doorposts, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb to remind them that their lives had been spared.

Leading up to the weekend Jesus was crucified, we read in the gospel of Luke about a special task Jesus gives to two of His closest disciples. This event can be found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 22, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 7, Luke tells us:

⁷ Then the day of Unleavened Bread came. That was the time the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸ Jesus sent Peter and John on ahead. “Go,” he told them. “Prepare for us to eat the Passover meal.”

⁹ “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

¹⁰ Jesus replied, “When you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters. ¹¹ Then say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, “Where is the guest room? Where can I eat the Passover meal with my disciples?” ’ ¹² He will show you a large upstairs room with furniture already in it. Prepare for us to eat there.”

¹³ Peter and John left. They found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal.

When I read about this event, I am amazed at a couple of things. The most obvious thing to be amazed at is Jesus’ exact knowledge of what Peter and John would find when they entered the city. When Luke tells us that a man carrying a water jug would meet them at the entrance to the city, I am curious if Luke describes a man giving these two disciples a friendly greeting, or if as they enter the city, they would simply see a man carrying a large jar of water.

If we wanted to get a better understanding of this exact portion of the event, we could look in one or both of the other gospels that include this event. But regardless of exactly how the disciples knew which person to follow, the fact Jesus knows what happens in detail is amazing, but it isn’t the most amazing thing in my mind when I read about this event.

One of the other things that stand out in my mind relates to the owner of this mysterious home. Jesus describes the man carrying the jar of water as one of the servants of this homeowner. Either that, or the man carrying the water may have simply been an angel that only these two disciples could see. But when we look at the details surrounding this home, it would appear like this owner was a secret follower of Jesus, or at the very least, someone who didn’t fully support the Jewish leader’s campaign to arrest Him.

When we stop and look a little closer at this event, it seems amazing in my mind that a homeowner would open his home to a group of wanted men so that they could share a meal together. This is essentially what was going on, because at this point in Passover week, the religious leaders had put the word out calling for information from those living in and around Jerusalem so they could arrest Jesus. What this homeowner did by letting Jesus and His disciples enter his home would have made him an enemy of the religious system.

The only way this makes sense is that either this man was already opposed to the religious system currently in place, or He had dedicated His home to God and was willing to let God use this location whenever and however God saw fit.

What this homeowner essentially did was side with Jesus during some of the tensest points in spiritual history, and this too is a powerful thought we should remember: When we are faced with spiritual tension, we should always side with Jesus!

Another perplexing angle on this event is that the disciples are simply instructed to refer to Jesus as “the Teacher”. Whether this was because not everyone in the household was friendly or sympathetic to Jesus, or whether this was a key undercover phrase that this homeowner would recognize, what matters is that this phrase was the key to unlocking access to this upper room.

While we can dig into and marvel at the details surrounding this homeowner, and speculate over the details surrounding how the upper room was opened to Jesus and His disciples, we should not overlook the role of the disciples. I wonder if they just went along with whatever Jesus said at this point in His ministry. When we read how this passage concludes, we don’t see any questioning, any doubt, or any hesitation written. Luke tells us in verse 13 that “Peter and John left. They found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal.”

If it were me, I might have wanted to know a little more what the man who was carrying the water jug looked like, just in case there was more than one man at the entrance to the city that fit this description. I might have wondered or asked for a secondary phrase to say if the homeowner wanted more details regarding who the vague “teacher” referred to.

But this is me, and this might show that I have a more doubtful or skeptical mind than these two disciples. The biggest things I see in this passage that are powerful thoughts are the duel ideas that Peter and John obeyed Jesus’ instructions, even if Jesus’ instructions didn’t make any sense, and the homeowner was willing to open his home when God had called Him to do so.

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

When faced with spiritual tension or a spiritual challenge, always side with Jesus, and with the God of love. When in doubt, this is the best direction to lean towards. Continue intentionally seeking God first and be sure to intentionally place Him first in your life at the beginning of each day.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, because no pastor or podcaster is going to have 100% of the message God wants to share with you, and even if you are able to learn from someone else, nothing can take the place of personal study and learning from the Bible personally!

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 Jesus had been tried by the religious leaders as guilty and by Pilate and Herod as somewhat guilty but guilty because it was easier than dealing with a riot, the soldiers lead Jesus away to crucify Him. However, before Jesus faces the cross, or even the long road to the hill where He will be crucified, there is one last stop to make, and this stop is not an easy one for Jesus, and it’s not a pleasant one for us to read either.

Our passage comes from Mark’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 16, Mark tells us that:

¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷ They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸ And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. ²⁰ And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

These five short verses contain one of the cruelest portions of the entire Bible, but pushing past the cruelty, we discover some amazing ideas – especially after what we have read leading up to this point.

First, Mark tells us that the soldiers put a purple robe on Jesus. Whether this was put on over the robe that Herod had put on Jesus, or whether this was a different robe entirely, we don’t know, but similar to Herod dressing Jesus up like a king, these soldiers do the same thing.

However, from Jesus’ conversation with Pilate, we discover that Jesus doesn’t see Himself as a king, even though He tells Pilate that He has a kingdom. While Jesus is headed towards the cross, He is fulfilling the mission He came into this world to accomplish, and while this mission ultimately ends with Him being crowned King in Heaven after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the premise that Jesus came to be a king on earth was a man-made twisting and misinterpreting of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus came to lift God up and not to draw people to focus on Him, and in this mission, we discover another amazing idea tucked within this short, dark passage.

When the soldiers dress Jesus up as a king to mock Him, they do so using the man-made premise that Jesus came to be the king of the Jews and the passage tells us that they paid homage to Him. Other words we could use in the place of homage are respect, reverence, honor, and even worship. However, with whatever word we use to describe the soldiers attitude towards Jesus, the homage they paid Jesus was empty. Not only did the soldiers shallowly point the focus on Jesus, which is something Jesus never came to receive, they also give Him shallow, empty worship – which is fascinating, since Jesus, as a member of the Godhead, would be worthy of true, heartfelt worship.

While the soldiers are behind the abuse and the mocking of Jesus, I am sure that Satan was behind the empty worship, because Satan knows that Jesus deserved more. Satan knows that Jesus deserves true, heartfelt, genuine worship, and when given the opportunity, Satan is more than willing to cheapen the worship God receives in any way he can.

Not only did Satan cheapen the worship that the soldiers mockingly gave Jesus, he tries to do the same with each of us today. Satan first will try to get us to discount coming to God. If this doesn’t work, then he will try to crowd our lives with so much busyness that we don’t have any time to come to God. If this doesn’t work, he sends distractions our way to cheapen the time we spend with God. And if this doesn’t work, he will send people to ridicule and mock us for following God. When we come to worship God, the last thing Satan wants us to give to God is the one thing that God wants when we come to worship Him – and that one thing is our hearts.

Jesus came as God’s Messiah not just for the Jews, but for the entire human race. While the Jews were God’s people, God never intended for the Jews to arrogantly live out this calling. God chose a people to be a representative for Him for the world and to show the world what He is like. The Jews failed God in this regard, and I’m not so sure that many Christians today are doing any better.

There are plenty of Christians who get this right, but there are plenty of self-proclaimed “Christians” who don’t understand God’s mission for His people. God isn’t interested in seeing His people debate with each other over non-trivial issues. Instead, God wants a people who reflect His character to the world while obeying His commandments because they have been transformed through His love. God’s character is love, God’s commandments are built on the foundation of love, and the Holy Spirit is the only Source we have for truly living out God’s love in the world today.

While Jesus received empty homage from the soldiers leading up to the cross, when we come to Jesus to give him honor, respect, love, and worship, let’s genuinely and humbly give Him our lives, our minds, our attitude, and most importantly, our hearts!

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

Always seek God first in your life. When you come before God to worship Him, be humble, be present, and be willing to give Him the gift He wants the most. The gift God wants isn’t our money or our stuff; the gift God wants is our hearts. When we worship God, with every gift we bring, we should include our heart with it.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow a personal relationship with God. A personal relationship with God is the best way to know God’s will for your life, and a personal relationship with God is the best way to learn what He wants to teach you. While pastors, speakers, authors, or even podcasters can give you ideas to think about, only the Holy Spirit can direct you to what God wants to teach you personally through His 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 even get distracted away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!