Reflective Bible Study

One of the things I admire about Jesus is His skillful way of answering challenging questions. The event we are looking at in this episode, which is found in three of the four gospels contains one such question, and it is in this question and answer that Jesus gives where we find a fascinating insight into God, His Law, and a right understanding of it.

For our episode this week, we will be looking at Matthew’s version of this event, which is found in Matthew, chapter 12, and we will be using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 9, we read:

⁹ Jesus left that place and went to a synagogue, ¹⁰ where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand. Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they asked him, “Is it against our Law to heal on the Sabbath?”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “What if one of you has a sheep and it falls into a deep hole on the Sabbath? Will you not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² And a human being is worth much more than a sheep! So then, our Law does allow us to help someone on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Then he said to the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stretch out your hand.”

He stretched it out, and it became well again, just like the other one. ¹⁴ Then the Pharisees left and made plans to kill Jesus.

Let’s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto this question and answer. The Pharisees have skillfully come up with a question where they feel like they know the correct answer, but they want to trap Jesus in His own words. The question they asked is designed to trick Jesus into saying work is acceptable, which violates the fourth commandment, because in their minds, Jesus is playing the role of physician, and the work doctors do is heal their patients.

Even if they considered Jesus to be more than simply a doctor or physician, it would be a double standard to hold the doctor’s healing as work while Jesus’ healing is not.

Jesus’ response begins by setting up a hypothetical scenario, perhaps one that had even happened recently, describing a sheep that had fallen into a hole. A sheep trapped in any way like the one described would be a prime target for a wolf or other predator. It would be logical to put forth a little effort to help free the sheep.

With the stage set, Jesus elevates humanity above this hypothetical sheep before giving the gist of His answer. Jesus’ response to the question is that the Law does allow us to help each other on the Sabbath.

Perhaps God’s law has a built in double standard. Maybe if the owner of the sheep lifts it out it is considered work, because the sheep is connected to its owner’s wealth, while a friend or stranger seeing the sheep fall into the hole is not obligated or rewarded in any way by the sheep being saved. In the stranger’s case, there is nothing compelling him or her to offer help, so the action is purely altruistic and/or selfless.

However, I don’t believe there is a double standard. Help is help, while work is work. If the goal of an action is to be paid or compensated in some way, then it is work; but if the goal of an action is to benefit someone else without any pay or compensation being expected, then it is help. This is how I define the difference between this potentially confusing set of concepts.

Jesus’ instruction to the man to stretch out his hand is the least work-like way of helping. All Jesus did was simply speak and that is something that is easily acceptable on a Sabbath, or any other day. And this instruction prompted a miraculous healing, which also couldn’t be considered work, because we are free to move our limbs in any way we choose on every day of the week.

However, the Pharisees did not like this response or outcome, and they begin plotting to kill Jesus. When we continue reading in verse 15, we learn that:

¹⁵ When Jesus heard about the plot against him, he went away from that place; and large crowds followed him. He healed all the sick ¹⁶ and gave them orders not to tell others about him. ¹⁷ He did this so as to make come true what God had said through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁸ “Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,
    the one I love, and with whom I am pleased.
I will send my Spirit upon him,
    and he will announce my judgment to the nations.
¹⁹ He will not argue or shout,
    or make loud speeches in the streets.
²⁰ He will not break off a bent reed,
    nor put out a flickering lamp.
He will persist until he causes justice to triumph,
²¹     and on him all peoples will put their hope.”

In these verses, Matthew draws our attention onto a prophecy about Jesus that God gave through the prophet Isaiah. When I read this prophecy, I am impressed with the description of the Messiah that is shared. This prophecy tells us that Jesus will announce God’s judgment on the nations, and that He won’t argue, shout, or speak loudly in the streets. Jesus won’t break off a bent reed or put out a flickering lamp, and He will persist until He causes justice to triumph.

The last phrase really stands out in my mind. Verse 21 concludes by saying: “and on him all peoples will put their hope.”

Jesus came to be the Savior for all people. Jesus wasn’t just sent to help the Jews. He came to help people of all ethnicities and backgrounds. While there are occasions where Jesus tells a foreigner that He only came to help the Jews, in each case, with persistence and pushback from the person requesting help, Jesus always complies and helps the situation.

Isaiah’s prophecy tells us that Jesus persisted until He caused justice to triumph. Justice in this case is God’s punishment for sin, and Jesus persisted until His last breath on the cross. Isaiah’s prophecy both foreshadows Jesus’ death as well as His arrival for all people.

Jesus came to help those who needed help and He came to give us a view of God’s Law that allows us to be a blessing to others. The Law was never meant to be a pair of hand-cuffs, but a systematic way of growing a community of people both spiritually and socially. And because Jesus viewed God’s Law this way when the Pharisees didn’t, they wanted to kill Him, which ironically would be a violation of the Law they claimed to obey.

While the Pharisees plotted against Jesus, Isaiah’s prophecy that foreshadowed Jesus’ death for all human-kind was being fulfilled.

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

Choose to seek God in a way that prompts you to focus on helping others. While many people, including those living in the first century, believe that serving God can be separate from helping others, choose to model your life after Jesus’ life. Jesus blended obeying God and helping others. It appears, at least to me, that whenever there was a supposed conflict between obedience and helping someone, Jesus always choose to help. Perhaps this is how we should be in our own lives.

However, don’t take my word for this. You should prayerfully study the Bible for yourself, and this decision for yourself, because only by being connected with God through the Holy Spirit and His Word will you even know what Jesus is like. You can only accurately model someone you have studied 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!

One thing we discover about the early portion of the week Jesus was crucified is that similar to much of the earlier part of Jesus’ ministry, we see religious leaders trying to trick and trap Him with what He said and did. However, it appears as though during the week leading up to the cross, the religious leaders intensified their efforts. Perhaps this was because Jesus had chased out the commerce and the money changing that was taking place, and this felt like a direct attack on the priests and their way of doing business as a church.

In my own mind, one of the more tricky challenges these leaders came up with was a trap that related to money, and something that most everyone hated back then. Times haven’t changed much since then in regards to this particular money topic, and most people dislike, but tolerate, this particular subject.

For this episode and our passage, we are talking about taxes, and while most of us probably dislike paying taxes, there was probably a greater dislike of it when Jesus lived.

While several gospels include this event, for this episode, we will be focusing on Luke’s gospel. This event is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 20, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 20, Luke tells us that the religious leaders:

²⁰ [So they] watched Jesus and sent some spies who acted as if they were sincere. They wanted to trap Jesus in saying something wrong so they could hand him over to the authority and power of the governor. ²¹ So the spies asked Jesus, “Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is true. You pay no attention to who people are, and you always teach the truth about God’s way. ²² Tell us, is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Before continuing our passage to see how Jesus responds, it is worth pausing for a moment to analyze this trap. The trap these leaders bring to Jesus is brilliant, because on the surface, there is no easy way for Jesus to win.

If Jesus had sided with the people and with the popular opinion that resented paying taxes, He would have gained popularity among the people, while also putting a target on His head from the government. The trap in this case wasn’t that Rome would kill Jesus, but that they would imprison Him, keeping Him from facing the cross at the appointed time.

While the Roman governor could have executed Jesus on the spot to set an example regarding paying taxes, this sort of death wouldn’t have brought honor to God. God would not come out as a winner if Jesus had pressed against paying taxes as an issue.

On an equally challenging alternate answer, Jesus could have simply stated that paying taxes was the right thing to do, but then He would lose credibility with the people and with the Jews He was trying to reach. While Jesus didn’t do or say anything for the sake of growing a crowd of followers, Jesus did speak for God, and if He were to come out and say that taxes should be paid to Caesar, then it would be like Jesus was telling God’s people to pay allegiance to an empire and religion that was opposed to God.

A response supporting taxes would subtly speak against putting God first – and this challenge would taint Jesus’ influence and God’s character.

With two ways to lose and no good way to win, let’s read how Jesus responds to this trap in an unexpected and brilliant way.

Picking back up in verse 23:

²³ But Jesus, knowing they were trying to trick him, said, ²⁴ “Show me a coin. Whose image and name are on it?”

They said, “Caesar’s.”

²⁵ Jesus said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²⁶ So they were not able to trap Jesus in anything he said in the presence of the people. And being amazed at his answer, they became silent.

We’ll stop reading here because Jesus’ answer is so powerful and profound that I don’t want you to miss it.

First off, Jesus knows who is trying to trick Him and the trap they are trying to use, so instead of bringing the emperor into the discussion personally, He asks them a counter question so that those challenging Jesus would bring the emperor Caesar into the discussion, instead of Him.

While the Jewish people hated the Roman Empire and all it stood for, by shifting the focus away from the Empire as a whole, Jesus sets the stage for a one-to-one comparison. Instead of comparing Rome, which appeared to stand for everything opposed to the Jewish way of life, with God, Jesus shifts the comparison to a person, Caesar, and while most Jews did not like Caesar any more than Rome, Caesar was someone who most Jews had never met – and this detail was able to work in Jesus’ advantage.

The other benefit of Jesus’ counter question is that it brought money into the discussion in a tangible way. With a coin present, Jesus was able to draw the focus onto Caesar being the owner of Rome’s currency, and this allowed for Him to answer the taxation question in a way that really didn’t answer the question.

When Jesus responds by saying to give to Caesar what belonged to him, this challenged even those who supported the taxation, because Jesus’ statement suggests returning all of Caesar’s money to him. This is like a 100% taxation, which no-one but the cruelest dictator who doesn’t understand economics would do.

The first portion of Jesus’ answer caught both those who opposed taxes and those who supported taxes off guard, but Jesus finishes by easing the minds of those who might begin to think that Jesus was placing a human ruler who claimed to be a god above God.

Jesus’ response is perfect because it takes the focus off of self and focuses it on giving. We give earthly respect and honor to the earthly governments we live in, but we give to God what He owns – and He owns our lives. We know this is true because He has loaned us breath, and when our lives are over, our breath returns to Him. Without God’s breath, we are dust blowing in the wind.

Jesus responds to this challenge by telling those present to give Caesar what was his, specifically the Roman currency present throughout the empire, and to give God what is His, which is our life, our focus, and our allegiance.

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 live within the structure of the world He has placed you in while staying allied and obedient to Him.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow your relationship with God even further. When you determine to focus on learning from God personally, you will be amazed at what He will teach you through His word.

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

One characteristic that virtually all humanity shares is identifying differences between ourselves and another person or group of people. Sometimes, this difference is a desirable one, and we want to change ourselves in whatever way is needed to then share that characteristic. Whether the characteristic is lots of money, a big house, a nice car, or even an incredibly humble spirit, whatever the characteristic happens to be, we see what someone else has and we want to have that as part of our lives as well.

On the other hand, often times when we compare ourselves to others, we can see differences that we are happy are not part of our lives, and in these cases we are motivated to move further away from the difference, and maybe even take extra precautions to keep ourselves away from experiencing the same. A characteristic in this group that many people can relate to is the desire to not go to prison. While there may be some people who want to go to jail, most people don’t, and the desire to not be locked up inspires us to obey the laws of the place where we are living.

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, we see two different groups of people coming to Jesus and His followers with a peculiar difference they have noticed between their respective groups and Jesus’ followers. While they know the scriptural basis for their side of the question, they are perplexed that Jesus’ followers don’t do the same things that they do.

While this event is in three of the four gospels, we will be reading about what happened from the gospel of Mark, chapter 2, using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 18, we read:

¹⁸ John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came to Jesus and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples don’t?”

¹⁹ Jesus replied, “Can wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.

Let’s pause reading here to draw our attention onto an interesting distinction. John the Baptist’s disciples fast, and the various Pharisee groups fast as well, but they have noticed that Jesus’ followers don’t fast, or at least they don’t fast like they do.

This difference makes them curious, so they ask Jesus why there is this difference, and in Jesus’ reply, we find a hint at something profound. Jesus answers their question by saying in verses 19 and 20, “Can wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.”

What is amazing in my mind about this answer is not only does it answer their question that Jesus’ disciples’ lack of fasting is only a temporary thing, but we also see a hint that Jesus will not be with His followers forever. In other words, Jesus says openly that there will be a time when He is taken away from them. This could reference Jesus’ death or, more likely, Jesus’ ascension and return to heaven.

Here in the early portion of His ministry, Jesus begins hinting at what was to come. Jesus facing the cross and His return to heaven were both not a surprise to Jesus. But these two events, especially the cross, were unexpected in the disciple’s minds.

But Jesus hasn’t stopped speaking His response. In verse 21, He continues by saying:

²¹ “No one patches an old coat with a new piece of cloth that will shrink. Otherwise, the new patch will shrink and rip away some of the old cloth, and the tear will become worse. ²² People don’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will make the skins burst, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is to be poured into fresh skins.”

In many ways, this is a peculiar thing to say when talking about fasting and the temporary differences between Jesus’ disciples and these other two groups of disciples.

But it is possible that in these verses, Jesus is hinting at something bigger as well – specifically that His mission is going to appear like a new piece of cloth on an old coat, or like new wine in an old wineskin. The truth that the Jewish leaders were unwilling to admit to was that they had drifted culturally, spiritually, and doctrinally away from the path that would have recognized the Messiah for who He was. They had emphasized certain prophecies that seemed good to them, and minimized or ignored prophecies that didn’t seem to fit with their idealized picture.

I don’t believe that Jesus came with the goal of replacing Judaism with Christianity. It was only after being rejected by the Jews who were unwilling to discover how far they had drifted that Jesus decided to start small and with a group of unlikely people as His first disciples. In the years during Jesus’ ministry prior to the cross, and in the years following His return to heaven, many of these leaders ultimately realized what God was doing and they joined His movement. These people were leaving the old wineskin and moving to the new one – because they had been reborn spiritually.

However, what prompted this statement regarding old and new was a simple question on fasting differences, and the response to this question was that this difference was only temporary. Following Jesus being taken from His disciples, whether through His death on the cross or His return to heaven, Jesus’ followers would reincorporate fasting as a spiritual discipline.

This means that even today, over two thousand years later, as followers of Jesus, we can incorporate fasting into our spiritual lives. Just because John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasted while Jesus’ disciples didn’t at that time, Jesus shares in His response that fasting isn’t a negative activity. Fasting is going without for a time so that we can draw closer to God and focus better on Him. Sometimes fasting involves avoiding food, but it could also be avoiding or eliminating television, movies, or other forms of entertainment.

In this passage, we see the difference between these groups of disciples being temporary, and less than five years after this question was asked, the early disciples would be found fasting, praying, and engaging in other spiritual disciplines like these to help them continue growing closer to God. If the early disciples brought fasting into their spiritual lives after Jesus had returned to heaven, nothing should stop us from adding it into our own spiritual lives as well, provided that we fast with the goal of moving closer to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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

If you have not fasted recently, and there isn’t a significant health reason why you shouldn’t, consider fasting for a short period of time and doing so on a regular basis. If you regularly read and study the Bible first thing in the morning, consider skipping supper the night before as a mini-fast you could do without impacting your schedule too significantly. While I wouldn’t recommend doing this every night, once or twice a week are definitely doable.

Also, while you spend time praying and studying, be sure to be studying the Bible and not focusing too significantly on anything that doesn’t draw you to reading the Bible personally. While devotionals and other study tools are good, they are only as good as their ability to draw you into reading and studying the Bible for yourself. While being a part of a spiritual community is vital for spiritual growth, so is being involved in personal Bible study. I want to help you have a personal relationship with Jesus, and that only happens through personal prayer and personal study.

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!

During the week that leads up to the cross, the gospel of Matthew shares a powerful, challenging parable that is just as applicable for our lives today as it was for those living in the first century. In this parable, we discover two key details that are worth paying attention to, and both these details are necessary for our salvation. While modern Christian culture focuses a lot of attention on one of these details, we find out that only having one detail in place may actually be worse than having neither detail.

Let’s read this parable and unpack some big themes we can learn from it. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

It is at this point in the parable where Jesus could have stopped. When thinking about salvation, the great news for each of us is that all we need to do is accept God’s invitation and we are all set. When those who the king originally invited rejected his invitation, the way opened for anyone and everyone, regardless of their past, to be invited. Jesus describes the wedding hall being filled with both good and bad people.

But Jesus didn’t stop the parable here. After the wedding hall was filled with guests, Matthew continues Jesus’ parable in verse 11:

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

What begins as an amazing parable about inclusiveness and being invited ends with someone being thrown out. Jesus’ concluding words are also challenging to think about: “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

All too often, we’d rather focus entirely on the first portion of the parable: the portion focused on inviting the many, and we don’t like thinking about the disturbing way Jesus ended this message.

However, let’s look at the details of this scene, with what is said and what is not said to discover something amazing about God, who is represented in this parable as the king.

Early on in the parable, when those who were originally invited reject their invitation, the king has a problem. The king has a feast ready, and no guests to eat and celebrate with him. They had already killed and prepared the food and if too much time passes, the food will spoil and the banquet feast would be a failure.

Since everything is ready, those the servants find in the streets and alleys don’t have time to go home and change to get ready for a banquet. If they did, they risk missing out because the food would have spoiled, or there would be no food left, or there wouldn’t be any space left. The invitation the servants share is one focused on simply coming because you have been invited.

However, this sounds great on the surface, but after inviting everyone they could find and when the wedding hall is full, the king arrives and throws someone out who wasn’t wearing wedding clothes. This sounds like a double-standard – except when we look at the unwritten implication that the wedding hall was full of people wearing wedding clothes.

Those who accepted the invitation didn’t have time to get changed into wedding clothes, and since the invitation was given to people of every background, some of those who were invited likely didn’t even own wedding clothes because they were too poor.

The only way this parable makes sense is if between the first and second portions, we conclude that when these last minute guests arrive, they are offered wedding clothes to change into. If everyone was offered wedding clothing in addition to the invitation, then the king has every right to challenge someone who is present but who isn’t wearing the second gift that was freely offered.

The person not wearing wedding clothes, because they chose to reject the king’s second gift, is thrown out of the banquet. This means that two things are important when we focus on what is needed for salvation.

The first is simple: We must accept the invitation that God freely offers to us. This invitation is made possible because Jesus died on the cross for sinful humanity, and because those who were first invited rejected their invitation. Accepting the invitation is as simple as praying a prayer to ask Jesus into your heart.

The second is a little more difficult: We must accept the gift of wedding clothes that God has offered to us. Clothing in this context symbolizes our character and our actions. We must be willing to remove our sinful character, habits, and lifestyle, and replace it with God’s perfect character, habits, and lifestyle. This sounds impossible to do, but it’s only impossible when we forget one tiny detail: God is the one giving this free gift.

Perfecting our lives on our own is impossible, but letting God change our lives and being willing to let Him change us makes the impossible become possible. Accepting God’s gift of clothing means that we choose to focus daily on growing closer to God and that we focus on becoming more like Him. When we focus on God and on Jesus, the Holy Spirit will begin changing our lives and our priorities, and we will be transformed by God into who He wants us to be. When the Holy Spirit transforms us, we will be fully clothed in wedding garments fit for the king’s wedding!

The only people who lose in this parable are those who reject God’s invitation, and those who reject the gift of wedding clothes that the king offered. The challenge for each of us is to accept these gifts in preparation for the wedding feast when Jesus returns to bring His people home.

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

Always intentionally seek God first and be willing to accept His invitation and His gifts. God wants His people to be clothed in His character and to model His love to the world around us. God’s love was demonstrated best through Jesus, who pushed back at those who wanted to get between people and God, and who loved sinners enough to die on a cross to take their place. That is the love God modeled for us, and the love He calls us to model for others.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself, in order to grow personally closer to God. Don’t take my word at face value for anything the Bible teaches. Instead, study it out for yourself because when you study the Bible for yourself, you will grow personally closer to God – and you will have the Holy Spirit as your teacher. The Holy Spirit is a way better teacher than me.

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!