Reflective Bible Study

While none of the 12 disciples grasped Jesus’ statements regarding His upcoming betrayal and crucifixion, one in particular was completely blinded by his preconceived ideas about Jesus that he didn’t realize his role in the process until it was too late. Judas Iscariot, the disciple who had determined to betray Jesus, had seen Jesus outwit and out maneuver the religious leaders more times than he likely could count, and because of this, I imagine Judas believed Jesus would do it again.

However, the only way this belief works is if Judas simply ignored all of Jesus’ statements about His upcoming death while they were headed towards Jerusalem. Even the gift of perfume, which had sparked Judas’ anger when Jesus challenged him on it, was attributed to anointing Jesus for burial. There were so many warnings, signs, and predictions Judas simply discounted or ignored, that when he realized what happened, and what he had done, it was too late.

Matthew’s gospel describes Judas’ response when realizing his mistake. Let’s read this passage together and discover what happened, what Judas tried to do, and what we can learn about the religious leaders at this point of the first century. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 27, and we will be reading it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ Early in the morning all the chief priests and the leaders of the people decided to execute Jesus. ² They tied him up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

³ Then Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, regretted what had happened when he saw that Jesus was condemned. He brought the 30 silver coins back to the chief priests and leaders. ⁴ He said, “I’ve sinned by betraying an innocent man.”

They replied, “What do we care? That’s your problem.”

⁵ So he threw the money into the temple, went away, and hanged himself.

⁶ The chief priests took the money and said, “It’s not right to put it into the temple treasury, because it’s blood money.” ⁷ So they decided to use it to buy a potter’s field for the burial of strangers. ⁸ That’s why that field has been called the Field of Blood ever since. ⁹ Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true, “They took the 30 silver coins, the price the people of Israel had placed on him, ¹⁰ and used the coins to buy a potter’s field, as the Lord had directed me.”

All throughout this passage, we see prophecy being fulfilled. Whether all the parties involved realized they were fulfilling prophecy at the time is debatable, but at least in the case of the religious leaders, they would have been the ones who clearly should have seen it. The religious leaders set the price of 30 silver coins, and the religious leaders purchased a potter’s field with the money. All of this was written hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth.

Perhaps the religious leaders didn’t care if they fulfilled some prophecy because they believed Jesus didn’t fulfill all the prophecies. In their minds, 90% of prophecies wasn’t good enough. Only 100% of their interpretation would do. What they didn’t realize is that Jesus didn’t come to fulfill 100% of their interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies. Instead, Jesus came to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah’s first appearance, and some of the Old Testament prophecies would remain reserved for future fulfillment – specifically when Jesus returns as King.

However, this isn’t the only big thing we see when looking at this passage. It is also interesting that while Judas Iscariot realized the error of his ways, the religious leaders remain completely blinded of their own faults – except that they acknowledge that Judas did in fact betray innocent blood.

Judas returned the money, perhaps hoping that it would free Jesus. Judas acknowledged that he sinned. He confessed to the religious leaders his mistake. If the religious leaders had been living according to God’s will for their position, they might have had sympathy or a more loving response for someone who appeared to be repentant who was asking for forgiveness.

However, the religious leaders respond by saying in verse 4, “What do we care? That’s your problem.”

Judas threw the money back at them, before leaving and committing suicide. This is where the religious leaders are blind on multiple levels. While they don’t acknowledge or care that they use the money to buy a potter’s field to bury strangers in, which had been predicted, they do acknowledge the money was tainted and it shouldn’t be put into the temple treasury. By acknowledging that the money was not clean, the religious leaders incriminate themselves because they were the ones who made the money dirty in the first place by using it to pay for an innocent Man’s betrayal.

Also, the religious leaders ignore the detail that the money likely came out of the temple treasury when they gave it to Judas. Even if the group of religious leaders all contributed a little of their personal wealth, that wealth was probably paid for by the temple treasury, or at least from the offerings of the people. Because of this, we can logically conclude that Jesus’ betrayal was paid for with God’s money.

However, the money not only financed Jesus’ betrayal, but also the purchase of a field to bury strangers who had died. This is fascinating in my mind because in a very subtle way, the two ways the religious leaders use these 30 pieces of silver speak to their ignorance of who Jesus was. The religious leaders use God’s money in preparation for killing Someone they don’t truly know, and they pay for a field to bury those who have died that they don’t really know.

If the religious leaders believed Jesus to have been God’s Messiah, they wouldn’t have betrayed or rejected Him, but they chose to reject Jesus because He didn’t fit their view of God. In a similar way, we should be wary of creating our own picture of who God is.

The religious leaders had a picture of God and of His Messiah that they viewed the world through, and it caused them to miss the true Messiah when Jesus actually came. They missed out because Jesus didn’t fit their picture. If we create a picture of God that we then expect Him to fit Himself into, we will also likely be disappointed if/when He decides to do something contrary to our beliefs or ideas.

Instead, we should intentionally focus on God with an open mind, and let Him lead us on the path He wants us to follow, and if—or when—something happens that we don’t understand, we reserve judgment until we are able to ask God in person when we reach heaven. When we reach heaven, we will better be able to understand what happened in our own lives, and we will be able to get clearer answers for the questions that seemed unanswered in this life.

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

Always intentionally seek God first and put Jesus first in your life. Avoid making a picture, box, or framework that you expect God to fit into, because He is bigger than our thoughts can imagine, and He has a much bigger perspective than we are capable of understanding.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to grow your own personal relationship with God. While listening to a pastor or a podcast can be helpful, if you aren’t personally reading the Bible regularly, you are missing out on the relationship with God that He wants you to have with Him. Personal study leads to a 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 what was probably the longest night Peter experienced as a follower of Jesus, the night Jesus was arrested was likely also the most stress-filled. While Peter was one of Jesus’ closest followers, and one of the disciples that had been with Jesus the longest, the events of that night were almost overwhelming.

Earlier in the evening, at supper, Jesus had told Peter that before the night was out, he would deny Him three times. A rooster crowing would be the sign that the night had ended.

Then after they had walked to the garden, Jesus had asked Peter and the others to stay awake and pray, which they were too tired to do. Jesus even had told Peter that He was praying for him specifically, which may have given Peter some encouragement, but it may have also made Peter wonder.

However, when the mob arrived, Peter was ready to defend Jesus to the death – especially knowing Jesus could resurrect the dead – but his first act of defensive was a counter attack that Jesus reprimanded him for. Jesus even healed the man Peter had injured.

And then Jesus let Himself be arrested. The Messiah of the world had let Himself be taken by His enemies who wanted to end His life. But that wasn’t in the Messiah’s future. The Messiah was destined to live forever, and He couldn’t live forever if He was dead.

But Jesus had been talking to them about His death, not His eternal life. Many times up to this point, Jesus had shared with them about His upcoming death. Would Jesus allow Himself to be killed?

The whole evening and night had been a roller-coaster of highs and lows, and Peter was left with lots to think about.

These details set the stage for what happens in the passage we are focusing in on for this episode. We will be reading from the gospel of Luke, chapter 22, using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 54, Luke tells us that:

⁵⁴ Having arrested Him [referring to Jesus], they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. ⁵⁵ After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them.

A quick side-note here would be that Peter was likely thinking about all the things we had just discussed, while also wanting to be close enough to learn firsthand what Jesus’ fate would be. He wanted to be near Jesus if Jesus chose to escape, but not so near that he would be targeted and condemned to death with Him.

Picking back up reading in verse 56:

⁵⁶ And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.” ⁵⁷ But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.” ⁵⁸ A little later, another saw him and said, “You are one of them too!” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” ⁵⁹ After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.” ⁶⁰ But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. ⁶¹ The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly.

In this passage, whether Peter was taken off guard, or whether he was lost in thought and didn’t realize his words in the context of Jesus’ prediction, three separate times, Peter denied Jesus. Perhaps these were unintentional times, or maybe each denial was Peter telling himself something like, “Well, I’ll deny Jesus this time, but certainly not three times.”

However, not only did Jesus’ prediction come true, Luke tells us that through some set of circumstances, at the time the roster crowd, there was a break in the crowd that allowed Jesus and Peter to make eye contact. It was in this moment that Jesus’ prediction returned to Peter’s memory, and the realization that he had let Jesus down broke Peter’s heart.

Perhaps this is because Peter had talked up a good talk, and had denied the possibility of even coming close to denying Jesus when Jesus had made the prediction immediately, but whatever the case, Peter realized that Jesus knew him even better then he knew himself.

It is the same with us today.

While we know ourselves pretty well, it is amazing to think that God knows us even better. What is even more amazing is that knowing who we are and what we would do, God still was willing to bring us into the world. Regardless of the mistakes we would make, and/or the times we would reject God, He is still willing to give us life and the chance to choose Him.

And probably the most amazing reality in all of this is that knowing everything we would do and all the ways we would make mistakes, Jesus still came and died for us. Jesus died for you and me, and this is because He loves us, and wants us to have the opportunity to choose eternal life with Him.

With this idea in mind, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. Wherever you are in life at this point, if you haven’t chosen to place your trust, faith, hope, and belief in Jesus, choose to do so now. Regardless of where you are in your life right now, or what you have done in the past, choosing Jesus is the only way to secure your future.

Also, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn firsthand what Jesus is like. While we can take another person’s word for it, nothing can replace a personal relationship with God. God wants a personal relationship with you, and for a relationship with God to be personal, it can’t be filtered through a middleman like a priest, a pastor, or even a podcaster.

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!

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, at the point when the mob is confronting Jesus, we discover an amazing detail tucked within John’s gospel that shows us Jesus really does choose to face the cross. While skeptics might argue that the verse John includes is irrelevant, for those of us who like to see the nuances each gospel writer includes, this verse is fascinating.

Let’s read this event now and discover what John includes in this event that is significant for us to pay attention to. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 18, and we will be reading it from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 3, John tells us that:

³ The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

⁴ Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

⁵ “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) ⁶ As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! ⁷ Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?”

And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

⁸ “I told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” ⁹ He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”

¹⁰ Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. ¹¹ But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

We’ll stop reading here. While John’s gospel gives the individual Peter attacked a name, Luke’s gospel describes how Jesus restored the slave’s ear on the spot. While this miracle and healing should have been enough to challenge the soldiers coming to arrest Jesus on their motives, while reading this passage just now, a different verse jumped out at me than the one I had originally planned to focus on.

The verse that stood out to me while we were reading the passage was the first verse. The opening verse tells us that, “the leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards…”

This detail stands out in my mind because this means that Jesus’ arrest was at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles. The temple guards would have been Jewish for them to guard the innermost parts of the temple effectively, which was places where gentiles were not allowed to go, and Roman soldiers were not Jewish, making them gentile by definition. When we look at the details of the crucifixion, Jesus died at the hand of humanity, and not at the hand of one group of people.

While it might be easy to blame the Jews for their rejection of God’s Messiah, that is only half of the details. Rome was active and present during Jesus’ arrest, Rome was present when the Jewish leaders had finished with their condemnation because Rome stood as a gatekeeper for the death penalty, and Roman soldiers were active in the crucifixion.

Not only were the Jews and Romans to blame, but Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, was also present for Jesus’ arrest. The arrest could not have happened if it wasn’t for Judas’ betrayal, which brings a third group of people that could be blamed as well – specifically Jesus’ own disciples.

While you and I did not bring soldiers to arrest Jesus, our actions and our choices can be described by the actions or lack of actions we see among the disciples present. We could actively betray Jesus through how we act, we could lash out emotionally and/or violently against those who appear to be against us, we could be fearful and hide in the shadows, or we could run away and not stand by Jesus.

The death of Jesus was because of a disciple’s betrayal mixed with the hate and violence of sinful humanity. However, even though Jesus was crucified at the hands of Christians, Jews, and gentiles, Jesus chose to die.

Verses 4-6 describe Jesus fully having the power to avoid arrest. John tells us that:

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

⁵ “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) ⁶ As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground!”

This detail is something that we shouldn’t let slip by us unnoticed. When Jesus said, “I am He”, the logical response would have been to rush Him and overpower Him, but the opposite happened.

When Jesus spoke the word’s “I am He”, I wonder if a sliver of His divinity slipped out, whether it was through His appearance or simply His voice, and it knocked the soldiers back and to the ground. “I am” is one of the names given to God, and, at least in our English translations, this wordplay is clearly visible.

If three simple words could knock an angry mob of soldiers down, no one present could have even touched Jesus if He had not let them.

After Jesus had the mob’s attention, He restates the question, and then follows up with the request or command to let the disciples go. I’m not sure if the soldiers were already circling the whole group of disciples to arrest them all, or if that was on their minds, but Jesus simply short-circuits the idea of a group arrest with this direction.

Even after Peter gets violent in His defense of Jesus, we see Jesus responding in a calm way, and indicating that this entire event is a part of God’s plan. Our passage finishes off with Jesus’ rhetorical question in verse 11: “Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

Everything in this passage draws our attention onto two huge truths. The first is that Jesus died at the hands of everyone in humanity. He was betrayed by one of His followers, and He was arrested, tried, and crucified by both Jews and gentiles working together.

The second big truth is that Jesus chose to die. While He could have avoided the cross, avoiding pain, suffering, and death was not a part of the Godhead’s plan. Jesus revealed just enough of His divinity that should have woken up everyone present to His divine nature and that they were arresting God, but they were already too set on arresting Jesus.

Jesus used this opportunity for one purpose: to follow through with the one death that leads to life. Jesus chose the cross and to die a sinner’s death so that we can accept the gift of His life and not die the death we deserve. While sinners killed Jesus, Jesus chose to die for those who God desires to save!

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

Remember and accept the gift that Jesus gave to each of us through His death. Realize that all of us are partially responsible for His crucifixion. If it weren’t for His desire to rescue us from sin, Jesus wouldn’t have faced the cross!

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, and intentionally grow your relationship with God. Choose to take time each and every day to walk with, remember, and thank Jesus for what He has done for all of us! Without Jesus, our lives would be hopeless.

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

On the night Jesus was arrested, as He and the eleven remaining disciples were arriving at the garden, Jesus shares a powerful prayer to God the Father related to His live and mission. The prayer Jesus shares doesn’t just focus on Himself, it also focuses on the lives and mission for all of His followers living at that point in history, as well as throughout all of history following the first century.

I debated whether to pull an excerpt out of this prayer to focus on, but could not settle on one. Instead, for this week’s episode, let me simply read you the prayer in its entirety, then close out with some things to think about and challenges about how to apply what Jesus shared in this prayer in your life today.

John’s gospel is the only one to include this prayer, and it is found in chapter 17. Reading from the Contemporary English Version and starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After Jesus had finished speaking to his disciples, he looked up toward heaven and prayed:

Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you. ² And you gave him power over all people, so that he would give eternal life to everyone you give him. ³ Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. ⁴ I have brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you gave me to do. ⁵ Now, Father, give me back the glory that I had with you before the world was created.

⁶ You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you. ⁷ They know that you gave me everything I have. ⁸ I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me. ⁹ I am praying for them, but not for those who belong to this world. My followers belong to you, and I am praying for them. ¹⁰ All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me.

¹¹ Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who had to be lost. This happened so that what the Scriptures say would come true.

¹³ I am on my way to you. But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my followers will have the same complete joy that I do. ¹⁴ I have told them your message. But the people of this world hate them, because they don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t.

¹⁵ Father, I don’t ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one. ¹⁶ They don’t belong to this world, and neither do I. ¹⁷ Your word is the truth. So let this truth make them completely yours. ¹⁸ I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me. ¹⁹ I have given myself completely for their sake, so that they may belong completely to the truth.

²⁰ I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. ²¹ I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.

²² I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. ²³ I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world’s people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me.

²⁴ Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created. ²⁵ Good Father, the people of this world don’t know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me. ²⁶ I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.

In this prayer, Jesus defines what it means to have eternal life, and He contrasts His followers with those living in the world. But Jesus also doesn’t just limit His followers to the eleven disciples present at that moment. Instead, Jesus extends the definition of disciple and follower to include everyone who believes in Him following the events of that weekend.

I am amazed that Jesus prays for us to remain in the world, but to be protected. How powerful would our lives be if we truly lived with the assurance that Jesus is protecting us? This prayer of protection might not mean that every bad thing will be blocked, but perhaps that any bad thing that reaches us has been filtered and permitted because it can be a key part of our testimony that can help others – that is, if we let it.

Jesus concludes this prayer by saying that love will be the defining attribute of His true followers – and that is because God is love, and Jesus is also love.

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

As I always challenge you to do, continue growing closer to God and to Jesus in your life. Invite God to live in you and love others through you. Accept the reality that He has placed us in the world and sent us to the world, but remember and trust His promise to protect us from the evil one. Ask for His help to live boldly for Him.

Also, while living for Jesus, don’t let your spiritual foundation weaken. Intentionally choose to strengthen it by prayerfully studying the Bible for yourself. The Holy Spirit uses the words of the Bible to strengthen and renew our minds and hearts, and through the Bible, we are continually reminded of God and His love 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 walking away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!