Reflective Bible Study

Sometimes I wonder how Jesus would be received if He were alive today. If someone were to perform the miracles and healing that He did, would people living today (without having a historical Jesus to look back on) accept Him, or would He be rejected? Another part of me wonders if it was just the Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus, while the majority of the average people living in that culture chose to accept Him.

It is while I wonder this that I come to a challenging passage in the gospel of Matthew. As I read it, in a way it answers both of these questions I occasionally wonder about. So let’s read this challenge, from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 11, and let’s use the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 20, Matthew tells us that:

²⁰ Jesus began to speak against the towns where he had done most of his miracles. The people there had not turned away from their sins. So he said, ²¹ “How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you, Bethsaida! Suppose the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon. They would have turned away from their sins long ago. They would have put on clothes for mourning. They would have sat down in ashes. ²² But I tell you this. On judgment day it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³ And what about you, Capernaum? Will you be lifted to the heavens? No! You will go down to the place of the dead. Suppose the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom. It would still be here today. ²⁴ But I tell you this. On judgment day it will be easier for Sodom than for you.”

Let’s pause reading here for a brief moment. Matthew tells us that Jesus spoke “against” the towns where He had done most of His miracles. These were the communities who would have clearly had enough evidence to tell them Jesus was significant, and the miracles would build the case that He was from God. However, apathy seemed to be alive and well in the first century. Jesus speaks out against these towns because even with plenty of evidence, the average, regular person discounted Jesus’ message and ministry and continued living as he or she had always lived.

Jesus compares these two towns with two historical communities who were known for their sinful lifestyle. God personally destroyed Sodom because of the community’s sinful behavior, and while I don’t know if the city of Tyre was still around when Jesus was alive walking on this earth, one of the Old Testament prophets connected the king of Tyre with Lucifer, who fell from heaven. While Ezekiel’s prophecy clearly is speaking about a being who existed long before Tyre’s actual king, the fact that Ezekiel connected the leader of this city with Satan speaks to the reputation that Tyre had for its sin.

What seems to be the difference between the present communities Jesus was speaking to and their historical counterparts was simply apathy. The people in the past, even those who were actively pursuing sin, would have turned their lives around if Jesus had been present and working miracles earlier in history. This challenges me to wonder if apathy is among the worst character traits we could possess. If we ignore and discount all that is happening around us, then how will God ever wake us up to what He wants for us? Perhaps this is one reason why trials come into our lives.

However, Jesus also said some other powerful things in this discussion. Continuing in verse 25, we learn that:

²⁵ At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father. You are Lord of heaven and earth. You have hidden these things from wise and educated people. But you have shown them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father. This is what you wanted to do.

²⁷ “My Father has given all things to me. The Father is the only one who knows the Son. And the only ones who know the Father are the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to make him known.

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are tired and are carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest. ²⁹ Become my servants and learn from me. I am gentle and free of pride. You will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ Serving me is easy, and my load is light.”

In this last part of our passage, we have three big ideas.

First, Jesus applauds God for hiding “these things” from the wise and educated people, while showing it to those who are childlike. The context for the phrase “these things” must then refer to His words against the two towns we had just talked about, and perhaps it relates specifically to our discussion on apathy. Part of me wonders if the more “educated” a person gets, the more apathy they can also display.

I really don’t think that education guarantees an equivalent or proportional level of apathy, but perhaps as we learn and grow intellectually, we learn that there is so much that we don’t know that it becomes easier to ignore the things we don’t understand in favor of the things that we do understand.

The second idea is that the Father is the only One who truly knows the Son, and while the Son is the only One who truly knows the Father, Jesus tells us that the Son reveals the Father to a certain group of people that He chooses. This means that you and I, if we have been chosen, can actually know who the Father is. However, in order to be chosen, we must be friends of Jesus, and the likelihood is high that friendship in this case also equals alignment and obedience. It’s hard to be friends with someone who is living in a way that is opposed to your character or a belief you have, and it may be this way with Jesus too. The closer we can live like Jesus and be like Jesus, the easier it will be to be friends with Him.

Concluding these three ideas is the idea of rest. Jesus invites those present to follow Him if they are tired of carrying a heavy load. While following Jesus might not remove a physically heavy load that one may have to carry, what Jesus is describing in this illustration is a load of spiritual rules and regulations that had become ever more confusing and convoluted as time had passed. What had been simple at one time was now more complicated than ever, and someone trying to live rightly according to the religious leaders of that era needed to be ever careful and cautious about breaking one of the countless laws that were present. The first century religious leaders had created laws that were designed to guard against breaking other laws, and that made the standard of right living even more confusing.

But Jesus comes with the message that His way is simple. Jesus does have a load for us to carry, but it is light. This means that it does matter what we do, what we say, and how we live, but the frame of reference Jesus uses is not one of restriction but instead it is one of freedom. Jesus wants us to avoid the lifestyles, activities, habits, and other things that will ultimately trap us in favor of the ones that give us life. By following Jesus, we can find rest for our inner selves and for our hearts and minds.

This passage, which opened with Jesus speaking out against the apathy present in the towns He did most of His miracles in, and which ends with an invitation out of the burden of trying to live up to an impossible standard, we see both apathy and self-reliance being opposite to the life God has for us. Education helps, but it is not the only key to breaking free from apathy and self-reliance. Instead, drawing close to Jesus, and learning to follow, obey, and depend on Him is the way into the life God intends for each of us to live!

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

If you feel as though you struggle with apathy, or if you are trying to live life apart from God, and in either case you feel tired, burned out, or empty, perhaps this passage and our discussion today is a challenge to seek God, follow Jesus, and commit to depend on Him for guidance, strength, and direction.

In order to learn what He wants from us, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself, reading every verse and passage in context, and intentionally mixing your study with prayer, reflection, and ample time. Rushing Bible study is rarely productive, and it doesn’t ultimately lead to rest. Instead, choose to pray and open your Bible with plenty of time available so you can rest, learn, listen, and discover what God wants to show you in 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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

After Jesus finished countering the religious leaders’ growing set of challenges with a question of His own that they were unable to answer, Jesus turns and challenges the crowd and His disciples regarding the Pharisees and the scribes. However, while we are quick to point out the religious leaders’ hypocrisy in Jesus’ statement, we too easily miss something that Jesus tells the crowd that seems impossible.

While our passage is long and we might not make it through all of it, let’s dive in and discover what Jesus teaches us about the scribes and the Pharisees. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 23, and we will be reading it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1:

¹ Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, ² saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; ³ therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. ⁴ They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. 

Let’s pause here for a moment because Jesus just said something that we might easily miss. While Jesus has just challenged the religious leaders and framed their hypocrisy as their words not matching their actions, we might be tempted to throw out everything the religious leaders said and did as worthless.

But this is not what Jesus told the crowd in these opening verses. He tells the crowd to follow what the religious leaders teach, but don’t mimic the religious leaders’ actions. The religious leaders teach an ideal that they are unwilling to live up to.

However, when we look at Jesus’ words, the ideal that the religious leaders are pointing people to is not bad. The ideal actually is living within the law on all fronts, and actually it is well away from breaking the law. But the religious leaders acted in a way that cheapened their influence and authority. They didn’t practice what they preached.

Before continuing the passage, the ideal that the religious leaders had placed on the people was all but impossible to attain. It was a great ideal for people to shoot for, but both the law and the ideal standard the religious leaders held up was based on not breaking the law. However, one of the biggest reasons God gave us the law was to help people see and remember their need of a Savior and to remind people that the punishment for their sin was placed on something and ultimately Someone else.

However, when the religious leaders lost the reason for the law and for the sacrifices, their religion became a ritual that had lost its true meaning. Without love and thankfulness in their hearts for what the law pointed to, the law become elevated into God’s standard that He would punish them for at the instant they broke even the tiniest clause. Without seeing the blessing the law pointed towards, the religious leaders feared God’s punishment and they set up regulations to keep people from even breaking the law.

This was great until the focus was so much on avoiding the law that they lost the love, and pride, arrogance, and status crept into their hearts and they began to value their status over their call to serve others. Verse 4 describes the current state of the religious leaders the following way: “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”

Continuing in verse 5:

⁵ But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their *phylacteries [small boxes that contained scriptures] and lengthen the tassels of their garments. ⁶ They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, ⁷ and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. ⁸ But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. ¹¹ But the greatest among you shall be your servant. ¹² Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

We’ll stop reading here. The rest of our passage continues by both warning and challenging the scribes and Pharisees regarding their focus, their attitudes, and the hypocrisy of their actions. Jesus elaborates His statement about the Pharisees and religious leaders doing their deeds to be admired by others, and how they had elevated themselves over everyone else.

However, in this opening statement for the rest of the passage, Jesus gives us a powerful frame of reference that we should pay attention to. While the scribes and Pharisees focused on status, and being praised and looked up to by others, Jesus tells His disciples and all His followers that they should avoid this. When giving us a new frame of reference, Jesus challenges us to remember who God is and what He does for us.

In an interesting twist, we discover each of the members of the Godhead in Jesus’ new frame of reference.

The first thing Jesus shares is that we shouldn’t call each other Rabbi, which is another word for teacher. In a similar way, we might be better served by avoiding the word pastor, preacher, or teacher as well. All these terms focus on separating those with knowledge and information from those who don’t have access to it. These terms focus on looking up to those with the knowledge and following them.

Jesus challenges this frame of reference by reminding us that God is our Teacher; God is our Rabbi. While Jesus was the One teaching them in that moment, the member of the Godhead who is responsible for teaching is the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, one responsibility He has is leading God’s people into all truth. We should look to God to teach us, especially relating to all things spiritual.

Next Jesus challenges us to not call anyone on earth our father, because we all have One Father, and this Father is who is in Heaven. We call this Father, God the Father, and He is just as responsible for us being alive on this earth as our biological parents are. God the Father created each of us, and because He did this, we can know and trust that He has a plan for our lives.

Lastly, Jesus challenges us to not call anyone our leader because we have One Leader, and this Leader is Christ. We shouldn’t focus on the idea of leadership but instead of service towards others. If we look up to anyone to lead us, the One we should be looking to is Christ, the Son, Jesus.

When looking at this clear challenge Jesus gives us in Matthew’s gospel, we discover that both in the Christian world and in the secular world, people call each other teacher, father, and leader. While each term might be not as widespread in certain groups, all three terms that Jesus challenges us to reserve for God are widely used to describe humans.

Some of these terms we cannot help but use in certain contexts, but with how Jesus concludes this section of His teaching, we discover that while we cannot stop others from using these terms, our focus should be different. Jesus challenges His people to focus on serving one another, and on being humble.

Each of the terms Jesus describes as reserved for God are terms of status. If we seek to be known as a teacher, a father, or a leader, we seek to exalt ourselves, and Jesus tells us that this will result in us being humbled. Instead, we are to serve others humbly, and if they see us as a teacher, a father, or a leader, we humbly point them to God, who is our Teacher, our Father, and our Leader!

Jesus challenges us to look to God for our knowledge, because He is our Teacher; our purpose, because He is our Father; and our mission, because He is our Leader!

As we conclude another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Seek God first and look to Him for knowledge, for purpose, and for mission. While the world wants to be the source of each of these things, God is the only source that can truly answer all of these desires in a satisfactory way.

As you seek God first and as you seek the answers for these areas of life, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself. Through prayer and Bible study, we are able to draw near to God and we grow our relationship with Him. As we grow closer to God, all three areas of life become clearer.

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

If you have ever picked up your Bible to read a specific passage and the opening line hits you in a way you never realized before, this describes me as I picked up the Bible to prepare for this week’s podcast. While the teaching we are looking at is one of Jesus’ more famous illustrations, I believe there is a lot that we can discover about God that many of us may have missed when hearing or reading this illustration before.

However, before getting to the illustration itself, Luke’s gospel has Jesus lead into this illustration with a thought-provoking and challenging question. One reason we might miss this is that too often, we only look at this teaching from Matthew’s gospel, and while there are plenty of similarities between both gospels, there are enough unique features that make Luke’s description of Jesus’ illustration just as profound, or perhaps even more profound, than Matthew’s version.

So before diving into the illustration, let’s read the question that jumped off the page as I was preparing for this episode, before continuing into the illustration itself. We will be reading from the gospel of Luke, chapter 6, using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 46, Jesus challenges those present by saying:

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me Lord but don’t do what I tell you?

This question is powerful in my mind because it reemphasizes the root meaning of a name for Jesus that has unfortunately become a cliché in the Christian world.

The word Lord in this case not only refers to God, the ruler of the universe, but it also carries with it the secondary meaning of noble or king. With this secondary meaning, we see a more practical reason for God or Jesus to be the one to make the rules.

However, in the case of this question, Jesus is not asking people to call Him Lord. Instead, He is challenging them for using that term in a shallow way. If we truly choose to call Jesus “Lord”, then all of the implications of this word should be applied, and specifically the idea that a person who calls another person “lord” is acknowledging that they are that individual’s “subject”.

This question is powerful, not only to understand that those living while Jesus was walking the earth in the first century didn’t completely obey, but because ever since that point, a majority of Jesus’ followers want to pick and choose exactly “how” they will follow Jesus.

By picking and choosing what commands to obey, Christianity has cheapened the concept of Lord, and eroded the powerful nature of this name for God.

Let’s continue reading and see how Jesus illustrates this idea. Picking back up in verse 47, Jesus continues by saying:

⁴⁷ “I will show you what everyone who comes to me, hears what I say, and obeys it is like. ⁴⁸ He is like a person who dug down to bedrock to lay the foundation of his home. When a flood came, the floodwaters pushed against that house. But the house couldn’t be washed away because it had a good foundation. ⁴⁹ The person who hears what I say but doesn’t obey it is like someone who built a house on the ground without any foundation. The floodwaters pushed against it, and that house quickly collapsed and was destroyed.”

We often read Matthew’s description of this illustration, and picture in our minds a house high on the rocks of a cliff, overlooking another house built on the sand of a beach. However, Luke describes something different.

What we see in Luke could be identical looking homes on the surface, but one was built with a solid foundation that dug into the earth, while the other one was hastily built on the ground and they chose to skip the foundation. The only difference between these two homes is the foundation, and the only difference in the description of these two contrasting homes is that the second home, the one with no foundation, is built by the person who comes, hears, but does not obey.

This then implies that the only real value of coming and hearing Jesus is if it translates into obedience. Hearing without acting is as useful as reading a book while ignoring its content. We could also apply this into the spiritual framework by saying that faith, without some visible evidence of it – also known as works – is dead.

In many ways, this is the perfect illustration for Jesus’ challenging question. This question and the illustration are not intended for those who have chosen to live a life that rejects God’s rule. Those people are not likely to call Jesus or God using the term “Lord”. Instead, this opening to our illustration describes an average Christian when compared with a dedicated disciple of Jesus.

This illustration emphasizes that the foundation of a home, specifically the part of the house that is the least visible to those passing by, is the most important. In the exact same way, when we look at someone’s life, the foundation of that life is the least visible part of it to those who are looking from the outside, but the foundation of that person’s life is the most important.

In this illustration, we see the two parallel ideas of faith and works being blended into the idea of obedience. If we don’t have faith, there is no reason for us to obey, and if we don’t obey, then the faith we claim to have has no foundation.

We can illustrate this by describing two people: both are very generous, very friendly, likeable to most everyone, humble, and a pleasure to be around. For the purposes of this discussion, their outer lives look identical.

However, one person has chosen to live their life this way because of the way he feels when surrounded by others. He enjoys people and has determined that these actions are the best actions to take for attracting people to be with.

The other person has chosen this life because it is a life that models what he sees Jesus as like in the gospels. While the first person’s private life is filled with acquiring conversation material, based on following the latest television shows and other media, the second person has filled his private life with prayer and study, in order to grow closer to God and to learn more about Jesus.

While this example is in some ways cheesy and cliché for a Christian to use, it describes too many people living today – specifically people who would call Jesus “Lord”. Too many of those who would call Jesus “Lord” spend less than 2 hours with Him each week – and that is a 2 hour block of time on the weekend, when it’s convenient.

If this was all the time God had available to spend with us, then we would have to make due, but the very nature of God invites us to spend 24/7 with Him – which does not mean that we leave town to join a monastery, but it does mean that we bring God into our daily lives and make time to spend with Him each day.

Living with God is living in a way that acknowledges God is with us when we sleep, when we are awake, when we are driving to work, and when we are facing the daily challenges of work. He is with us when we are running errands, preparing our next meal, and joking around with our friends. If we call Him “Lord” and we believe He is omnipresent, which is a fancy word for everywhere, it might be worthwhile to both obey and acknowledge His presence as we go throughout the week.

And because God is with us at all times, because we have chosen to call Him “Lord”, and because He has challenged us with this truth, we should work on obeying and building a foundation in our lives that emphasizes our dependence on Him. Luke’s version of Jesus’ parable is what prompted me to create Reflective Bible Study, and it is because I wanted a good way to personally study and grow my foundation with God, and I wanted to help share what I found with others, including you!

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

If you have chosen to call God using the term “Lord”, then intentionally focus on obeying what He has commanded us to do. This includes things like loving others and being generous, but there is so much more we can learn about obedience from the Bible when we study about what it means to obey God.

With that in mind, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, because personal Bible study, when it is combined with honest, humble prayer will help grow your foundation with God. When opening the Bible, don’t read with the goal of placing your opinions onto the pages. Instead, read with the frame of mind that God wants to teach you something about Himself within what you are reading.

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!

Coming right after the passage we focused on last week, we discover in our passage for this week that Jesus has a question for the religious leaders. When reading about this event, our last few weeks of episodes most likely cover one long event, and this event finds Jesus facing a series of questions challenging His ministry and His role.

However, the passage we focused in on last week didn’t seem to be much of a challenge. A religious teacher asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is and Jesus answered by quoting the law where it talks about loving God and Jesus follows up with the second most important commandment which is love for our neighbor.

The religious teacher agrees with Jesus, and it appeared to be the end of the discussion. However, part of me wonders if our passage for this week has Jesus speak up with a counter question before the religious leaders can regroup with a new question. Perhaps Jesus knows the next question that will come and He wants to short-circuit it before it gets asked.

Let’s read our passage and discover what Jesus asks the crowd of people who are present and what we can learn from what is said and the question that might not have had the chance to get asked. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 35, Mark tells us that:

³⁵ While Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard, he asked, “How can the experts in Moses’ Teachings say that the Messiah is David’s son? ³⁶ David, guided by the Holy Spirit, said,

‘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.”’

³⁷ David calls him Lord. So how can he be his son?”

The large crowd enjoyed listening to him.

In this short question and quotation, we discover some profound ideas. Right before our event and Jesus’ counter question, Jesus had just shared the most important commandment, which in verses 29-30, Jesus quotes in full by saying “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. So love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

This commandment stresses the singular nature of God. The question that likely was being formulated in the religious leaders’ minds was the question challenging Jesus on this very idea. If God is One and Jesus claimed to be God, then they had successfully trapped Jesus in His own words. While Jesus was both God and man, this union of Creator and creation isn’t something we can really understand. If Jesus was asked this question, it is possible there is no good, easy to understand answer.

So Jesus jumps in with His own question that challenges the premise of the question the religious leaders are all thinking, and in His response, He subtly gives Himself a role in the prophetic words David spoke.

Jesus attributes this psalm to David being guided by the Holy Spirit, and we discover in this psalm a conversation between God the Father and God the Son. This psalm has messianic connections because God the Father is pictured as being a deliverer and letting the Messiah sit next to Him while He deals with the Messiah’s enemies.

This psalm describes an event in Heaven, and it is a discussion among the members of the Godhead. This detail challenges the notion that God is one singular being. This detail also challenges the idea that God is singular but different at different points in history. This detail draws our attention onto two member of the Godhead, and Jesus alludes to the third Member of the Godhead in the opening statement to His question.

Not only does this question and quotation challenge the argument the religious leaders were forming about God being One, singular Being, but it also suggests that the Messiah existed before David, and that in itself challenges the idea that the Messiah is David’s descendant.

The only way all these details can be reconciled is a union between God and humanity, through a virgin birth. This detail makes sense on one level to us living thousands of years later, but it is still about as difficult and unbelievable as it was to someone hearing it for the first time in the first century.

Since the religious leaders didn’t believe God liked humanity enough to become a human, they could not fathom the idea that the Messiah could be a descendant of David, while also being a member of the Godhead. It is in this dilemma the religious leaders create for themselves that Jesus steps into. With the religious leaders’ preconceived ideas, Jesus asks them a question they want to answer, but they cannot. This question is perfect because it silenced both the question they were planning on asking, and it silences all their future challenges because it challenged the foundation of their entire tradition.

This conversation, and this question, challenges us today. While there are many people who believe Jesus was simply a good teacher who had some nice things to say, will we be willing to believe that God actually became human, and as a human, that God lived and died to take the punishment for our sins?

Meeting Jesus and knowing who He is can be discovered up to a point, but past that point, we must have faith. Knowing how Jesus can be both human and divine is something we cannot fully comprehend, but we don’t have to understand it to believe that it is true. All that matters is that God knows how it is possible, and that He made it possible for us.

Because Jesus became human and because He died the death we deserved, we have the hope of an eternal future life with God in heaven.

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

Always seek God first and have faith when faced with ideas we cannot understand. Always push forward to learn and discover more, but know that time will end before we reach the end of what God wants to teach us.

As always, pray and study the Bible for yourself, and don’t take my word, or any pastor, podcaster, author, or speaker’s word for it. Discover God’s truth straight from the Holy Spirit inspired Bible, and study it in preparation for learning directly from God when Jesus returns!

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