Reflective Bible Study

While Jesus traveled around teaching and preaching, we learn early on that Jesus loved to use illustrations, metaphors, and parables while sharing truth with the crowds. However, part of me wonders if this was unusual for a teacher to do in first century Jewish culture. The reason for this thought is because of a question the disciples ask Jesus about His parables, and because they ask Jesus this question, we are able to see an amazing picture of God within Jesus’ response.

While three of the four gospels describe this event, let’s read it from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, using the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 10, immediately following Jesus sharing a parable with the crowd:

¹⁰ His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

¹¹ He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. ¹² To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. ¹³ That is why I use these parables,

For they look, but they don’t really see.
    They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

¹⁴ This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

‘When you hear what I say,
    you will not understand.
When you see what I do,
    you will not comprehend.
¹⁵ For the hearts of these people are hardened,
    and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—
    so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
    and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
    and let me heal them.’

¹⁶ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.

In Jesus’ reply, we find several interesting ideas. First, Jesus responds that His use of parables is to fulfill prophecies and predictions about His life. The Old Testament writers, specifically the prophet Isaiah, had foreshadowed Jesus coming and teaching people who would not understand His message. Isaiah’s prophecy also tells us why. Isaiah says that the hearts of the people are hardened and that they have closed their eyes.

Many of those living in the first century, including most of the religious leaders, fit this description. Whether they were more politically motivated than spiritually loving, or whether they had simply distorted their view of the Messiah that God would send into a picture that Jesus wouldn’t come close to fitting, we find many of those living in the first century rejecting Jesus.

However, while sharing this almost hopeless look at Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled around them, Jesus’ message also includes the remedy. It is worth noting that Isaiah’s description of how the religious leaders in the first century could miss the Messiah is a trap that anyone can fall into following Jesus’ time on earth. Yes, even people living today, thousands of years after the first century can miss Jesus by being closed minded, having hard hearts, and by closing their eyes to Him.

What then is the remedy Jesus shares?

The remedy is found in verse 12, where Jesus tells the disciples: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”

In this verse, we find the remedy begins by “listening” to Jesus’ teaching. In the context of this verse, listening means more than simply hearing. Jesus makes this distinction in the following verse where He says, “They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” (v. 13b)

The challenge for everyone listening to Jesus’ message is to not simply hear it, but to actually apply it. When you “hear” something, you might remember it later if it was interesting in some way, or you could forget it hours, or even days later. In contrast, when you “listen” to something or someone, you have given them your attention and you are truly interested in what they have to say. Listening involves our concentration, and it is the first step in gaining an abundance of knowledge.

The next piece of listening to gain understanding is having our eyes open, and our hearts willing to be drawn to Jesus. When our hearts are hard, the only lasting solution is Jesus. If we listen to Jesus’ teaching with a skeptical mind, unwilling to even try following His recommendations, or even with a critical attitude looking for a way to discredit His message, then we will never truly know Jesus – and His message will not be understood. The religious leaders in the first century fell into this trap.

While many were simply willing to ignore Jesus, most of those who actually listened chose to listen with an agenda. They listened looking for reasons to criticize and discredit Jesus, and focusing on Jesus’ message in this way does not allow your heart to be drawn to Him. Listening in this way actually hardens your heart more.

The contrasting solution is to listen with an open mind and a willing heart. While having a hard heart might make it difficult to want to try Jesus’ way, the only way to fix a heard heart is to move towards Jesus and be open to His fixing, melting, or even replacing your hard heart as the case may be. In my case, I think my heart actually had to be spiritually replaced because of its hardness.

To wrap up Jesus’ solution, we are challenged to expect Jesus’ message to change your life as you focus on Him and His words. Expect to receive more knowledge, understanding, and even love for others as you listen, focus, and apply what Jesus teaches in your life. Expect to understand Jesus’ parables as you read and dwell on each of them and what they teach us about God’s kingdom, and God’s character.

We see this expectation in the last portion of the passage where Jesus tells us that those who see and listen are blessed. He tells those listening that: “blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.” (v. 16-17)

Jesus concludes by drawing our attention to the detail that many of the prophets who came earlier in history would have loved to have lived in the first century, but they didn’t. In the same way, there is part of me who would have loved to have lived in the first century to have met Jesus face to face while He was alive on earth. However, this in itself doesn’t mean that hearing or reading Jesus’ words will increase our knowledge and understanding, even though the prophets from earlier in history believed it would.

Our trust in Jesus and the expectation of more knowledge and understanding comes within His promise that we began with: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.” (v. 12a)

We expect to learn from Jesus because we believe His promise and we listen to and claim His message here as a foundation for everything else we will learn, discover, see, and hear in the Bible. Jesus spoke in parables to make it easy for those who were listening to understand the truth about God, and to make it challenging for those who were simply hearing with closed hearts and minds, and/or with an agenda, to understand His message.

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

Be sure to focus on Jesus first in your life. Be sure to really listen to Him and His message in a way that prompts and challenges you to apply it into your life. While many of Jesus’ teachings don’t seem to make sense if analyzed on the front end, by testing out Jesus’ teachings in our own life with a desire to see a change, God’s way will not disappoint. I truly believe that you will discover a new picture of God.

Also, as you focus on Jesus in your life, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. While a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas to think about, only through pray and personal Bible study will you get direct access to the Holy Spirit. While I know the Holy Spirit can teach us through other people, we limit our growth if we rely exclusively on others for God’s truth. This is why I always encourage you to personally study the Bible, because in many ways, regular prayer and Bible study is one of the more challenging habits to form and maintain.

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 be tricked into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

If you ever wished for God or Jesus to give a clear, unquestionable sign that He exists, you may find this passage interesting, or maybe even a little problematic.

While many of us have a tendency to experience doubts living over 2,000 years after Jesus was here on earth, some of us may believe that a sign from God would be nice – if only to assure us that He is still present and interested. According to what our passage for this episode says, those living during Jesus’ life on earth had their doubts and skeptical attitude, and even with Jesus present, they were interested in seeing some type of unquestionable, irrefutable sign from God.

But let’s read how Jesus answers them. Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, and we will read it using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 38, Matthew tells us:

³⁸ Then some experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign.”

³⁹ He responded, “The people of an evil and unfaithful era look for a miraculous sign. But the only sign they will get is the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ Just as Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up with you at the time of judgment and will condemn you, because they turned to God and changed the way they thought and acted when Jonah spoke his message. But look, someone greater than Jonah is here! ⁴² The queen from the south will stand up at the time of judgment with you. She will condemn you, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon’s wisdom. But look, someone greater than Solomon is here!

What I find amazing in Jesus’ response is that He responds counter to the “seeing-is-believing” attitude that was present in the minds of these skeptics. From the description present in this passage, Jesus knows that there will always be skeptics, and there will always be people who discount or rationalize their faith away from God. Most of these people never admit that they are simply shifting what they place their faith in, because in their minds, faith is a pointless concept.

But when we look closer at Jesus’ response, He does give these skeptical religious leaders a sign to watch for – but it was far from what they were looking for. There was a point when Jesus’ prediction about Himself came true, and He was in the grave like Jonah was in the fish. Jonah likely never even imagined His rebellion would turn into a Messianic symbol, but Jesus draws upon the key event in Jonah’s life as a symbolic representation of Himself.

Jesus then moves the focus of His response onto two events where faith was present. First, the people of Nineveh had faith in Jonah’s words – perhaps because He stank like fish or maybe because He had God at His back – and the people of Nineveh changed their ways. Interestingly enough, Jonah’s prediction did not come true because the people turned away from sin and towards God. The faith the people of Nineveh had was not based on much evidence, they simply trusted that Jonah’s words were important enough to pay attention to – even though Jonah had no previous track record of successful predictions that we are aware of for them to look back on.

Jesus’ other example is of the queen from the south. She heard rumors about Solomon, and perhaps some of these rumors seemed a little too unbelievable to be true. However, instead of writing off the rumors, she decides to investigate further to see if there was any truth in what she was hearing.

In this way, by traveling a great distance to meet someone she had only heard rumors about shows how she had great faith in those spreading the information. She was so far away that there was likely no way for her to have seen any tangible, irrefutable evidence to support the claim that Solomon was uniquely gifted in wisdom. But that didn’t stop her from making the trip to confirm or deny her curiosity.

Both the people of Nineveh and the queen from the south had enough faith in what they heard that they changed their actions and plans in light of the evidence they had. Those in Nineveh had a prophet who stank like fish, and the queen from the south had rumors, some from potentially reliable sources, but perhaps a number from some questionably reliable sources as well.

The key idea Jesus is making is that no amount of signs and miracles can convert a stubborn heart. Jesus is also sharing a key insight regarding God’s character: God is okay with individuals exercising their free will to refuse believing in Him. He doesn’t like it when people refuse those He has sent, but He is reserved enough to know that belief that is bought through spectacular, miraculous signs is cheap. Someone who follows simply because of the miracles is blessed for following, but if they never grow past the miracles themselves, then they are prime to be swept away when someone else comes who is able to perform even more spectacular signs.

It seems that God gives or allows miraculous signs to happen as a way to point us to pay attention to an individual. It is then up to us, knowing what we know about God and His character, to determine if the miracle-worker has God as his or her Source, or of they have a different spiritual force at their back.

God wants our faith and trust not simply because of miracles or signs, but because of who He is and what He is like.

As we conclude 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. Choose to follow God because of who He is and because of what Jesus showed us He is like. While other people in your circle of friends might not understand your decision, know that when you make a decision to follow God, you are looking at life from eternity’s perspective and have heaven to look forward to.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, purposefully choose to pray and study the Bible for yourself and look for how God has revealed His character in each event you read. The Bible shares more details about God and His character than we might think at first, but in order to see what God is like in the pages of the Bible, we must be intentionally on the lookout for it.

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

Part way into Jesus’ ministry, Luke records an event that all three other gospels appear to include as well. The big difference is that Luke seems to place this event much earlier in Jesus’ ministry, which prompts me to think that something like this might have happened more than once. If we compare Luke’s version of this event with the other gospels, while there are several similarities, Luke seems to focus more on the teaching opportunity Jesus takes, while the other gospel writers focus on how their similar events foreshadow Jesus’ upcoming death.

Let’s read how Luke describes this event, and what he wants us to learn about Jesus from what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 36, we read:

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

⁴¹ “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴ Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Part of me is fascinated by how this passage ends. Before hitting on a huge truth Jesus shares, we can see Jesus challenging these religious leaders regarding the nature of forgiveness.

Jesus tells the woman that her sins are forgiven, and this startles the group of people present. Forgiving of sins is something that only God does, and since they are the religious leaders, they likely believe they have the ability to determine for someone whether God has forgiven a sin or not.

When Jesus comes and pronounces this woman has been forgiven, and there was no sacrifice taken to the temple or offering given, the idea that forgiveness has been granted doesn’t make sense.

However, Jesus focuses us on a different truth from the Old Testament, and that the sin in our past doesn’t matter as much as our decisions in the present. Forgiveness is available for everyone who turns away from sin. This idea is challenging for those living in the first century and for those living today.

While it is great news that God saves sinners who turn away from their sin, this idea seems too simple. It must be more complicated. Perhaps it is, but I have yet to see it. Perhaps the only catch in the whole salvation process is that only through focusing on and having a relationship with Jesus can we truly move away from sin in our lives. While we can move away from some sins and towards better habits, the sin of living for self rather than for others is one that is so subtle and hidden in our lives that without Jesus shining the light on it, we are unlikely to realize its presence.

However, what big truth does Jesus share leading up to this. We find this truth in verse 47 where Jesus says, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

The twin ideas that being forgiven of a lot will prompt a lot of love, while being forgiven of a little will only prompt a little love, is fascinating in my mind. These ideas imply that if there is a group of people who have always lived pretty good lives and who only have one or two “socially acceptable sins”, then they are in greater danger than someone who has sinned more times than they can count. This also means that someone with a decent life and not many sins is more likely to grow callous and unloving over time, even when they have been forgiven, than someone who has been forgiven of a past consisting of more sin than not.

While this doesn’t mean that we should go out and sin in as many ways as we can think of so that we can be forgiven and love more, this does mean that we should never brush over anything that might be a “socially acceptable sin” because in God’s eyes, sin is sin, regardless of its severity.

We discover how to love more and how to live a life that shows we have been forgiven by focusing on Jesus first, intentionally making and spending time with Him each day, and by seeking to do His will in our lives. How we choose to love Jesus demonstrates how forgiven we really are.

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

Choose to place Jesus first in your life and intentionally love Him with our lives. We can do this by loving others and by focusing time each day on spending it with Him learning from His word.

While a devotional or podcast can help give you ideas or things to think about, be sure to study the Bible for yourself, because an author, pastor, or podcaster shouldn’t be your only connection to the Bible. Be sure to open and study the Bible for yourself to discover God’s truth for your exact situation.

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

For many Christians, Jesus is the primary reason, if not the only reason, we have chosen and held onto our faith. For many non-Christians, often it is reasons other than Jesus that have turned them away.

For some non-Christians, it is simply looking at those who self-identify as Christians that turn them off. For others, it is looking at the God described in the Bible and choosing to focus on only the cruel or destructive acts that He is described as doing.

However, what if Jesus subtly spoke into this debate with a phrase and blessing of His own?

Most Christians believe Jesus to be God’s Son and a blending of divinity and humanity. We believe and understand Jesus to be the relatable and visible member of the Godhead, and we also can attribute Jesus’ speaking about Himself as God revealing a part of Himself or sharing a specific message He wants us to learn.

This leads us into our passage for this episode, which is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 18, Luke tells us that:

¹⁸ John’s followers [and we are talking about John the Baptist who was in prison at this time. John’s followers] told him about all these things [that Jesus was doing]. He called for two of his followers ¹⁹ and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?”

²⁰ When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you with this question: ‘Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?’”

²¹ At that time, Jesus healed many people of their sicknesses, diseases, and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many blind people. ²² Then Jesus answered John’s followers, “Go tell John what you saw and heard here. The blind can see, the crippled can walk, and people with skin diseases are healed. The deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. ²³ Those who do not stumble in their faith because of me are blessed!”

We’ll stop reading at this point to draw attention onto the message Jesus sends back to John, because in this message is a profound statement about God.

John the Baptist was in prison and we learn that he had a number of followers who were keeping Him up-to-date on what Jesus was doing. However, perhaps at a point when John was feeling extra down or impatient about His situation, he began to have doubts. Of all people, John was among the first to know Jesus was the Messiah, and he directs his followers to Jesus when Jesus shows up on the scene. Our passage for this episode suggests that many of John’s followers may have moved over to Jesus, but not all of them did.

In John’s doubt, we learn something interesting about God. Perhaps hidden in John’s question is a request asking something along the lines of “How long are you going to leave your cousin and biggest fan in prison? When are you going to begin setting up your kingdom and free us from the Romans?”

The popular religious culture at the time said that the Messiah would come, rally the Jews together, and overthrow the Roman occupation of their country. I don’t recall anything included in the Bible that suggests that John did not have at least some of this belief present regarding the Messiah’s ministry.

While John may have been asking a subtle self-serving question about how much longer he must wait in prison, what Jesus does and doesn’t do is important for us when we are wanting to better understand God’s character.

Firstly, Jesus compliments John, but it is only after John’s followers leave. Picking back up in verse 24, we read:

²⁴ When John’s followers left, Jesus began talking to the people about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed blown by the wind? ²⁵ What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, people who have fine clothes and much wealth live in kings’ palaces. ²⁶ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, and I tell you, John is more than a prophet. ²⁷ This was written about him:

‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare the way for you.’

²⁸ I tell you, John is greater than any other person ever born, but even the least important person in the kingdom of God is greater than John.”

This description Jesus shares is important because it shows that Jesus had a high opinion of John. However, it is also worth pointing out that Jesus (aka God) did not plan to break John out of prison. If God had wanted to, He could have broken the bars, sent angels to trap or subdue the guards, and allow John to simply leave, or He could have put pressure on Herod through Herod’s superiors to let John go free.

But freeing John was not in God’s plan. John had said it himself in an earlier part of his ministry that Jesus must increase while he must decrease. If John was miraculously freed, then the attention of the people would have been drawn away from Jesus and what God was doing through Him. John’s ministry was a success, and he finishes out his life in prison.

This leads us to pay attention to a key phrase Jesus said in his reply to John: “Those who do not stumble in their faith because of me are blessed!” (v. 23)

When Jesus says “because of me”, part of me wonders if He is talking about His immediate actions during His time on earth, or if this is a much broader statement that includes His divinity. Is this a statement simply to tell John to “Keep up your faith, even if I don’t come and rescue you.”? Or is this a much broader statement for all believers throughout history from a divine perspective, as though God is saying to everyone, “You are blessed for having a strong faith in Me even though there have been events that have happened that you don’t understand or events that on the surface appear to contradict My love.”?

In my mind, I think Jesus is actually saying both.

When something I read or am challenged with doesn’t display a loving picture of God, I will always tell myself that I have less than half a perspective. There’s God’s perspective, which I believe sees the situation with eternity in mind, and there is the perspective of the one I am learning about. There are always more sides to any event than we can fully uncover, and with that understanding, I know that just because something doesn’t look loving from my vantage point, it does not make it unloving from God’s perspective.

As I have grown closer to God, I have begun to see that God’s way and His perspective, which is the way and perspective of One who can freely give life, only makes sense when we begin to see a present and future life. If the Life-Giver can give life freely, He will also have a different picture of life than we do. The present life becomes the testbed for life in the future. Not only does this truth amplify the importance of our life and decisions in the present, it helps us trust in God with a hope of a great future with Him.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. Even if you don’t understand everything that has happened in your life, your past, or the world around us, choose to keep your focus on God. While we are here on earth, we won’t have all the answers, but don’t let a challenge or misunderstanding shake your faith in the One who has blessed us with life.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn the love, the pain, and the mission God has during this phase of His-Story. Through the Bible, discover just how much God loves you, and what He wants to bless you with when He returns to put an end to this sin-filled world.

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!