Reflective Bible Study

While reading the gospel of John, one event happens to stand out in my mind not because of what is said in the Bible, but because of what is not said. One way this passage challenges me is through what is implied but not said. Our event only happens in the gospel of John, and if you are even remotely familiar with the Bible and Jesus’ life, you will likely have heard about this event.

Let’s read about what happened. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1:

¹ After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed [and then some manuscripts add a parenthetical note that says these people were] [—waiting for the moving of the water, ⁴ because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ⁹ Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”

¹¹ He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³ But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

Let’s pause reading here, because I want to draw out what is not said but implied up to this point in our passage.

The scene is something like this: One Sabbath, Jesus walks by a pool of sick people, sees one particular paralyzed man, heals him, and then continues on leaving the rest of the sick people to wait for the angel to stir the water of the pool.

It seems amazing in my mind that Jesus would ignore all the other sick people here, and while the Bible doesn’t say how big the pool was or how many people could fit around it, I imagine that there was space for several dozen sick people as a low estimate.

John’s emphasis for including this event has to do with the religious leaders’ confrontation with Jesus over healing on the Sabbath, and this man ends up facing ridicule from the religious leaders over doing what Jesus had told him to do.

Was carrying his bed a sin in God’s eyes?

To the religious leaders, it was.

However, verses 14 and 15 finish off this passage in an interesting way by saying:

¹⁴ After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

We’ll stop our passage at this point, because John shifts into a bigger dialog Jesus has with the religious leaders in the next portion of the chapter.

Was carrying the healed man’s bed a sin in Jesus’ eyes?

I don’t think it was, because I don’t believe Jesus would have told the man to sin. However, the last thing Jesus tells the man is perplexing in many ways because we don’t know the man’s history aside from his paralysis that began 38 years earlier and that he had no friends to help him get into the pool in time.

Jesus tells the man to not sin anymore, because something worse might happen to him. This implies that the man’s paralysis was caused by some sin in his past. A truth we can learn from this idea is that sin can cause pain, hurt, and in some cases injury.

We don’t know what this man’s sin was that resulted in his condition, but what Jesus tells him is even more challenging. Jesus tells this man to “not sin anymore” which sounds a lot like Jesus telling the man to never sin again, which seems impossible in my mind.

However, does the Bible teach that life cannot be lived without sin? If you know of a place it says this, definitely let me know, because I am not aware of one. The Bible does say that everyone has sinned and has fallen short of God’s glory, but that simply means that everyone has at least one sin they are guilty of at some point in their past, but not that sin is guaranteed or impossible to avoid. Aside from Jesus, everyone has sinned at some point in our lives, but a sin that is in our past is not a reason to keep sinning in our present, and it is not a crutch we should use to excuse future sin.

This is not the only time Jesus tells a person to not sin anymore, and while Jesus might be simply saying to the man to not make a habit of sinning moving forward, He subtly challenges us reading this event regarding any preconceived ideas that our future lives are destined to have sin in them. Our future choices are ours to make, and while there will probably be some challenging choices to make at some point, Jesus describes a future where it is possible for us to never choose to sin again.

Heaven will be filled with people who always obey God’s law and who will never sin, and unless you believe heaven will be a legalistic place because of all of this obedience, choosing to obey God in your own life today is simply preparing to live in heaven. As a side note, legalism in my mind is living without love, grace, and holding others to the high standards you’ve set for yourselves, regardless of whether they asked for accountability or not. This is similar to hypocrisy which is holding others to a high standard that you choose to not abide by yourself. If obedience is legalism, then one must also view heaven as being a very legalistic place, which kinda doesn’t make heaven sound like heaven – at least to me.

Moving back to the topic we started this episode by talking about, what of all the sick people that Jesus seemed to ignore in this passage?

I don’t believe for an instant that God ignored them or that He didn’t love them. Instead, I wonder if some were not ready to accept Jesus’ healing, and I wonder if others were healed at other points in time, in other ways, and/or by Jesus that Sabbath day that simply did not make it into John’s gospel. John tells us at the conclusion of his gospel that he did not include everything Jesus said or did because it would be too much to write and too much to read.

John includes this healing and this event for specific reasons, and one of those reasons is a challenge for each of us who call ourselves followers of Christ: Will we believe that we can live the future portion of our present lives without sin?

Jesus thinks we can, and when we lean on Jesus for help, guidance, and strength to do so while drawing close to Him, His love that shines through us empowers us to live a future without sin in preparation for living in a sinless heaven. And when we’re living obediently in heaven, our lives won’t even come close to anything that looks like legalism.

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

Choose to believe that a sinless life is possible starting today. While this doesn’t mean you or I won’t slip up or make mistakes along the way, this does mean that we choose to focus on modeling and reflecting Jesus’ love to those in our lives, and when making choices, we always choose the way of obedience.

To help keep our focus on God and Jesus strong, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself because a personal relationship with Jesus is the most important foundation to have in a life that leaves sin in the past.

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, because the life God wants to lead us into is a life without the pain, hurt, and consequences of sin!

All throughout the gospels, though we probably could extend this to include all of history, there has been a tension and debate over what God really wants. While many of us would be quick to say that God wants our hearts, it becomes less clear when you ask what that really means and what that looks like.

In the Old Testament times, outside of the Jewish nation, there were cultures sacrificing any and every sort of animal, cultures sacrificing humans, cultures that self-mutilated themselves, which is another way to say they cut themselves or harmed themselves in any number of ways, and cultures that did things that I don’t really feel comfortable repeating or even thinking about. In the Old Testament Jewish nation, there was sacrifice, but a clear boundary was given between what was acceptable sacrifice vs. what was not acceptable. This boundary was found within the writings of Moses, which they called “the law”.

When the New Testament writers were alive, there were fewer culture wars happening, but between the Roman and Greek cultures, there still was a huge gap between what they taught and what the Jewish nation taught. However, still at the heart of both cultures was sacrifice – either to an assortment of gods for the Romans and the Greeks, or to the One God for the Jews.

However, when Jesus steps on the scene, it seemed that He taught something different than all of the previous cultures. Though He was Jewish, the angle He saw the Old Testament writings clashed with the view the religious leaders in the first century had.

In our passage for this episode, we find one such place where Jesus challenged the religious leaders, and this place gives us an answer for what God really wants from us – specifically from Jesus’ perspective, and this helps us frame how Jesus lived His life.

This event is included in three of the four gospels, and I have picked Matthew’s version of it to focus on, because it includes a key phrase that the other two gospel writers missed adding. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 9, Matthew tells us that:

⁹ When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” and he stood up and followed Jesus.

¹⁰ As Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with Jesus and his followers. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus’ followers, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard them, he said, “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.”

Before getting into how Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ challenge, we learn that Jesus had just invited Matthew to be one of His followers. Perhaps as a “thank you” or because it was getting late, Matthew invites Jesus (and a number of his tax collector friends) over for supper.

However, like is very typical in the gospels, the religious leaders are watching, and like legalistic spies, the Pharisees are ready to challenge Jesus at every turn because He intentionally lived His life differently than they did. Inviting a tax collector to be a disciple was a shocking thing for Jesus to do, but it seems as though the Pharisees passed over this detail, perhaps because they didn’t realize the invitation was given, or maybe because they knew that a single person can change. Instead, the Pharisees focused most clearly on why Jesus then chose to hang out with Matthew’s tax collector and sinner friends, since this was very unusual and not something acceptable in their minds.

In a subtle challenge to Jesus, they ask Jesus’ followers a question instead of Jesus. Perhaps this is now late enough in His ministry that the Pharisees have realized Jesus is difficult to trap, or maybe they ask the followers simply because it was the cultural way to do this at the time. Either way, the question they ask is interesting, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (v. 11)

The implied question hidden within their question for Jesus is, “Jesus, if you hang out with the lowest people, you are liable to be tainted by them. And whether it is simply your reputation that is tainted, or your actions and/or attitude, don’t you realize it is better to stand apart and to call others to stand apart with you. Shouldn’t we separate ourselves from those who are actively living in sin?”

But whether the disciples don’t know the answer, or whether Jesus knows what is up and walks over at the perfect time, He has an answer for them: “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.” (v. 12-13)

Now on one hand, Jesus’ response is insulting to Matthew the host, and all of his friends. However, also tucked within Jesus’ response are two very profound ideas.

First, Jesus shares what God wants from us. Quoting from the Old Testament, Jesus shares the idea that God wants kindness more than animal sacrifice. All the symbolism in the world is worthless if the attitude is wrong. First, the attitude must be right, and only then can the symbolism be meaningful as God had intended it to be.

Secondly, Jesus shares a direct mission of His to invite sinners and not “good people”. Perhaps this is because the good people at the time did not need an invitation, but what is more likely the case in all points in history is that the people who self-identify themselves as “good” have chosen to stop their growth journey and have stopped being teachable.

“Good enough” is the enemy of where God wants to take us. God has so many amazing things in His mind for each of us, but if we settle for “good enough”, we stop short of the plan God has for our lives.

In contrast, those who recognize they are sinners are more likely willing to learn, grow, and be helped. Those who know they are sinners are able to understand they need help, and Jesus is more than willing to step in to help and invite them into the restoration plan God put in place to help them.

It is the same way for each of us today. Good enough is the enemy of God’s great plan for each of us, and it is up to us to be willing to be taught, helped, and led forward in our lives and our understanding of God and His plan for each of us.

With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, continue intentionally seeking God first in your life and choose to recognize your reality as someone who needs God’s help. While it is not pleasant to think of yourself as a sinner, only when understanding that you have sinned and have failed God will you be able to fully understand and appreciate what Jesus did for you on the cross. Someone who believes Jesus died for others when they didn’t need His sacrifice for them will ultimately miss out on salvation, believing they were good enough when they ultimately were not.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study your Bible – specifically the gospels in this case – for yourself to learn more of how much God and Jesus love you. Discover in the pages of the Bible a God who was willing to give everything for you because He loves you that much! Never let anyone get in the way of you discovering this God for yourself, and never think of yourself as not needing’ Jesus sacrifice. Jesus faced the cross for you because He loves you more than pain and death!

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 settle for simply “good enough” when God wants to lead you towards the great life He created you to live with Him!

At the start of Jesus’ public ministry, the gospel of Mark describes Jesus doing something that is very counterintuitive for someone just starting a ministry. While this isn’t the first miracle Jesus performed, something He tells the person He healed following the healing doesn’t make much sense from our perspective, especially if we were advising Jesus launching a ministry in today’s world.

Let’s read what happened, and discover what Jesus did following this healing. Our passage is from the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 40, Mark tells us that:

⁴⁰ A man with a skin disease came to Jesus. He fell to his knees and begged Jesus, “You can heal me if you will.”

⁴¹ Jesus felt sorry for the man, so he reached out his hand and touched him and said, “I will. Be healed!” ⁴² Immediately the disease left the man, and he was healed.

Let’s pause briefly here because a detail about this healing is worth paying attention to. We see a man coming to Jesus who had a skin disease, and chances are this disease was incurable. However, the man states his request in an interesting way. By saying “you can heal me if you will”, the man displays a faith in Jesus’ ability to perform the miracle, but he acknowledges that he might not be worthy of receiving such a life-changing gift.

I wonder if this man had a particularly sinful past, and the skin disease was something he believed was a punishment for the things he did wrong earlier in his life. If so, the way this request is phrased also hints at a request for forgiveness.

This event in itself is amazing to think about, because this was before Jesus had gotten the reputation of being a miracle-healer. Somehow, this man had learned about Jesus before Jesus was well known, and this man knew in his heart that Jesus could heal him. However, I wonder if this man questioned whether Jesus would want to heal him.

We see Jesus’ response first feeling sorry for the man, and then touching him, which was a big deal in that era. Touch is how skin diseases like this were spread, and getting a skin disease meant that a person was not touched in any meaningful way again.

Jesus’ response was as loving as His touch. Jesus tells the man, “I will. Be healed!” This is powerful because any doubt in this man’s mind about God’s love for him was erased in this moment. If the man’s past made him doubtful about whether God loved Him, Jesus’ actions and words emphasized God’s love and forgiveness towards this man.

The man did not doubt Jesus could heal him. This man had faith. This man also needed encouragement and a reassuring message of God’s love towards him.

But what comes next is fascinating. Immediately after the man is healed, verse 43 continues by telling us:

⁴³ Jesus told the man to go away at once, but he warned him strongly, ⁴⁴ “Don’t tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest. And offer the gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people what I have done.” ⁴⁵ The man left there, but he began to tell everyone that Jesus had healed him, and so he spread the news about Jesus. As a result, Jesus could not enter a town if people saw him. He stayed in places where nobody lived, but people came to him from everywhere.

When reading about this miracle, we can understand the healed man’s enthusiasm about what Jesus did for him. He tells everyone he can about Jesus.

But Jesus’ request to keep quiet about this healing does not make sense, especially when framed in today’s attention-starved world. In the 21st century, new products and ideas have a huge uphill climb in order to be known. The methods for sharing products and ideas have become endless, and the barriers for bringing a product or idea into reality are almost none. However, this has resulted in a flood of ideas into the market, and overwhelming people living today into ignoring 99% or more of what they see. In our minds, it makes no sense that Jesus would want to silence one of His best brand ambassadors.

This would be like visiting a church, having a physical miracle take place, and those present telling you to keep quiet about what happened. This makes no sense for the person who is excited to have been healed, and it makes no sense if this church wants to grow, get donations, and/or have enough to pay their bills.

I’ve heard some people say that Jesus told this man to keep quiet as a way to inspire him to share more, as though Jesus was challenging this man’s rebellious side to do more than he would have normally done. However, this doesn’t make sense in my mind with how the passage concluded. This man’s excessive sharing made Jesus so popular that He could not enter a town if someone recognized Him, and He had to stay in secluded places away from the cities and towns.

Jesus loved people, and I wonder if He told this man to keep quiet because He wanted the freedom of anonymity to be able to go to more people who needed help and who were not physically able to come to Him. This makes sense on one level. Jesus knew word would eventually spread about Him whether He liked it or not, but He wanted to slow the spread so that He could help as many people where they were at in the cities, towns, and villages.

Jesus also told the man to go to the priest, present an offering, and get the official bill of clean health. I think this also has a hint towards why Jesus wanted the man to stay quiet. Jesus says that going and showing himself to the priest “will show the people what I have done”. Who are the people Jesus is referring to? When we think about this, the first people who would learn about this would be all the priests and religious leaders, and it would spread out from there.

I wonder if Jesus had intended this miracle to be a witness and a challenge for the religious leaders. While there were some religious leaders who were already against Jesus, such as those who lived in the Nazareth synagogue we discussed in a previous episode, I wonder if this miracle was Jesus subtly reaching out with a message to the religious leaders about God stepping into history and that He was the Messiah who was prophesied about.

Regardless of what the reasons were, or even if that was all the reasons, this man chose to disobey Jesus and tell everyone about what Jesus had done for him. This is worth paying attention to as well because when God has done something for us, it is natural for us to tell someone else about it. It is actually unnatural to try to keep it a secret.

So with that in mind, has God done something in your life recently? If so, did you tell others about it?

Jesus had His reasons for asking the man He healed to keep quiet about this healing, but that doesn’t mean that this is Jesus’ message for us today. One of His last messages to His followers was to tell everyone about Him, and that means that we are called and challenged to tell others about what Jesus has done for us. While not everyone is willing to listen, we are all called to share. When we share, we should not put other people down in order to lift Jesus up. We should instead simply lift Jesus up for what He has done for us, and invite those we are sharing with to celebrate with us.

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

Always be sure to seek God first and pay attention to the things He blesses us with. When God does something for us, let’s celebrate it and invite others into our celebration. Our joy is a powerful witness in a world where joy is fading.

Also, be sure to study the Bible for yourself and discover what God wants to tell you though the pages of His word. A pastor or podcaster can give you ideas, but discovering truth straight from the Bible has no comparison, and humbly studying the Bible helps each of us grow closer to God in a personal way.

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!

If you have ever wondered how Jesus preached, you may be surprised to learn that the gospel writers tell us. Both Mark and Luke share an event that includes a phrase and a healing that demonstrate Jesus’ uniqueness and how He communicated differently from the other religious leaders at that time.

Perhaps this event stands out in my mind because I am a speaker who is constantly looking to develop and grow his skills, and in my mind, there is no better person to learn from than Jesus. While I cannot be identical to Jesus in this regard, there definitely are things in this passage worth paying attention to with regard to communicating effectively.

However, whether you are a speaker or not, or whether you have a message you want to share or not, let’s dive into this passage and discover some things that made Jesus’ teaching and preaching different from the other teachers and preachers in the first century. Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 1, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 21, Mark tells us that:

²¹ They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²² The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³ Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

²⁵ “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” ²⁶ The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

²⁷ The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”

Let’s stop reading there. Did you see what I saw that made Jesus’ teaching different?

It’s found in verse 22, where it says, “He [Jesus] taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.”

Even before the plot thickens with the demon-possessed man, the people recognized that Jesus was different. While I don’t know this for certain, I imagine the teachers of the law in this synagogue used a few verses from the scripture, before using other rabbi’s explanations to build their message. In this way, they are simply repeating those who came before them.

However, Jesus likely shared a portion of scripture before sharing a truth about God, God’s love, a parable-story, or some other deeper thought. I imagine Jesus sharing scripture as a way to describe God, rather than sharing scripture before sharing what others think about that scripture.

Also, the verse says Jesus spoke with authority, which I might be tempted to think simply means that He spoke confidently, but then we have the demon-possessed man showing up which shifts the focus of this event.

It appears that this healing happened to back up what the people were already thinking: specifically that Jesus spoke with authority. Not only did Jesus sound different when speaking, He communicated so powerfully that demons obeyed Him.

This leads us into the next verse, verse 28, which says, “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”

I’m sure if you saw a miracle like this, you would spread the word as well!

Skipping down a few verses to verse 32, which happened that evening, let’s continue:

³² That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³ The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴ and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

This event focuses in on Jesus’ power to heal the sick and demon-possessed. In the verses we skipped over, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law who had a fever, and these two healings prompt a steady stream of people bringing their sick relatives to Jesus to heal.

Of note is that word spread that afternoon about Jesus, but the people waited until after sunset to bring their friends, family, and relatives who needed help. Jesus didn’t shy away from healing on the Sabbath, since He healed the demon-possessed man in the morning at the synagogue, and Peter’s mother-in-law in the afternoon, but the people waited. It wouldn’t always be this way, but in these early months of Jesus’ ministry, the people wanted Jesus’ help in a way that would not upset the legalistic culture of the Pharisees and religious leaders.

Also, it is amazing that the first demon – with a crowd of witnesses present – would validate the claim that Jesus was God’s “Holy One”. It is one thing to discount the disciples’ belief, and the belief of the crowd, but when Satan’s angels make that claim, it is worth taking note.

Part of me wonders why Jesus would stop the evil spirits from speaking following this event, but I have a few thoughts about why this might be.

First off, Satan is a master liar, so everything that he or his angel’s say is suspect. He doesn’t have to lie, but he can easily choose to do so. This fact immediately makes whatever he says irrelevant, because whether it is the truth or a lie, it cannot be trusted.

Secondly, Jesus is interested in the focus and glory of these healings to go to God. He did not heal or cast out demons to get recognition for Himself; He was continually pointing people upward to God. While the demons were stating the truth, they were trying to take the focus away from God and place it onto Jesus.

Thirdly, the people had a popular belief about who the Messiah would be and what His role would take. However, this was not an accurate picture of the type of Messiah Jesus came to be. With a large enough crowd too early in Jesus’ ministry, the people’s preconceived ideas could derail what Jesus wanted to do in favor of them pushing for their belief in who they thought He should be. If this happened, Jesus would have been the cause of a massive uprising, and the Romans would have sent a portion of their army to quickly squash what was happening.

Jesus needed time to help people understand He was not like any of the other self-claimed messiahs that had come before, and that His view of the Messiah role was much broader than the Jewish stereotype.

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, intentionally seek God first in your life. Regardless of what evidence you use to support your belief in Jesus, keep Him as first and most significant in your life. Your future self will thank you when looking back on what happened from the lens of eternity.

Also, as I always and regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to learn more about who Jesus is and what He is like. The gospels are the best place to learn about Jesus’ character, and the rest of the Bible draws our attention onto who Jesus really is and how God has directed history to focus on Jesus!

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!