Reflective Bible Study

On the morning of Jesus’ crucifixion, the gospel of Luke includes a profound series of statements that the religious leaders use to build their case against Jesus. Taken on their own, what Jesus shares in response to the religious leader’s demands is simply countercultural. But when we look at an earlier portion of Luke’s gospel, we see the most rational grounds for who Jesus claimed to be, and in this claim, as well as in the religious leaders’ reaction, we see how far from God’s plan these spiritual leaders had fallen.

Let’s read how Luke describes this event, from the gospel letter that is named after him, using the God’s Word translation. Reading from chapter 22, starting in verse 66, Luke tells us that:

⁶⁶ In the morning the council of the people’s leaders, the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings, gathered together. They brought Jesus in front of their highest court and asked him, ⁶⁷ “Tell us, are you the Messiah?”

Jesus said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. ⁶⁸ And if I ask you, you won’t answer. ⁶⁹ But from now on, the Son of Man will be in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.”

⁷⁰ Then all of them said, “So you’re the Son of God?”

Jesus answered them, “You’re right to say that I am.”

⁷¹ Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.”

The religious leaders in this passage build the case for Jesus’ execution on the idea that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. This claim comes immediately after Jesus side-steps the question about whether He is the Messiah that the Jews were expecting.

On the surface, the Messiah question was a much simpler question to answer, except that Jesus knows that they have a narrow view of their Messiah, and Jesus knew that their narrow view had drifted away from what God had prophesied throughout history.

Jesus knows that these leaders are only interested in building a case for His death, and they are not interested in a discussion or a debate, so Jesus gives them something they can build their case on – except that it is one of the weakest foundations for them to stand on.

While the Old Testament law held the death sentence for people who committed blasphemy, the religious leaders had over-extended the definition of what blasphemy actually was. While claiming equality or superiority to God is breaking laws regarding blasphemy, as we will soon see in Luke’s gospel, claiming to be a son of God is completely valid for someone – really anyone to do.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He seemed to gravitate towards the self-descriptive name “son of man” which echo’s back to a prophecy from the book of Daniel. While technically, Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, it is likely Jesus used this name in a more general sense to describe Himself as a “Son of humanity”.

The reason that these leaders frowned upon the idea of Jesus being God’s Son is that it appeared as though He was elevating Himself into being equal with God – which is wrong for a sinner to do. However, if we look at the last verse in Luke chapter 3, we see that at the very end of Luke’s version of Jesus’ genealogy, Luke tells us that Adam, the first human, was “the son of God”.

Here at the beginning of Luke’s description of Jesus’ adult life, we see a solid, rational case for Jesus being God’s Son because everyone who has ever lived is technically a child of God. Everyone alive at any point in history has breath because God gave it to them, and regardless of whether they use their breath of life to give God glory or to curse God to His face, their existence is directly connected to a gift from God.

The religious leaders’ foundation for Jesus’ crucifixion, which was them putting words in His mouth about being a Son of God is the weakest foundation for them to stand on. They would have a better case standing on what Jesus had just said in verse 69 when He tells them that, “From now on, the Son of Man will be in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.”

This statement, which cannot actually be validated in this life, could only be spoken by someone who is delusional, or by someone who actually lived their life so close to God that God would choose them for the honored position at His side. This statement is one that challenged the religious leaders at their core, because not only was a human unworthy to be even considered honored before God, it would be prideful for someone to place themselves in this position on their own merit.

In this passage, Jesus uses the term Son of Man in His response to the religious leaders, and they shift His words in their reply to Son of God. If Jesus was to avoid lying to the leaders, there was no way around admitting to being God’s Son because of how Luke described Jesus’ ancestry.

By building the case against Jesus on the grounds of being God’s Son, and not on the statement that Jesus would be honored by God, the religious leaders unknowingly set themselves up to be on the side that is against God.

They build their case on the grounds that Jesus was merely a human, and not that Jesus was ungodly. They incriminate themselves with their argument and reveal how un-Godlike they really were by rejecting and condemning a person who was clearly helping people in God’s name. Even if Jesus was not directly God’s Son in a first-generation sense, He was the most God-like person living in that culture during the first century, and that in itself builds a solid case for God adopting Jesus as His Son.

No way one looks at this event do the religious leaders come out appearing positive or justified. Instead, their accusation and the foundation they build their case on is the weakest one available – but they pick it because they are blinded by their hatred of Jesus. The leaders latch onto whatever they can easily take a hold of because they want to see Jesus killed.

Which leaves the question in my mind: If Jesus knew that they would use this response against Him as the foundation for His death, why would He still say it?

Critics might argue that Jesus had no way out of this scenario, but all Jesus would have needed to do is simply answer in the same way that He answered before, by stating that they would not believe His response, even if He told them an answer.

Jesus instead chose His words carefully because He knew His path included the cross. Jesus was willing to face death in order to open up a way for new life for each of us. While the religious leaders chose a weak foundation for their case against Jesus, Jesus chose death because He knew His death was much more significant from the perspective of eternity. Jesus’ death opens the way for all of God’s people to experience eternity.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first and make Him the most important focus of your life. Regardless of what others might think or believe, think of yourself as a child of God, if for no other reason than God is responsible for there being life in your body. Because God has given you breath, know that He wants to adopt you into His very literal and spiritual family that will be rewarded with eternity.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and know God better. Prayerfully study and ask God to teach you what He wants you to learn. While a pastor or podcaster such as myself can give you ideas and insights from what we have learned, God wants your relationship with Him to be personal and not dependant on any third-party intermediary.

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 was betrayed and arrested during the night before His crucifixion, one of the first stops the mob takes Jesus is to a trial. However, far from being a fair trial, this mob takes Jesus to a trial where every piece of this trial was tilted against His favor. While most people would hope for a fair trial if they faced something similar, the trial Jesus faced, as we will soon discover, was filled with a countless number of liars who all wanted to see Jesus executed.

However, even more amazing than this clearly biased trial against Jesus, was that when the trial was falling apart, help came from an unexpected source to keep the trial moving forward. Let’s read about what happened.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 26, and we will read it using the New Century Version. Starting in verse 59, Matthew tells us that:

⁵⁹ The leading priests and the whole Jewish council tried to find something false against Jesus so they could kill him. ⁶⁰ Many people came and told lies about him, but the council could find no real reason to kill him. Then two people came and said, ⁶¹ “This man said, ‘I can destroy the Temple of God and build it again in three days.’”

⁶² Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Aren’t you going to answer? Don’t you have something to say about their charges against you?” ⁶³ But Jesus said nothing.

Again the high priest said to Jesus, “I command you by the power of the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴ Jesus answered, “Those are your words. But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, the Powerful One, and coming on clouds in the sky.”

⁶⁵ When the high priest heard this, he tore his clothes and said, “This man has said things that are against God! We don’t need any more witnesses; you all heard him say these things against God. ⁶⁶ What do you think?”

The people answered, “He should die.”

While reading this passage, several things jumped off the page at me.

First off, when reading this event, I am always amazed that when faced with false accusation after false accusation, and lie after lie, Jesus choose to say nothing. Jesus stayed silent rather than defend Himself. This response is amazing in my mind, because the more logical and rational response would be to counter the lie with some form of the truth. I know that at least in my own life, it is very difficult to remain silent when lies are being thrown my way.

However, Jesus models what can happen when we stay silent. In Jesus’ case, the more lies that are thrown His way, the less credible the liars become. While we might think that the lies spoken about Jesus would reflect negatively upon Him, the opposite happened. All the lies the religious leaders tried to use to condemn Jesus almost cost them the validity of their trial, if their trial actually had any validity in the first place.

Again, I am amazed by Jesus choosing to stay silent, because I suspect if I were present and in a similar situation, staying silent would be among the hardest things for me to do.

Next in this passage, I want to point out that present in the brief conversation Jesus has with Caiaphas, there is a subtle shift in the language present. Firstly, Caiaphas demands Jesus to answer whether He is God’s Son, and Jesus responds by naming Himself as a Son of Man, though in this particular context, the Son of Man Jesus was referring to was a Son of Man who would be glorified by God.

Caiaphas then takes Jesus’ words and frames them as a statement against God. While a casual reader or observer would be unlikely to see the connection between Jesus’ words and a statement against God, nothing stops Caiaphas from framing Jesus’ words this way, before demanding that His supporters accept and agree with this position.

As I read Jesus’ response, I don’t see anything that is against God. If God wanted to, He could place any mortal person or immortal being at His right hand for a specific event, or for a specific reason. It would be ridiculous for us to vilify God for honoring someone who is clearly supporting and drawing people to praise God.

However, perhaps the issue these religious leaders have with Jesus is that Jesus used the phrase Son of Man and placed it in the most important position in God’s kingdom – which in Jesus’ own statement is at the right hand of the God. In God’s kingdom, man is lower than God, and because of this reason, man does not deserve to be given that significant, prestigious place of honor.

Also possible, I wonder if Caiaphas’ issue is that the man Jesus would claim to prophesy about what would happen in the future regarding God. While Jesus didn’t preface His words with any of the typical prophetic introductions, Caiaphas concludes that Jesus could only be speaking from a place of humanity.

I’ll be the first to state that I don’t know what Caiaphas was thinking, or what grounds He wanted to use to build the case against Jesus. What I do know from reading this is that the false witnesses and liars were doing more harm to the trial against Jesus than helping it, and Caiaphas needed something to validate the case against Jesus.

When all hope appeared to be lost, Caiaphas presses Jesus to speak, and Jesus gives Caiaphas something that could be twisted into a claim against God, even if what Jesus said was nothing remotely like that.

Oddly enough, this trial against Jesus validates the words written in Psalm 35:19, which Jesus quotes in John 15:35 that says “They hated me for no reason.” While these religious leaders hated Jesus, there was nothing spiritual or significant in their hatred of Jesus. Instead, they simply disliked Jesus because He wasn’t one of them, and because He was clearly supported by God outside of their chain of spiritual command.

The last thing we have time to talk about in this podcast episode that stood out to me is that the people responded to Caiaphas’ challenge with the death sentence. Because this was a significant weekend that would have brought the religious leaders together from all over the region, I suspect that there would be no shortage of people the religious leaders could have hand-picked from to side with them calling for Jesus’ death. Even though there were several synagogue leaders who Jesus had helped, I suspect that these religious leaders who lived in Jerusalem focused their attention on collecting those they knew would support them in being hostile towards Jesus.

And while it might surprise you to hear me say this, we should thank them. All the hostility thrust towards Jesus on that weekend paved the way for God’s greatest demonstration of love. Even though this whole trial was a setup, and this trial was far from even appearing fair, Jesus still went through with it, and accepted the false accusations thrust upon Him because His goal was paying for your sins and mine. Jesus faced the cross for you and me, and this only happened because the religious leaders in the first century stacked a case against Jesus, calling for His death.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Understand and believe that Jesus came to demonstrate the God the Father’s love for each of us – and He was willing to go through anything to help us see and understand this truth.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to fully grasp what happened in Jesus’ life and death, and to really know what God’s love looks like. Don’t take my word or anyone else’s word for this. Personally read and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day.

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!

On the night Jesus was arrested, all four gospels describe how He goes with His eleven remaining disciples to a place just outside of Jerusalem called Gethsemane. While there, during the last moments Jesus has before His arrest, and following His last big teaching opportunity with the disciples, Jesus does something that is worth paying attention to.

For our episode this week, we’ll be focusing in on Matthew’s version of this event, though the idea we’ll be focusing in on is found in more than just Matthew’s gospel. This event is found in Matthew, chapter 26, and for our time together, we will be reading from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 36, Matthew tells us:

³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Grief and anguish came over him, ³⁸ and he said to them, “The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹ He went a little farther on, threw himself face downward on the ground, and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me! Yet not what I want, but what you want.”

⁴⁰ Then he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep; and he said to Peter, “How is it that you three were not able to keep watch with me for even one hour? ⁴¹ Keep watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴² Once more Jesus went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cup of suffering cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ He returned once more and found the disciples asleep; they could not keep their eyes open.

⁴⁴ Again Jesus left them, went away, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. ⁴⁵ Then he returned to the disciples and said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look! The hour has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to the power of sinners. ⁴⁶ Get up, let us go. Look, here is the man who is betraying me!”

During the last hours, or maybe even minutes, before Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, arrives with the mob to arrest Jesus, Jesus spends the last moments in prayer regarding the mission and trial He is about to face. While some people might read Jesus’ prayer and believe that He is pushing back on God’s mission for Him to face the cross, I think that this is not the essence of Jesus’ prayer here. While the cross was coming up on the horizon not even 24 hours later, I believe Jesus was praying for something happening that was much more present than a fear of the cross.

In Jesus’ first prayer, found in verse 39, He prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me! Yet not what I want, but what you want.” Chances are that His prayer was a little longer than two sentences, but perhaps this was all these three disciples heard before falling asleep.

This prayer contains two important ideas for us to consider.

The first idea is that Jesus conditionally asks for a cup of suffering to be taken from Him – specifically only if it is possible. This implies that Jesus was already facing suffering of some kind. Never before in Jesus’ ministry do we get the idea that Jesus was fearful, but perhaps this was the moment fear entered His life. However, following the mob’s arrival and the trial, we don’t see Jesus display any fear, so later on during Jesus’ trial, we are unlikely to find any moments of fear.

Part of me wonders if the arrival of Jesus and His disciples to Gethsemane marked the start of the Father pulling His presence away from Jesus, while Jesus was emotionally and spiritually taking on the sins of everyone who had ever lived. If this were the case, I could see Jesus’ time in Gethsemane before His arrest being much more difficult than the road of pain and abuse leading to the cross.

However, there is a second idea in Jesus’ first prayer that deserves our attention. Jesus finishes off by saying, “Yet not what I want, but what you want.”

In the midst of a trial so big that we cannot even begin to imagine it’s total size, Jesus asks the question about if there was another way, but He frames the response He wants to receive as simply God’s will being done and not His own. While God could have swept Jesus up to Heaven at that very moment, and wiped the universe clean to start over from that point, it wasn’t part of God’s plan to give up at the most difficult moment the Godhead had ever faced. We might think that it was difficult for Jesus but not for God the Father or the Holy Spirit for that 24-48 hour period of time, but that would be a mistake.

If God truly is known as a Father, watching His Son face death would be one of the hardest things He could do, especially knowing that while He could stop it from happening, any delay would lengthen the pain Jesus was in, and abandoning the mission would prove Satan’s case against God that said God was unfair and unrealistic.

In this prayer, we see Jesus submitting to God when times get tough, and while I know the Father wanted to help Him, God knew that any help would validate Satan’s charge against the Godhead.

After Jesus returns, wakes the disciples up, asks them again to keep watch, He returns and prays a second prayer, which is similar to the first. In verse 42, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if this cup of suffering cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.”

Jesus’ second prayer includes more courage and strength than the first. God the Father had probably answered Jesus’ prayers much more quickly than it appeared to be on this night, and because of this, I wonder if Jesus, who hadn’t seen or heard anything change following His first prayer, then shifted His prayers towards accepting the mission of suffering.

Both times Jesus frames that what He wants is God’s will do be done, and in both cases, Jesus says these words knowing that it will bring suffering into His life. While Matthew doesn’t quote Jesus’ third prayer, he tells us that it was similar to the first two prayers.

We can learn from Jesus in what we see in Gethsemane. While all the disciples were facing temptation in those hours with Jesus, I believe the greatest temptations were being pressed towards Jesus Himself.

The temptations likely centered on the ideas that Jesus’ sacrifice would not be worth it, it wouldn’t be accepted by God, no one on earth would care that He had died, and His life would ultimately be wasted.

In these moments of temptation, Jesus surrenders, but while we might surrender by doing whatever thing we are being tempted to do, Jesus surrendered into doing God’s will. It was not God’s will that Jesus would abandon humanity when things got tough, so regardless of Jesus’ prayers, as long as He framed Himself wanting to stay within God’s will and the plan they had set up, no help from Heaven would come.

When we face temptation, the best place for us to surrender is into doing God’s will. While this is clearly easier to say than it is to do, our prayers for help should always be prefaced with God’s will being done.

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

Continue to seek God first in your life and intentionally submit to His will. When temptation comes, choose to surrender to God and let Him direct and protect you as He sees fit. Sometimes relief will come, but other times, it may feel like we are facing temptation alone. However, God will not abandon us like He never abandoned Jesus. Jesus was raised from the dead at the perfect time, and this is proof that even if we experience feeling like God is silent, He is never truly absent.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to strengthen your connection with God. While not every study time will be filled with insights or feelings of closeness with God, the only way to ever get any personal insights or to feel close with God is through intentionally drawing near to Him in personal study. Prayer and personal study are much more important for each of us than simply listening to a pastor or podcaster.

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

As Jesus wraps up talking with His disciples on the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus repeats His prediction that they all would abandon Him before the night has finished. While many times throughout Jesus’ ministry, He said some challenging things that caused people to leave Him, every time people left Him prior to this night, some people always stuck with Him. However, on the night Jesus was betrayed, He predicts a different outcome, and that outcome is that all of His followers would abandon Him.

Everyone can look in their past back and identify a point when you have felt abandoned or betrayed. If you think that your life up to this point has not faced this type of rejection, then I would be worried, not because you are fooling yourself, but instead, because you are either living alone, apart from everyone, or abandonment and/or betrayal is coming at some point in your future. However, while feeling abandoned or rejected feels horrible, you are definitely not alone in feeling this way.

I’ll be the first to say that I have felt this way in the past, at more points in time than I would have liked, and I imagine in some way, shape, or form, everyone has experienced feelings of abandonment or rejection to some degree or another.

While it is crazy to think about the ideal, popular person being abandoned, this is exactly what Jesus predicts in our passage for this episode. Jesus was the most famous and infamous person alive during that time period, and because He had avoided every trick, trap, and question trying to knock Him off of His mission, I suspect some people believed there was nothing that could happen to Him.

Our passage for this episode happens during the night Jesus is arrested, but it takes place several hours before Jesus is arrested and His remaining disciples scatter. However, in this passage, Jesus forewarns the disciples about what will happen later that night, and He also says something powerful for anyone who has ever felt abandoned or alone.

Let’s read what Jesus tells His followers. Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of John, chapter 16, and we will read it using the New International Version. Starting in verse 25, Jesus tells the remaining disciples who are with Him:

²⁵ “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹ “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In this passage, Jesus promises us three things that are significant to our discussion about feeling abandoned or alone.

The first promise is how Jesus concludes this passage, and this promise has two parts. In the middle of verse 33, Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble.” This tells me that there is no getting away from trouble, and in the context of this discussion, this trouble may include feelings of abandonment and/or rejection. However, Jesus is quick to finish the verse by saying, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The powerful first promise states that even though trouble, abandonment, rejection, hurt, or pain come, Jesus is bigger than these feelings because Jesus has overcome the world that includes all these symptoms of sin.

This leads us to the next promise for us to focus on, which happened to have been shared one verse earlier. In verse 32, Jesus finishes by saying, “You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” With these words, Jesus recognized that even when everyone He thought was a friend, follower, or disciple had run away, He was never truly alone, because God the Father and His Spirit would be with Him. Even while hanging on the cross, even if Jesus didn’t feel God’s presence, He still knew God was there. His dying breath is directed to God when He says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

This second truth is special for you and I too because as followers of Jesus, we too can claim this promise that being alone is never truly alone, because God the Father and His Spirit are with us.

However, what if you are a little unsure about the Father? After all, isn’t God the Father the deity behind all the Old Testament war and punishments? Isn’t the God of the Old Testament a mean God who is always on the lookout for when we mess up and fail? Didn’t Jesus come to convince the Father to love us?

All of these questions are false according to Jesus. In our passage, Jesus tells us what the Father thinks of us, and this truth is found within the third big promise worth focusing on in Jesus’ words. Move back to near the beginning of what we read, in verse 27, Jesus says, “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” God the Father loves those who love Jesus and believe that Jesus came from God.

If that promise were not enough, one of the most well known Bible verses also clearly states the Father’s love. John 3:16 begins by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” God in this verse must refer to the Father, because He gave His Son, and Jesus declares that He is the Son.

This ultimately means that on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, shortly before all the disciples scatter and Jesus is left alone, Jesus gives us a powerful picture into God the Father’s love for us, and Jesus models the truth for us that when we love and believe in Him, we are never alone.

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

As I always challenge you to do in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you haven’t yet chosen to believe that Jesus came from God, choose to believe this today. Intentionally choose to place God first in your life and place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and what Jesus accomplished for each of us on the cross.

However, don’t choose this only because I said to. Instead, as I also always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself, keeping your eyes open for ways the Bible points to Jesus. When reading the Bible looking for pictures and descriptions of Jesus, you will be surprised how many times Jesus shows up.

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!