Reflective Bible Study

During the week Jesus was crucified, Jesus traveled into Jerusalem during the day and every evening, He would leave the city and spend the night outside of Jerusalem. On one afternoon, as they were leaving the temple, we are told about a remark one of the disciples makes, and how Jesus refocuses the conversation onto something much more significant.

Let’s look a little closer at what was said from the gospel of Mark, chapter 13, and let’s use the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us:

¹ As He [Jesus] was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” ² And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

While I had planned on reading more for this episode, let’s stop reading here and focus on what was just said, because it is incredibly relevant for us living today – maybe even more relevant than to the disciples looking at the magnificent temple. It would be very easy to keep reading and completely miss the relevance of these first two verses. While I don’t know the back-story for why this disciple made this comment, or really what the intent of his thought was, on the surface, this remark speaks to the remarkable achievements of the human race.

While the temple in Jerusalem was one of the most spectacular buildings to see in the ancient world, in today’s culture, we could substitute virtually any of the hundreds or even thousands of distinctive man-made structures that have begun to identify the location where they were constructed. In many ways, just seeing a specific building or specific skyline can immediately identify what city is being displayed.

In this short statement about buildings, the unnamed disciple unintentionally tries to draw the focus onto what we as humankind can build and accomplish. Now 2000 years later, we are able to build bigger buildings, taller buildings, and more magnificent buildings than anything constructed during the first century or at any point during ancient times. This is in part because we have better materials and bigger tools at our disposal.

But regardless of whether Jesus was talking about God’s house on earth, also known as the temple, or if we were to substitute the focus from the temple and onto some of the most spectacular towers and buildings in the world today, I believe Jesus’ response would remain the same.

Jesus responded with the sobering reality in verse 2 that begins with a question: “Do you see these great buildings?” Jesus asks this disciple. “Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

The response Jesus gives is fascinating in my mind because it appears as though Jesus leads the disciples into thinking that He is agreeing with him. It is like Jesus says, “Yep, these are pretty amazing buildings. Too bad they will soon be completely destroyed.”

If I was tempted to put words into Jesus’ mouth, I likely would have responded with the statement, “Do you see these great buildings? They are nothing compared to what God has in store for all His followers in heaven.” I may also have framed it along the lines of feeling in awe of God because when we are in a large building of that sort, such as a cathedral, we are reminded of how small we are in comparison to how big God is. Sure, God is much bigger than any and every cathedral ever constructed, but it’s good to be reminded visually of our “smallness” when pride likes to trick us into thinking we are bigger than we really are.

But Jesus doesn’t make a comparison with the best humanity can do placed next to what God can do, and He doesn’t even frame the magnificent buildings as structures that can help us draw near to God.

Instead, Jesus focuses our attention on the temporary nature of anything humanity can build or achieve, and this is incredibly relevant for us.

First, every achievement we accomplish will fade in significance with the more time that passes. Our minds minimize our past successes in light of our current challenges and our future fears. This is just a part of human nature. The best we can hope to do is slow this fading in our minds by structuring time into our lives to focus on what we have achieved in the past, and this is best done when framing our accomplishments in the context of what God was able to do through us.

Next, every achievement we accomplish will be out-done by someone else at some point in the future. While we might die on top of the hill of a certain accomplishment, eventually, someone somewhere will beat the record we set, or build something bigger, better, or more efficient than we did. Records and achievements are fluid and as greater lengths of time pass, humanity as a species get better and better, faster and faster, and more efficient with what we do.

The best we can hope for with achievements like this is to be happy for those who out do us. There is a good chance the person who out did us looks up to us in some way, and rarely are they the bad guy in a competition. While we shouldn’t ever stop pushing forward and trying to do better following a big achievement, we shouldn’t let our achievements define who we are. Defining ourselves based on our achievements opens us up for failure and disappointment when someone out-achieves us.

Someone who identifies with being the best at a particular skill will lose a part of who they are if another person becomes better than them. When a person’s identity is wrapped up in a past accomplishment or a certain set of skills, then they have an unhealthy emotional and spiritual foundation for their lives.

In our passage, the unnamed disciple appears to identify with the magnificent buildings as amazing accomplishments from a human perspective. But Jesus reminded him, and all of us, that the really important things in life are not physical in nature. The best accomplishments and achievements we can do as a species could in seconds be turned to rubble if hit with the right natural disaster.

Instead, Jesus warns us to not focus on the achievements of humanity and instead, He subtly suggests that we focus solely on doing God’s will, focusing on what He would want us to focus on, and to resist getting caught up with what society and culture want us to pay attention to.

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

Be sure to continually seek God first in your life and intentionally focus on the things He wants us to focus on. While there is nothing wrong with pursuing greatness, we must always keep our motives in check for why we are pushing towards a particular goal. If the motives revolve around self, self-esteem, or even self-worth, then these are negative motives in God’s eyes. Instead, if the motives relate to helping others, giving glory to God, or spreading the news about Jesus to a certain group of people, then these are positive motives in God’s eyes.

As we are focusing on the things God wants us to focus on, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to keep your relationship and connection with Him strong. Unless you are neglecting helping others in the world, you will never hear God tell you He wants you to spend less time in your Bible and in prayer. For most people, prayer and Bible study are among the first things that get crowded out of a busy schedule. This regular challenge is to resist giving up on personal Bible study when life gets busy, because Bible study, at least for me, helps me stay in the right frame of mind and it helps us have the best perspective on this life that we can have – and it helps us have a strong relationship with God too.

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 let life squeeze you out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through the events recorded in the gospels during the week leading up to the cross, we come across a powerful message that is easy to overlook and ignore after closing your Bible. While it is easy to orient your life and focus in alignment of this short teaching and challenge Jesus gives His followers while alone studying, it is more difficult to do so when living with others in community.

While the passage I have listed to cover this week is long, if we were to read it all, we would run out of time before being able to focus on Jesus’ challenge. Because of this, while I don’t like leaving parts of our passage unread, unfortunately most of this week’s passage will be unread on this podcast. I would encourage you to read the whole passage I shared in the intro, from verses 1 through 36, even though we will only spend time focusing on three verses tucked within this passage.

In our passage, while Jesus was transitioning between warning the crowd about being like the scribes and Pharisees to directly calling them out for how they are living without God’s love, Jesus makes a fascinating statement that we can easily miss because of the profound truths in the verses surrounding it. This truth is found in verses 8, 9 and 10 of Matthew, chapter 23. Let’s read this powerful idea using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 8, Jesus tells His followers and those present:

⁸ But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 

While, many of us are familiar with Jesus’ words in these three verses, as I read them in preparation for this podcast episode, something in my frame of mind or simply the Holy Spirit’s prompting lead me to see these three verses and phrases on a different level. Looking at the broader context of Jesus’ message warning His followers to be cautious of the scribes and Pharisees, I suspect that these three roles, rabbi, father, and leader, were roles and names that the Pharisees and scribes liked to be identified as.

However, instead of simply telling His followers to avoid these terms, Jesus shares each one with a reason why, and He ties that reason to a role God should be within our lives.

Jesus starts by telling them not to call each other rabbi, which would be another way to describe a spiritual teacher. I suspect that if Jesus spoke this message today, He would use the term pastor, because it is our modern day equivalent word for a spiritual teacher and leader. I don’t believe Jesus is challenging us to avoid calling people rabbis or pastors because we cannot or should not learn from them. Instead, I believe Jesus wants to draw us to a bigger truth and help us keep our eyes and focus on this bigger truth, specifically on the truth that we as a spiritual community worldwide have “One” who is our true Teacher. In John’s gospel, on their walk to the garden on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, Jesus promises that after He is gone, the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth. Because of this promise, I strongly suspect that Jesus intends for us to look to the Holy Spirit as our rabbi, pastor, and teacher.

Next, Jesus tells the disciples to not call one another using the word “father”. Again, this isn’t because we do not have a biological male parent, but because He wants to draw out “One” who is our true Father. Within the Old Testament, in Psalm 139, the writer of the psalm says to God in verse 13, “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” I suspect that Jesus wants us to view God the Father in Heaven as our “One” true Father, and as someone who is always there for us when we need Him. I wonder if this is one reason Jesus repeatedly described God in heaven as God the Father. God the Father is the One we look to as our Father because He helped create us in addition to our earthly parents.

Thirdly, Jesus tells His followers to avoid describing each other as “leaders”. I doubt Jesus said these words because He wanted to avoid any type of structure among His followers. When people group together, certain personalities are more leader-like than others. I doubt Jesus would want to erase the leader-like personalities from among His followers. Instead, I suspect that Jesus is more interested in having every one of His followers understand that regardless of the role we have in our spiritual community, we have a member of the Godhead who is our Leader. Since we have focused on the Holy Spirit and on God the Father, I suspect that the role of Leader in the Godhead is placed on Jesus Himself.

As the most visible member of the Godhead, Jesus is the easiest one for us to follow, and about the only thing that breaks through all the differences of opinions, conflicting ideas, and divisions in the body of Christ is the simple truth that we are to “follow Jesus”. In the broad history of Christian tradition, there are valid topics worth debating and there is room for differing opinions, but if we were to simply be like Jesus, love like Jesus, and act like Jesus, our differences of opinions would be minor in comparison to the love we would have for one another.

In these verses, Jesus takes three roles that the Pharisees and scribes probably liked using for each other to elevate themselves above the common crowds, and He tells His followers to only use those terms to describe God. God is our Teacher, our Father, and our Leader, and in a skillful way, Jesus shares these three roles in a way that connects each role with a member of the Godhead.

While we might be tempted to think this truth was only applicable for those in the first century, I believe that since Jesus spoke these words, and since Jesus did not give us a time constraint for this message, this challenge is just as applicable for us living today as it was for those living in the first century. I suspect that Jesus’ model for the role of each member of the Godhead in relation to Jesus’ followers will be the model used in heaven as we live together for eternity. While we live together here on earth, it is very easy for us to get caught up praising one another and developing a hierarchy where everyone fits in rank rather than simply taking Jesus’ words that we are all brothers and sisters with God as our Father, Leader, and Teacher.

I just had a thought. Part of me wonders if this was God’s original plan for the Israelite nation during the book of Judges and prior to them demanding Samuel to anoint a king. I wonder if God originally intended His nation to be a nation of brothers and sisters who continually would look to God to fill these three roles. If this is the case, then it is possible He is looking for this same model within in His church today. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that God’s model for His people is to view themselves as a group of spiritual brothers and sisters who hold God as our true Father, true Leader, and true Teacher.

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. If you haven’t done so, decide today to place God into the role of Father, Teacher, and Leader of your life. When each member of the Godhead fills these roles in our lives, our lives will be aligned with Jesus and with how He instructed His followers to live.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to intentionally grow closer to God and to learn what He is like. While other people can give you ideas to think about, take everything you read, hear, and see and in prayer and study, test it against the truths of the Bible to discover if it aligns with what God has taught us.

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

During the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, it seems as though all the various groups of religious leaders collectively decided that now was the time to trap Jesus with His own words. Near the end of their challenges, after a religious group known as the Sadducees had given their challenge, the gospel of Mark tells us that one of the teachers of the law had a question for Jesus.

From this teacher’s question, it is unclear if other teachers sent him with this question, or if he had been present earlier in Jesus’ ministry when another leader asks a very similar question. But whatever this teacher’s background, the reaction he gives to Jesus’ response is powerful.

Let’s look a little closer at what happened and at what was said. This event can be found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 12, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 28, Mark tells us that:

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard the Sadducees arguing. He noticed that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer. So he asked him, “Which is the most important of all the commandments?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “Here is the most important one. Moses said, ‘Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ And here is the second one. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no commandment more important than these.”

³² “You have spoken well, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one. There is no other God but him. ³³ To love God with all your heart and mind and strength is very important. So is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. These things are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.” From then on, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

What stands out to me most in this conversation is that this teacher responds in a way that validates Jesus’ response. In this passage, we hear Jesus give an answer, then it is a little surprising that this teacher backs up Jesus’ response and agrees with Jesus’ words rather than following up with another question or idea to challenge Him.

Part of me wonders who this teacher was, and if this teacher may have been one of the secret Jesus-followers present in the religious elite. The phrase that stands out most in my mind is that this teacher concludes his remarks by saying that loving God and our neighbors are, “more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices”.

Earlier, this same question regarding the most important commandment had prompted Jesus to share a parable related to identifying who our neighbor truly is. In that case, it appeared that the question regarding the most important commandment was simply a set up question for the real one about defining who our neighbor is.

However, in this event, it seems that this teacher was truly interested in focusing the attention of everyone present onto the characteristic of love, and it seems as though Jesus was happy to do this.

Even though this teacher successfully shifted the focus onto the key portions of the law and commandments, Jesus comments at the close of this conversation in verse 34 that this teacher is “not far from God’s kingdom”. On the surface, it appears that everything this teacher asked, said, and replied was correct in Jesus’ eyes, but even with the right answer, Jesus implies that this man has still not found God’s kingdom. Close to God’s kingdom is good, but it’s better to be included in God’s kingdom.

From looking at the nuances included in this passage, I can come up with two things this teacher may have missed prior to this conversation with Jesus that would have led to Jesus stating that he still needed something more to make it into God’s kingdom.

The first is that this teacher had all the right answers, but nothing is implied or stated that said this teacher followed through with his love for God and his love for his neighbor with tangible action. Having the right answers is great, but they don’t mean anything when faced with reality. In my mind, Jesus might be challenging this teacher to live the life that is being described. While the teacher has said that loving God and others is more important than even sacrifices, Jesus may have known that this teacher had been poorly modeling this attitude in his own life. Love is only as valuable as it is visible and helpful to others. Love that is hidden does not have any value in the big picture.

The second thing that I could see Jesus implying with His comment that this teacher was not far from God’s kingdom is that all that was left for this teacher was to accept Jesus as his substitute and to make the commitment to put his hope, trust, faith, and belief in Him. Another way to say this is that it does not matter how much we say we love others, or how much we say we love God. The key thing that matters is that we have placed Jesus first in our life.

The most loving person in the world who has rejected Jesus will still be lost when faced with the judgment. This is because there is nothing we can do, say, act, or pay that will get us into God’s kingdom on our own merit. Instead, the way into God’s kingdom is by accepting Jesus into our hearts and lives, and perhaps, in the case of this religious teacher, he was not far from God’s kingdom because he was on the verge of accepting Jesus into His heart and life.

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

If you have not accepted Jesus into your heart and life, now would be a great time to do so. We accept Jesus into our hearts when have the realization that nothing we can do will earn our own salvation, and we make the commitment to depend on Jesus 100% for our eternity. We then choose to live moving forward with the faith that Jesus has taken care of our past, and that He has secured our future, and that everything we do today is done as our way of saying “Thank You” for giving us the gift we truly don’t deserve.

Also, as I always include in these challenges, be sure to continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to grow and strengthen your personal relationship with God and Jesus. When we have a strong connection with God, we will be able to clearly see Him working in our lives, and we will be more in touch with His will for each of us.

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

As I read the gospels, I am continually amazed at how many different ways the chief priest, leaders, and Pharisees tried to trick and trap Jesus. A quick reading of any of the gospels will surface some group of leaders or Pharisees bringing a trick question to Jesus, and in every case, Jesus has a strong response.

Sometimes the response Jesus gives is an answer they didn’t expect, while other times, Jesus asks a counter question that derails or invalidates the original question.

As we move through Jesus’ last week before His crucifixion, we come to a last ditch effort to invalidate Jesus. After failing numerous times, the Pharisees come up with the perfect solution, or at least it looks like the perfect challenge when they were discussing this amongst their group.

Up to that point, I suspect some of these religious leaders believed Jesus was only saying what the people wanted to hear, which is a hard case to make if you have read any of the several challenging messages Jesus shared with the crowds that followed Him in the gospels.

However, in my mind’s eye, I suspect that some of the Pharisees plotted that a perfect approach to trapping Jesus would involve temporarily teaming up with a group they did not agree with at all – with a group of people they kind of hated, and then asking a question that would force Jesus to pick a side. Along the lines of this challenge, I suspect that these religious leaders believed that if Jesus was pressured in this way, He would have no chance avoiding disaster.

The event we are focusing in on for this podcast episode is found in three of the four gospels. While we could look at this event from any one of the three, let’s look at Matthew’s version of this event. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, and we will read it using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 15, Matthew sets the stage for us by writing:

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. ¹⁶ They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians. [As a sidenote, the Herodians were those who were loyal to Herod the governor and the Roman government] They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin. ²⁰ Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”

²¹ The men answered, “Caesar’s.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.

In this passage, Jesus effortlessly brushes aside this seemingly impossible challenge while also making a very profound statement.

I’ve lost count to the number of times I have heard this event, but as I was reading it in preparation for this episode, an interesting question entered my mind.

Jesus responded by saying, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.” Reading this prompted me to ask myself the question, “What things are God’s?”

When reading this event, it’s easy to understand paying taxes to Caesar, because there is a coin present, but too often, we are quick to skip over or brush past the other side of Jesus’ response. Do we really think about what Jesus means when He talks about giving God what is God’s?

One easy answer to giving God what is His might be returning tithe to Him. In several places within the Old Testament, God challenges the Israelites on their lack of generosity towards Him. In Malachi, God even goes as far as to say that not giving tithes is the same as robbing Him.

On one level, Jesus could be referring to tithe, which allows us to see the original challenge the Pharisees and Herodians bring as being exclusively focused on money. However, if we stop looking at what is God’s at the topic of tithe, we risk missing out on one of Jesus’ biggest challenges.

When we look at our lives, God has given us so much more than money. It is even true, perhaps even more true, that some of the things He has “given” us are really only things He has let us borrow. If we look at the biggest picture we can imagine, everything in the universe is God’s, from all the galaxies in the universe to all the grains of sand on a beach. Taking this big picture idea to its logical conclusion about ownership of things, anything we think we own that we are not able to keep past our short life span is probably only borrowed.

While reading this event, I am amazed that while Jesus challenges those present to give Caesar the things that are his, they are also challenged to give God the things that are His. Applying this truth into our own lives, we are challenged to give Caesar, or our government, the things that are theirs, and give to God the things that are God’s.

In the big picture of life in this universe, since we are unable to keep our money, our stuff, our relationships, or even our life after our time on this planet is over, all these things we might believe are ours are technically only loaned to us. Because God owns everything, He is the one who really owns all the things we might be tempted to thinks are ours.

While some might argue this point, within the way I see God’s blessings, the biggest thing He has blessed us with is our life. However at this time, life is not a permanent gift. At any moment, a life may return to God as a person gives their last breath. While it is sobering to think about, since we don’t know when our lives will end, this means that we all are living on borrowed time. If God is the one loaning us time, at the heart of Jesus’ challenge to return to God the things that are His, Jesus is really saying that we are to give God the time that is His – and as the cliché saying goes, time is more valuable than money.

We live in a world where the money carries the name of whatever country we live in, so according to Jesus, let the money be the governments’. But Jesus also says that the things that are God’s, which is really everything from the land, to the natural resources, to the life of every man, woman, child, and animal in every place within the entire universe is His, and that we should return our blessings to Him who has loaned us a handful of decades of time.

This is a huge truth with amazing implications. However, with that said, each of us carries with us a responsibility of this truth. This leaves us with a question: How are you returning to God the things that are His? It is only when we give back to God that we can become the person He created us to be.

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. Purposefully choose to give God the things that are His while also working to improve the things within society. Intentionally use the money you have to make the world a better place, and remember that everything we have is ours only because God has blessed us with the ability to have it.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to grow closer to God and to learn who He is and what He is like. Only through prayer and Bible study can we discover just how much God loves us and just how much He values you.

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!