Reflective Bible Study

When reading the gospels, one might get the mistaken impression that everyone who Jesus invited to follow Him dropped everything they were previously doing to follow. While dropping everything to follow Jesus appears to be the case in a number of instances, within the few verses of the passage we are focusing in on, we discover that not everyone invited has an easy decision.

In many cases, as well as in my own life, the decision to follow Jesus involves giving certain things up from within this life. While I don’t believe God asks us to give up things of value in this life without offering us something greater in the future, too often, we find ourselves believing that following God isn’t worth it, or following Jesus is too difficult.

While it is easy to think about our own struggle with choosing to follow Jesus, it is surprising to discover that those in the first century also faced this dilemma.

Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 8, and we’ll be reading it using the Good News Translation: Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸ When Jesus noticed the crowd around him, he ordered his disciples to go to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ A teacher of the Law came to him. “Teacher,” he said, “I am ready to go with you wherever you go.”

²⁰ Jesus answered him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.”

²¹ Another man, who was a disciple, said, “Sir, first let me go back and bury my father.”

²² “Follow me,” Jesus answered, “and let the dead bury their own dead.”

What amazes me about the event in this passage is one detail that is often missed.

Usually, when we read this event, we think all the people who faced tension on whether to follow Jesus rejected the invitation. I suspect this is because in the most notable case, the rich, young ruler leaves sorrowfully, even if his question isn’t directly about following Jesus. However, in the case of the verses we just read, there isn’t any clear distinction about what each man chose.

That is, except for one overlooked clue that only Matthew includes. Verse 21 begins with the words, “Another man, who was a disciple, said . . .”

Now in the first century, the word disciple was common and many rabbis and teachers had followers called disciples, but when we read the four gospels of the New Testament, the authors seem to reserve this descriptive term for those who were followers of Jesus.

In Matthew’s gospel, I think we are able to see a subtle clue that this was the unassuming call of one of the less famous disciples. This man took Jesus’ words to heart and chose to follow Him and let the dead bury themselves.

Some scholars say that this disciple’s request was not about simply attending an event that lowered a corpse into the ground, but a request that was asking if Jesus would be okay with him delaying accepting Jesus’ invitation until his father, who may have been old or on his deathbed, had died.

While I can understand the logic that these scholars use to reach their conclusion, I doubt this was the case in this instance. However, regardless of how long the disciple would have delayed accepting his invitation, I actually fully agree with the conclusion these scholars reach.

In His response, Jesus bluntly tells the man to get off the fence and make a decision on whether to follow Him, and because Matthew opens this man’s invitation by calling him a disciple, I logically conclude that this man accepted Jesus’ invitation, and followed Him from that point forward.

In a similar way, the invitation Jesus gives this unnamed disciple is the invitation that He gives to each one of us.

It is crucial that we don’t let anyone or anything delay us making the choice to accept Jesus’ invitation to follow Him. Our next moments are not 100% guaranteed, and while we are able to make the decision right now, this will not always be the case in the future.

While choosing to follow Jesus will redirect the focus of your life, this choice is not one that causes you to miss anything truly significant. Even though the temptation is to feel as though following Jesus means you will give up many things, almost everything we are called to give up can be categorized as something not really worthwhile. In the rare instance that we do give up something significant to follow Jesus, He promises us exponentially more and better things in return.

In other words, by focusing on Jesus, you will miss out on some things, but as I have learned, the things that are missed probably should be missed or skipped since they weren’t really beneficial for your life as a whole.

God wants the best life possible for us, both today and in the future, and the only things He wants us to miss or skip out on are the things that cheapen our lives, our relationships, and our value in God’s eyes.

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 chosen to live for Jesus yet, choose to do so today. At the very least, try living for Jesus for a few months or years. If you really don’t see the benefits after testing it out for yourself, nothing is stopping you from leaving. Christianity is free to join and free to leave for anyone who wants. While I don’t advocate leaving because of what God has promised to His people, God values your choice, and He loves freedom more than forcing you into a heaven that you wouldn’t want to live in.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself in order to discover what God is really like, straight from the best source we have. While there is no shortage of opinions about God or the Bible, only by studying it for yourself can you personally discover what it says. Only by studying it for yourself can you really know if it is valuable for your life or not.

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 had the picture in your mind of the disciples as being exceptionally godly people, or if you have looked up to them as being better than most people, it is likely you haven’t spent much time in the gospels. While many of the disciples end their lives as spiritual heroes, looking early on at their stories during the time they spend with Jesus, we get a completely different picture.

In our passage for this episode, we will look at a short passage where we see the disciples display a very negative character trait, and one that Jesus openly challenges them on. This character issue is jealousy.

While one or two of your friends might be surprised at this, I doubt you would be surprised to learn that jealousy was clearly visible in first century society. At the very least, when reading the gospel record, the Pharisees and other religious leaders were jealous of Jesus’ popularity. It is likely that some of those in the crowds who followed Jesus were jealous of Jesus’ disciples. Jealousy also was likely present even within the group of Jesus’ disciples, since periodically Jesus’ pulls aside Peter, James, and John to the exclusion of the other nine.

However, in our passage for this episode, we will discover a slightly different place jealousy showed up, and I am amazed at how Jesus responded to His disciples when they display jealousy towards other people who were not within their group.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 38, Mark tells us that:

³⁸ John said to Him [referring to Jesus], “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. ⁴⁰ For he who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. 

While I am tempted to read further, let’s stop here so we don’t miss the significance of what Jesus has just finished saying. Usually, this teaching is overshadowed by what comes next, and because of this, I don’t you to miss what Jesus is saying to His followers here in these few verses.

At this point in His ministry, Jesus has fame and credibility, and it is clear that His followers are able to cast out demons like Jesus can. Others have picked up on this as well, and had observed that Jesus’ disciples used Jesus’ name to cast out these evil spirits. This leads to at least one of these spectators to try casting out demons like the disciples and Jesus had and it’s likely that they succeeded, since watching a person fail does not prompt jealousy.

Since the other exorcism using Jesus’ name was successful, it prompts John, the famous disciple and author of one of our gospels to be jealous of this spectator’s success. In my mind, John likely shared this event with Jesus with enthusiasm, because He was able to curb the potential chaos that could have happened if people learned that anyone could use Jesus’ name to perform miracles and cast out demons.

However, Jesus surprises John with His response. Verse 39 and verse 40 directly address John’s heart and attitude. “But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us.” Another way to state that last phrase would be to say, “Those who are not against us are on our side.”

Instead of congratulating John for maintaining order and the hierarchy of Jesus’ growing kingdom and ministry, Jesus challenges John’s motives and He addresses the pride that is present in John’s heart. An exclusive attitude is one form of pride, and Jesus wants to redirect John’s thinking on how God is inclusive not exclusive. While John wanted to exclude other people until they were directly part of their group, Jesus wanted John to learn that God is inclusive, and God is more interested in motives and hearts rather than on social or racial classes.

Jumping forward several thousand years to when we live now, if we model an exclusive attitude towards a particular faith, religion, or denomination, we are directly following John’s lead right before Jesus challenged him, and not paying attention to Jesus’ challenge of inclusivity. Jesus’ words and instructions for us are to not stop others from following Jesus, because if God is with them (which is evidenced by their performing a miracle from God), they will not be able to speak evil about Jesus.

As I say this, Jesus’ teaching here may be a clear litmus test to determine whether a miracle is from God or from Satan. It is unlikely that Satan could speak well of Jesus while at the same time performing God-like miracles. However, as I say this, I doubt Satan would ever speak well of Jesus, so any miracle or trick Satan does will almost certainly not point people to God, Jesus, or the Bible.

In this passage, Jesus’ instructions come with a promise and a warning. Jesus first promises us that those who help others simply because they follow Jesus will not lose their reward from God. The strongly implied tone in this promise is helping these other people regardless of their race, gender, orientation, hair color, attitude, political affiliation, level of wealth, lack of any wealth, or any other characteristic that groups people together. Those people Jesus promises that God will reward are people who helped others simply because they are followers of Jesus. Jesus’ promise is very inclusive, because God promises to reward not just His people, but anyone and everyone who is nice and hospitable to His people as well. Looking at the world today draws us to the clear conclusion that there are people who are nice and hospitable towards Christians and Jesus followers, while there are others who are outright opposed to anything even resembling faith or religion.

At the end of Jesus’ teaching that we focused in on, He also shares a warning. Jesus says that whoever causes another to stumble, it would have been better for that person to be drowned. In this warning, Jesus condemns anyone putting roadblocks in another person’s relationship with God. People placing themselves between others and God is clearly something God does not want, like, or tolerate. Jesus came to remove the great divide between heaven and humanity that sin caused, and if Jesus bridged this divide, who are we to recreate it.

Jesus’ sacrifice gives us a picture of God and His love, as well as restoring our ability to have a personal relationship with Him. This is something worth enjoying and inviting others to.

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. Choose to look at the world around you and seek to build others up, seek to improve those God brings into your life, and intentionally avoid being a stumbling block for other people. Understand that God loves you personally and He sent Jesus to show you His love.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to learn what Jesus really was like. While other people have ideas they want to impose on you, test everything you hear, see, and read against the truth of the Bible to know whether it is worth knowing.

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

As we continue moving through the gospels looking at events from Jesus’ life and ministry, we come to an event where Jesus challenges not just His disciples or the crowd present, but the entire generation living during the first century.

However, I suspect that the issue Jesus takes aim at that generation for is actually an issue that every generation has faced since Adam and Eve’s fall, and I doubt that any generation prior to Jesus’ return will be exempt.

The idea Jesus challenges all of us on is the presence of unbelief in our lives. Immediately following Jesus being on the mountain with His three closest disciples, we read about what was happening with the other nine disciples when Jesus, Peter, James, and John rejoin the group. Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it using the New International Version. Starting in verse 14, Mark tells us that:

¹⁴ When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

¹⁶ “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.

¹⁷ A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

¹⁹ “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. ²² “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

²³ “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Let’s stop reading here to draw our attention onto the significance of what this boy’s father exclaims. While Jesus finishes off this event by healing the boy when His disciples could not accomplish this task, too often, we jump to the end triumph and miss what we can learn during the challenging middle of this event. Also, we often jump to the end of Jesus’ wrap up discussion with His disciples that this particular evil spirit was different from most and that prayer with fasting are the keys necessary to remove it.

However, let’s focus on what the boy’s father exclaimed in verse 24. The boy’s father cries out, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Our belief is powerful, and unbelief has the power to sabotage the belief we do have.

In this passage, belief is mentioned a number of times leading up to the boy’s father’s exclamation.

The first mention of belief versus unbelief in this passage is when Jesus calls out the whole generation as “unbelieving” in verse 19. It is as though when Jesus learned what happened while He was gone, His heart sank a little because the people, and specifically the disciples, seemed to miss the truth about the power of belief. It also appears as though Jesus became a little irritated at how slow or dense many of the people were.

The second mention of belief also comes from Jesus when He responds to the boy’s father by saying that “Everything is possible for one who believes” in verse 23. This is a statement that both religious people as well as non-religious have taken and held up as a banner for believing in oneself. They take the spiritual word and make it common by saying things like, “Believe in yourself and you can do anything.”

It is very possible I don’t have enough belief, or perhaps it is something else, but all the belief in the world is not going to make me a NFL football player. To most of the hulk-like guys on football fields, I look more like a malnourished toothpick than a candidate for any season game. The sarcastic part of my brain wants me to conclude that this probably is entirely a case where I have unbelief which is sabotaging me. Or, more likely, I have concluded that I have better things to do with my body type and skill-set than play professional football.

The third mention of belief in this passage is hinted at instead of being directly stated. However, Jesus doesn’t miss this hint, and He draws it out for us to focus on. Jesus knows how the words we use reveal our thoughts, and Jesus challenges the father’s lack of belief by quoting the father’s opening to his request. In Jesus’ response, He calls out the father’s lack of belief by quoting the boy’s father’s words “If you can”.

The word “if” is a word that allows for exception, and it is a word that changes a certain statement into one where certainty is the exception. By using this word, the boy’s father revealed that he didn’t have confidence in Jesus’ ability to help in this situation. When we use the word if, we reveal that we don’t have total confidence in the subject we are talking about.

For example, by starting a statement with the words “Because God is God, He will . . .” I am getting ready to proclaim a promise that I believe God will do. However, starting a statement with the words “If God is God, He will . . .” I have effectively changed the direction of the statement into a challenge, and the only reason it is a challenge is because under the surface, the implication is that I don’t believe He could or would do the next part of the phrase.

Jesus calls the boy’s father out on the language He is using. He calls each one of us out regarding the words we use. Words are powerful, and Jesus wants to keep us from letting the words we use erode our belief.

After being challenged by Jesus, the boy’s father restates his wish, and he states that he does believe, but he acknowledges that he needs help with his “unbelief”.

In the context of this passage, unbelief is not the presence of doubt. Instead, unbelief is the presence of skepticism. Unbelief is when our hearts are hardened and we simply choose to challenge an idea like a skeptic would instead of believing. Doubt is the uncertainty that is present with faith in something that is unseen. While faith and doubt are almost always mixed, it is within our power what the ratio is.

Belief is similar to but distinctly different from faith. Belief is spiritual certainty and knowing something to be true in one’s mind. Faith is trust and/or devotion to something or someone. Often both words are used interchangeably, and in the church world, we should have both mixed into our lives.

Belief, faith, and acknowledging some doubt that is present in a situation is good. Unbelief, or skepticism about something, is bad. I suspect this is one big reason why Jesus called out the boy’s father when he made his request.

As I shared earlier, this event concludes with Jesus healing the boy, and the disciples later asking Jesus why they could not cast this evil spirit out. Jesus’ response is that prayer is the key. While Jesus’ words are directly tied to this situation, I also believe that they are tied to the subject of belief: Belief without prayer is weak. Prayer without belief is futile. However, belief when combined with prayer is limitless.

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 and prayerfully seek God first in your life. When tempted or challenged to give up on your faith or your belief, lean into God and trust that His plan and perspective are bigger than we can imagine. When something doesn’t make sense, seek God first and ask Him to give you understanding to what you are struggling to understand.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to grow your personal relationship with Him. When questioning ideas, beliefs, or concepts, always test them against what the Bible teaches and prayerfully seek God’s guidance and help leading you into His truth.

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!

As we continue our journey through the gospels, we come to an event where it appeared as though Jesus didn’t get His miracle 100% right the first time. All too often, I find myself picturing Jesus as succeeding the first time at everything He set out to do, and I imagine that even though Jesus faced struggles, problems, and challenges, my mind’s eye pictures Jesus as easily winning every challenge that came His way.

Jesus was always one step ahead of the trick questions of the religious leaders, He always seems to know the right words to say to help hurting people, and His touch, voice, or simply His presence healed people.

Knowing that Jesus succeeds with the tasks He set out to do then makes the miracle in our passage for this episode a little more fascinating. This is because the miracle in our passage seems to suggest that Jesus didn’t get the healing right the first time, and that He had to redo it in order for it to truly be successful.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 8, and we’ll be reading it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 22, Mark tells us that Jesus and His disciples:

²² [They] came to Bethsaida, where some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. ²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. After spitting on the man’s eyes, Jesus placed his hands on him and asked him, “Can you see anything?”

²⁴ The man looked up and said, “Yes, I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.”

²⁵ Jesus again placed his hands on the man’s eyes. This time the man looked intently, his eyesight returned, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus then sent him home with the order, “Don’t go back into the village.”

In this passage, as we were reading it together, a detail jumped off the page at me. In my mind, I find it fascinating that Jesus would take the man outside the village before healing him, and then after healing him, tell him to not go back into the village. I wonder if this is one more example of an event where Jesus wants to avoid receiving praise from people.

However, instead of focusing on this angle of our passage, let’s instead focus on the fascinating detail that Jesus’ first attempt at this miracle was only partially successful. After Jesus’ first attempt, the man responses that He can see movement, but that the people look more like trees than people.

This response is a clue for us that this man probably was not born blind. Instead, it is likely that at some point in his life, his eyesight failed or an accident took his sense of vision. I suspect this because someone who has never seen a person likely could not distinguish as quickly between a visual impression of a person versus simply what could be distinguished from the other senses.

However, regardless of whether this man really was born blind, or if he lost his ability to see at some point after he was born, it is fascinating that Jesus takes him out of the village and away from those who had brought him. Part of me suspects that Jesus could tell that those who had brought the man to Him were less interested in the health or well-being of the man and simply wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.

If this was the case, Jesus separates the two desires in order to help this man: He desires to restore this man’s sight, but He does not want to satisfy the crowd’s selfish desire to see a miracle since they were unlikely to give God the glory for this miracle. To solve this dilemma, Jesus separated the man from the crowd, and led him out of the village.

At this point in the passage, I wonder whether the blind man had given up hope. If the blind man had given up hope of ever regaining his eyesight, he might have thought Jesus was separating him from the crowd because Jesus wanted to let him know that He might not be successful, or that this man’s blindness was incurable. While any speculation into what this blind man may have been thinking is impossible to verify, it would not surprise me to learn of at least one person coming to Jesus who was uncertain if Jesus could help their specific situation. In other words, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone believed Jesus could help everyone else, but that their own situation was unsolvable.

If this man had given up hope of ever having full eyesight again, he may have agreed to let the crowd bring him to Jesus because he was willing to see if Jesus could at least improve his eyesight a little. If this was what the man was thinking, then it explains what actually happens in this two-step miracle.

After Jesus leads the man away from the village and places His hands on the man’s eyes for the first time, we see the first step of this miracle take place. In other passages, the gospel writers seem to indicate that the level of faith present in an event could dictate how many people were healed. Usually this was the faith of the person who was being healed, but there are recorded cases where a friend or companion’s faith is sufficient.

Since this man was away from the crowd and away from other people who would clearly have enough faith, the faith necessary in this miracle was completely his. If the man’s faith was so small that all he expected was a slight improvement and a partial healing, then that is what would ultimately happen. The man came hoping to have his sight improved, and this ultimately resulted in him getting eyesight that was not perfect, but could at least help him get around without running into things.

However, from the first step of this miracle, the man received more than this. From seeing improvement in his eyesight, the man’s hope and faith in Jesus grew. With his increased level of faith, the second step of this miracle results in a complete restoration of the man’s eyesight.

If the faith necessary for this miracle was based on the faith of the man being healed, then we should not be surprised to learn that this miracle came in two parts. All too often, our faith in God is small at first, and only after we have experienced God working in our lives will our faith grow.

Also, this miracle challenges us with the truth that God will not stop blessing and healing as our level of faith increases. God is not going to give up on us if we don’t get our faith in Him right the first time. God is a God of second chances, and God is okay with us asking for a “do-over”.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, God gave us the ultimate do-over card that we can use to restart and redirect our life towards Him no matter the number of times we stumble or make mistakes. God is the ultimate Giver, and most definitely a God of second chances.

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 so you don’t need to ask for that “do-over”. When choosing God and following His will for your life, while times in this life may not be easy and while we may stumble, know that we have our future life with God secured.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can learn about who Jesus is and what He did for you and I. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much Jesus loves you and what He went through to save you and me!

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 moving towards where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!