Reflective Bible Study

As we continue our first year chronologically looking at events from Jesus’ life and ministry, we come to an event where Jesus heals someone, gives the person He healed a specific instruction, and then finds out later that the man He healed completely disregarded Jesus’ request.

While on the surface this seems almost unbelievable, what we’ll soon discover as we read our passage for this episode is that this is exactly what happened, and one of the most amazing themes in this event is surprisingly relevant for our lives today.

If you have ever felt shy, uneasy, or unsure about sharing Jesus with someone in your life, this passage may gain new significance in your life after we read it together.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Mark tells us:

³¹ Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. ³² There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

³³ After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴ He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). ³⁵ At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

³⁶ Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. ³⁷ People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

In this passage, we find a very counter-cultural idea. Perhaps counter-cultural might not be the best way to describe it, but it is a very counter-cultural-to-our-current-world idea. In this passage, when a group of people eagerly bring a deaf and almost completely mute man to Jesus, the first thing Jesus does is lead the man away from the crowd. Jesus feels love and compassion for this disabled man, but while we might expect Jesus to heal the man because of His compassion for this child of God as soon as he is brought to Jesus, there is something bigger at play in this scene, which prompts Jesus to pull the man aside to heal him apart from the crowd.

As we read this event, I cannot escape a clear counter-cultural idea in Jesus’ actions. When many people in the world today are clamoring for the spotlight, the stage, and for attention from others, Jesus steps off stage, and He takes the man needing help away from the crowd in order to heal him.

While Jesus heals this man with a strange set of actions, I don’t for an instant believed this was the reason Jesus pulled the man aside. Instead, I suspect that Jesus pulls the man aside because He isn’t looking for fame or glory in this event. While healing and helping others was making Jesus famous, Jesus isn’t interested in the fame. By taking the man away from the crowd to heal him, Jesus appears to be actively pushing fame away. Fame and glory are being pushed towards Him, and Jesus understands that the glory for all the miracles and help He was providing should never rest on Him. Jesus wanted all the fame and glory to point upwards towards His Father. Jesus wanted God the Father to receive all the glory.

If you have hesitations in your mind about this angle of looking at this miracle, what Jesus does immediately after healing this man is significant. After healing the deaf and mostly mute man, Jesus tells everyone present to not tell others what happened.

Looking from the perspective of our culture of fame, glory, and status, Jesus’ actions don’t make any sense. If Jesus wanted to draw attention to Himself, as culture pressures us to do, then Jesus should welcome all the publicity He can. Jesus’ miracles prompted people to talk and it was the best free publicity any marketer would dream to get. If Jesus came to this world as a marketer or a PR manager, we would discover He would not stop talking about God the Father and how amazing God is.

I suspect that something about the crowd present for this miracle prompted Jesus to know that they weren’t as interested in glorifying God through Jesus’ miracle. I suspect that Jesus could discern selfish motives in their hearts while also understanding that they wanted Him to receive all the credit for this healing.

Because of this, Jesus heals the man away from the crowd, and then Jesus challenges all those who knew about the miracle to not share it with others.

It is at this point in our passage where things get extra interesting. After Jesus asks the people to be quiet, this small group disobeyed Jesus in order to share what God had done for this formerly disabled man. They went against Jesus’ instructions in order to share what God had done.

In an odd twist of events, what happens in this event is 100% opposite of where most people are today. Too often, when given the opportunity to share Jesus with others, we minimize, ignore, or shy away from the subject. Before ascending to Heaven, Jesus challenged His followers to share the great news about Him with the world. When thinking about the great commission, many of us don’t share Jesus with others. However, when Jesus asks a small group of people to stay silent, they disobey Jesus in order to share what Jesus did.

This group of people disobeyed Jesus to give glory to what God had done through Him. They probably gave all the credit and glory to Jesus, which is what He was trying to avoid, but like the passage says, the more Jesus tried to get the people to stay quiet, the more these people talked about it.

Oddly enough though, Jesus never has told you and I to be quiet about what God has done for us. Instead, as followers of Jesus, we are challenged to share Jesus with the world. As I think about this, I don’t recall any event where Jesus asked His followers to be quiet and not to tell others about Him. In this passage, the instruction was given to people who were not followers of Jesus. The only exception to this that I can think of is Jesus asking Peter and the disciples to stay quiet about Peter’s declaration about Jesus until after Jesus was raised back to life. Since Jesus has now been resurrected, there is no God directed limit regarding if we should share the truth about Jesus!

God did amazing miracles through Jesus, and people could not help but talk about what happened. When God does miracles in our lives today through the Holy Spirit, will we stay silent, selectively share it with only those who already believe in God, or will we tell everyone we meet about what God did for us?

Regardless of what would happen, whether we would lose friends, or whether we would be rejected by people, as followers of Jesus, we have been given the command to go and make disciples, and disciples are not made by people who stay quiet.

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

As I always begin each set of challenges by saying in one way or another, remember to keep God first in your life. Intentionally follow through with the challenge Jesus gives us to follow Him and to invite other people to follow as well.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself and learn who Jesus is through what He taught and what He did. Through the gospels, discover what God is really like and just how much He loves you through what Jesus did for you, both during His ministry as well as on the cross.

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

If you have ever wondered whether Jesus contradicted Himself, the passage we will be focusing on in this episode might be a passage you could find such a contradiction. While I am fully willing to acknowledge that there is likely some significant details or nuances that are lost in the translation, or that this potential contradiction is only visible because of the translation I have chosen for this episode, a simple reading of Jesus’ teaching seems to include a contradiction.

With this in mind, instead of reading a long block of teaching, where Jesus shares with those in Capernaum a much bigger message, let’s focus in on the contradiction itself and see if there isn’t something we can learn from Jesus’ words in this portion of His teaching.

To set the stage for this truth, let’s read the first portion of our passage, which is found in the gospel of John, chapter 6. Using the New Century Version and starting in verse 38, Jesus tells the crowd:

³⁸ I came down from heaven to do what God wants me to do, not what I want to do. ³⁹ Here is what the One who sent me wants me to do: I must not lose even one whom God gave me, but I must raise them all on the last day. ⁴⁰ Those who see the Son and believe in him have eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day. This is what my Father wants.”

So far, this seems straightforward. In these three verses, Jesus is simply sharing a portion of His mission to earth. Now let’s jump down a few verses later, still within this broad conversation, and pull out the contrasting part. Jumping back into this passage in verse 47, Jesus tells the same crowd:

⁴⁷ I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread that gives life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but still they died. ⁵⁰ Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. 

Following verse 50, Jesus goes on to say that He is the bread from Heaven, but instead of reading further, let’s stop so we can look closer at this potential contradiction.

Within this larger teaching to the crowd in Capernaum, Jesus shares the idea that eternal life comes through Him, the “bread that gives life”, and that the life He gives will never result in death. However to contrast that powerful idea, Jesus says that those who have eternal life now will be raised up on the last day.

To some people, the contradiction is invisible, but to others, the dilemma centers around what it means to be given eternal life. Does getting “eternal life” mean that one never dies, or is it a promise that Jesus will raise this person up on the last day?

The contradiction becomes clearer because the first passage seems to support the last day resurrection of those who have eternal life, while the second passage emphasizes that no true believer will actually die, which negates the need for Jesus to raise them up.

To make the contrast even clearer, Jesus begins wrapping up this teaching by sharing a strange metaphor in verse 54: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” And then as a final, concluding point, in verse 58, Jesus’ last words to the crowd are: “I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

The contrast and contradiction in this passage and teaching is clearly present. In this passage, Jesus is clearly giving His believers the promise of living forever, and in this last verse, living forever is contrasted with the death that the Israelites faced in the desert, even though they had bread from heaven, which they called manna, to eat.

Before continuing on, let me say first off that I don’t like contrasts or contradictions like this because they divide people. What often happens is that when we see a discrepancy in something Jesus says, people set up camps on both sides and then debate each other claiming their own chosen side is true while the other side is in error. Those watching from the sidelines may join one camp, but too often they reject both sides and walk away, ultimately missing out on the truth that is present in both sides of the debate. In the case of this passage, the truth present in both sides is simply this: Jesus has promised eternal life to those who believe in Him. The debate around this idea happens to be about the details of when this life is given.

I also don’t like contradictions similar to how we have framed this passage and this complex truth because framing the passage in this way allows skeptics an opening to try to discredit Jesus. Just as those who set up camps on each side of an issue before debating with each other, the skeptical mind takes aim at not just both sides of the debate, but will also work to discredit the One sharing the ideas. When framed as two opposing ideas, we are led to conclude that only one idea can be true, which then makes the other one a lie, and if Jesus lied, then Jesus immediately becomes untrustworthy.

So is there a resolution to this dilemma? Is there a different layer or level that Jesus is trying to teach? Is there a way where these two seemingly contrasting ideas are unified?

As I look further into this passage, I do find a common theme that blends the ideas. This theme, like I alluded to before, is that belief in Jesus brings eternal life. By using this theme as a filter to view both sides of this debate, we see something interesting appear – both in what is said, what is not said, and what is assumed:

Running the first passage through this big theme gives us the detail that eternal life is “given” or “promised”. This ultimately concludes with those having eternal life being raised up on the last day.

However, what about the second passage and those people who have “died”? If we run the second passage through this same theme – that belief in Jesus brings eternal life – we contrast believing in Jesus being the source of eternal life with those who died in the desert. A whole generation of people, minus two individuals, Joshua and Caleb, died outside of the Promised Land – and it was for one reason only: They didn’t trust God and His promise to lead them into the land that He had promised to give them.

The people in the desert died a death of unbelief – and this is different than simply death. Dying the death of unbelief is dying in a more eternal sense because where there is no belief in Jesus, there is no hope of a resurrection. It is the end. This second passage contrasts eternal life with eternal death – the death of unbelief.

In Jesus’ concluding remarks, the eternal life that is promised is promised through Jesus – who is able to do something that the manna could not do, and that is that Jesus is able to restore our spiritual lives from the inside. Heaven’s manna was a gift from God, but it was not able to restore the nation spiritually even if it sustained them physically. God did want the Israelites to learn that He provides, but they missed the spiritually restoring truth tucked within the literal gift of the manna.

Jesus is different because He lived a life that showed us God’s love and His character. Prayerfully focusing on Him does lead to spiritual renewal and eternal life. The more we look at Him, the more we will begin to look to Him, and the more we look to Him, the more our faith in Him will grow.

I have no idea where you are on the spectrum of faith in Jesus, but I do know that God wants your faith to be growing. That happens by focusing on Jesus and not on focusing on supporting one of the two sides of this never-ending debate over the details.

Focusing on Jesus unifies, and regardless of which side is more correct, when Jesus returns, the whole debate will have been wasted time. Instead of wasting time debating this, choose to focus on growing closer to Jesus and following His plan for your life, because that is what matters above everything else!

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 focus on Jesus first. Purposefully orient your life around serving God and seeking to do His will. If you are on the fence about whether you should follow or believe Jesus, let me challenge you to try God’s way out for yourself for a month or two. If after you have tried God’s way out for that amount of time, you are able to decide whether or not it is right for you, and if you decide that it isn’t right for you, at least you will have made an informed decision.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to discover firsthand what it says. While other people can share ideas with you, test everything you read, see, and hear with what you see written in the pages of the Bible. If there is ever a conflict, choose the Bible’s way over the other alternate.

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!

As we continue our journey through the gospels, we arrive at a passage Jesus shares with His followers that includes both a warning and a promise. However, while we might be tempted to ignore the promise because the warning appears to be scary, only by taking the warning and the promise together do we come to realize a powerful truth about what Jesus is really promising His followers in this passage.

Many studies and statistics point out that one of the worst fears we face as humans is public speaking. Some studies even go as far as suggesting that public speaking is a greater fear than death. For many years following graduating college, I had a fear of public speaking. While I don’t remember if that fear was greater than death or not, the only way I pushed past this fear in my own life was to face it head on.

However, while I am sometimes tempted to think I pushed past this fear on my own, I suspect that I had help facing this fear through what Jesus shared with His followers in our passage for this episode. While I have not faced a situation exactly like Jesus describes, I believe that I still received a similar level of help.

Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 10, and for our time together, let’s read it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 16, Jesus challenges His followers by saying:

¹⁶ “Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves. ¹⁷ Watch out, for there will be those who will arrest you and take you to court, and they will whip you in the synagogues. ¹⁸ For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to tell the Good News to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹ When they bring you to trial, do not worry about what you are going to say or how you will say it; when the time comes, you will be given what you will say. ²⁰ For the words you will speak will not be yours; they will come from the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

We’ll stop reading at that point because I really don’t want you to miss what Jesus is saying here. When we are faced with someone accusing us over something we believe, we should not worry about what we will say, or even how we will say it. Jesus promises us that when the time comes, God, through the Holy Spirit, will give us the words to say.

Does this cover every single event? Does this cover every single time where we stand up to declare the truth about Jesus and every time someone challenges us regarding our faith?

It may, but the context in this passage is specifically a courtroom-like trial, when the stakes are high and every word counts. It is interesting, because while we may be tempted to see trials like what Jesus describes as things to be avoided, if we look a little deeper at this passage, verse 18 tells us that the reason we are brought to trial is to share the Good News to the rulers and to those who don’t believe.

Looking back at my experience, I have not been placed on trial for what I believe. However, I have stood up in front of groups of people to share what God has taught me while I’ve studied His Word. I look back and see God’s direct hand in the first sermons I shared, because through the feedback I received, I know God was really the source of these messages, and that I simply happened to be the person He used to speak His truth. God even directed the circumstances of one speaking arrangement to prompt me to share something different than I had originally planned, which ultimately was exactly what someone present needed to hear.

While me sharing my experience might sound like bragging to some, I only share how God moved because I want to emphasize that 100% of any success present was because of God. By human standards, those first sermons were genuine failures. The only reason they had any effect was because of God.

I am always amazed at God’s timing, and how circumstances align on both the presenter’s side as well as on the side of those listening in the audience in order to connect God’s message of truth to someone who needs to hear it. It is humbling to realize and recognize when I am a small part of it.

However, with Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit will speak through us, should that erase worry?

For some people, it might. In my own experience, I have a little bit of fear every time I get up to speak, but I push the fear aside with my opening prayer asking God for His help to ultimately share His message. I can confirm what other speakers say that after the first sentence or two, the fear goes away. I can also attest to the truth that the better prepared I am, the easier a message is to share, even when there has never been a time up to this point where my practice giving a sermon matches exactly with the sermon I gave. Every time I’ve spoken, God has directed certain aspects of His message in specific ways to reach specific people who are listening. While I know of some of these times, I suspect that when we all reach heaven, I will learn of significantly more ways than I ever dreamed possible.

However, this leads to a different question: If God, through the Holy Spirit, will give us the words to say, what is the point in practicing, or even preparing anything? Why not get up and let the Holy Spirit adlib a message – sharing only what He prompts you in the moment?

This question and angle of Jesus’ promise is what challenges me the most. I have heard of speakers who get up and share whatever happens to be on their minds that morning, and I have witnessed times that a message appeared to be given this way. Let me tell you that rarely if ever are messages shared like this good. The only exception is one where a significant news event happened and the speaker decides that it is best to redirect his message onto the event that is fresh in everyone’s minds.

However, it is again worth drawing our attention to the context of Jesus’ promise which focuses on more of a trial-like setting. While I believe the Holy Spirit is ready and willing to help in every situation where someone wants to stand up to proclaim the truth about Jesus, I don’t believe that this means that those who have the opportunity to prepare something should not do so. In my own mind, the more prepared I am to share, the easier it will be for me to let the Holy Spirit share in the moment the right words that are needed.

I know first-hand that God uses people in their weakness. God does speak powerfully through people who are not good speakers. I am an example of this – especially when I was first starting out. However, God also challenges us to grow, to move forward, and to step out for Him, which in many cases will include some type of sharing the news of Jesus with others.

Our world today has tried to push God to the sidelines and out of focus. Sometimes this means we will be ridiculed and made fun of, while other times we may be physically hurt. Regardless of what your experience has been, trust that God is in control and that He has a plan for your life that involves you being saved for eternity. With whatever happens in this life, trust that when we stick with God and with Jesus, we will receive eternal life that will outlast this sin-filled world.

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 and intentionally keep your connections with God strong and growing.

Always pray and prayerfully study the Bible for yourself in order to build and grow a lasting, strong, and significant relationship with God.

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 chronological walk through the gospels looking at Jesus’ life and ministry, we come upon an event where it would be very easy for one of the individuals present to lose hope and faith in Jesus.

While the details of this gospel are not clear on if Jesus could have arrived in time had He not been distracted, because Jesus was distracted with an unexpected healing, we discover that the girl Jesus was headed to heal ultimately dies.

I suspect many of us who are familiar with the gospels know which event I am referring to. However, instead of jumping to the end of this event, let’s take a few minutes to focus on what happens leading up to the even-more-amazing-than-anyone-expected-it-to-be miracle that Jesus ultimately did.

If we look at the details leading up to the miracle, there are more than enough reasons for anyone faced with a similar situation to lose hope and faith in Jesus. However, with all these reasons for giving up hope, there are also hints within this passage that prompt us to keep our hope alive.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it using the New Living Translation. Immediately following an unexpected healing, verse 35 tells us that:

³⁵ While he [referring to Jesus] was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

³⁷ Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. ³⁹ He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

⁴⁰ The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. ⁴¹ Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. ⁴³ Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.

Before this passage took place, Jesus had simply been a Healer – or an exceptional doctor – but after this passage, His reputation shifts into being a “life-giver”. The crowd, the messengers, and the mourners had all given up hope. “Don’t bother the Teacher anymore,” they said. Everyone, except Jesus, understood that returning someone’s life is different than simply returning someone’s health. They all believed that Jesus could return health, but returning life was completely different.

Jairus faces the tension in this passage: give up hope, or continue to have faith in Jesus. Mark tells us that Jesus stopped the crowd and told them (in addition to all but three of His disciples) to not go with Him the rest of the way to the house. It would seem that the pessimism in the crowd was spreading like a virus, and the last person Jesus wanted it to infect was Jairus, the father who Jesus wanted to help.

By stopping the crowd and only continuing with the select few individuals, Jesus stops the sea of pessimism and shifts it to one of curiosity and back in the direction of hope and faith.

However, the crowd of mourners at the house, like in the earlier crowd, had let death conquer their hope. Even Jesus, when He tried to shift their perspective, was laughed at. Death in their minds was nothing like sleep. These mourners understood that we wake up from sleep; we don’t wake up from death.

But Jesus would not be distracted. Taking the three disciples and the girl’s parents into the room, He proves all the naysayers wrong by giving life back to the dead girl.

In this event, Jesus proves that death really is just like sleep: at one point we lose consciousness, and at another point – when Jesus calls to us, we regain consciousness and “wake up”. Almost every spiritual truth has been illustrated by a physical parallel, and in this event, Jesus teaches us that physical sleep is our parallel to death.

But death is different than sleep. When we die, we cannot wake ourselves back up. After death, our bodies decay. Death in many ways is the absence of life, and our body’s internal systems cease to function or even exist. A loud sound can wake us up from sleep, but from death, no such noise can break its hold. Give our bodies just a little time to decay and we would not even have ears to hear that noise. When logically comparing death and sleep, death appears to be significantly different than sleep.

You may be scared of death. I can relate. There have been times in my life when the concept of dying is scary. But the truth I always come back to is Jesus – specifically the truth about who He is. Jesus is a “life-giver” and when given the opportunity, He gives life.

So with all this said, why would Jesus tell the crowd that this girl is not dead? Verse 39 records Jesus’ words as, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” There had to have been other doctors around who could have taken a pulse and determined when the heart actually stopped beating. With no heartbeat and no breath, the girl’s life had left her. Doctors at the time would have easily been able to call this, and they would have done so prior to Jairus meeting Jesus, since messengers come and find them before they reach the crowd that is headed to the house. The messengers bring the message that the girl had died, and there was no reason to think anything different.

That is, until Jesus pushed the crowd to think differently, until Jesus pushed Jairus to not lose hope, and until Jesus proved His point by demonstrating that we have reason for hope after death. This twelve year-old girl was given a second chance for life, and her new life had a purpose. From that point forward, her life was no accident – it had been given and returned especially to her for a purpose. Jesus would always hold a significant place in her heart.

Jesus is the “Life-giver”, and when given the opportunity to give life, He does so. We might not experience the miracle of having our lives restored in the same way that this girl experienced, but Jesus does promise to restore our lives at the end of history when He returns.

This passage and miracle help give us hope that death is not the end. The life Jesus gives is stronger than death. This means that if we ever face sleep-death like this girl did, we know that Jesus will be the first face we see when He wakes us up, and following Jesus waking us up, nothing resembling death will ever be able to take His life from us!

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 place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Him to keep you safe throughout history, and believe that the first face you see following any prolonged “sleep” that your future holds will be Jesus.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus today. The closer you are to Jesus in this life, the more excited you will be for Jesus to return.

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!