Reflective Bible Study

After John describes in His gospel that Jesus met Mary in the garden and that she came and told the disciples what had happened, John jumps to that evening. I wonder if during that entire Sunday between these two events, the disciples were full of questions, doubt, and curiosity over a clearly empty tomb, and the possibility of a resurrected Jesus.

However, while we don’t know what Jesus was doing during the entire day leading up to what John focuses on that evening, the next event John describes happens that evening.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 19, John describes the scene to us:

¹⁹ It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. ²⁰ After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.” ²² Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Pausing briefly, I find it amazing in this event that Jesus breathes on His disciples, which I suspect has more symbolic meaning than physical. I wonder if this breathing is symbolically connected to God breathing into the nostrils of Adam in the garden after He had formed him. God breathed the breath of life into Adam, and now we see Jesus breathing on His disciples and connecting this breath with receiving the Holy Spirit and a brand new spiritual life.

It is also significant to point out that Jesus gives His followers the authority to forgive sins, which is something that is normally reserved for God. However, the immediate context for this is having the Holy Spirit in one’s life, so while God can forgive sins, and while Jesus can forgive sins, the Holy Spirit, when living in a believer’s heart and life can also forgive sins. While this might bring up pictures in your mind of a catholic confessional booth, I suspect that Jesus meant for this promise and responsibility to be applied in a much different way.

When Jesus gave His followers this responsibility when the Holy Spirit had entered their lives, I believe He expected His followers to apply it in the same way He applied it. If someone rejected Jesus, Jesus’ message, or Jesus’ presence, then they potentially would not receive forgiveness. However, while being nailed to a cross, Jesus asks God the Father to forgive those who were acting hostile towards Him, which tells us that Jesus preferred to forgive others rather than withhold forgiveness.

I suspect that this responsibility Jesus gives His followers is a responsibility that seeks to draw people to God, and to encourage them that God can forgive and that He has forgiven them through what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Forgiveness for sins is something that happens after one has sinned, and for forgiveness to stay present, there is the expectation that one will repent from their sin, which is a fancy way of saying that they will stop doing whatever sin they were doing. God has forgiven us, but we accept His forgiveness when we repent and believe in Jesus.

However, John isn’t finished sharing, because while we might think that all the disciples were present in that room, John tells us that one was missing. Continuing in verse 24, John tells us that:

²⁴ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (called the Twin), was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ A week later the disciples were together again indoors, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands; then reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting, and believe!”

²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

³⁰ In his disciples’ presence Jesus performed many other miracles which are not written down in this book. ³¹ But these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you may have life.

In this second half of our passage, we discovered that during the first time Jesus appeared to all the disciples, that it really wasn’t all the disciples. While Judas Iscariot was obviously not present since he had committed suicide, for one reason or another, Thomas was also not with the disciples.

When hearing about Jesus appearing before the other disciples, Thomas makes the famous statement that he won’t believe unless he sees Jesus personally, and that he is able to touch Jesus’ scars.

From that point forward, Thomas picks up the nickname of doubter. Doubting Thomas is who he is known as from that point forward. However, is this a fair nickname for this disciple?

I don’t believe it is. While Thomas strongly proclaims his doubt and hesitation over not seeing Jesus, Thomas demands to be able to see and touch Him. However, when Jesus appears to the disciples the following week, and challenges Thomas to touch His scars, nothing in this passage indicates that Thomas actually touches Jesus. Thomas proclaims in verse 28: “My Lord and my God!”

Following this, Jesus replies in verse 29: “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

The end of Thomas’ story that’s recorded in the Bible has Thomas believing in Jesus, and from Jesus’ words, we can conclude that Thomas decided His belief and faith did not need to touch Jesus as well. Thomas believed Jesus was alive because he saw Him with his own eyes.

However, Jesus uses this as an opportunity to give all those who would come after a blessing. Jesus uses the same phrasing that He used in the opening of His famous Sermon on the Mount to give those who would believe in Jesus without seeing a blessing. This translation uses the word happy, while other translations used the word blessed. The word that is used here carries the ideas of blessing, happiness, spiritually security, and favored by God. When we believe in Jesus without requiring Him to show up physically in our lives, God promises to bless us, to favor us, and to give us His happiness.

The whole story of scripture, especially the gospel record, contains examples of how humanity fails to achieve God’s ideal plan. In this passage, God gave Thomas an opportunity to believe without needing to see personally, but Thomas failed this opportunity.

However, Jesus takes Thomas’ failure and uses it to emphasize that those who believe in Jesus based on the testimony of others will be blessed. When we believe in Jesus based on the testimony we read in the Bible, and on the testimony we see in people’s changed lives, we step into God’s blessing, and into His favor. While there are plenty of reasons for a skeptic to doubt, there are even more reasons for us to test God’s way out in our own lives and see if God’s way is better.

If you never try God’s way, you won’t know whether it is truly better. The Bible is full of examples of humanity’s failures, so simply looking at other Christians might not give you an accurate picture. Many un-Christ-like people call themselves Christians. God has not called us to be like them. We are called to model Jesus, and the best way to do this is to study firsthand what He was like!

God has called us to believe in Jesus even if we can’t see Him. God’s promises never fail, and He has promised to return and bring all of His people home. In the context of this passage, God’s people are those who have chosen to place their hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus to cover their sins!

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 choose to place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus even if you cannot see, touch, or hear Him. Choose to place your faith on the testimony of others, in the promises contained in the Bible, and on stepping into God’s plan for your life. Only by living God’s way will one truly discover if it is better.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to discover who Jesus truly was. The Bible calls us to be disciples of Jesus, and disciples of Jesus are people who reflect Him and His character. In order to know what Jesus was like, we must study Him, and the best place to prayerfully study Jesus is in the pages of the Bible.

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 enter the final chapter in Mark’s gospel, we come to the biggest event in the entire Bible. However, the last chapter in Mark is significant for more reasons than simply because it describes the morning of Jesus’ resurrection and the women finding an empty tomb. Above all these things, the last chapter in Mark has controversy surrounding it because the oldest manuscripts we have don’t really conclude this gospel. Mark’s gospel is a gospel without an end.

However, this detail didn’t stop later writers from crafting an ending to Mark’s gospel, and most Bible’s today will include a long or a short ending. However, neither one of these endings are included in the oldest surviving manuscripts.

With this framing in mind, as we read and conclude our passage for this episode, the way our passage ends could be considered the end of Mark’s gospel. While our next two podcast episodes will explore details included in the longer conclusion to Mark’s gospel, there is significant evidence that this ending was added later and not by Mark himself.

But what isn’t contested is what Mark describes in our passage for this episode. So without any further delay, let’s read what Mark tells us happened on the morning Jesus was resurrected. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 16, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ The day after the Sabbath day, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought some sweet-smelling spices to put on Jesus’ body. ² Very early on that day, the first day of the week, soon after sunrise, the women were on their way to the tomb. ³ They said to each other, “Who will roll away for us the stone that covers the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴ Then the women looked and saw that the stone had already been rolled away, even though it was very large. ⁵ The women entered the tomb and saw a young man wearing a white robe and sitting on the right side, and they were afraid.

⁶ But the man said, “Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, who has been crucified. He has risen from the dead; he is not here. Look, here is the place they laid him. ⁷ Now go and tell his followers and Peter, ‘Jesus is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there as he told you before.’”

⁸ The women were confused and shaking with fear, so they left the tomb and ran away. They did not tell anyone about what happened, because they were afraid.

And that’s it. Everything after this last verse in our passage has more evidence against it being written by Mark than it has for it.

However, while Mark’s gospel may have ended here, or its original ending may have been lost, in this passage, we discover at least one woman, Mary Magdalene, show up at the tomb after she watched Jesus’ body be laid there. She wasn’t alone on her trip to the tomb, and from Mark’s description of this event, these women did not expect Jesus’ body to be gone, nor did they expect soldiers to be guarding the tomb.

From the details Mark shares, it would appear that these women knew that the men on Friday were rushed when getting Jesus’ body ready for the tomb, and they may have not thought Jesus’ body was prepared for burial as well as it could have been. Another idea is that they simply wanted to pay their last respects to Jesus because they didn’t have the opportunity on Friday before sunset.

Regardless of the reasoning, the last thing anyone expected was that the tomb would be empty. If the women had suspected an empty tomb, they wouldn’t have brought spices and they wouldn’t have wondered about how they were going to open the tomb to get to Jesus.

However, they arrive at the tomb, the soldiers they were not aware had been posted were gone, and the stone had been rolled away from the opening.

When reading events where angels appeared to people in the Bible, I’m always humored that the people involved are described as being afraid and the angels always seem to begin by saying “Don’t be afraid”.

However, the angel’s message to these women has a couple of interesting details.

First, in verse 6, the angel tells them, “You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, who has been crucified. He has risen from the dead; he is not here. Look, here is the place they laid him.” This messenger knows exactly why they were there, but he basically says, you’ve come to the right place, but you’re too late. It is as though this messenger knew people would be coming, and he has been commissioned to tell them what happened and to remind them that this is what Jesus had predicted.

Also, in the angel’s message to these women, he gives them a commission. In verse 7, the angel continues by telling them, “Now go and tell his followers and Peter, ‘Jesus is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there as he told you before.’”

In my mind, it is powerful that the angel singles out Peter by name. Of all the disciples who abandoned Jesus, Peter may have felt the worst because not only did he abandon Jesus, but he also had denied Jesus the three times Jesus had predicted. Singling Peter out by name gives us hope that even when we mess up and fail God, He is willing to accept us back to Him when we are willing to return. This angel-messenger doesn’t speak poorly of Peter, or Peter’s decisions. Instead, this angel’s message is given to encourage not only all the disciples, but especially Peter as well.

Mark’s last words in this passage speak to how we are prone to failing as a race. While much of the gospel record gives us numerous examples of Jesus’ disciples failing Him, here we have one example of the women who were commissioned failing the task they were challenged to do. However, the failure doesn’t last forever, since other gospels describe how the women ultimately do tell the disciples the message, and how word gets out about Jesus’ miraculous resurrection.

As we have seen in our year of podcasting through Mark’s gospel, one of Mark’s big themes is God’s love for us. Even when we fail God, He never gives up on us! If you have felt as though you have failed God, don’t give up on God because He hasn’t given up on you. Instead, return to Him, ask for forgiveness, and restart your walk with God from a place where you are a little older and a little wiser than you were before. With God, we never restart our spiritual journeys at the same place, but every restart is further ahead than the last one as we continue walking through life towards eternity.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to bring your lives, your challenges, and your heart to God and let Him use you for His glory. When life gets scary or confusing, don’t give up on God or on the mission He has placed before you. Instead, lean into God and trust that He will equip you with everything you need to fulfill the challenges He brings your way.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and become more of the person God has created you to be. Grow your personal relationship with God and don’t let anyone or anything get between you and God. Pastors, authors, speakers, podcasters, or even close friends can have great things to say, but always take what you hear and see and test it against the truth of God’s Word!

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!