Reflective Bible Study

As we continue reading John’s gospel, we move to how John describes Jesus on the final day of the festival, and on how the religious leaders respond to Jesus, without having heard anything that He said. In this passage, we can discover some amazing themes about God and about human nature.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 37, John tells us that:

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Pausing briefly, I am fascinated by both Jesus’ words and by John’s side-note. Within Jesus’ words, we see Him claim a prophecy about living water and Jesus takes this claim and applies it to Himself. Within His message, Jesus promises all who believe in Him living water, and John tells us that this living water represents the Holy Spirit.

However, I am a little perplexed at John’s side-note, because from the way John describes Jesus’ promise, the Holy Spirit being given was something pushed into the future. However, I am pretty sure by this point in His ministry, Jesus’ disciples had been sent out in pairs and had cast demons out of people and healed them. The only way Jesus’ disciples could have done any miracles, cast any demons out, or healed anyone is if they had the Holy Spirit working in them.

To reconcile these two ideas, I must conclude that something more significant changed when the disciples received the Holy Spirit following Jesus’ return to heaven, and that the transformation that took place when the Holy Spirit was given was unmistakably different from simply healing people and casting out demons.

However, following Jesus’ words and John’s side-note, the crowd is given a chance to respond and react. Continuing in verse 40, John tells us that:

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Pausing again, I am fascinated at the thought process that went through the crowd’s discussion about Jesus. In this passage, John describes some people calling Jesus, “The Prophet”, while others openly declared Jesus to be the Messiah.

However, to contrast these positive declarations about Jesus, others in the crowd focused on Jesus being from Galilee, and how scriptures say Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem, and from the line of David’s descendants.

Part of me wonders if Jesus had left at that point, if the crowd was not interested in asking the simple question about Jesus’ birth location, or if Jesus intentionally chose not to reveal the story of His birth and the miraculous escape to Egypt. I wonder if knowing the background of this event would have changed the minds of those in the crowd. I suspect that it would have, but I also suspect that if the crowd was united about Jesus being the Messiah, then it is likely Jesus never would have made it to the cross.

Satan had done a masterful job of twisting the first century culture towards looking for a messiah who would militarily fight against the Romans, and Jesus’ mission as a Messiah was distinctly different. Jesus wasn’t interested in meddling with the politics of that area, and the only time politics entered the discussion was when other people were trying to trap Him to discredit Him.

At this point in Jesus’ ministry, I suspect that He wanted to leave room for doubt within this crowd’s mind, because with room for doubt, we are able to have faith, and with room for doubt, we are able to better identify assumptions we might have.

The crowd assumed that since Jesus grew up in Galilee from a relatively young age, that Jesus was born in Galilee. Drawing this assumption into the light demonstrates how it could easily be proven false, but I suspect that families didn’t separate or move too far apart from each other.

It is also easy to assume that Jesus was born in Nazareth, which was a town in the region of Galilee, because both Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth prior to Jesus’ birth, and they moved there following their return from Egypt. If someone were condensing the story of Mary and Joseph, they could simply leave out anything about the census affecting Jesus’ birth and the young couple’s escape to Egypt, and what would be left is that the engaged couple that we began with who lived in Nazareth was raising the boy Jesus in Nazareth several years later.

However, God did have a plan for this, and I suspect God’s plan for Jesus’ birth when compared with where Jesus would be raised had something to do with challenging the preconceived ideas of the religious leaders.

Picking back up reading in verse 45, John concludes our passage by telling us:

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

In this passage, we can clearly see that the religious leaders, Nicodemus excluded, had prejudged Jesus simply because of where He was raised. They discounted Jesus as the Messiah because they assumed He was born in Nazareth, or at least somewhere in Galilee, and that this did not match that single prophecy.

I find it also amazing to realize the extreme prejudice these religious leaders show when faced with the challenge to judge Jesus based on His words and His actions. I suspect these religious leaders are prejudiced against Jesus because they understand that nothing they have seen and heard conflicts with God but that Jesus didn’t match up with their picture of the messiah. The clearest way Jesus did not fit the prophecies in their minds was with their assumptions about Jesus’ origins and Jesus’ place of birth. The religious leaders reject Jesus as someone who is trying to pull the focus and glory away from God and perhaps away from the actual messiah they believed would be born and raised within Bethlehem.

We too face this challenge today when we let our assumptions about Jesus get in the way of simply asking the question. If the crowd had pushed past their assumptions and researched into Jesus’ birth story, they would have discovered a birth that took place in Bethlehem, but circumstances that made it unwise to stay there for long, or to return there when the immediate threat had subsided. We can easily fall into the trap of assuming things about Jesus today, but we are challenged to push past our assumptions, and let the Bible teach us what God wants us to know about Jesus, about His mission, and about what Jesus ultimately accomplished for each of us when we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Him.

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 and specifically in what He accomplished for us through dying on the cross. Trust that when we place our belief and faith in Jesus, we are accepted by God, adopted into His family, and will be resurrected when Jesus returns if we have fallen asleep in Jesus.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God even stronger. Through regular prayer and Bible study, discover how the Bible opens your heart to God and to His Holy Spirit, and how studying the Bible transforms your life from the inside as you grow closer to God and to Jesus.

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!

Continuing our year in Mark’s gospel, we come to one of the most shocking events in Jesus’ life, and an event that likely stood out in the disciples’ minds for how Jesus appears to be mean in this case. While Jesus routinely has harsh words for religious leaders who should know better, this case is different. Jesus chooses to be mean to someone coming asking for His help.

Those of you who have listened for a while or who are familiar with Jesus’ life will likely know what event we are focusing in on in this passage, so let’s dive in and discover what we can learn, and what Jesus is trying to teach us in this event. Our passage and event are found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 24, Mark tells us that:

²⁴ Jesus went from there to a place near Tyre. He entered a house. He did not want anyone to know where he was. But he could not keep it a secret. ²⁵ Soon a woman heard about him. An evil spirit controlled her little daughter. The woman came to Jesus and fell at his feet. ²⁶ She was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸ “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “That was a good reply. You may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ So she went home and found her child lying on the bed. And the demon was gone.

In this short event and miracle, Jesus first does something that is very uncharacteristic of Him. We might even call Jesus out for being not politically correct on multiple levels. Not only does Jesus subtly call this woman a dog, but He alludes to her entire race as being lower than that of the Jews.

As I have read the gospels, this event stands out as one of the meanest things Jesus ever does. This event oddly paints Jesus as being unChristlike, if that is even possible.

However, since Jesus is Christ, why might Jesus have insulted this gentile woman like He did? Since this is Jesus, He must have a reason for this cruelty. In at least one other gospel that includes this event, I believe it alluded to this woman following Jesus asking repeatedly for help while Jesus initially ignores her. So not only do we see Jesus ignore this request, but He also insults the requester when finally acknowledging her.

But why? Why does Jesus seem to single out this request and push back in what appears to be a mean way? Could we even call this love?

In this event, I see two big questions that challenge us to look deeper than the surface. Both of these questions would not be possible to ask if Jesus had responded in a more typical fashion. Like the gospel writers share in other parts of the gospel, Jesus was aware of the hearts and minds of those around Him and I believe He sensed He could use this event to teach His followers a couple of lessons.

The first lesson we can learn from this passage is one of the most challenging lessons we face in our lives. This lesson comes from the question: Does your faith persist if it meets resistance or hostility?

While it is never pleasant to think of Jesus being mean or hostile towards someone, we discover through this woman’s persistence that she wouldn’t leave Jesus alone until He had helped her. From what the gospel writers include, I can conclude that nothing Jesus would have done or said would have stopped this woman from persisting in her belief and her request for Jesus’ help. When our faith meets resistance or hostility, will we give up and abandon our faith, or will we continue persisting. We were never promised easy, simple lives, and one reason this might be the case is that an easy life produces only weak faith. Persistence and resistance together strengthen faith, and because of this, our faith can only be strengthened in less than easy environments.

Through Jesus’ resistance to this woman and her request, we see a faith that persists regardless of the obstacles present. This woman is an amazing example for us to model!

The second lesson we see in this passage is one that focuses more on Jesus. While the first lesson teaches us through the woman’s example, the second lesson teaches us through Jesus’ example. While we might look at this event and call Jesus out for being unloving, when we do this, we are met with the question: Is true love based on what you say, or is love based on what you do?

While it is easy to say that both what you say and what you do are important in the discussion of love, if you could only pick one, which would it be? If we look at what Jesus does in this passage and ignore what He says or doesn’t say, we simply see a miracle. Except that we don’t see a miracle directly, but we see Jesus promise the miracle and the woman accepting Jesus’ word.

This leads us to conclude that if we were to define love based on this event, love at its core is more about what we do and less about what we say. While Jesus didn’t walk around looking for people He could be openly mean to, in this event Jesus draws our attention onto the stereotype of the culture that looked down on others, and Jesus challenges us to help other people, even if culture tells us that we should be hostile or mean to them instead.

Jesus came as a Messiah for all humanity, not simply for a single race, religion, or sub-group of people. Jesus came to redeem sinners, and everyone in this world is defined this way regardless of whether you belief in God or whether you believe sin even exists.

As a follower of Jesus, we are called to display Jesus’ love. While this love should also include being kind with our words, it is much more important for us to be kind in our actions. Jesus was clearly kind with what He did in this event, and this was in spite of culture pushing Him to be cruel or mean.

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 purposefully seek God first in your life and choose to show His love to the world around you. Understand that love is more than simply words. Love includes our actions, our kindness, and our stepping out to help others who are from a different social group or social circle. Jesus helped people who were different from Him even if society told Him He should be exclusive, and Jesus challenged His followers to help others like He did.

Also, like the woman, we should be persistent in our faith and not let resistance or hostility change our faith, our hope, or our belief in Jesus.

Continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow and strengthen your faith and your relationship with Jesus, and don’t let anyone or anything get in between you and God. God wants a personal relationship with you. For a relationship to be truly personal, it cannot have anyone standing between you and God, or specifically you and Jesus. Intentionally focus on growing your personal 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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!