Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 9:18-21 (New International Version 2011)

¹⁸ Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

¹⁹ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

²⁰ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

In these verses, Jesus asked His followers a couple of questions.

In one respect, this doesn’t make any sense. Jesus is the Son of God. He knew the answers to the questions.

In another respect, this does make sense and serves as an excellent example for anyone who has people following.

Never assume. Always ask.

I have often heard that “silence is agreement.” I never understood that one; it always seemed to be a huge leap from one thing to another. Jesus doesn’t assume; He asks. I will try to follow that example, even and especially at times when I would rather not hear the answer.

Matthew 2:1-7 (New Living Translation)

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’ ”

7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

King Herod was a villain. There is little doubt about this as he killed a group of babies two years old and younger later in Matthew chapter 2.

The verses shown above show that faith does not always mean righteous. Faith means believing in something you cannot see. It seems clear to me that King Herod had faith in that he believed that the Jews had a newborn king. He had no real evidence of this, but he believed and acted.

Based on faith, Herod

(1) told the wise men to  tell him where the newborn king was

(2) murdered innocent toddlers (later in verse 16)

Genesis 25:28 (New Living Translation)

Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

The (hi)story of Isaac and Rebekah and their twin sons Esau and Jacob is a fascinating one. These are patriarchs of the Israel, and they have a lot of bad attributes. The verse above, reveals one of Isaac’s worst behaviors.

His stomach led his heart.

Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob because Isaac loved the wild game that Esau brought home.  There is a possibility that the translations are leading me astray here. Does the word “love” here mean the same kind of love that I have for my own children? All the translations I read, however, use the same word “love.”

In a way, Isaac worshiped food. Well, I certainly see a lot of people today who either love food more than anything or anyone or they really really like food a lot. I guess we haven’t changed much in the last few thousand years.

God, please let my heart lead me and not my stomach or my eyes or my hands or my nose or…

Daniel 10:12-14 (Common English Bible)

12 Then the man said to me, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel, because from the day you first set your mind to understand things and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I’ve come because of your words! 13 For twenty-one days the leader of the Persian kingdom blocked my way. But then Michael, one of the highest leaders, came to help me. I left Michael there with the leader of the Persian kingdom. 14 But I’ve come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the future, because there is another vision concerning that time.”

The “man” of verse 12 is an angel. I believe that given verse 13. I also believe the “leader of the Persian kingdom” is a fallen angel or agent of Satan.

The thing I want to note about the angel is the relation of the angel to time and space. The angel took at least 21 days to come to Daniel. The angel was bound by time.

Notice in verse 14 how the angel “has come” to Daniel. He had to travel in some fashion. He, unlike God, is not omnipresent – everywhere and anywhere at the same time.

The angels are bound by time and space.

John 4:46-53 (Common English Bible)

46 He returned to Cana in Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus was coming from Judea to Galilee, he went out to meet him and asked Jesus if he would come and heal his son, for his son was about to die. 48 Jesus said to him, “Unless you see miraculous signs and wonders, you won’t believe.”

49 The royal official said to him, “Lord, come before my son dies.”

50 Jesus replied, “Go home. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and set out for his home.

51 While he was on his way, his servants were already coming to meet him. They said, “Your son lives!” 52 So he asked them at what time his son had started to get better. And they said, “The fever left him yesterday at about one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did while going from Judea to Galilee.

This is one of the miracles Jesus performed. He healed a man’s son from a distance. Taking a second thought on this one, that is pretty amazing – healing someone sight unseen.

Anyways, the topic of today is the belief. In verse 53, after everyone realized what Jesus had done, they all believed.  But what about verse 50? The man believed the word that Jesus spoke.

What was different between the belief of verse 50 and verse 53? The man believed in Jesus enough in verse 50 to leave Jesus and go home. That is a lot of belief. Then again “he and his entire household believed.” The man believed again. Didn’t he believe in the earlier verse? Or perhaps this is a figure of speech or some other writing technique.

Mark 4:1 (New International Version 2011)

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.

I guess we could start a book with this post.

What did Jesus teach?

That is a pretty good question. People have sought the answer for about 20 centuries.

There are almost 16 million Google hits to the item

the teachings of Jesus

I know there aren’t 16 million words of Jesus recorded in the New Testament.

Here are some of the major hits on the web:

The Teachings of Jesus Christ

Jesus Teachings

Life of Christ

Bible Study on Jesus Christ

Wikipedia’s Ministry of Jesus page

2 Kings 11:12 (New International Version 2011)

Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”

Jehoiada the priest has brought out Joash (or Jehoash) to be the King of Judah. The first task was to present the new king with a copy of  – the covenant.

Note, the writer does not call it “the law” or “the Bible” or “the fill-in-the-blank-with-another-term.” The writer calls it the covenant.

Often, the Old Testament refers to “the law” as the covenant. Definitions of the term are often “agreement” and “contract.” This is how God’s people saw it and defined it. It was their personal agreement with the one true God.

Do I have a personal agreement with God today? If I had to define it as such, one phrasing of the agreement would be something like:

I agree that Jesus of Nazareth was the Anointed One, whose sacrifice allows me to approach you even as miserable and unworthy as I am. You agree to do the other 99.9…%.

That’s a pretty good contract. I haven’t seen one that gracious to me. Ever.

John 5:16-18 (New International Version 2011)

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them,“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

I’ve heard lots of nice things said about Jesus:

• He was a great teacher
• He loved people
• He really knew what was important
• He performed miracles
• He healed people of their sickness
• He served the down-trodden masses

These are true statements. They are awfully nice. Then there is the statement about Jesus shown in verse 18 above:

He made himself equal with God.

Can’t have that one. Kill him! (also in verse 18)

Not much has changed in the last couple of thousand years. As long as Jesus is a nice guy doing nice things, people will read what he said and read about what he did. The feeling, however, changes when we move into Jesus being God incarnate and all that stuff about saving mankind from our sins if only we acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior. No, that stuff is too religious. That stuff requires me to admit my failings as a human: I am sinful and lost without Jesus. People don’t like that stuff. People get downright violent when that stuff comes around.

Do people kill Jesus today? I think so. Not much has changed in a couple of thousand years.

Genesis 11:1-9 (New International Version 2011)

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

I know many good people who are doing good things. I know many strong Christians who do many great acts of love.

What is their motivation?

I don’t know the answer to that question. Motivation is something that is inside a person. Perhaps I can sometimes see an outward manifestation of their inner motivation. Mostly though, I am clueless.

Here is one test of motivation provided by Nimrod and his followers following the flood. They gathered at the plain of Shinar to build a great city.

The motivation:  so that we may make a name for ourselves.

Ah, they wanted to be famous. That’s a sure test of an improper motivation.

Now let’s consider the question of questioning another person’s motivation. That’s a bad idea. That may even be a sinful idea. The last time I checked, God had not appointed me a judge of the motivation of others.

There is, however, one good place for judging motivation: myself.

What is my motivation for doing this or that or something else? Am I trying to make a name for myself?

John 6:8-9 (New International Version 2011)

⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

These verses are from the feeding of the 5,000 as recorded in the Gospel of John. Andrew bring the boy with the five loaves (more like biscuits) of bread and two fish.

Notice – these are barley loaves, not wheat bread loaves. Barley is used to feed horses and cows. And barley is used to kill algae in ponds. Yum yum! Barley is used to make beer and distilled liquors.

Barley is not used much for great-tasting bread.

The people who came to Jesus for food were destitute. They were following Jesus in the wilderness because he was healing sick people, and these followers were sick and hungry and without recourse.

Not only did Jesus have little food to feed the multitude, He had lousy food.

NOTE: Today, barley bread is making a comeback of sorts as rich, over-fed, health-conscious people in the developed world are learning that there are health benefits to eating barley bread. Poor, under-feed, I’m-just-trying-to-live people in the non-developed world just want something to eat.