As the time of His death drew nearer, Jesus began avoiding the crowds in order to spend time teaching His disciples. He knew that they would be the ones to carry on His work after His ascension, and He had a limited amount of time to get them ready.

If they were to succeed in doing Christ’s work, it was of foremost importance that they have a correct view of themselves and other believers. God won’t use people who think they’re somebody important or who want to be somebody important. Proud or selfish people who want positions of respect disqualify themselves from Christ’s ministry. Jesus wants us to consider ourselves servants, and see everyone else as being more important. Yet the disciples had been secretly arguing over who was the greatest! Jesus told them what we should all keep in mind: “Anyone who wants to be the first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” In God’s eyes, what makes people great is servanthood.

Jesus also needed to remind His disciples of the proper view they should have of other believers, especially “lesser” ones. God loves all of His children, and so all should be valued by us. Jesus took a little child in his arms, a person that very few others would even have noticed was present, and talked about how valuable he was. Children and other so-called “insignificant” people are often pushed aside, but according to Jesus, they shouldn’t be. Jesus said that if we, as His representatives, take notice of and welcome a little child who believes in Him, we are actually welcoming Him. We are called to love people as God loves them, and this is the heart of being a follower of Christ.

On the other hand, because God loves people the world deems insignificant and unimportant, we are guilty of a great sin if we don’t value them as God does. Jesus said that if anyone causes a child who believes in Him to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck! Why? Because that would be a better fate than what will actually happen to the person who causes a believing child to lose faith—he will spend eternity in hell! That shows us how much God loves “unimportant” people.

John told Jesus about a man who was using Jesus’ name to cast out demons, but because he wasn’t part of their group, the disciples told him to stop. This gave Jesus another wonderful opportunity to continue adjusting His disciples’ view of others as they prepared to take over His work on earth. Too often, we’re looking for what makes people different from us so we can exclude them. Jesus, however, is looking for what is similar so He can include them! He told His disciples that they shouldn’t have stopped the man from using His name to cast out demons, explaining that, “No one who performs miracles in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me” (Mark 9:39). We should adopt this same attitude, working to include people rather than exclude them, because that is how God feels. Jesus said that God will reward anyone who shows even a little support for one of His followers!

Q. Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better to enter heaven with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands….And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It is better to enter the Kingdom of God half blind than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:43-44, 47-48). Did He really mean that people should cut off their hands and gouge out their eyes?

A. No, He must have been using a figure of speech we call hyperbole, or exaggerating to make a point unforgettable. Jesus couldn’t have meant that people whose hands and eyes have caused them to sin should cut them off and gouge them out, because we all have hands and eyes that we have used to sin. If everyone literally obeyed Jesus on this, everyone in the world would be without hands and eyes. What Jesus was saying is that it is sin that sends people to hell, and so there is no price too high to pay to avoid sin. We should do what is necessary to avoid temptation, and if something is causing us to stumble, we need to remove it from our lives.

Application: Are you guilty of valuing other believers based on their age, their profession, their skin color or where they live? Is there anyone that you’ve been convicted about undervaluing? Will you change?

Jesus, Peter, James and John were just coming down from the mountain where Jesus had been transfigured when they found the other disciples engaged in an argument with some religious teachers. A man had brought them his son who was possessed by an evil spirit, but they had failed to cast it out.

We know that, prior to this, Jesus had given His disciples authority to cast out demons (see Matthew 10:1; Mark 3:14-15; Luke 9:1). And, prior to this, they had successfully cast out demons (see Mark 6:13). So why, this time, did they fail? When they later asked Jesus that very question, according to Mark’s Gospel, He told them it was because that particular kind of demon could only be cast out through prayer. However, Matthew recorded Jesus’ response as being: “You didn’t have enough faith” (Matthew 17:20). Both Matthew and Mark were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write their books, and so we must conclude that Jesus gave both reasons as to why the disciples failed.

Lack of faith seems to have been the primary reason for their failure, because as soon as Jesus heard they’d failed, He lamented, “You stubborn, faithless [or, unbelieving] people! How long must I be with you until you believe?” (Matthew 17:17). Also, when the boy’s father asked Jesus to help him if He could, Jesus responded, “If I can?…Anything is possible if a person believes” (Mark 9:23).

Even though the disciples had God-given authority to cast out demons, their authority didn’t work unless they exercised faith. Again, this is proof that God’s will doesn’t always automatically come to pass in our lives. We must believe what God has said, or else we may not experience what God has promised. As Jesus said, “Anything is possible if a person believes” (Mark 9:23, emphasis added). Notice that what is possible depends upon each individual’s faith.

In previous times when the disciples had successfully cast out demons, they must have had sufficient faith. Had their faith grown weaker? Probably not. I would be more inclined to think that this particular demon required stronger faith to expel than any demon they had previously dealt with. The reason is because this demon manifested itself in some very dramatic ways. It would take more faith to cast out a demon when it was making someone fall to the ground in violent convulsions, foam at the mouth and grind his teeth than it would to cast out a demon from a calm-looking person! Faith requires disregarding the contrary circumstances, and when the contrary circumstances are greater, greater faith is needed. It takes more faith to move a mountain than a molehill!

Perhaps that was why Jesus also said that this demon could only come out through prayer. Spending time in prayer can’t increase anyone’s authority over demons, but it can increase his faith in the authority he already possesses as he meditates on God’s promises.

Possibly this demon put on the same show for the disciples as it did for Jesus, robbing them of their faith. But Jesus’ faith didn’t waver during His encounter. He was not afraid, and immediately upon hearing of His disciples’ failure, commanded that the boy be brought to Him. As soon as the evil spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy to the ground in a violent convulsion, making him writhe and foam at the mouth. It was probably hoping to scare Jesus, stealing His faith, and thus continue to torture the boy. Jesus, however, was not moved by what He saw, and confidently commanded the demon to come out of the child and never enter him again. It reluctantly obeyed, screaming and throwing the boy into another convulsion as it came out. Finally, the boy was motionless, and the unbelieving crowd thought he had died. Jesus, of course, wasn’t thinking such thoughts, and, taking the boy by the hand, helped him to his feet. That was one happy boy, one happy father, and one amazed crowd!

Q. Jesus asked the boy’s father how long his son had been afflicted. What does this reveal to us about Jesus?

A. First, it reveals His compassion. As Jesus saw the boy’s agony, He began wondering how long the boy had been suffering to such a degree. It also reveals to us, once again, that Jesus was not all-knowing, even though He was divine. He stripped Himself of omniscience when He became a man.

Q. The demon-possessed boy’s father told Jesus that his son had suffered since childhood with his affliction, and the demon had often thrown his son into fire and water, trying to kill him. What does that tell you about demons?

A. It tells us how evil and wicked they are. This particular demon took a perverted pleasure in making a little boy suffer for years, torturing and trying to kill him.

Application: Thank God that Christians don’t have to be afraid of demons or the devil, because Jesus has delivered us from their power. Because we have Jesus inside us, now they’re afraid of us! We can learn from today’s reading that when the devil puts on his best show to discourage us or fill us with fear, that means he is scared!

Peter was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God, but when Jesus announced to His disciples that He would soon die in Jerusalem, Peter politely took Him aside to correct Him. Surely Jesus was mistaken! What good would it do for God’s Son to die? Obviously, Peter didn’t yet understand the main reason why Jesus became a man—to die for our sins. Jesus rebuked him sternly, wanting to make a lasting impression on Peter and the rest of His disciples. It was God’s will for Him to die. It would be no accident or twist of fate, and Jesus was certainly not mistaken. He had been born to die.

Obviously, Jesus was not playing games and was fully committed to His cause. He was paying the highest price possible to redeem humanity. And just as He was giving His life for the people He would save, He expected those He saved to give up their lives for Him. He wasn’t requiring that they all die physically as martyrs, but He was calling all of them to die to their selfish desires and live for Him. That is what He meant when He said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life” (Matthew 16:24-25).

Although the price might seem high, any other course would be foolish. By seeking after your own selfish desires, you might, as Jesus said, eventually own everything that can be bought, but you would spend eternity in hell. Jesus Christ is the one who will one day judge all people according to their deeds, and only those who were submitted to Him will be permitted entrance into His eternal kingdom. So no matter what the cost, the only smart choice is to die to selfishness and live for Jesus.

Jesus went on to say that there were some present who would not die before they would see Him coming in His kingdom. His promise was fulfilled just six days later, when Peter, James and John saw Him transfigured and glorified before them. “His face shone like the sun, and his clothing became dazzling white” (Matthew 17:2). That is how our Savior and God will look when we see Him in His kingdom! That is how Jesus will look when we stand before Him to give an account of our lives. Imagining that day should provide all of us with ample motivation to serve Him with all our hearts while we’re on the earth.

Q. When Jesus was transfigured on a high mountain before Peter, James and John, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus. Does this teach us anything about what happens to people after they die?

A. This proves that people’s spirits live after their bodies die. Some people think that when people die, they die like an animal, ceasing to exist. Some cults teach that when people die, they cease to exist until God resurrects them. The error that both are making is that they are not acknowledging that human beings have spirits. When their bodies die, their spirits live on, and go to heaven or hell. One day everyone’s body will be resurrected and rejoined with his or her spirit. But in the meantime, their spirits are very much alive. The spirits of Moses and Elijah must have come from paradise to meet with Jesus that day on the mountain. One day they, like us, will receive new, glorified bodies.

Q. Why do you think that Moses and Elijah were chosen by God to meet with Jesus that day?

A. Nobody knows for sure because the Bible doesn’t say. Perhaps it was to make an impression upon Peter, James and John’s minds that Jesus’ future kingdom would include all the redeemed people of the ages, including the great men of the Old Testament. Or, maybe God wanted them to be certain that Jesus was not Moses or Elijah, because we know that some people thought Jesus was Elijah (see Matthew 16:14). Or perhaps Moses and Elijah made a request of God to meet with His Son! Regardless, we’ll all someday have the same privilege as they had.

Application: Peter, James and John never forgot what happened that day on the mountain. Peter later wrote about it in a letter, saying, “For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes. And he received honor and glory from God the Father when God’s glorious, majestic voice called down from heaven, ‘This is my beloved Son; I am fully pleased with him.’ We ourselves heard the voice when we were there with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18). What we’ve read about today really happened, as did everything else we can read about Jesus in the Bible!

When new babies are born, people always make a fuss over them. If you’ve ever had a baby brother or sister born into your family, you may have felt like your mom and dad forgot about you for a little while. However, the fuss that was made over your baby brother or sister was nothing compared to the one that was made over John the Baptist when he was born. Everybody was talking about it for miles around—a baby had been born to an old woman! Plus, an angel had appeared to the baby’s father, who had been unable to speak for nine months! Everyone who heard about it knew that Zechariah and Elizabeth had a special son for whom God had a special plan.

The people of Israel had been given many laws by God, one of which concerned baby boys. All of them were supposed to be circumcised on the eighth day of their lives. To be circumcised means to have a little piece of skin removed from a boy’s private parts. It hurts for a little while, but quickly heals like any other cut. All the Israelite boys were supposed to be circumcised in order to mark them as being God’s people. It showed that they belonged to God.

Like all other baby boys in Israel, John the Baptist was circumcised on the eighth day of his life, and that is when he was given the name John according to the instructions of the angel who appeared to his father. John means “God is very kind.”

On the day of John’s circumcision, his father was suddenly able to speak once again, and the first thing he spoke was praise to God. Soon after, the Holy Spirit spoke through him in a beautiful prophecy. If you listened to it closely, you probably noticed that the prophecy was more about Jesus than John. That’s because Jesus was a million times more important than John. John was only a man made great by God. Jesus was God. Zechariah’s prophecy revealed that it was God’s plan for John to prepare the way for Jesus to begin His ministry.

What did Zechariah’s prophecy say regarding Jesus? It revealed that Jesus was God. It said that God would visit His people (see Luke 1:68).

When He visited, God would redeem His people (see Luke 1:68). In the New Testament, the word redeem means to purchase someone’s freedom from being a slave. Before we were born again, we were slaves to selfishness, sin and Satan.

Zechariah’s prophecy also revealed that Jesus would be a mighty Savior (see Luke 1:69). We needed someone to save us from the penalty for our sins: eternal separation from God in hell. Through our Savior, our sins have been forgiven because of God’s wonderful mercy (see Luke 1:77-78).

That Savior would be a descendant of King David, just as God had promised David a thousand years before (see Luke 1:69b-70).

Jesus would also save God’s people from their enemies. Through Jesus, we’ve already been saved from our spiritual enemies: Satan and his evil spirits. They can’t control us as they used to. Now, as Zechariah said, we can serve God without fear of them (see Luke 1:74). And one day, all of God’s people will be saved from their physical enemies, when we live in God’s eternal kingdom. There won’t be anyone there who hates us.

The truth that Jesus would bring to the people of the earth would be like light coming down from heaven. No longer would we have to stumble around in darkness, not knowing where we are going. His truth would guide us into peace (see Luke 1:79). Aren’t you glad that Jesus came?

Q. Is there any evidence in today’s reading that Zechariah was not only temporarily mute, but also temporarily deaf?

A. Yes. Read Luke 1:62 closely. If Zechariah had been able to hear, his friends and relatives wouldn’t have needed to communicate to him “by making gestures.”

Q. If you were unable to speak for nine months, what would be the first words out of your mouth when your speech was restored? Why?

Application: Isn’t it amazing that God had a plan for John’s life even before he was born? Did you know that, according to Ephesians 2:10, God also had a plan for our lives even before we were born? All of God’s children are somewhat like John the Baptist. Like John, our main job is to get people ready to meet the Lord.

When someone is deaf, he normally will have difficulty speaking clearly and in an understandable way, even if there’s nothing wrong with his mouth or vocal cords. The reason is because we learn to talk by comparing what we hear ourselves say with what others say. If we can’t hear, we can’t learn to talk. And if a hearing person becomes deaf, his speech will gradually become more difficult for others to understand, since he can no longer hear himself speak and thus judge how clearly he is speaking. This was perhaps the case of the deaf man with a speech impediment about whom we read.

We don’t know why Jesus put His fingers in the man’s ears or why He spit on His own fingers and then touched the deaf man’s tongue, but we assume He was being led by the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing is that the man was instantly healed. Can you imagine his joy? Think of how blessed you are if your hearing is good.

This man was only one of the many Jesus healed when He returned from the region of Tyre. As we read yesterday, He healed many who were blind, deaf, mute and lame. From today’s reading, we can conclude that Jesus didn’t heal them just to prove He was the Son of God. He told the crowd not to tell anyone about His miracles, indicating that He healed because He loved people, not because He was trying to prove His deity or advertise Himself. This should encourage those of us who need healing today, because Jesus is just as merciful now as He was when He walked on the earth. Too many people think that Jesus healed only during His earthly ministry to prove He was God in the form of a human being, and then conclude that He won’t heal them since His deity was well-established two thousand years ago.

Today we also read how Jesus once again multiplied loaves of bread and fish. This time there were seven large baskets of food left over, showing how gracious God is—Jesus provided more than they even needed. We should expect that God will do the same for us. Let us not forget, however, that the people who were miraculously blessed with food were not those who were sitting at home, but those who had sought to be with Jesus. God has promised to supply all our needs if we will live for Him and make His kingdom our primary concern (see Matthew 6:33).

Q. How many people did Jesus feed in today’s story?

A. This is somewhat of a trick question! Mark’s Gospel says that Jesus fed four thousand people (see Mark 8:9). So you may have answered four thousand. However, the same story is found in Matthew’s Gospel, and Matthew specifies that Jesus fed four thousand men, “in addition to all the women and children” (Matthew 15:38). If every man was married and had four children, Jesus fed twenty-four thousand people that day!

Application: We should look to Jesus not only as our Savior, but as the one who supplies all our needs. God is the one who created us with a need to eat, drink, sleep and be clothed, and so we should expect that He will take care of all those things for us.

As we continue reading the life story of Jesus, we’ll learn that He faced a growing opposition from the Pharisees and other religious leaders. Those men who were supposed to be servants of God hated God’s Son with a passion, and wanted to ruin Him. Ultimately they succeeded in killing Him, but that only lasted for three days!

Today we read about the Pharisees and Sadducees asking Jesus for a miraculous sign in order to prove His claims. This was at least the second time they’d made such a request (see Matthew 12:38). They had no doubt heard the reports of the many people who were healed; in fact, some of them actually had been present to see Jesus heal (see Luke 5:17-25). So they were probably asking for something really spectacular, like fire falling from heaven.

Their request revealed how evil they were, and Jesus responded by saying so. The Pharisees and Sadducees could read the weather signs in the sky, but they couldn’t read the obvious signs that proved Jesus was their promised Messiah. He had already provided more than sufficient proof that He was God in the form of a human being. Their request of a sign was an indication of the hardness of their hearts, and Jesus promised them only one sign on the magnitude of what they were seeking, calling it “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Of course, Jonah’s expulsion from the fish’s stomach after three days foreshadowed Jesus’ own resurrection.

Obviously, anyone who followed the teaching of the Pharisees or Sadducees was doomed, as Jesus later warned His disciples as they once again crossed the Sea of Galilee. Unfortunately, they completely misunderstood what He meant when He said, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). They thought He said that because they had forgotten to bring any bread with them in their boat, since yeast is a primary ingredient in bread. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus rebuked them. Why would they have ever thought that He, having recently multiplied bread twice, would be the least bit concerned about having no bread in the boat? Their thoughts revealed their lack of faith in Him, and He told them so.

However, in the final part of today’s reading, we learn that Jesus’ disciples weren’t entirely lacking in faith. Peter, likely speaking as a representative for most of the twelve, confessed that he believed Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Thus in one section of Scripture we have examples of the faith and doubts of the same followers of Christ. This clearly shows us that we may well believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but doubt that He will provide for our other needs, as is the case with too many of us. Sometimes we need to be reminded, like the disciples, of what God has done in the past to provide for our needs.

Like the disciples, all of us have faltered in our faith and failed. That, however, is not a reason to be discouraged, give up, or feel condemned. Jesus kept on working with His disciples, and He will keep on working with us!

Q. Jesus said to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18). What is the rock Jesus mentioned?

A. Peter had just declared his faith that Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God. The foundation upon which the church is built is the belief that Jesus is God’s Son, and the church grows as more people believe it. The rock Jesus referred to was the fact of Him being God’s Son and people’s faith in that fact.

Q. What did Jesus mean when He promised Peter the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven?

A. Keys represent the means of opening something that is locked. In this case, Jesus promised to give Peter the means to unlock heaven while he was still on the earth. Heaven, in a sense, is locked to all sinners. But it can be opened to sinners if they are made righteous. The key that opens it to them is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was promising Peter that He would entrust him with the gospel, so that he could open the entrance to heaven for people. Likewise, Peter could boldly declare that heaven was shut to anyone who refused to believe the gospel.

Application: Like Peter, we’re blessed to know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, because so many people don’t know or believe it. We’re now part of a worldwide church that, as Jesus said, the powers of hell will not conquer. We’re on a winning team!

This first story has always been a difficult one to fully understand, because Jesus doesn’t act like we’d expect Him to act. We view Him as always kind, compassionate and impartial, but He seems to be uncaring and prejudiced as He relates to this Gentile woman. So how are we to interpret this story?

Some believe that Jesus, in order to teach His disciples a lesson, was at first pretending to act like the average prejudiced Jew. That may well be the correct interpretation, because Jesus did ultimately grant the woman her request, revealing His true compassion for her and her daughter.

Others have suggested that Jesus was simply testing her faith, again by acting as if He didn’t want to heal her daughter. Would she persist in believing or would she give up? Was her faith genuine?

And others think that Jesus was being honest in everything He said to her. That is, He was truly sent by His Father to help only the lost people of Israel, and not Gentiles.

This third interpretation is difficult for me to accept for several reasons. First, because if Jesus was sent by His Father to help only the lost people of Israel and not the Gentiles, why then did He apparently disobey His Father by ultimately healing the woman’s daughter? Second, why did He help other Gentiles, such as the Roman centurion? Third, why did He die for the sins of every Gentile in the entire world?

Beyond that, Jesus apparently referred to the woman as a dog, a common, derogatory term that prideful Jews used to describe Gentiles. It’s difficult for me to believe that Jesus really felt this woman was worthy of such a demeaning title and more undeserving than Jews of receiving God’s help. I can’t believe that Jesus didn’t feel as much compassion for her plight as He did for anyone else’s plight, just because she was a Gentile. Chances are that practically every family reading this devotional is a Gentile family. Is this how Jesus feels about us?

For these reasons, I prefer a combination of the first two possible interpretations. Jesus’ own disciples expressed no concern for this poor woman, and requested that Jesus send her away, complaining that her begging was bothering them. This could hardly be considered a commendable action on their part. Christian virtue requires a higher standard than that. So perhaps Jesus wanted to teach them a lesson about God’s love of non-Jewish people. I wonder if Jesus was looking right at them when He pronounced the woman’s daughter healed. I wonder what they were thinking when He did!

Also, we note that Jesus commended the Gentile woman for her great faith, proven by her persistence, and then immediately announced that her daughter was healed. No one can rightfully say that her faith wasn’t severely tested, as it seems that even Jesus tried to discourage her. But her persistent faith paid off.

Finally, perhaps there was more to this story than what we realize. Possibly Jesus knew something about this Gentile woman’s private life that truly disqualified her from having any right to approach Him. She may have been a devoted idol-worshipper. Perhaps it was some very perverted and sinful thing she did that provided an avenue for her daughter to become demon-possessed. By ignoring her, Jesus may have been initially sending her a message of her need of repentance.

Regardless of what we don’t understand about this incident, the ending makes perfect sense. Jesus, the compassionate Son of God, healed the woman’s daughter instantly! God’s love is so great!

Q. What do you think would have happened if the Gentile woman had not persisted in faith?

A. Her daughter would not have been healed, even though her healing was obviously God’s will. As I’ve said previously, proud people don’t like to hear such things, because they don’t want to take responsibility for their unbelief and would rather blame God for their prayers that have gone unanswered. Most of us, like Jesus’ twelve disciples, have doubted and failed in our faith. Let’s be humble enough to accept responsibility, and wise enough to continue building our faith by feeding it with God’s Word and exercising it. Our faith can grow! And praise God that, although He may be disappointed in our lack of faith, He never condemns us for it.

Q. When Jesus returned to Galilee, “a vast crowd brought him the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others with physical difficulties, and they laid them before Jesus” (Matthew 15:30). Matthew wrote that Jesus “healed them all” (Matthew 15:30). What does this teach us about God’s will for healing?

A. It teaches us that God loves every sick person and it is His will to heal them all. If you had been lame, blind, crippled or mute and had been brought to Jesus that day, you would have been healed. Jesus didn’t say to anyone, “I’m sorry, but it is not God’s will for everyone to be healed, so I have to turn you away.” No, everyone who came requesting healing was healed. Thus, it is certainly safe to assume that seriously ill people who didn’t come that day could have been healed if they would have come. But because they didn’t believe, they didn’t come, and they weren’t healed, even though it was God’s will for them to be healed.

Application: There is no doubt that our faith is sometimes tested. What we are believing for often doesn’t seem as if it’s going to come to pass. But we should be encouraged by the Gentile woman we read about today. Her persistence paid off, and so will ours.

Has your mother taught you to wash your hands before you eat? Now you can tell her that Jesus is against her rule, right? Wrong! The Pharisees washed their hands before eating, but not to cleanse themselves of germs, because they didn’t know about germs two thousand years ago. They washed their hands to obey their tradition, believing that if they ate with unwashed hands, they would become defiled and unacceptable to God. That small error in their thinking wouldn’t have been so bad, except that their misconception about what made them acceptable or unacceptable to God extended much farther. Some of the traditions they kept actually violated God’s Word. Thus, as Jesus said, they rejected God’s specific laws and substituted their own traditions. Obeying man-made rules, they disobeyed God’s rules.

One example of this was their breaking of the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and mother.” The Pharisees taught that a person didn’t have to help his needy parents if he vowed to give his money to God. Because they were lovers of money (see Luke 16:14), this tradition was probably designed to increase their own personal wealth. The Pharisees wouldn’t have to spend their money supporting their elderly parents, plus, other people vowed to give their money to the Pharisees to support “God’s work” rather than help their parents. This was just one of many examples of how the Pharisees broke God’s law in order to protect their own traditions.

Many churches today are guilty of this same sin—exalting their own traditions above God’s laws. As a result, people who keep the traditions think they’re acceptable to God, even though they break many of His commandments. They attend church every week, say the right things at the right times during the service, receive communion, and think that makes them acceptable to God. But the rest of the week, they lie, steal and take God’s name in vain. They’re full of lust, hatred and pride. And just like the Pharisees, they’ll spend eternity in hell unless they come to their senses, truly repent and begin to follow Jesus. When they do, their lives will change dramatically.

Jesus went on to explain that what a person eats is not what makes him acceptable or unacceptable to God. It is what a person does and says. Unfortunately, even some Christians have fallen into deception in this regard, over-emphasizing the importance of what we eat, and sometimes even claiming that we must follow the dietary laws of the Old Testament. Thinking they are more pleasing to God, they look down on other Christians who don’t also restrict their diets. But today we read that Jesus declared that every kind of food is acceptable to eat (see Mark 7:19). Let’s be careful that we don’t become sidetracked by minor things. God wants His people to live according to His, not our, standards of holiness.

Q. Because Jesus declared all foods are acceptable for us to eat, does that mean it would be OK for us to subsist on a diet of candy bars and Cokes?

A. When Jesus lived on the earth, there were no such things as candy bars and Cokes. In fact, there were not any foods that were processed like the many foods available to us today. In their natural state as God created them, all foods are acceptable for us to eat and contribute to our physical well-being. But foods that have been altered and stripped of their nutritional value are in a different category. There are many nutrients that are essential for our bodies to remain healthy, and a wise Christian will see that his diet contains all the nutrients he needs.

Q. Have you ever met someone who thinks they’re holier than you because they keep certain rules that can’t be found anywhere in the Bible? What do you think Jesus would say to them?

Application: Like the people in yesterday’s reading, the Pharisees of today’s reading were more concerned with physical rather than spiritual things, and concentrated more on external rather than internal things. Without neglecting the physical and external, God wants us to be more concerned about the spiritual and internal.

After Jesus had miraculously fed five thousand people, He sent the multitudes back to their homes in the evening. That night was when He walked on water and rescued His disciples as they all journeyed to the other side of the lake. The next morning, the same crowds Jesus had fed searched for and found Him. Unfortunately, they were not motivated by their hunger for spiritual truth; rather, they were hoping for some more free food.

This greatly disappointed Jesus, so He exhorted them to seek not for what temporarily sustains physical life, but for what was vastly more important, the eternal life that only He could give them. One reason Jesus had supernaturally provided physical food was because He was hoping the people would see Him as their source for true spiritual food.

Jesus then explained that God’s spiritual food is far superior to any physical food. All that physical food can do is keep a person’s body alive, and it can only do it for a limited amount of time because everyone eventually dies. The spiritual food that God is offering, however, gives life to our spirits, the part of us that the Bible calls the “inward person.” That inward person will live forever, but unless he eats some of God’s spiritual food, he will be forever sinful and destined to spend eternity in hell. But if he eats God’s spiritual food, he will be reborn and spend eternity in heaven.

Not only that, but God’s spiritual food will one day affect his physical body as well. On the last day, God will resurrect everyone’s body who has believed in Jesus, making them into “glorified bodies” that will never become sick, grow old or die! What physical food can’t keep alive for more than a few decades, God’s spiritual food will resurrect and keep alive forever! That’s why Jesus said that when we eat God’s spiritual food, we will never hunger or thirst again. He meant that His gift of eternal life, once received, was sufficient for all eternity. It’s not something that needs constant replenishing. One meal is good forever!

God wants everyone to eat His spiritual food, and Jesus told the people that they could eat by simply believing in Him. They, however, were still much more interested in physical food, and, hoped that He would again provide free bread. They requested a sign that would convince them to believe in Him. Because it was food they were after, they mentioned how Moses had miraculously provided bread for the people of Israel, the manna they gathered each morning from the ground.

Jesus explained that it wasn’t Moses who provided the bread, it was God. Now the same God was offering everyone “true bread,” the spiritual food that could give them eternal life. Jesus then stated that He was God’s true bread sent from heaven, indicating that what people really needed was for Him to come inside their spirits.

But His audience began to murmur over what He said. They knew He had been born like any other person, so how could He claim to have come from heaven? They didn’t know, of course, that Joseph wasn’t actually Jesus’ father, and that Jesus had come from heaven via Mary’s womb.

Finally, continuing to expand on His comparison of Himself to food, Jesus revealed what would uniquely qualify Him to offer eternal life to the world, and what people must believe in order to receive the eternal life He offered: He would die, offering Himself as a sacrifice so others could have eternal life. Jesus said, “This bread is my flesh, offered so the world may live….I assure you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them at the last day. For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink” (John 6:51, 53-55).

Of course, no one can, and neither does Jesus want anyone to actually eat His flesh and drink His blood. But Jesus wants us to receive Him into our spirits, just as we receive physical food into our bodies. And He wants us to believe that He died for us, pouring out His blood and giving His body so we can have eternal life. In Jesus’ comparison, eating represents receiving and believing. Eating Jesus, God’s true bread, means believing in Him. It means becoming one with Him, just as Jesus said, “All who eat my flesh and drink my blood remain in me, and I in them” (John 6:56).

Many people who were listening that day didn’t like what they heard. They took what Jesus said literally, not figuratively as He intended, and just as any sincere person would have taken Him. They really didn’t want to understand because they didn’t want to believe what He was saying about Himself. So they left Him. But Peter, a sincere believer, confessed that he believed Jesus alone had the words of eternal life and that He was “the Holy One of God” (John 6:69), the Messiah. Even if he didn’t fully understand all Jesus said, he and the rest would be staying with Jesus, as all true believers would.

Q. Jesus said that people can’t come to Him unless they are drawn by the Father. Does this mean that God is only drawing certain people to Jesus?

A. No. Jesus said that if He was lifted up on the cross, that He would draw everyone to Himself (see John 12:32). So Jesus is drawing everyone , but unless He and His Father drew people, none would come to Him, because all are so blinded by sin and hard-hearted.

Q. Did you see any correlation with what we read today and the church’s practice of taking communion?

A. When we eat the bread and drink the grape juice, it represents eating Jesus’ body and drinking His blood. That sounds like Christians are cannibals! However, we’re not! I hope you realize now that partaking of the communion elements represents our becoming one with Jesus and reminds us of His substitutionary death for us. Just as the bread and grape juice go into our stomachs and then nourish every cell in our bodies, so Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, has come into our spirits and given us eternal life. Just as we become “one” with the bread and grape juice, so we’ve become one with Jesus. He’s in us and we’re in Him. That’s why it’s called communion, because what we do symbolizes our communion with Jesus (and each other). Also, communion reminds us that our oneness with Jesus was made possible by His sacrificial death, when His body was broken (like the bread is broken) and His blood was shed, represented by the grape juice.

Application: Some of what we read today was difficult to understand, just as Jesus’ disciples expressed to Him. However, we have a good idea of what Jesus meant in general. And, like Peter, even if we don’t fully understand everything Jesus said, we know He’s the only One who has the words of eternal life. So we’ll keep right on following Him! Someday we will understand what we don’t understand now.

Can God use kids? According to John’s record of this same story, the five small barley loaves and two small fish that Jesus multiplied belonged to a young boy (see John 6:9). Perhaps it was his lunch. Regardless, I’m sure that boy never forgot the day when his few loaves and fish fed five thousand men.

This story shows us that God can take what little we have to give and make it into something that can bless a lot of people. We may think, like that little boy, that we don’t have very much to offer. But God can multiply what we have. In so doing, it is He, not us, who is rightfully made to look better in other people’s eyes.

I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to see this miracle. Specifically, I’ve wondered when the food actually multiplied. Did it multiply only in Jesus’ hands, or did it also multiply in His disciples’ hands? It seems reasonable to conclude that it was both, due to the fact that so many thousands of people were fed. Remember that there must have been many women and children besides just the five thousand men who were fed.

I think it is also very likely that the bread and fish continued to multiply in the hands of the people sitting in the groups. If so, that could be how they all knew that a great miracle had just taken place (see John 6:14). Wouldn’t that be something to see—food multiplying in your own hands? Regardless, this story is one more proof that Jesus was God. At least five thousand people witnessed what happened, and there is no record in history that anyone at that time even attempted to claim that it didn’t happen.

This story also shows us how much God loves people. Jesus and His disciples were trying to get away from the crowds just to rest for a while and eat a meal without interruption. So they journeyed by boat across the Sea of Galilee to a desolate spot. But when they arrived at their destination, a vast crowd was waiting for them. Amazingly, Jesus displayed no aggravation, but rather, He felt compassion for them and ministered to them by teaching and healing (see Luke 9:11). Then, late in the afternoon, He was concerned that the people needed food to eat, so He provided a meal for them. Our God cares about us. He wants to supply our needs. We shouldn’t ever feel that we’re bothering Him. He loves us dearly!

Q. Once, a modern Pharisee who didn’t believe in the miracles of the Bible, attempted to disprove Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. He claimed that back in Jesus’ time, the loaves of bread were very large. How do we know that wasn’t true?

A. Because the loaves belonged to a young boy. There is no way he could have carried five loaves that were large enough to feed five thousand men. Keep in mind that the women and children who were fed that day weren’t even counted, so it’s possible Jesus fed more than twenty thousand people. Also, the boy’s two fish fed everyone as well. Unless those fish were multiplied by Jesus, they must have been extremely large fish to feed so many people! Finally, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of what was left over. One young boy couldn’t have carried even a fraction of the leftovers.

Q. Why do you suppose Jesus instructed the disciples to collect all the leftovers?

A. Perhaps so everyone would see that food had been multiplied. Also, Jesus stated that He didn’t want any of the food to be wasted. God wants us to be good stewards of what He gives us as well, not wasting things unnecessarily. (Also, God doesn’t want us to be litterbugs!)

Q. What do you think Jesus did with the leftovers?

A. I would guess that He gave some to the little boy whose loaves and fish He multiplied. He may also have given some to designated people in the crowd to distribute to the poor. And He may have kept some for His disciples and Himself to eat later.

Application: Has God given you a gift? Offer it to Him to be used as He sees fit, and He’ll use you to bless other people.