Q2, S01 Various Encounters
Question 04:
HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED ME?
While Jesus is the constant in the storyline of the Gospels, we continue to find people whose lives come into contact with Jesus. These people are coming from a host of different backgrounds, with a host of different mindsets, and a host of different pursuits. Some are hurting and broken. Others are wealthy and self-righteous. Some are passionate and inspired. Still others are apathetic and wandering. But all of these different types of people have encounters with Jesus in the Gospels. The encounters themselves are significant, but it’s also vital to watch how each person responds to that encounter.
We all have these encounters as well. It is essential to acknowledge Jesus. To see him. To learn from him. But every time we have an encounter with Jesus, we have to choose how we will respond.
The nineteenth century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard insisted that each person must have a face to face encounter with Jesus. To the apathetic Christians within the state church of Denmark, Kierkegaard insisted that claiming the name of Jesus was not enough. Until a person has come face to face with Jesus, so to speak, and come to a place where they either turn away in rejection or embrace him in love, they have not entered the gate into true Christianity. An encounter is required before we can truly relate to Jesus.
If you have an encounter with Jesus that leaves you unchanged, then it’s not a true encounter. It’s possible to come into proximity with Jesus but miss him completely. But a true encounter will change you. How it changes you depends on your starting point.
Tool: The Parabolas
Our tool for this section is a collection of orbiting parabolas. Each is essentially a U-turn. Each person approaches Jesus from a different direction, and when they encounter Jesus they find themselves moving in the opposite direction. It is the same Jesus in each case, but the nature of the encounter and the effect on each life depends on what the person needs most in that situation.
Go Back: The Sinning Repent
When Jesus encountered people who were in sin, he called them to repent. We have already seen this in the ministry of John the Baptist: In preparing the way for Jesus, he warned that the axe was at the root of the tree and he called the people to repent. We will see this again in the next few sessions as Jesus calls the tax collector Matthew to follow him: He immediately repents and follows Jesus. When we are actively sinning and in that state have an encounter with Jesus, we turn around and repent.
Go Down: The Overconfident Are Humbled
When Jesus encountered the proud or overconfident, he called them to humility. We see this over and over again with the Pharisees. They were so confident in their interpretations of Scripture, so confident in their status as the religious leaders of Israel. They consistently approached Jesus with arrogance and superiority, so when they encountered Jesus, he humbled them. The only direction for them to turn was back down, and a true encounter with Jesus leads in this direction for the overconfident. Another example of this is the would-be followers of Jesus who came to him saying, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus called them to count the cost to be sure they were willing to let go of what they loved most in order to follow. Jesus was checking their overconfidence and calling them to humility. When we encounter Jesus in a state of overconfidence or outright pride, we find ourselves moving downward in humility.
Go Forward: The Retreating Follow
We also find situations in which Jesus’ followers lost their confidence. They knew who Jesus was and what he was capable of. But there were times when they lost sight of all of this and began to fall back, to retreat. Think here of John the Baptist sending his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was really the Messiah or if they should be looking for someone else. This seems to be a moment of temporary retreat for John, and his encounter with Jesus called him once again to follow Jesus by advancing rather than retreating. We also see Jesus’ disciples in this situation when they find themselves in a storm on the sea. They wake up Jesus in fear, and he rebukes their weak faith. They had forgotten what Jesus could do, and he calls them once again to follow him in faith. When we encounter Jesus in the midst of our timid retreats, Jesus gives us confidence to turn around and push onward.
Go Up: The Despairing Are Exalted
Finally, we also see examples of people who were weak, hurting, and despairing. When these people encountered Jesus they were exalted, given hope, and made whole. In Luke 4, Jesus read from Isaiah and announced the good news that precisely these broken, captive, poor people were going to be healed and set free. We also find Jesus visiting the sick, spiritually oppressed, and marginalized. As he does, he heals them more fully than they could imagine and in doing so, he exalts them. Their encounter with Jesus raises them to a new height that they could never have reached any other way. When we encounter Jesus in the midst of our despair, we find that Jesus heals us, exalting us to a place of honor and healing.
Don’t Miss It
Imagine an additional line on our parabola tool. This line would be straight, unbending. It represents the person who fails to have a true encounter with Jesus. It represents the spiritually oblivious. They move in the direction of Jesus, but they continue on unchanged. Though they crossed paths with Jesus, the lack of course correction shows that even in interacting with Jesus they failed to truly encounter him. No one encounters Jesus and remains the same.
Very often, this path of obliviousness characterizes the Pharisees. But we would be foolish to ignore the possibility that we will find ourselves in this position. For all our talk about Jesus, we may actually miss him, even in the midst of our religious activities. As we’ve seen, an encounter with Jesus could move us in a number of directions, but if we remain unmoved, then we haven’t truly seen Jesus. We haven’t encountered him.
The point of all of this is to simply come into contact with Jesus. To collide with him, if you will. If we slide past him, our lives remain unchanged. But if we collide with him, we will be changed. And always for the better.
Quarter 2, Session 1: Encounters with Jesus
HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO ME?
Passage
Matthew 8:14–9:13
Concept
This session falls under Jesus’ fourth question: Have you encountered me? In these chapters we see a variety of responses to Jesus. Jesus is going about his Father’s business, he is miraculously doing the works of the kingdom. In these stories, nobody questions the power of Jesus, but they respond very differently to him. As we read through these stories, we should be asking why each person responds as they do. We should also ask how we would respond to Jesus in each situation. It’s easy to imagine that we would respond perfectly, but the reality is that our motivations are complex and our hearts are often divided. Keep asking yourself honestly how you will respond to Jesus.
Key Question
Based on your encounters with Jesus—either your experiences with him recently or cumulatively up to this point in your life—how are you responding to him now?
The Parabola Tool
Do you see our Parabola tool being played out in Matthew 8:14–9:13? With whom? How so?
Encounters with Jesus
In our own minds, we all know how to respond perfectly in each situation. It’s easy to hear a story about someone who responded to a situation poorly and to know instinctively, “they should have done this instead.” But we all know that real life and real relationships don’t work this way. Depending on our context, our frame of mind, and even the time of day, we respond in a host of different ways. You probably don’t need to think about the distant past to recall a time when you responded poorly to a friend, spouse, or child.
Relationships are never static, they are dynamic. Living. You don’t get to choose once and for all that you will be kind to your spouse. That’s a great decision to make, but it’s a decision that must be made moment by moment. Every married person vows on their wedding day to be loving to their spouse, but that is simply one in an endless stream of moments in which they will have to choose love over anger, bitterness, apathy, or rejection.
The same is true of our relationship with Jesus. Without a face to face encounter of some kind, we can’t enter into a living relationship. We have to collide with him, so to speak, and then we must choose how we will respond.
In this session, you will read Matthew 8:14–9:13. In these chapters, we see many different responses to Jesus. For example, we see:
· Ambivalence: Some people want to follow Jesus in theory, but aren’t truly committed (8:18–22)
· Worship: The disciples worship Jesus after seeing his power (8:23–27)
· Rejection: Some villagers send Jesus away when he demonstrates his power (8:28–34)
· Allegiance: Matthew leaves everything behind and follows Jesus (9:9)
· Disgust: The Pharisees are disgusted by the people Jesus associates with (9:10–13)
In this section, there’s already a buzz about Jesus. He is doing impossible things, and people are talking about him. So when they actually have an encounter with Jesus, how will they respond? As you read, pay attention to their responses and try to evaluate your own response.
1. Read Matthew 8:14–9:13. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?
2. Which responses to Jesus do you resonate with? Why do you relate to the way those people responded?
3. Which responses to Jesus do you find baffling? Why is that response difficult for you to relate to?
Challenging Would-Be Followers
In Matthew 8:18–22, people come up to Jesus and state their desire to follow him. But Jesus pushes them to consider what they’re really saying. Following Jesus isn’t done in principle, it happens in the real decisions and pursuits of daily life. It’s easy for us to be “on board” with Jesus until it actually costs us something. Until there’s something we are called to give up. When following Jesus presents us with an obstacle, how will we respond to him?
Calming a Storm
In Matthew 8:23–27, Jesus gives his followers a glimpse of his true power by calming a storm. What had been a moment of true fear turned into a moment of awe. Here they saw irrefutable proof of Jesus’ power over the natural world. The disciples were overcome with a sense of Jesus’ transcendent power, and their response was to worship him. When we get a glimpse of Jesus’ true power, how will we respond to him?
Casting Out Demons
In Matthew 8:28–34, Jesus sets two demonized men free from their spiritual oppression. The men are liberated, but the demons rush into a herd of pigs and destroy them. The villagers who arrive on the scene respond by rejecting Jesus when they see what he is capable of.
This story shows people who do not deny Jesus’ power—just as with the calming of the sea, Jesus’ true nature is on display. But these villagers don’t care about the people Jesus is helping. Rather than seeing men being set free from the power of darkness, they see Jesus wasting time on a couple of menaces and they become angered that Jesus allowed their pigs to be destroyed. They don’t love the people, they’re grieved over the loss of money. So they reject Jesus on these grounds. They didn’t doubt his power, but they didn’t want anything to do with the things that Jesus cared about.
This type of response carries a warning for those who closely observe Jesus’ activity. Within the Church, could we be those people who see Jesus, who recognize what he can do, and yet want nothing to do with the things that Jesus cares about? What would Jesus do if he were leading our church? And how would we respond to that? Do we really think we would not resist what Jesus would want to do? How he would want to direct our resources? Are we sure we wouldn’t ultimately reject him?
Eating with Tax Collectors and Sinners
In Matthew 9:9–13, we see two responses to Jesus. Matthew responds by giving Jesus his allegiance. But when the Pharisees see Jesus eating with Matthew and his outcast friends, they respond in disgust and outrage. The Pharisees are grossed out because they don’t care about the people before them. Sitting back and being disgusted is the luxury of the bystander, the observer. But Jesus loves people, so rather than sitting back in disgust and casting judgment, he lovingly enters into their mess. Relationship leads us into the mess. So as Jesus leads us to cross paths with those the world considers gross or unacceptable, how will we respond?
4. As people reject Jesus in these stories, what do you think they’re actually rejecting?
5. As people are drawn to Jesus in these stories, what do you think they’re actually drawn to?
Keep Responding
These categories are not firmly set. We tend to flow in and out of these different responses to Jesus. Jesus has our allegiance until he doesn’t. We find ourselves worshiping him until we find ourselves disgusted by someone he loves or something he pursues.
Following Jesus is continual. It’s moment by moment. If you find yourself discouraged by your response to Jesus, you have another opportunity now and every moment to embrace him. If you have been resting on your response to him in the past, recognize that you’ll need to continue responding.
6. Based on your encounters with Jesus—either your experiences with him recently or cumulatively up to this point in your life—how are you responding to him now?
7. Spend some time in prayer. Thank God for the encounters you’ve had with Jesus. Pray for the grace to respond in loving devotion as he continues to give you encounters.
Key Question
Based on your encounters with Jesus—either your experiences with him recently or cumulatively up to this point in your life—how are you responding to him now?