WEBVTT 00:00:02.619 --> 00:00:06.019 Welcome to Season 3 of Love & Context. This season, 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:08.640 we're exploring the life of Jesus, step -by -step, 00:00:08.779 --> 00:00:11.140 and uncovering what His story teaches us about 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.919 loving God and others. Here on Love & Context, 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:16.059 we're all about having real conversations about 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:18.140 how to live out that love in practical, everyday 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:20.199 ways, and understanding the Bible in its full 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:22.820 context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:28.660 into Season 3 of Love & Context. Welcome back 00:00:28.660 --> 00:00:33.420 to the Love and Context podcast. It's a podcast 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:36.920 where Ben sings the words. Pretty sure that Jingle's 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.500 copyright wrote somewhere. I don't think so. 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:43.429 No, I don't think so. I think it is. It's unique. 00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:45.170 We're going to get sued now. It's unique. It's 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:47.729 unique to my brain. I guarantee that the melody, 00:00:47.789 --> 00:00:50.530 it could be used, but the words were not used. 00:00:50.609 --> 00:00:52.609 I don't think that anybody has ever written one 00:00:52.609 --> 00:00:54.329 about the love and context. Oh, my thing with 00:00:54.329 --> 00:00:56.450 music, when I've talked to people about it, I 00:00:56.450 --> 00:00:58.329 was like, there's nothing new under the sun anymore. 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:01.179 Every chord progression's pretty much been used 00:01:01.179 --> 00:01:04.620 at this point. Yeah. So a little tidbit here. 00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:06.819 By the way, welcome. I'm Ben and this is Spencer. 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:09.140 You jumped right into our conversation about 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:11.640 Jesus. Doesn't it sound like Jesus? But before 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:16.819 we get there, recently Ed Sheeran was being copyright 00:01:16.819 --> 00:01:19.280 sued. And his defense, he took his guitar in 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:22.099 and he went and played like a medley of like 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:24.659 45 different songs that used the exact same chord 00:01:24.659 --> 00:01:28.349 progression. Nice. And he's like, if you... copyrighted 00:01:28.349 --> 00:01:30.969 chord progression, you're going to lose a lot 00:01:30.969 --> 00:01:36.189 of music. So it was a really brilliantly well 00:01:36.189 --> 00:01:40.069 done thing. Nice. So we're in Life of Jesus. 00:01:40.189 --> 00:01:42.569 Yes, we are. And so last week we talked about 00:01:42.569 --> 00:01:44.950 the Gospels. The Gospels are written with different 00:01:44.950 --> 00:01:48.819 perspectives for different reasons. Yes, there 00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:50.400 are different people telling the same story, 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:52.719 Luke having a collection, John being written 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:55.900 after the fact, responding to some issues in 00:01:55.900 --> 00:02:00.000 the church. Yeah, you could say that. But I think 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.400 the thing we always want to remember when we're 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.000 looking at the Gospels is they're written with 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.920 intention, with purpose, and they're not always 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:08.539 written just the way that we'd be like, I'm going 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:10.340 to write down a history of exactly what happened. 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:13.500 They are what happened, but they're written... 00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:16.349 for us to, like, to reveal something to us, right? 00:02:16.469 --> 00:02:20.150 Like, that's how Jewish writing is. And it's 00:02:20.150 --> 00:02:22.689 not American writing, and thank goodness, because 00:02:22.689 --> 00:02:25.509 I'm not sure that I could handle the Gen Z version 00:02:25.509 --> 00:02:29.849 of the Bible. You text it to me almost every 00:02:29.849 --> 00:02:35.849 day. Yeah, I know I do. There is a fun thing 00:02:35.849 --> 00:02:38.849 that you can do. So we have a friend who sends 00:02:38.849 --> 00:02:41.150 us Bible passages every day, which, by the way... 00:02:41.319 --> 00:02:43.240 be that friend. That's a good friend. Right. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.840 And, uh, I start, I started playing around with 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:47.379 it and I would take what he sent me and then 00:02:47.379 --> 00:02:49.719 I would add it to chat GBT and I would have it 00:02:49.719 --> 00:02:53.919 recreated in exaggerated Gen Z. Okay. So it's 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:56.560 not just like Gen Z. I said, please exaggerate 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:58.439 Gen Z. And I was like, make it more over the 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:01.780 top. And, uh, I sent it to him and he responded 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:04.639 with, that is exactly what my daughter sounds 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:09.469 like. And I said, well, if that's the case, what 00:03:09.469 --> 00:03:11.810 he should start doing is taking her text messages 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:14.550 and putting it in ChatGPT and asking it to decipher 00:03:14.550 --> 00:03:16.469 it for him. He thought that was a good idea. 00:03:16.689 --> 00:03:20.189 Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to start at the beginning 00:03:20.189 --> 00:03:22.430 with Jesus. So where do you start at the beginning? 00:03:24.550 --> 00:03:29.340 Matthew 1. Genealogies. Yep. Everybody's favorite 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:32.460 thing. I know so many people who wake up in the 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:33.560 morning and they're like, you know what I'm going 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:35.240 to do in the Old Testament? I'm going to read 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:38.219 some genealogies. Pastor Nick is one of those. 00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:41.199 He gets up and he's like, I'm going to read all 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:44.259 these names. One of these days, he's going to 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:46.419 get fed up with us making fun of him, not being 00:03:46.419 --> 00:03:48.120 able to pronounce Hebrew names, and he's going 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:51.259 to go study and study and study. And then he's 00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:53.580 going to get up on stage and preach and get everyone 00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:55.879 right. Everyone right. And here's the thing. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:58.719 Spencer and I will actually congratulate him 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:00.860 because I love that. Yeah. I love that journey 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:04.979 for him. Yeah, yeah. I will mess him up day in 00:04:04.979 --> 00:04:07.780 and day out, and I'm good with that. All right, 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:11.539 so. There are two genealogies in the Gospels. 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:13.819 One is in the Gospel of Matthew, and one is in 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:18.019 the Gospel of Luke. Yep. The one in Matthew is 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.800 going to be focusing largely on Jesus as fulfillment 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:22.379 of prophecy. He's going to be talking about Messiah, 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.819 son of David, son of Abraham. It's going to be 00:04:25.819 --> 00:04:28.139 like, and as we've said, Matthew is going to 00:04:28.139 --> 00:04:30.160 be the most Jewish of the Gospels. So he's going 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.180 to kind of be focusing in on these ideas of Jesus 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:38.259 as Moses, Jesus as Abraham, Jesus as David. And 00:04:38.259 --> 00:04:41.019 it's going to be coming up periodically. And 00:04:41.019 --> 00:04:43.459 another interesting thing that's in there, and 00:04:43.459 --> 00:04:45.860 by the way, I took this from Brad Gray in Walking 00:04:45.860 --> 00:04:48.439 the Text. He pointed it out originally is that 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:52.879 it's actually divided into groups of 14. I don't 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:54.259 know if you know that. It doesn't actually quite 00:04:54.259 --> 00:04:56.560 work out that way, but the numbers are there 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:59.240 to represent something else for us. There's 14 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:04.509 generations. And then the last piece. In Matthew's 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:07.269 genealogy that we love to point out, which we 00:05:07.269 --> 00:05:10.949 talked in depth on in our Women in Ministry last 00:05:10.949 --> 00:05:14.870 season, is that God includes, and Matthew includes, 00:05:15.029 --> 00:05:19.350 awkward stories and women in his genealogy. Yeah. 00:05:19.670 --> 00:05:22.810 He is like, hey, you know those messy stories? 00:05:22.870 --> 00:05:25.790 Speaking of the friend that texts us Bible passages, 00:05:25.910 --> 00:05:31.069 that's him right now. Yep. Matthew says, hey, 00:05:31.209 --> 00:05:33.029 you know those awkward stories that you definitely 00:05:33.029 --> 00:05:34.769 don't want told around the Thanksgiving table? 00:05:36.589 --> 00:05:38.810 Let's talk about those right at the beginning. 00:05:38.889 --> 00:05:42.329 The good news of Jesus Christ to the world and 00:05:42.329 --> 00:05:47.689 the Jewish people. Let's talk about murder. Let's 00:05:47.689 --> 00:05:50.490 talk about prostitutes. And so there's these 00:05:50.490 --> 00:05:53.939 stories that are being included in here. I was 00:05:53.939 --> 00:05:55.519 actually having a conversation with a friend 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:58.100 of mine and she's reading the Bible largely for 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:00.500 the first time. And she said that, she's like, 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:02.959 man, there's a lot of violence in here. And I 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:05.399 said, yeah. I was like, because the Bible actually 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:08.279 reflects reality and what people are actually 00:06:08.279 --> 00:06:11.180 like. Yeah. And it doesn't try to hide away from 00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:12.839 those things, but talks about God's redemptive 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:14.800 work in the middle of it. And she's like, oh, 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.420 well, that's cool. She's like, this makes a lot 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:22.509 more sense now. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So 00:06:22.509 --> 00:06:25.899 that's Matthew. Luke, on the other hand, is going 00:06:25.899 --> 00:06:28.920 to be tracing Jesus' lineage back to Adam. And 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.620 rather than connecting him just with the Hebrew 00:06:32.620 --> 00:06:35.120 story, he's going to take him back and go all 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:36.439 the way and try to connect him with the story 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:40.800 of humanity. Right? And it's highlighting Jesus 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.860 as the son of God through Adam. Also, you should 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:46.899 notice that they actually track different sides 00:06:46.899 --> 00:06:49.680 of the lineage. Yeah. So that is, by the way, 00:06:49.699 --> 00:06:51.360 some people have difficulty when they're reading 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:53.120 those genealogies and they're like, they're not 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:55.800 the same at all. They're not. Yeah. Everybody 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:57.939 has two parents. I don't know if you know that. 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:03.079 They do. And also, your parents had two parents 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:06.399 that come from two different families. So you 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:08.259 can track genealogies a lot of different ways. 00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:11.740 That's why we usually use a tree. Yeah. Yeah. 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:14.819 And the linear fashion of tracking genealogies 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:17.360 in this day and age, just in case anybody's confused, 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:21.300 is that you would track via your father's side. 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:25.120 Yeah. So in my case, I would say I'm Spencer's 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.079 son of Ed, who's son of so -and -so, who's son 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:30.100 of so -and -so, who's son of so -and -so. And 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.180 so you're just tracking the male line on the 00:07:32.180 --> 00:07:34.740 father side. Yeah. But you could branch that 00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:38.139 off at any time, right? Right. So the fact that 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:41.980 you do have women like Ruth, Tamar, Mary all 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:45.500 mentioned in Matthew's genealogy is actually 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:48.199 very significant. Yeah. And Matthew's kind of 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:50.740 follows more of what I'm going to call it a legal. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:54.279 in that it's tracking through the fathers for 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:56.740 the most part. But it is talking about the fathers 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:58.199 beginning, beginning. It's tracking in a way 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:00.060 that Jewish heritage culture would understand. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:01.639 Yeah, in the way that they would understand. 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:04.040 Whereas Luke is going to be more just like a 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:07.019 biological. And so it's not necessarily going 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:10.259 to pivot in the same way. Are you saying Matthews 00:08:10.259 --> 00:08:12.300 isn't biological? Yes, that's what I'm saying. 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:15.540 Somebody will snip that out and be like, see, 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:18.379 they're already disagreeing, right? But genealogy 00:08:18.379 --> 00:08:20.860 and Eastern cultures don't just serve as a biological 00:08:20.860 --> 00:08:23.980 record, to the point. They serve theological 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:27.160 reasons. They serve legal reasons. They're societal 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:30.139 purposes. I am the son of this person who's the 00:08:30.139 --> 00:08:32.639 son of this person, tracking back all the way 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.919 to your tribe, which, by the way, is a great 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:37.799 idea in general, knowing where you come from. 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:42.700 Yeah. Like, I don't know how often not knowing 00:08:42.700 --> 00:08:45.419 where you come from and things that have happened 00:08:45.419 --> 00:08:47.139 in your past come back to bite people in their 00:08:47.139 --> 00:08:49.259 life. Well, we've talked about knowing your story 00:08:49.259 --> 00:08:52.070 on this podcast quite a bit. Like, I mean, that's 00:08:52.070 --> 00:08:55.350 not a topic we shy away from, but you do want 00:08:55.350 --> 00:08:56.970 to know where you come from. You do want to know 00:08:56.970 --> 00:08:59.649 your story. You don't want to shy away from talking 00:08:59.649 --> 00:09:01.690 about mistakes because that's actually how you 00:09:01.690 --> 00:09:04.450 learn and you grow and you become better. Yeah. 00:09:04.690 --> 00:09:08.169 And so if you make mistakes, that's okay. Like, 00:09:08.210 --> 00:09:11.230 but the point is not to stay, not to keep living 00:09:11.230 --> 00:09:15.710 into those mistakes. Yeah. Right. So some fun 00:09:15.710 --> 00:09:17.090 things I was looking up here. I'm just going 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:20.269 to read some of these things here about Eastern 00:09:20.269 --> 00:09:23.409 genealogy. So not even just talking about Israel, 00:09:23.529 --> 00:09:28.389 right? Genetic records can actually skip generations. 00:09:28.870 --> 00:09:31.470 Sometimes they group names symbolically or they 00:09:31.470 --> 00:09:34.149 emphasize certain ancestors over others, right? 00:09:34.610 --> 00:09:36.330 Matthew does the opposite. He puts out the ones 00:09:36.330 --> 00:09:39.049 that they probably want to avoid. So that's important. 00:09:40.539 --> 00:09:42.259 One of the things that I thought was really interesting 00:09:42.259 --> 00:09:44.899 is in Deuteronomy, we talked about leave a right 00:09:44.899 --> 00:09:47.480 marriage. So, like, if your brother dies and 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:49.179 you don't produce an heir, he doesn't produce 00:09:49.179 --> 00:09:51.399 an heir, a lot of times the brother would come 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:52.980 and produce an heir so that the woman would have 00:09:52.980 --> 00:09:57.620 protection, right? Well, that makes... Who technically, 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.440 like, do you belong to, right? Because legally... 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:04.740 You belong to the one who died, but biologically 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:06.500 you belong to the one who actually sired you, 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:09.720 right? And so there's those conversations. And 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.960 you could actually identify with either one. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:15.960 In the case of Jesus, there was no biological 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.879 father. Hopefully that's not a spoiler alert 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.559 for anybody. No biological father is the Holy 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:24.159 Spirit. Yep. I just, I think the Lee Wright thing 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:25.879 is kind of an interesting thing that you don't 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:28.039 really think about. You're like, oh, I'm tracking 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:32.159 my lineage. And then this is where Uncle Nick, 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:34.419 I'm just going to take on him again. Uncle Nick 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:37.220 stepped in and. It's really fun because we know 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:41.480 he actually listens to this. My uncle Nick, he 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:43.879 stepped in and he produced an air for my aunt 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.720 Beatrice. That sounds like a good name. Okay. 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:49.320 That's definitely a good Hebrew name, Beatrice, 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:52.620 right? Totally. Yeah, totally. Totally. Yeah, 00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:55.059 you're very far off a Hebrew name there. Yeah. 00:10:55.820 --> 00:10:59.539 So this is why Matthew and Luke both start with 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.340 genealogies. Genealogies are really important. 00:11:02.899 --> 00:11:06.840 It's actually more of an indication that Mark 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:09.120 and John aren't written directly to Jewish people. 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:11.700 That they don't start with genealogies. Yeah. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:17.639 Yeah. Uh, Jewish, the Jewish culture is very 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:22.059 big on heritage. And so, yeah, I was, for some 00:11:22.059 --> 00:11:24.379 reason you said heritage and I, I heard, um, 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.480 I, I heard a heresy and I'm like, I'm like, that 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:29.139 doesn't, I was like, well, they're also big on 00:11:29.139 --> 00:11:32.340 that. So yeah. Yeah. They are big on that too, 00:11:32.419 --> 00:11:35.450 but they also don't like it. Nope. But they are 00:11:35.450 --> 00:11:38.269 very big on heritage and tradition, knowing where 00:11:38.269 --> 00:11:41.809 you come from. And so you can't, I mean, you 00:11:41.809 --> 00:11:44.110 can't have a gospel written to a Jewish audience 00:11:44.110 --> 00:11:47.350 without having some sort of genealogy. Yeah. 00:11:47.970 --> 00:11:51.169 So this is the genealogy. 14 generations, 14 00:11:51.169 --> 00:11:54.509 generations, 14 generations. Jesus' connection 00:11:54.509 --> 00:11:56.570 to humanity, Jesus' connection to the Hebrew 00:11:56.570 --> 00:11:59.509 story. So this is all before Jesus shows up. 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:05.419 Before he shows up in physical form. So Mary 00:12:05.419 --> 00:12:09.320 is engaged to be married to Joseph. And if you 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:11.600 followed the channel or followed the podcast 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:13.320 for any period of time, you know that Jewish 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:16.679 weddings are not like American weddings. Things 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:19.539 are just different. So we're going to kind of 00:12:19.539 --> 00:12:23.919 do a high -level recap of this idea. So in a 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.259 Jewish culture or Eastern culture in general, 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:28.779 a lot of times the parents are going to make 00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:31.159 a match. Right. Or communities are going to make 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:33.899 a match. Yep. And they're going to say, I think 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:36.139 that you would pair really well with you and 00:12:36.139 --> 00:12:38.879 you're going to be really good together. And 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:42.090 then provided that the people agree. then the 00:12:42.090 --> 00:12:45.769 son goes and he is, you're engaged for roughly 00:12:45.769 --> 00:12:48.269 a year, roughly a year. And I say roughly a year 00:12:48.269 --> 00:12:51.350 because it varies depending on the father. But 00:12:51.350 --> 00:12:54.070 for the father, the son will go and he will actually 00:12:54.070 --> 00:12:56.509 add on to his house for his future wife. And 00:12:56.509 --> 00:12:58.629 from the moment that they are betrothed, they're 00:12:58.629 --> 00:13:01.730 actually considered married. The ceremony, it 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:04.529 takes place like. Let's just say a year, because 00:13:04.529 --> 00:13:06.230 that's going to be helpful. It takes place a 00:13:06.230 --> 00:13:08.950 year later, but from the moment that the woman 00:13:08.950 --> 00:13:11.389 accepts the invitation, she accepts the betrothal, 00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:14.210 they're actually considered married. But they 00:13:14.210 --> 00:13:19.590 have not consummated a marriage. It is a legal 00:13:19.590 --> 00:13:23.110 marriage at this point. And they're still living 00:13:23.110 --> 00:13:25.570 separate lives. Correct. It's not like they're 00:13:25.570 --> 00:13:27.590 living together or anything at this point. Correct. 00:13:27.809 --> 00:13:32.200 The wife would... still be living with her family, 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.299 getting ready for the consummation, and the husband 00:13:35.299 --> 00:13:39.179 would be adding on to his father's house so that 00:13:39.179 --> 00:13:40.899 she could be brought in as part of his family. 00:13:41.220 --> 00:13:45.059 And if you live in separate, I'm going to call 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:48.519 them townships. Townships? You're not living 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.259 in the same township suddenly. That's going to 00:13:50.259 --> 00:13:52.620 happen after the consummation, after the wedding 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:55.120 party. So that's actually going to be really 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.120 important later. Just pin that in your mind because 00:13:58.120 --> 00:13:59.960 later Jesus is going to use a lot of wedding 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:03.039 talk to talk about the kingdom of God. So the 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:04.299 son's going to go. He's going to build onto the 00:14:04.299 --> 00:14:07.440 house. And when the father says, hey, you've 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:10.139 done a good job. We now have what we need for 00:14:10.139 --> 00:14:13.200 you to bring your bride into the house. You go 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:14.840 back and you get her. And then you're going to 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:16.480 go and then there's going to be a party. Usually 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:20.230 people know. It's a week -long festival. They 00:14:20.230 --> 00:14:22.250 consummate the marriage. The best man gets to 00:14:22.250 --> 00:14:26.149 take the sheet and prove that the claim was correct. 00:14:26.470 --> 00:14:28.889 I'm being very vague here for listeners who might 00:14:28.889 --> 00:14:33.470 be. That is quite the job for the best man, by 00:14:33.470 --> 00:14:35.389 the way. You get to stand outside and be like, 00:14:35.490 --> 00:14:39.549 all right, go show this to the father. The father 00:14:39.549 --> 00:14:44.490 of the bride. It is actually really interesting, 00:14:44.669 --> 00:14:47.700 though, this whole idea of, presenting it as 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:51.299 a virgin, right? Is that Paul is actually going 00:14:51.299 --> 00:14:53.200 to make mention of this in his letters. And he 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:56.460 says that we couldn't produce a bloody cloth. 00:14:56.600 --> 00:14:58.379 Like he's going to use this analogy, right? Yeah. 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:01.279 Because we're broken. We have been broken by 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:04.440 sin. We've been broken by death. Jesus on our 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:06.779 behalf produces this bloody cloth for us. And 00:15:06.779 --> 00:15:08.600 we were like, oh, it's a gross image. I was like, 00:15:08.620 --> 00:15:10.840 no, it's a beautiful image because it means it's 00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:13.259 actually like Jesus is restoring us to something 00:15:13.259 --> 00:15:15.360 that we can never attain. I love how you're like, 00:15:15.419 --> 00:15:17.120 I'm going to be vague, and then you went into 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:19.820 specifics. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I've decided 00:15:19.820 --> 00:15:23.740 at this point, like, I'm just not going to listen 00:15:23.740 --> 00:15:26.860 to myself. It was just great. You're like, I'm 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:28.679 just going to be vague to those who are listening 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:31.340 that you explained it. So good job. Well, I thought 00:15:31.340 --> 00:15:32.899 about it, and I was like, there's no way to really 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:35.419 talk about these other cool things, these images 00:15:35.419 --> 00:15:38.299 that are drawn, because I think it's inappropriate 00:15:38.299 --> 00:15:42.279 in our culture, or maybe... It's different. It's 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:44.179 different. Whereas if we're talking about their 00:15:44.179 --> 00:15:46.379 culture. So I think we kind of just dive in. 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.659 So if you are sensitive to those things, just 00:15:48.659 --> 00:15:50.340 understand we're talking about a different culture 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:54.799 on purpose. And I will continue to give misleading 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.480 information about what I'm going to talk about. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:03.860 So they're legally married. And it was in this 00:16:03.860 --> 00:16:09.080 time that the angel comes to talk to Mary. And 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:10.820 we're actually going to read that passage. This 00:16:10.820 --> 00:16:13.419 is Matthew 1, starting in verse 18. This is how 00:16:13.419 --> 00:16:15.860 Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother Mary was 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:18.559 engaged to be married to Joseph, but before the 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:20.419 marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:22.480 she became pregnant through the power of the 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:26.519 Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:29.620 was a righteous man who did not want to disgrace 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:32.679 her publicly, so he decided to break off the 00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:58.370 engagement quietly. All this occurred to fulfill 00:16:58.370 --> 00:17:01.669 the Lord's message through the prophet. Look. 00:17:02.330 --> 00:17:04.769 A virgin will conceive a child, she will give 00:17:04.769 --> 00:17:07.410 birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, 00:17:07.529 --> 00:17:11.430 which means God with us. All right, so you go, 00:17:11.569 --> 00:17:13.230 well, Ben, you just said that they're legally 00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:15.190 married. Why does this say engaged to be married? 00:17:15.289 --> 00:17:17.089 Because the translators are trying to translate 00:17:17.089 --> 00:17:19.730 the idea to us, not necessarily how it works 00:17:19.730 --> 00:17:22.410 in Jewish culture, right? This is why going back 00:17:22.410 --> 00:17:24.230 to Hebrew and Greek and cultural studies matters, 00:17:24.369 --> 00:17:27.690 right? So for all intents and purposes, it is 00:17:27.690 --> 00:17:30.859 they are married. And Joseph is not choosing 00:17:30.859 --> 00:17:33.039 to end an engagement. He is choosing to divorce 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:37.980 his wife. Both of which would be the appropriate 00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:41.220 thing to do. In fact, there's a lot of conversation 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:43.339 about how that's actually a very gracious thing 00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:48.799 to do. Because in a very real way, Joseph has 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:50.700 been wronged, or he thinks he's been wronged. 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.640 And instead of holding her accountable to the 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:58.740 city's judgment, to the court, the religious 00:17:58.740 --> 00:18:01.339 court, he is instead of holding her accountable 00:18:01.339 --> 00:18:02.940 where she could actually be taken out, she could 00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:04.319 be stoned, she could be punished, she could be 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:06.759 a lot of different things. He is choosing to 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:10.119 divorce her quietly, endure the shame, but protect 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:13.460 her. And bring shame upon his family. Correct. 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:15.779 Because he's not going through the proper avenues. 00:18:16.220 --> 00:18:19.369 So what does that tell you about Joseph? He's 00:18:19.369 --> 00:18:21.930 a guy who understands the kingdom of God, right? 00:18:22.509 --> 00:18:25.029 Like when you're wronged, you're like, listen, 00:18:25.150 --> 00:18:27.549 I'm not going to partner with you, but I'm also 00:18:27.549 --> 00:18:29.130 not going to bring more shame to you. And I'm 00:18:29.130 --> 00:18:30.650 willing to take some of that shame to protect 00:18:30.650 --> 00:18:37.829 you. Yeah. Right? So Mary and Joseph are in this 00:18:37.829 --> 00:18:39.730 really weird position, which we've talked about 00:18:39.730 --> 00:18:43.289 before, where they have to, in observance of 00:18:43.289 --> 00:18:46.450 God's command, like they get to be the parents 00:18:46.450 --> 00:18:48.819 of... Jesus. So that's really cool. Right. I 00:18:48.819 --> 00:18:50.779 want to stress like everything that they're giving 00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:54.579 up is absolutely worth what they get. Yeah. But 00:18:54.579 --> 00:18:58.819 nobody knows that Jesus is the Messiah until 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:01.259 after he comes back from the dead and on a very 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:03.279 real level. Like of course he tells people and 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:05.259 people have suspicions. He tells them over and 00:19:05.259 --> 00:19:06.480 over, but they don't really understand what that 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:08.539 means until he comes back from the dead. So what 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:12.839 does that mean? That for 35 years in the case 00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:16.400 of Mary and however long that Joseph lived, They 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:18.920 were going to live with the shame of an out -of 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.500 -wedlock baby. And this conversation, this whispering 00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:23.400 that's happening around the, hey, I don't know 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:25.900 if you know, Mary got pregnant and Joseph wasn't 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:29.319 even in town. No, no, he's not divorcing her. 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:33.460 Nope, nope, no, he's going to marry her. And 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:36.039 so you can only imagine this conversation that's 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:39.380 going on, right? That doesn't stop once the baby's 00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:42.220 born. No. It's not going to stop once he's a 00:19:42.220 --> 00:19:44.660 boy. It's not going to stop once he has other 00:19:44.660 --> 00:19:47.250 kids. Like this is an honor and shame culture. 00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:49.009 This is going to be with them their entire life. 00:19:49.670 --> 00:19:51.710 And so, yes, they are parents to the almighty 00:19:51.710 --> 00:19:57.950 made flesh. But they are also in that walking 00:19:57.950 --> 00:20:00.710 in shame for the rest of their life. And it's 00:20:00.710 --> 00:20:03.230 not a cursory decision. And I love that angels 00:20:03.230 --> 00:20:05.869 show up twice for them, once for each of them. 00:20:06.390 --> 00:20:08.630 Each person gets a conversation as they're called 00:20:08.630 --> 00:20:12.279 to obey. And all too often we act like the community 00:20:12.279 --> 00:20:15.619 around Mary and Joseph, right? Where someone 00:20:15.619 --> 00:20:19.059 may have made some mistakes in the past or may 00:20:19.059 --> 00:20:21.319 be living in a way that doesn't look quite right 00:20:21.319 --> 00:20:25.319 to you. And you could potentially hold that over 00:20:25.319 --> 00:20:28.599 them, whether on purpose or on accident. But 00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:30.440 you could potentially be that person who's like, 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:34.900 hey, did you hear about this? Yeah. Right? You 00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:38.019 could be that person to where Ben could be like, 00:20:38.140 --> 00:20:42.119 hey, did you hear that Spencer? Did you hear 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:44.119 that Ben wasn't going to talk about the wedding 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:46.880 night? And then he totally did. Yeah, right? 00:20:47.019 --> 00:20:51.140 And you could be that person. Yeah. And the reality 00:20:51.140 --> 00:20:54.359 is it's all too easy to be that person. What's 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:58.180 more difficult is to shut up and actually be 00:20:58.180 --> 00:21:02.480 like, you know what? Jesus loves them. And I'm 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:03.859 going to figure out how to be there for them. 00:21:04.539 --> 00:21:10.839 Yeah. I think there's this difficulty, and I've 00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:13.059 said this quote on the podcast multiple times, 00:21:13.220 --> 00:21:18.859 when people reject Jesus because of his teaching, 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:21.680 that's to be expected. But when people reject 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.660 Jesus because of us and the way that we act, 00:21:23.779 --> 00:21:27.140 that's sin. Yeah. Right. And there's this, this 00:21:27.140 --> 00:21:29.259 thing about when we follow Jesus that there, 00:21:29.339 --> 00:21:31.220 and when you actually live out his commands, 00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:34.059 which is like selfless love, right. Um, it's 00:21:34.059 --> 00:21:36.599 sacrificial love. It is yes. Holding, holding 00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:39.059 truth to power. Right. And, and holding like, 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:42.140 uh, standing in, in the face of injustice through 00:21:42.140 --> 00:21:45.079 non -aggression. Right. Um, there's a lot of 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:47.480 things that, that are really difficult about 00:21:47.480 --> 00:21:50.000 being Christian, um, standing in the middle of 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:52.819 chaos, but not fighting. Yeah. Allowing God to 00:21:52.819 --> 00:21:55.839 fight your battles. Yeah. Right. Forgiving people 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:59.539 who've definitely wronged you and who may never 00:21:59.539 --> 00:22:04.599 repent. Yeah. Like this is, this is the, like 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:08.079 there is a lot of, of shame that we could potentially 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:11.539 carry. Yeah. In following Jesus, especially from 00:22:11.539 --> 00:22:13.400 our community and the people who whisper about 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:17.559 us. The question is, is having Jesus in your 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:21.119 life worth the shame? Yeah. And I think the answer 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:25.079 is a resounding yes. Right? But each person has 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:28.480 to decide whether or not they're going to live 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.079 true to who Jesus is, regardless of what shame 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:33.680 has brought. Yeah. And I can't make that decision 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:37.740 for you. But I will tell you that if you make 00:22:37.740 --> 00:22:40.319 that decision, what you get in the transaction 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:44.000 is worth way more than what you give. 100%. You 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:49.720 know? I do like that there's some parallels here 00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:54.700 that I just had brought out that Mary and Joseph 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:57.380 both receive an angel's appearance. Mary doesn't 00:22:57.380 --> 00:22:58.940 know what's about to happen. Joseph already knows 00:22:58.940 --> 00:23:00.619 what happened, like he's told afterwards, right? 00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:05.539 Mary is talked to with an angel in a vision or 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:08.220 literally, I don't know whether it was a vision 00:23:08.220 --> 00:23:11.670 or literal, like showed up. Joseph has talked 00:23:11.670 --> 00:23:14.410 to in a dream. And as a person who God tends 00:23:14.410 --> 00:23:16.569 to talk to a lot in dreams, I often wonder if 00:23:16.569 --> 00:23:17.710 that's because that's the only time I'll shut 00:23:17.710 --> 00:23:23.569 up long enough to listen. Right. And that both 00:23:23.569 --> 00:23:25.750 of them are given an option. Both of them are 00:23:25.750 --> 00:23:30.130 given a proposal and Mary demonstrates her faith 00:23:30.130 --> 00:23:33.009 through verbal confirmation. Right. She says, 00:23:33.089 --> 00:23:36.730 let be to me as you have said. Yeah. Joseph demonstrates 00:23:36.730 --> 00:23:40.019 his faith by what he does. And I love that you 00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:41.740 have these two people, one that demonstrates 00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:43.759 what they do, but what they say, and of course 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.579 live through. But Joseph doesn't say anything. 00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:49.900 He just takes her as his wife. Yeah. And he brings 00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:51.759 her in his household and he says, all of your 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:54.299 shame, I'm going to take with you. Yeah. Together, 00:23:54.299 --> 00:23:55.900 we're going to walk this out together. Right? 00:23:56.200 --> 00:23:58.960 And I just love that there's like, what does 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:01.019 faith look like? Yeah. It looks like both of 00:24:01.019 --> 00:24:03.779 those things. Yep. Right? It's not an either 00:24:03.779 --> 00:24:07.299 or. Yeah. It is like, God, you have something 00:24:07.299 --> 00:24:09.720 great planned for me. Sometimes we say, yep, 00:24:09.819 --> 00:24:13.559 I trust you. And sometimes we take a step out. 00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:17.839 Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I have a brother who lives 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:22.380 in the South. South of what? Of the U .S. Okay. 00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:27.460 In the South. And there's this wonderful phrase 00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:29.920 that gets thrown around in the South that means 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:31.539 the opposite of what they're actually saying. 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:36.359 Okay. And that is, bless your heart. Right? For 00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:38.140 anybody from the South who's listening, I love 00:24:38.140 --> 00:24:40.420 you. Don't worry. But really, really what we're 00:24:40.420 --> 00:24:42.799 hearing when we hear bless your heart is that 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:44.759 you're judging me for something. If I get nasty 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:46.720 emails, I'm forwarding them to you. Great. Please 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:50.480 do. Please do. Or that I tried really hard. That 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:53.720 is Spencer McDowell. Or that I tried really hard 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:55.559 at something, but it didn't work out. So you're 00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:58.000 like, bless your heart because you didn't do 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:01.519 it exactly how I would have done it. Right. Right. 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:05.180 We can twist things around to where it's perceived 00:25:05.180 --> 00:25:07.119 like, okay, well, they're doing the best they 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.980 can, but really we're casting judgment. Right. 00:25:10.099 --> 00:25:15.420 And I was talking to a friend who deals a lot 00:25:15.420 --> 00:25:18.619 with depression the other day, and this is going 00:25:18.619 --> 00:25:20.759 to sound a little weird. I'm just going to preface 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:23.079 this. Listen, if we haven't driven them off by 00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:25.519 now, they'll probably be fine. It's going to 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:27.400 sound a little weird. And I was just asking, 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:29.420 I was like, what's one of the worst things you 00:25:29.420 --> 00:25:31.700 hear when people are trying to help you out in 00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:34.180 this? And he's like, oh, it's when they say, 00:25:34.220 --> 00:25:37.259 oh, I'll pray for you. And I was like, okay, 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:39.859 expand on that. And he was like, well, he's like, 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:42.140 good heart. They're praying for me. Love that. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:45.400 He's like, but what it also says is that you 00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:47.660 don't have the time or energy to actually understand 00:25:47.660 --> 00:25:52.730 what I'm going through. And it hit me. I was 00:25:52.730 --> 00:25:58.890 like, oh. Right. I was like, okay. And so we 00:25:58.890 --> 00:26:01.390 can use these phrases in good intent, right? 00:26:01.849 --> 00:26:04.170 But they can still cause damage to those around 00:26:04.170 --> 00:26:08.589 us. And that's why taking the time to sit, listen, 00:26:08.789 --> 00:26:13.670 and be there for people is huge. Right. Well, 00:26:13.869 --> 00:26:18.529 so to your point, Joseph hears and he obeys. 00:26:18.529 --> 00:26:21.900 Yep. And it's not a one -time decision. No. That 00:26:21.900 --> 00:26:23.700 decision is going to affect everything that happens 00:26:23.700 --> 00:26:25.880 for the rest of his life. And it brings shame 00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:29.480 upon himself. Right? Like him saying, yes, I'm 00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:32.900 going to stay with Mary. Just open the doors 00:26:32.900 --> 00:26:35.319 for all the judgments of other people to come 00:26:35.319 --> 00:26:39.220 in and be like, yo, did you hear? And I'm not 00:26:39.220 --> 00:26:40.460 doubting that he's going to have a conversation. 00:26:40.539 --> 00:26:42.460 He says, God talked to me in a dream. He said 00:26:42.460 --> 00:26:46.720 he did this. It would probably sound as crazy, 00:26:46.759 --> 00:26:48.660 well, probably less crazy in their time than 00:26:48.660 --> 00:26:52.960 it does in ours. Yeah. Because, like, I mean, 00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:56.279 you take the exact same story, right? And you 00:26:56.279 --> 00:27:00.519 put it into the modern context. And you say, 00:27:00.660 --> 00:27:03.079 and you ask a guy named Joseph, and you said, 00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:04.779 why did you stay with Mary? He said, well, God 00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:06.400 came in a dream, and he told me that the baby 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:14.700 was from him. Right? Okay. Well, we do the same 00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:16.900 thing, though, where we hear people say, well, 00:27:16.920 --> 00:27:18.599 the Lord's really put this on my heart, and I 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:23.140 need to go do this. And it's like, are you sure? 00:27:23.460 --> 00:27:27.160 And again, that's the judgmental side coming 00:27:27.160 --> 00:27:30.259 in versus saying, hey, let's actually look at 00:27:30.259 --> 00:27:33.599 that and explore that. I will say the one time 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:36.640 that I was like, I doubt that this is the case, 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:38.079 is when someone came up to me. He's like, the 00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:40.640 Lord's really put it on my heart to. create a 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:42.940 YouTube channel where we hypnotize people so 00:27:42.940 --> 00:27:45.000 that they believe in Jesus. And I was like, I 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.180 doubt that. Yeah. So there's actually scripture 00:27:49.180 --> 00:27:51.359 about not trying to coerce people, right? You 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:57.599 know? Yeah. So, but I guess the point I'm making 00:27:57.599 --> 00:28:00.539 here is that it is way more powerful to actually 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:02.839 be willing to sit with someone in their shame 00:28:02.839 --> 00:28:06.000 than it is to walk away and say, I hope the best 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:10.160 for you. Yeah. So these are Jesus' parents, and 00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:12.440 we wanted to take some time early on in the life 00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:15.359 of Jesus to talk about, they're pretty cool people, 00:28:15.420 --> 00:28:18.819 right? Yeah. Because it's really important that 00:28:18.819 --> 00:28:23.740 we realize that, because for, there's conversation 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:27.420 here, but Jesus was born a baby. Yeah. Okay? 00:28:27.500 --> 00:28:29.579 He had to grow up. He had to learn how to talk, 00:28:29.619 --> 00:28:31.940 how to eat, how to, you know, everything that 00:28:31.940 --> 00:28:34.230 you can think of that you have to do. Which means 00:28:34.230 --> 00:28:36.190 his parents are going to be his teachers for 00:28:36.190 --> 00:28:41.029 a lot of things. And so if you are God the Father 00:28:41.029 --> 00:28:43.009 and you're looking for people who are going to 00:28:43.009 --> 00:28:45.849 raise you slash your son, because the Trinity 00:28:45.849 --> 00:28:50.650 makes all of our brains boil, right? In a way 00:28:50.650 --> 00:28:54.390 that is going to allow him to continue to bring 00:28:54.390 --> 00:28:55.849 kingdom to earth and all these different things, 00:28:55.930 --> 00:28:58.049 you're looking for people who are sold out to 00:28:58.049 --> 00:29:00.619 kingdom ideals. People who are willing to cover 00:29:00.619 --> 00:29:02.839 shame of other people. People who are willing 00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:05.319 to bear bad marks against their name for a greater 00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:08.759 cause. Because a lot of what we see in Jesus' 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:11.299 life is he's okay with people saying bad things 00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:14.660 about him when he goes to talk to prostitutes 00:29:14.660 --> 00:29:17.500 and sinners and tax collectors. Where do you 00:29:17.500 --> 00:29:22.799 think he gets that from? I would submit that 00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:24.599 maybe he knows a little bit about what it's like 00:29:24.599 --> 00:29:28.210 to be outcast. And to see people who faithfully 00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:30.869 love God and want to be a part of what God is 00:29:30.869 --> 00:29:33.849 doing that are looked down on because of something 00:29:33.849 --> 00:29:38.089 that they did. And he says, I'm going to come 00:29:38.089 --> 00:29:40.609 have dinner with you. Let's talk about what God's 00:29:40.609 --> 00:29:44.450 kingdom really looks like. Yeah. Right? So Jesus 00:29:44.450 --> 00:29:46.769 is born in a city of Bethlehem, but they're not 00:29:46.769 --> 00:29:51.410 in Bethlehem at the point when Mary gets pregnant, 00:29:51.509 --> 00:29:54.880 right? So how do they end up in Bethlehem? Well, 00:29:55.039 --> 00:29:58.519 good thing you asked, dear listener. They totally 00:29:58.519 --> 00:30:02.099 did ask. I heard it. In the future, when we post 00:30:02.099 --> 00:30:04.000 this, I heard them talk into the past. There 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:08.339 is a census that is taken by the Roman Empire. 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:10.579 It's a Roman census. In fact, that's how we know 00:30:10.579 --> 00:30:13.960 where to date Jesus' birth. It says that Caesar 00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:17.180 Augustus ordered a census. Now, what a census 00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:20.279 required is that you had to go to your hometown. 00:30:21.579 --> 00:30:23.859 Okay, so where is there, it's not necessarily 00:30:23.859 --> 00:30:25.500 where you live in, it's your ancestral town. 00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:28.740 So Joseph had to go to Bethlehem because he was 00:30:28.740 --> 00:30:32.079 from the lineage of David. Yep. Now, one of the 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:35.119 things I love about the fact that they're going 00:30:35.119 --> 00:30:38.420 to Bethlehem is Bethlehem means house of bread. 00:30:39.660 --> 00:30:50.859 And isn't it foretelling that the... Bread of 00:30:50.859 --> 00:30:56.400 life is born in the house of bread, right? Jesus 00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:58.880 is all about that carbivore diet. Oh, yeah, I 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:02.160 said that. You did. That was really bad. You're 00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:08.900 welcome. Really bad. Yeah. So it's not, by the 00:31:08.900 --> 00:31:10.619 way, the census, by the way, is not just a bureaucratic 00:31:10.619 --> 00:31:11.880 measure where they're like, hey, I wonder how 00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:13.839 many people we have. It has to do with taxation. 00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:17.599 Rome wanted its money. Yeah. Right? So they have 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:20.400 to go from Nazareth, which later he's going to 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:21.940 come back to Nazareth because that's where Joseph 00:31:21.940 --> 00:31:25.180 had actually been living. But they have to go 00:31:25.180 --> 00:31:27.440 from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and it's about 90 00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:31.880 miles for them to travel. I don't know how many 00:31:31.880 --> 00:31:34.079 of you have had a pregnant wife or been pregnant, 00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:38.259 if you're fortunate enough to have birthed a 00:31:38.259 --> 00:31:41.619 child, right? How do you feel about going 90 00:31:41.619 --> 00:31:47.259 miles pregnant? I'm not really one to speak on 00:31:47.259 --> 00:31:50.319 this. My wife downhill skied all the way through 00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:52.579 eight months of pregnancy and would still go 00:31:52.579 --> 00:31:55.420 on hikes and still do all the crazy things that 00:31:55.420 --> 00:31:57.180 people are like, are you sure you should be doing 00:31:57.180 --> 00:31:58.599 that? And I was like, you're welcome to tell 00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:01.160 her no if you want to because I'm not going to. 00:32:01.380 --> 00:32:04.640 So I can't really... I think 90 miles is difficult 00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:08.339 also when you think desert too because the Northwest, 00:32:08.619 --> 00:32:10.220 because you guys have lived in the Northwest, 00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:14.269 is a lot more pleasant for hiking than... In 00:32:14.269 --> 00:32:17.670 the middle of the desert. Yeah. And also 2 ,000 00:32:17.670 --> 00:32:19.630 years ago when you can't have access to any of 00:32:19.630 --> 00:32:23.650 the cool stuff we have now. Right? Yeah. I just 00:32:23.650 --> 00:32:27.009 can't imagine that you want to do it. But Joseph 00:32:27.009 --> 00:32:29.690 and Mary likely not traveling alone because a 00:32:29.690 --> 00:32:31.490 bunch of people have to go back to Bethlehem. 00:32:31.609 --> 00:32:34.029 Yeah. And also it's just unlikely that two people 00:32:34.029 --> 00:32:35.690 are going to travel alone in general because 00:32:35.690 --> 00:32:39.329 of bandits and being slow and dangerous. Yeah. 00:32:39.369 --> 00:32:41.650 It's just going to be a bad situation if they 00:32:41.650 --> 00:32:44.910 have to travel by themselves. So they make this 00:32:44.910 --> 00:32:48.470 journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and they 00:32:48.470 --> 00:32:52.470 go in, and there's no room anywhere to stay, 00:32:52.589 --> 00:32:55.950 which makes sense because everybody's having 00:32:55.950 --> 00:32:59.390 to go back to their hometown. There is some conversation 00:32:59.390 --> 00:33:03.950 to be had here about scholarship. They always 00:33:03.950 --> 00:33:05.690 say that there's no room at the inn. The problem, 00:33:05.789 --> 00:33:08.619 the word with inn is not a commercial inn. Um, 00:33:08.819 --> 00:33:10.779 it actually would have to do with like your closest 00:33:10.779 --> 00:33:13.140 relative. There's no room in their main room 00:33:13.140 --> 00:33:14.759 likely because they already have somebody there 00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:17.420 with them. And so what they do is they have them 00:33:17.420 --> 00:33:19.740 stay in their separate room, which is where you 00:33:19.740 --> 00:33:22.940 keep the animals. Um, because the desert is really 00:33:22.940 --> 00:33:24.480 hot in the day, but it's really cold at night. 00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:26.259 You actually have a room that's connected to 00:33:26.259 --> 00:33:27.859 your house. It was where you keep your animals. 00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:30.640 And it's just a very different culture than ours. 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:33.339 Um, if you have a goat, if you have a, you know, 00:33:33.359 --> 00:33:35.789 whatever. you want to make sure that they live 00:33:35.789 --> 00:33:37.549 because that's your source of money, that's your 00:33:37.549 --> 00:33:40.849 source of production. So you're going to keep 00:33:40.849 --> 00:33:44.069 them a lot closer, just like we would keep, you 00:33:44.069 --> 00:33:45.529 have your musician, you keep your guitar in the 00:33:45.529 --> 00:33:48.549 house. You may not keep it in your bedroom, but 00:33:48.549 --> 00:33:49.869 you do keep it in the room connected to your 00:33:49.869 --> 00:33:57.210 bedroom. And so they're at this inn, which is 00:33:57.210 --> 00:33:59.150 likely connected to somebody's house because 00:33:59.150 --> 00:34:01.589 it's not a commercial inn. They're at this stable. 00:34:03.470 --> 00:34:06.369 That is somebody's house and they're in the room 00:34:06.369 --> 00:34:08.090 with their animals, which would have not been 00:34:08.090 --> 00:34:09.409 a terrible room, but what definitely would have 00:34:09.409 --> 00:34:14.210 been messy. And Jesus is born in this awkward, 00:34:14.289 --> 00:34:19.250 like back room. Yep. And he's placed in a, not, 00:34:19.329 --> 00:34:21.269 not a conventional major. Like we kind of, we 00:34:21.269 --> 00:34:22.849 kind of envisioned because a lot of things are 00:34:22.849 --> 00:34:24.050 built out of stone. So it would have been like 00:34:24.050 --> 00:34:26.969 a stone basin almost, uh, was where they would 00:34:26.969 --> 00:34:29.469 put their food. And Jesus is placed in this stone 00:34:29.469 --> 00:34:35.880 basin. And, uh, That's how the king of the world 00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:41.639 comes in, right? And the gospels don't hide this. 00:34:41.780 --> 00:34:45.920 In fact, they trumpet it. It's so funny when 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:48.079 you have this idea of like, if you read ancient 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:50.440 histories and you read the euangelions, the good 00:34:50.440 --> 00:34:55.480 news of whatever, the gospels of Herod the Great, 00:34:55.619 --> 00:34:58.760 the gospels of Caesar Augustus, the gospels of 00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:02.579 Alexander the Great, they're like... They were 00:35:02.579 --> 00:35:06.840 born in a storm and they arose and the baby, 00:35:06.940 --> 00:35:09.440 you know, there's like these fantastic tales. 00:35:11.340 --> 00:35:14.960 And now you have God made flesh and he's born 00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:19.900 in this backwater village in this back room and 00:35:19.900 --> 00:35:24.539 placed into a feeding tray. Yep. That's beautiful, 00:35:24.679 --> 00:35:28.320 right? Because that's going to usurp everything 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:32.659 you think you know about power is wrong. And 00:35:32.659 --> 00:35:37.760 God's going to show you. Yeah. Right? Yep. So 00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:40.420 there are prophecies that linking Bethlehem here. 00:35:40.519 --> 00:35:42.460 In fact, this is going to be a topic that we 00:35:42.460 --> 00:35:45.019 talk about when we talk about the Magi, right? 00:35:45.260 --> 00:35:49.800 That come. In Micah 5 .2, it says, You, O Bethlehem, 00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:52.760 Ephrathah. Wow, I should not make fun of Nick 00:35:52.760 --> 00:35:54.760 because I definitely did not pronounce that right. 00:35:55.079 --> 00:35:58.460 What was that? Yeah, Ephrathah. Okay. Who are 00:35:58.460 --> 00:36:01.519 too little to be among the clans of Judah. From 00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:04.559 you shall come forth for me one who is to be 00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:07.920 ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from the 00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:11.039 old, from the ancient of days. And so a lot of 00:36:11.039 --> 00:36:13.880 people had connected this prophecy from Micah 00:36:13.880 --> 00:36:16.159 to this messianic figure who's going to fulfill 00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:19.599 God's covenant with Israel. Yeah. Right? We talked 00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:22.340 about that this is known as the city of David. 00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:24.280 By the way, if you want to look up that place, 00:36:24.619 --> 00:36:27.119 it's the birthplace of King David. 1 Samuel 16 00:36:27.119 --> 00:36:30.750 .1 is where that is talked about. I just... I 00:36:30.750 --> 00:36:32.869 love, I do love that connection. Like we were 00:36:32.869 --> 00:36:34.909 talking about house of bread. Jesus is the bread 00:36:34.909 --> 00:36:36.949 of life because in John six 35, he's going to 00:36:36.949 --> 00:36:39.170 say, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to 00:36:39.170 --> 00:36:41.150 me, she'll never hunger. Whoever believes in 00:36:41.150 --> 00:36:43.510 me, she'll never thirst. And it talks about how 00:36:43.510 --> 00:36:46.150 Jesus is this ultimate source of spiritual sustenance. 00:36:46.269 --> 00:36:50.550 Yeah. And, and by the way, um, bread, water, 00:36:50.630 --> 00:36:55.550 talking to a desert people, Exodus on their mind, 00:36:55.610 --> 00:36:59.010 right? I'm the bread that came from heaven. Yeah. 00:36:59.389 --> 00:37:02.489 Manna. Right? There's all these connections that 00:37:02.489 --> 00:37:05.929 Jesus is drawing on. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem 00:37:05.929 --> 00:37:10.110 actually, it really seems almost like this manna 00:37:10.110 --> 00:37:12.289 that fell from heaven. Like Jesus is this provision 00:37:12.289 --> 00:37:15.949 in the middle of a dry, thirsty place. He's this 00:37:15.949 --> 00:37:17.809 provision that's actually going to give them 00:37:17.809 --> 00:37:21.090 what they need to live with God in the desert. 00:37:22.349 --> 00:37:25.349 And I can't think of a time in Israel's history, 00:37:25.429 --> 00:37:29.190 maybe Babylonian captivity, where they were, 00:37:30.799 --> 00:37:35.019 Under the same type of oppression. Yeah. Because 00:37:35.019 --> 00:37:36.539 Babylon, they're conquered. They're taken off 00:37:36.539 --> 00:37:39.900 into captivity. But in Rome, they're at home, 00:37:39.960 --> 00:37:42.440 but they're being taxed to death. Mm -hmm. And 00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:47.500 their culture and their purpose and their identity 00:37:47.500 --> 00:37:53.659 is slowly being congealed into Rome. Yeah. And 00:37:53.659 --> 00:37:56.599 in the middle of this, Jesus comes. Mm -hmm. 00:37:57.159 --> 00:38:00.929 Manna from heaven. Yep. It's a cool story. It 00:38:00.929 --> 00:38:05.510 is. So that brings us to the close of this episode. 00:38:07.489 --> 00:38:10.409 So we are going to be continuing through the 00:38:10.409 --> 00:38:14.539 life of Jesus. In case you didn't listen to last 00:38:14.539 --> 00:38:16.920 week's episode, we are going to be kind of bouncing 00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:19.840 around from one gospel to another. Correct. And 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:23.280 so just know that it's not going to be a straight 00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:25.340 walk through Matthew, then Mark, then Luke, then 00:38:25.340 --> 00:38:27.179 John. We're going to be kind of tying some of 00:38:27.179 --> 00:38:28.539 these stories together, looking at some of the 00:38:28.539 --> 00:38:30.460 differences, similarities, so on and so forth. 00:38:30.900 --> 00:38:35.719 So join us next week as we continue. The life 00:38:35.719 --> 00:39:09.360 of Jesus. Exactly. Take care. and Facebook at 00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:11.559 love .com love and context. Be sure to hit that 00:39:11.559 --> 00:39:13.139 follow button and join our growing community. 00:39:13.579 --> 00:39:15.360 Thanks for being part of the love and context 00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:17.579 family. Remember love is at the heart of it all 00:39:17.579 --> 00:39:20.280 until next time. Keep seeking wisdom, embracing 00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:22.420 love and living out your faith in today's world.