WEBVTT 00:00:02.600 --> 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 00:00:08.640 --> 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 --> 00:00:28.469 into Season 3 of Love & Context. welcome back 00:00:28.469 --> 00:00:32.009 to the love and context podcast the love and 00:00:32.009 --> 00:00:36.289 context podcast i feel like you ripped that jingle 00:00:36.289 --> 00:00:39.869 off of somebody nope that's the second time you've 00:00:39.869 --> 00:00:42.210 accused me of that sometimes i just have music 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:44.490 in my heart spencer it had a little bit of like 00:00:44.490 --> 00:00:47.369 the the tail end of uh spongebob squarepants 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:49.109 feel to it well i wouldn't actually know that 00:00:49.109 --> 00:00:51.090 i didn't watch spongebob it's something that 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:54.939 i get harassed about plenty because uh in uh 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:57.240 my age gap apparently like everybody watched 00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:01.420 spongebob and i'm like cool i didn't uh yeah 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:03.179 my daughter went through a very quick phase of 00:01:03.179 --> 00:01:05.439 like i'm gonna watch spongebob and we put a kibosh 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:07.260 to that pretty quick not because i don't have 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:09.180 anything against spongebob other than the theme 00:01:09.180 --> 00:01:12.019 song where i'm like dear lord just stop just 00:01:12.019 --> 00:01:14.079 stop you don't want to live in a pineapple under 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:17.260 the sea No. Okay. That's fair enough. We are 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:19.680 in the life of Jesus and you've been with us 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:21.900 for a while. And it's actually kind of funny 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:23.659 because I think we actually have a bunch of episodes 00:01:23.659 --> 00:01:25.760 we've recorded out of order. So when I go in 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:28.799 and edit them, hopefully like people don't notice. 00:01:28.859 --> 00:01:30.799 But if you're like, man, last few weeks, we feel 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:33.930 like we've had continuity errors. We did. Yeah. 00:01:34.030 --> 00:01:37.750 We've had some continuity. Ben and I have had 00:01:37.750 --> 00:01:39.629 some scheduling conflicts the last couple months, 00:01:39.730 --> 00:01:43.390 so it's been a little harder to find time. But 00:01:43.390 --> 00:01:45.569 we're making it work. What is that whole thing 00:01:45.569 --> 00:01:47.849 about adulthood? Stupid adulthood. You know, 00:01:47.870 --> 00:01:51.010 something about bills. You gotta pay bills. You 00:01:51.010 --> 00:01:54.209 gotta, you know, yeah, there's a whole lot. So 00:01:54.209 --> 00:01:56.650 where we left off last time we talked, Jesus 00:01:56.650 --> 00:01:59.689 was in the temple. He was having this conversation. 00:01:59.870 --> 00:02:01.329 Les and I had this conversation about Jesus having 00:02:01.329 --> 00:02:03.489 this conversation with the people in the temple 00:02:03.489 --> 00:02:07.030 and they're, they're leaving. And, uh, and then, 00:02:07.109 --> 00:02:09.629 then it says that Jesus, uh, grew in both stature 00:02:09.629 --> 00:02:11.889 with, uh, grew in favor and stature with both. 00:02:12.389 --> 00:02:16.710 Sorry. He grew in favor and stature. Nope. That's 00:02:16.710 --> 00:02:19.550 not it. You said favor and stature three times. 00:02:19.550 --> 00:02:21.289 I know. I'm going to say favor and stature so 00:02:21.289 --> 00:02:23.729 many times. Um, what's the word you're looking 00:02:23.729 --> 00:02:28.039 for? He grew in wisdom and stature. And favor 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:29.659 and wisdom with both God and men. I thought stature 00:02:29.659 --> 00:02:31.580 was the one you were messing up. Yeah, I thought 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:33.300 stature was the one I was messing up. Here's 00:02:33.300 --> 00:02:36.340 the thing. I need people to know that I say things 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:40.460 badly, so I'm leaving all this in. Perfect. And 00:02:40.460 --> 00:02:42.139 I call him out every time he does. When you're 00:02:42.139 --> 00:02:44.500 wondering why Spencer is sometimes laughing mid 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:46.960 -frame when you turn on to YouTube, it's probably 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:48.900 because I didn't say something right like 50 00:02:48.900 --> 00:02:52.020 times in a row. And then I have to pull my actor 00:02:52.020 --> 00:02:56.460 face on, which I don't have at all. So Jesus 00:02:56.460 --> 00:03:00.159 goes home with Mary and Joseph, and then we don't 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:02.599 hear from him again until he's baptized by John 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:04.280 the Baptist, right? We don't hear from him again. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:08.500 And that's 18 years. So from 12 to 30 and 31, 00:03:08.659 --> 00:03:10.199 I don't know, somewhere around that age is when 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:11.740 Jesus is going to be stepping into his ministry. 00:03:12.740 --> 00:03:13.819 Historically, traditionally, they're going to 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:17.319 say 30. And so the thing is, while the gospels 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:18.919 don't talk about anything happening during that 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:22.349 time, that doesn't mean nothing happened. that 00:03:22.349 --> 00:03:24.530 nothing is happening during that time. So we're 00:03:24.530 --> 00:03:25.750 going to have one episode where we're going to 00:03:25.750 --> 00:03:28.009 talk about the world that Jesus is stepping into 00:03:28.009 --> 00:03:31.669 at this time. Can we put a little disclaimer 00:03:31.669 --> 00:03:34.189 on this? So we are going to be pulling a lot 00:03:34.189 --> 00:03:39.689 from context. And there's not a lot of scripture 00:03:39.689 --> 00:03:42.110 we can pull from. No, this is literally like 00:03:42.110 --> 00:03:44.030 the scripture we're going to pull from. Book 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.449 of Second Opinions, Second Genesis, Third Revelation. 00:03:47.689 --> 00:03:50.310 So this context we're going to pull from is... 00:03:50.560 --> 00:03:56.039 Also, very hotly debated as well. And so if you're 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:57.479 listening to this and you're like, I don't know 00:03:57.479 --> 00:03:58.919 if I fully agree with that or I heard somebody 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:00.719 say something else or blah, blah, whatever it 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:04.080 is, we're going with what we know, what we feel, 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:06.979 and what we think sounds right and best fits 00:04:06.979 --> 00:04:10.039 the day and age based on what we know. Now, with 00:04:10.039 --> 00:04:12.900 that said, if you have more insight, please let 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:15.439 us know, and we would love to hear that. You 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.959 can send those letters to Spencer McDowell. Care 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:22.399 of. I only accept smoke signals. Smoke signals. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:25.180 That's all I accept. Oh, man. That's so good. 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:28.600 All right. So one of the first things we want 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:30.779 to talk about is this idea of Jesus as a carpenter. 00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:33.860 So from 12 to 30, it's likely that Jesus would 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:35.480 have picked up some of the trades of his father, 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:39.480 Joseph, who the word is actually tekton, which 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:41.720 doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't work 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:43.879 with wood. It's just not going to be exclusively 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:47.319 wood. Yeah. Yeah. Tectons are, especially if 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:49.399 you've ever been in the Middle East, there's 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:52.839 a lot more stone than there is wood. That doesn't 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:54.540 mean that you wouldn't work on wood. It just 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:56.139 means that the majority of what you're going 00:04:56.139 --> 00:04:58.360 to be building is made out of stone. Well, and 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:00.259 it's really interesting how we pull theological 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:03.000 context out of our surroundings. Because like 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.399 you and I grew up Washington, Alaska, or that's 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:08.560 where we've been, right? I have often been to 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:11.540 Washington, Alaska. I grew up Washington. I live 00:05:11.540 --> 00:05:14.360 in Alaska. You grew up Alaska. You lived in Washington. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:17.040 But right. Like when you hear carpenter, you 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:19.920 don't think stonemasonry. You think wood because 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:23.000 lumber is just everywhere. Yeah. Well, I'm actually 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.480 that. And also my mom listened to the carpenters 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.259 when she was young. So I also have those songs 00:05:28.259 --> 00:05:31.699 in my head that are not applicable at all. But 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:34.740 totally. But but we can often pull from our surroundings 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:36.759 and be like, oh, he was a carpenter. So and then 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:38.819 we think of cutting down a hundred foot tall 00:05:38.819 --> 00:05:40.660 spruce tree or something like that and shaping 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:43.139 that. Yeah. And shaping that. Where you go to 00:05:43.139 --> 00:05:44.699 other parts of the world, it's really important 00:05:44.699 --> 00:05:47.540 to actually, I mean, if you don't travel there 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:49.740 to at least pull up pictures or videos of these 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:51.620 parts of the world, because you'll notice that 00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:54.680 Jerusalem and Israel, that whole surrounding 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:56.779 area, while there are trees, there are canyons, 00:05:56.779 --> 00:05:58.800 there are ravines, like the size of their trees 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.060 are a lot smaller, right? You're not going to 00:06:01.060 --> 00:06:02.879 get big lumber beams out of it. What you're going 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:06.399 to get is you're going to get. stone you're going 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:09.959 to get uh particularly a lot of sandstone and 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:12.959 limestone and you're also i mean this goes back 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:14.560 to egypt but you're also going to see a lot of 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:16.220 things made out of like mud brick yeah right 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:18.879 like that's that's a normal thing and uh be shaping 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:20.420 it in and they're also not having to worry about 00:06:20.420 --> 00:06:22.500 like where we live it's a ton of rain they're 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:24.339 not getting a ton of rain that i mean you do 00:06:24.339 --> 00:06:27.819 want it to be because you do get rain but they're 00:06:27.819 --> 00:06:30.790 not getting you know, dozens and inches of rain. 00:06:30.870 --> 00:06:32.509 Like they're getting some rain and it usually 00:06:32.509 --> 00:06:35.269 turns into flash floods in their area. Yeah. 00:06:35.410 --> 00:06:38.529 And, uh, yeah. So there is a, um, there is a 00:06:38.529 --> 00:06:40.350 really good couple episodes on the Baymall podcast 00:06:40.350 --> 00:06:41.709 where they're talking about different trees, 00:06:41.790 --> 00:06:44.970 um, that like a rodent bush, um, a tamarisk tree, 00:06:45.050 --> 00:06:47.069 which we've talked about in the past. Um, and 00:06:47.069 --> 00:06:48.910 they, so like the wood exists, it's just not 00:06:48.910 --> 00:06:52.189 a regular thing. Um, so Jesus is going and he's 00:06:52.189 --> 00:06:55.850 learning his trade. Um, working with stone, uh, 00:06:56.029 --> 00:06:58.189 from where he grew up, it's, it's possible that 00:06:58.189 --> 00:07:00.189 he and his father would have been involved in 00:07:00.189 --> 00:07:02.750 projects on either Herod Antipas or, uh, some 00:07:02.750 --> 00:07:05.329 of the other Herod's, uh, projects that go on. 00:07:05.410 --> 00:07:07.129 There's like a ton of like palaces and things 00:07:07.129 --> 00:07:09.129 that were being built and they had to pull trades 00:07:09.129 --> 00:07:13.230 people from everywhere. Um, but, um, you, you're 00:07:13.230 --> 00:07:15.949 living in a largely agricultural society. So 00:07:15.949 --> 00:07:18.149 people who are tectons are really incredibly 00:07:18.149 --> 00:07:20.290 valuable because, um, they need to be able to 00:07:20.290 --> 00:07:24.300 having, be able to shape and, um, build practical 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:27.720 things is a big deal. Yes. Um, I actually did 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:30.660 like, um, because they, they, they were doing 00:07:30.660 --> 00:07:32.259 some, there's an episode of the chosen where, 00:07:32.339 --> 00:07:35.600 uh, they have Jesus like making a lock. And, 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:37.399 uh, it's interesting because the lock that they 00:07:37.399 --> 00:07:39.060 actually make is actually a lock from that time 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:40.279 period that was completely made out of wood. 00:07:40.339 --> 00:07:41.899 And it's incredibly ingenious how it actually 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:44.680 works. Nice. Yeah. So that's a random, uh, context 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:47.620 piece from a, uh, the show, the chosen. So you're 00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:52.129 welcome to chosen for all of our. Viewership. 00:07:52.129 --> 00:07:55.230 Yeah. For the two people at whatever. Definitely, 00:07:55.310 --> 00:07:58.529 definitely us. We are helping build them. That's 00:07:58.529 --> 00:08:01.769 what's going on. Yeah. So during this time, there 00:08:01.769 --> 00:08:04.149 is continuing religious tensions. We've talked 00:08:04.149 --> 00:08:07.529 about like this, there's five main responses, 00:08:07.750 --> 00:08:09.910 but there is religious tension going on during 00:08:09.910 --> 00:08:11.209 this time, especially while they're living in 00:08:11.209 --> 00:08:13.829 captivity. And they're like, okay, well, but 00:08:13.829 --> 00:08:16.589 God wants to restore Israel. And they have very 00:08:16.589 --> 00:08:18.970 different opinions about what that means. Yes. 00:08:19.550 --> 00:08:22.430 So we have the Essenes who essentially take over 00:08:22.430 --> 00:08:25.449 the temple worship, but are running the temple. 00:08:25.569 --> 00:08:27.250 Not Essenes. Sorry, I said that incorrectly. 00:08:27.930 --> 00:08:30.990 We have the Essenes who largely rejected what 00:08:30.990 --> 00:08:33.129 was going on with the temple and with Israel 00:08:33.129 --> 00:08:34.970 as a whole, and they run off into the desert 00:08:34.970 --> 00:08:38.389 in Qumran. They withdrew. Yeah. And we are thankful 00:08:38.389 --> 00:08:40.330 to them because we have a lot of Dead Sea Scrolls 00:08:40.330 --> 00:08:44.470 and stuff because of them. You had the Sadducees 00:08:44.470 --> 00:08:46.299 who... were largely responsible for what was 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:48.639 going on in the temple and they, uh, were, were 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.259 set up in, in a large places in the Sanhedrin. 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:54.340 And, uh, but they kind of had this compromised 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:58.139 approach to temple worship, right? Like it became 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:03.220 more of a who status money thing. Yeah. And this 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:05.980 is one of those hotly debated topics, right? 00:09:06.059 --> 00:09:09.179 There are people who like Ben saying kind of 00:09:09.179 --> 00:09:12.500 had this. you know, semi sort of corrupt approach. 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:13.759 And there'll be other people who will be like, 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:16.799 no, a hundred percent corrupt. Um, and so there's, 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:19.200 I'm going to lean on gracious. Yeah. Yeah. There's 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:22.139 debates on the level of corruption. Yeah. But, 00:09:22.139 --> 00:09:24.379 but no debate about corruption, just the level 00:09:24.379 --> 00:09:27.559 of corruption, but there's debates on the level 00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:29.899 of which it was happening. And especially if 00:09:29.899 --> 00:09:31.480 you read some of the things that happened during, 00:09:31.500 --> 00:09:33.360 especially at the time of the Maccabees and the, 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.000 and the uprising, and then they turned the temple 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.340 back over. And essentially, uh, the people that 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:39.559 they overthrew who were desperate, are creating 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:42.100 the temple, they turn right around and basically 00:09:42.100 --> 00:09:44.679 manipulate the temple again. You have the zealots 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:46.279 who are kind of like your guerrilla warfare people, 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:48.679 your people who are seeking revolution through 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:51.200 the edge of a sword. Yep. You have your Herodians 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:53.559 who kind of are just this... You know, we're 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:55.500 going to be Jewish, but mostly we're going to 00:09:55.500 --> 00:09:58.899 be Roman, you know? And then you have the Pharisees 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:00.759 who Jesus interacts with on a regular basis who 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:03.240 are like, we're going to bring the kingdom by 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:06.399 strict adherence to Torah, you know? And so like 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:08.600 you have like these five different, and there's 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:10.080 more than that, but these are like the five main 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:12.519 approaches. But you got like these five different 00:10:12.519 --> 00:10:14.519 approaches and like their perspective and there's 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:17.259 religious tension, especially living in captivity 00:10:17.259 --> 00:10:19.139 where they're arguing and they're fighting and 00:10:19.139 --> 00:10:21.320 they're backbiting. And they're like, well, no, 00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:23.500 like you're the one. keeping the kingdom of heaven 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:26.240 from coming back. It's really interesting because 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:29.659 it's like different approaches that bicker about 00:10:29.659 --> 00:10:32.279 the right or wrong way to go about something. 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:34.340 I don't feel like that's relatable. It is not 00:10:34.340 --> 00:10:39.120 relevant at all. There is no relevance. Well, 00:10:39.179 --> 00:10:40.659 and it's kind of one of those things that reminds 00:10:40.659 --> 00:10:44.440 us that we struggle with the exact same things, 00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:47.460 right? That is almost like the presence of Jesus 00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:49.600 and finding unity in the midst of being his disciple 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.860 is actually what brings the kingdom. Yeah. Right. 00:10:53.159 --> 00:10:55.679 And I'm actually thankful we live in a town that 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:58.740 is very good about being like, hey, we're going 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:01.259 to work together cross denominationally to bring 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:04.100 Jesus to the community, which is amazing. One 00:11:04.100 --> 00:11:07.340 of the things that you will is a is a struggle 00:11:07.340 --> 00:11:10.259 in following Jesus is that unless you are willing 00:11:10.259 --> 00:11:14.480 to find unity with people who you just like not 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:16.440 disagree about everything, but like you are not 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:19.039 the same as. Yeah. Then you're not really going 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:23.190 to understand. a lot of the, the breadth of what 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:25.070 God is doing. Yeah. Because you're, you're going 00:11:25.070 --> 00:11:26.769 to only be able to see what he does in your life 00:11:26.769 --> 00:11:28.330 rather than what he's doing throughout everyone. 00:11:28.909 --> 00:11:31.490 And being in relationship with people who are 00:11:31.490 --> 00:11:33.929 different than you is going to really. Yeah. 00:11:34.450 --> 00:11:36.250 I mean, you think about, we haven't got, obviously 00:11:36.250 --> 00:11:37.830 this is coming up, but Jesus is going to call 00:11:37.830 --> 00:11:39.190 his disciples. And a lot of them are going to 00:11:39.190 --> 00:11:40.970 come from these different backgrounds, you know, 00:11:40.970 --> 00:11:43.690 and some of them are going to be tax collectors. 00:11:45.629 --> 00:11:49.690 How dare those IRS people show up, right? Sorry, 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:52.149 IRS. I'm kidding. We didn't make any money from 00:11:52.149 --> 00:11:56.529 this show. Don't come after us. Oh, man. You 00:11:56.529 --> 00:11:58.470 just set off the algorithm on YouTube. I know. 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:00.549 I know. Maybe it'll increase our viewership, 00:12:00.549 --> 00:12:03.750 right? I don't know. I don't know. And during 00:12:03.750 --> 00:12:05.490 the same time, though, they're having this really 00:12:05.490 --> 00:12:08.190 – the Jewish population is having this really 00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:10.470 – I talked about the Herodians, but they're having 00:12:10.470 --> 00:12:13.129 this Hellenistic influence, like this Greek -Roman 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:16.799 influence. And it's really starting to permeate 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.039 their culture. Well, so they're under Roman influence 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:23.639 right now. And Rome brought a lot of trade through 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:26.639 Jerusalem in particular, or through Jerusalem, 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:31.159 because it was kind of a hub to get over to Asia 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:34.299 Minor at the time and down to Egypt. And so they 00:12:34.299 --> 00:12:36.840 brought a lot of goods through there. So there 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:39.740 was. The other thing that was kind of happening, 00:12:39.860 --> 00:12:41.360 and this is another thing that's kind of debated, 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:43.240 is there's actually a lot of wealth that was 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:45.580 getting poured in from foreign countries into 00:12:45.580 --> 00:12:48.620 Israel at the time. And so this is where this 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:50.940 Hellenistic influence kind of comes from. You 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:53.419 have Greeks coming down. You actually have Persians 00:12:53.419 --> 00:12:57.379 coming over from the east. You have Egyptians 00:12:57.379 --> 00:13:00.940 coming up from the south, all bringing different 00:13:00.940 --> 00:13:05.820 forms of good and currency. Israel was is the 00:13:05.820 --> 00:13:09.220 central hub of a big part of the known world 00:13:09.220 --> 00:13:11.379 at the time and we've talked about how it's literally 00:13:11.379 --> 00:13:15.360 crossroads so Trading if you can actually put 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:17.220 things through the crossroads typically the crossroads 00:13:17.220 --> 00:13:21.039 has a lot of money coming through us spice trading 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:23.159 being the big thing during this time too and 00:13:23.159 --> 00:13:27.440 and so Now on the flip side of that the actual 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:29.940 Jewish people are being taxed up the wazoo and 00:13:29.940 --> 00:13:32.960 like, you know, they make our taxes look tame 00:13:34.939 --> 00:13:37.860 And so you have this place where there is a lot 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:41.899 of money, but you don't have any of it because 00:13:41.899 --> 00:13:45.120 it's going out to Rome. This is where the corruption 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:49.639 comes in, right? This is debated again, the exact 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:52.379 number, but it's estimated somewhere between 00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:55.799 a 50 % and 80 % tax that was levied on Jewish 00:13:55.799 --> 00:14:01.820 people. So getting $0 .20 to $0 .50 on the dollar, 00:14:01.940 --> 00:14:04.909 essentially. Right. If you were working a job 00:14:04.909 --> 00:14:06.950 in America and you got 20 cents on the dollar, 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:12.340 you. we would have a revolution type thing. And 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:16.059 so the tax was so high that farmers in Israel, 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:18.620 they actually couldn't make enough money off 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:21.580 their crops to pay the tax. And so the corruption 00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:25.480 came in where they would stash half away or something 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:28.480 like that and then say, well, I only made such 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.580 and such amount, right? Totally doing the tax 00:14:32.580 --> 00:14:35.659 evasion bid. But they would do that so that they 00:14:35.659 --> 00:14:38.110 could survive. Like, that's a lot of what was 00:14:38.110 --> 00:14:40.289 going on with that taxation. By the way, one 00:14:40.289 --> 00:14:42.870 of the reasons that Jews got really upset with 00:14:42.870 --> 00:14:45.610 tax collectors, especially Jewish tax collectors, 00:14:45.789 --> 00:14:48.409 because the Jewish tax collectors would know 00:14:48.409 --> 00:14:51.090 these things and actually knew how much money 00:14:51.090 --> 00:14:52.789 you had and how much stuff you had brought in. 00:14:53.129 --> 00:14:55.509 And so not only are you, like, you're taxing 00:14:55.509 --> 00:14:57.509 them on everything, you know? And so, I mean, 00:14:57.529 --> 00:14:59.309 there's a lot of reasons that they didn't like 00:14:59.309 --> 00:15:02.529 tax collectors, but this is another reason. And, 00:15:02.529 --> 00:15:05.909 uh, so during that time, you know, it is, uh, 00:15:06.029 --> 00:15:08.590 they all have their distinctive like ideals. 00:15:08.690 --> 00:15:11.129 And so I'm going to zero in on, because Jesus 00:15:11.129 --> 00:15:12.590 is going to spend a lot of time. He's going to 00:15:12.590 --> 00:15:14.409 address all these people and we'll kind of talk 00:15:14.409 --> 00:15:17.450 about them, but just remember Essenes, Sadducees, 00:15:17.450 --> 00:15:20.190 Pharisees, Zealots, and Herodians. All throughout 00:15:20.190 --> 00:15:21.529 Jesus' ministry, we're going to keep referencing 00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:23.389 back to them. And when he, he confronts different 00:15:23.389 --> 00:15:25.830 perspectives, but the people he spends a lot 00:15:25.830 --> 00:15:29.129 of time with is the Pharisees. And, uh, we've, 00:15:29.129 --> 00:15:31.429 we've talked briefly in the podcast before about, 00:15:31.470 --> 00:15:33.950 there is a during the time where they come back 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:37.450 from Babylon they're overtaken by Rome and and 00:15:37.450 --> 00:15:39.389 they're and they're trying to figure out why 00:15:39.389 --> 00:15:41.549 they ended up in captivity and and so a lot of 00:15:41.549 --> 00:15:43.970 their conclusions seem to be about not knowing 00:15:43.970 --> 00:15:46.480 Torah Like not knowing not knowing the word of 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:48.960 God, which I mean, it's not a bad place to start. 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.559 And so they develop a rabbinic schooling system 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:54.940 for all their kids moving forward. And so this 00:15:54.940 --> 00:15:57.899 is going to be across many of the many of the 00:15:57.899 --> 00:16:00.679 different the different responses of Judaism. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:05.940 Yeah. And in the first. three to five years of 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:07.860 school, they're going to memorize Torah, right? 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.220 And then like the kids who are really overachievers 00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:12.879 are going to go beyond that. And the kids who 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:14.840 are even greater than this are going to go on 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:16.539 and follow a rabbi of some sort, which we'll 00:16:16.539 --> 00:16:19.139 talk more about when we get to Jesus. But during 00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:23.019 this time, there are two prominent voices, two 00:16:23.019 --> 00:16:25.940 prominent schools of voices that arise in the 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:27.659 rabbinic conversation. One guy by the name of 00:16:27.659 --> 00:16:29.600 Hillel, which we've talked about before, and 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:33.529 another guy by the name of Shammai. And so Jesus 00:16:33.529 --> 00:16:36.090 is going to step into this. There's eight great 00:16:36.090 --> 00:16:38.889 debates they're having during this time. And 00:16:38.889 --> 00:16:41.269 we've touched on a few of them, but we'll kind 00:16:41.269 --> 00:16:43.009 of just talk through them. But just keep in the 00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:44.250 back of your head as you're watching through 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:45.950 the season, listening through the season, that 00:16:45.950 --> 00:16:48.090 there's eight great rabbinic debates during this 00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:50.450 time that are setting up in the time that Jesus 00:16:50.450 --> 00:16:53.389 is growing up. And it's on the lips of everybody's 00:16:53.389 --> 00:16:55.450 conversation. If you think about in America today, 00:16:55.590 --> 00:16:58.450 we have like the topics that we talk about frequently, 00:16:58.649 --> 00:17:02.679 right? Second Amendment. amendment uh the first 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:05.579 amendment like what encompasses like free speech 00:17:05.579 --> 00:17:07.940 there's these regular conversations that everybody's 00:17:07.940 --> 00:17:10.180 familiar with and jesus is going to step into 00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:13.259 a context and talk about each one that is dividing 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:15.339 their culture at that given period of time and 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:16.779 talk about like what does god actually want us 00:17:16.779 --> 00:17:21.319 to do right and uh and so knowing that he's stepping 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.500 into a context is a really big deal because he's 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:26.519 not just making statements for the sake of making 00:17:26.519 --> 00:17:29.119 statements. And I think one of the places we 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:30.960 can get ourselves in trouble, not necessarily 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:33.779 do, but we can get ourselves in trouble in, uh, 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:37.160 following Jesus is when you read a parable that 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:40.500 he teaches and you're like, well, clearly this 00:17:40.500 --> 00:17:42.660 is what he means without any regard for his context. 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:45.559 Right. Or the, or the scenario, what, like what 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:47.640 they're dealing with around them. Right. Um, 00:17:49.450 --> 00:17:52.450 Understanding context of who Jesus is talking 00:17:52.450 --> 00:17:57.170 to is very key in these moments. Oftentimes, 00:17:57.309 --> 00:18:00.049 the parables are actually directed towards religious 00:18:00.049 --> 00:18:03.670 leaders. Not everyone, but a lot of them are. 00:18:03.930 --> 00:18:07.390 And he's telling them in story format, and he's 00:18:07.390 --> 00:18:09.690 doing this to see if they can connect the dots. 00:18:10.329 --> 00:18:12.369 See if they can be like, oh, this relates back 00:18:12.369 --> 00:18:14.849 to this in Torah. And most of the time they don't 00:18:14.849 --> 00:18:19.829 get it. Yeah. And so you have to understand that 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:23.190 context because that makes the whole parable 00:18:23.190 --> 00:18:25.609 scene come to life. Like a good example of this 00:18:25.609 --> 00:18:27.910 is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Where like, 00:18:28.009 --> 00:18:30.750 I think Brad Gray talks about this, but how the 00:18:30.750 --> 00:18:33.609 road, like we would naturally, like we kind of 00:18:33.609 --> 00:18:35.690 envision a big wide road that you can kind of, 00:18:35.750 --> 00:18:38.549 the road was actually, it'd be like a small trail. 00:18:39.630 --> 00:18:42.650 with a cliff on both sides. So like when you 00:18:42.650 --> 00:18:45.549 hear like, Oh, like one crossed the other side, 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:48.769 that means he likely was stepping over the person. 00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:51.670 Yeah. The person who was beat up and trying to 00:18:51.670 --> 00:18:54.329 get away from him, you know? And so there's, 00:18:54.329 --> 00:18:57.109 there's all these context keys where, where you 00:18:57.109 --> 00:18:59.049 see in that story, it's actually a very close 00:18:59.049 --> 00:19:00.630 encounter for these people. It's not like they 00:19:00.630 --> 00:19:03.049 see this person lying half dead on the road and 00:19:03.049 --> 00:19:06.779 then they avoid them by 50, a hundred feet. Well, 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:08.859 there's also some beyond Brad Gray. There's another 00:19:08.859 --> 00:19:10.619 guy by the name. I think his name is Brad Young. 00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:14.000 He's a he's a Old Testament or a New Testament 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:17.900 teacher. And he talked about that same parable. 00:19:17.900 --> 00:19:19.819 And he said, you know, the the format of that 00:19:19.819 --> 00:19:22.420 is not new. The three different responses that 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:26.740 you have a a. priest, a Levite, and then a third 00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:29.859 party, right? Like that is a very normal story 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:33.180 -like structure that is being used in parables. 00:19:33.579 --> 00:19:36.240 But the parable usually goes a priest, a Levite, 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:39.640 a Pharisee, right? And so then Jesus is having 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:41.599 a conversation with a Pharisee who's arguing 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:43.119 about what does it mean to have grace? And he 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.700 goes, so a priest, a Levite, and they're like, 00:19:45.779 --> 00:19:46.900 oh, I know what's coming next. And he's like, 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:52.109 and a Samaritan. What? What are you doing, Jesus? 00:19:52.849 --> 00:19:55.670 You can almost hear his jaw drop, hear their 00:19:55.670 --> 00:19:57.829 jaw drop during that time. So again, it comes 00:19:57.829 --> 00:20:00.549 back to understanding the context, right? Understanding 00:20:00.549 --> 00:20:03.390 who he's talking to, the context and surrounding 00:20:03.390 --> 00:20:07.400 of what he's talking about. And you pick up all 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:10.299 these little clues that you're like, okay, there's 00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:12.579 more to this story than meets the eye for me 00:20:12.579 --> 00:20:15.440 reading it from an American English perspective, 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:18.460 right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to go over the 00:20:18.460 --> 00:20:20.160 three figures really quick here on very broad 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:21.779 levels. We've talked about them a lot, but there's 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:24.980 an additional figure here. So Hillel, the elder, 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:28.200 lived from about 110 BC to about 10 AD, right? 00:20:28.259 --> 00:20:30.579 So he was a contemporary of Jesus, alive at the 00:20:30.579 --> 00:20:32.359 same time as Jesus, but was not alive during 00:20:32.359 --> 00:20:36.720 his public ministry. And he's known for his compassionate 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:39.799 perspective and also his flexibility in interpretation 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:44.460 of the Torah. Not so strict interpretation. Emphasizing 00:20:44.460 --> 00:20:46.880 love, mercy, deeper meanings of the law. His 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:48.980 most famous teaching that shows up in a lot of 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:51.440 things is, what is hateful to you, do not do 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.640 to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah. The 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:56.359 rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Obviously, 00:20:56.519 --> 00:21:02.980 he didn't say that in English. Yeah. So Jesus' 00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:06.299 teachings are going to mirror a lot of that particular 00:21:06.299 --> 00:21:08.319 thing, but he's also going to disagree with some 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:09.980 of Hillel's teachings. We'll talk about that, 00:21:10.039 --> 00:21:14.059 too. The other guy, Shammai, who was a contemporary 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:17.039 of Jesus, because he was 50 B .C. to 30 A .D. 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:20.400 His approach was much more strict, literal interpretation 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:23.019 of Torah, emphasized ritual purity and separation 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:26.099 from the Gentiles, those dirty Gentiles. And 00:21:26.099 --> 00:21:29.960 Jesus often opposes the rigidity of Shammai's 00:21:29.960 --> 00:21:32.240 teachings, particularly as it debates on divorce 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:36.339 and Sabbath observance, right? That the rigidity 00:21:36.339 --> 00:21:39.980 is not actually serving community. You're having 00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:41.920 rules for the sake of rules, not actually seeing 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.640 the intent behind them, right? Another guy that 00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:48.259 is going to be really important, especially when 00:21:48.259 --> 00:21:50.400 you start listening to Paul, is a guy by the 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:54.039 name of Gamaliel the Elder. He was 20 BC to 50 00:21:54.039 --> 00:21:57.660 AD, and he was the grandson of Hillel and a leading 00:21:57.660 --> 00:22:01.119 Pharisaic teacher in the Sanhedrin. He's most 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:03.319 famous because he advises the Sanhedrin to leave 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:06.480 the apostles alone in Acts 5. He says that if 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:08.380 their movement is from God, you can't stop it. 00:22:08.900 --> 00:22:11.279 And if it is from God, we shouldn't oppose it. 00:22:12.109 --> 00:22:14.049 Um, but if it's not from God, it's just going 00:22:14.049 --> 00:22:16.930 to fizzle out and die, which is a pretty smart, 00:22:17.009 --> 00:22:19.730 you know, thing. Um, it does not work out well 00:22:19.730 --> 00:22:21.650 for the religious leaders that approach, uh, 00:22:22.089 --> 00:22:26.970 oppose them. No. Yeah. And then, uh, there is, 00:22:27.170 --> 00:22:29.529 uh, um, Paul is also going to mention that he 00:22:29.529 --> 00:22:32.630 studied the feet of Gamaliel. Um, so this is 00:22:32.630 --> 00:22:34.589 actually likely the person that Paul studied 00:22:34.589 --> 00:22:38.539 under. Um, I actually don't know how. how common 00:22:38.539 --> 00:22:41.799 the name Gamliel is, but you got to figure it's 00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:44.180 probably the same person. I don't either. I'm 00:22:44.180 --> 00:22:46.619 assuming the same person, but I mean, there very 00:22:46.619 --> 00:22:49.210 well could have been. We've talked about it in 00:22:49.210 --> 00:22:50.369 the past on the podcast, and I'm going to say 00:22:50.369 --> 00:22:53.089 the exact same thing I said last time. I always 00:22:53.089 --> 00:22:55.269 get his name confused with Gargamel from the 00:22:55.269 --> 00:22:58.710 Smurfs. Two very different characters. Two very 00:22:58.710 --> 00:23:01.809 different characters. And then the last person, 00:23:01.809 --> 00:23:04.529 which we talked about... No, actually, we're 00:23:04.529 --> 00:23:06.470 going to talk about next week. Sorry. And one 00:23:06.470 --> 00:23:07.710 other person we're going to talk about next week 00:23:07.710 --> 00:23:09.910 is John the Baptist. And I'm not going to get 00:23:09.910 --> 00:23:11.549 a whole lot into John the Baptist, except that 00:23:11.549 --> 00:23:14.410 he serves as... He's preparing a way for Jesus' 00:23:14.529 --> 00:23:17.089 ministry. So these are very prominent figures 00:23:17.089 --> 00:23:19.950 that are... rising during the time of Jesus. 00:23:20.329 --> 00:23:24.839 Yeah. Right. Other historical figures is like 00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:27.640 Herod the Great has died, who was not great. 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:30.859 We talked about him last year, and he was going 00:23:30.859 --> 00:23:32.619 to kill a bunch of people so that people would 00:23:32.619 --> 00:23:34.500 mourn his death. I think you've said it, and 00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:36.180 I've said it too. If you're going to refer to 00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:38.259 yourself as the great, you're probably not that 00:23:38.259 --> 00:23:39.599 great. Yeah, Spencer actually started calling 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:41.880 himself Spencer the Great. It's not great. No, 00:23:41.980 --> 00:23:43.900 Ben has been trying to get that going in the 00:23:43.900 --> 00:23:47.440 community, and I have shut it down because I 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:50.839 would like to live a life of modesty and a humble 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:54.569 life before the Lord. Oh, man. Listen, there's 00:23:54.569 --> 00:23:56.170 not a single person who's listening to this that 00:23:56.170 --> 00:24:00.309 believes that for a second. Maybe your mom. Maybe 00:24:00.309 --> 00:24:01.970 your mom believes you. She's going to be the 00:24:01.970 --> 00:24:03.990 one that's going to be like, bull crap, bull 00:24:03.990 --> 00:24:09.329 crap. Oh, man. So Herod Antipas is largely in 00:24:09.329 --> 00:24:13.170 charge of the Galilee region. And he is going 00:24:13.170 --> 00:24:15.349 to be the guy who's known for executing John 00:24:15.349 --> 00:24:17.950 the Baptist, right? Yes. But it's because John 00:24:17.950 --> 00:24:20.990 the Baptist came against him for marrying his... 00:24:22.159 --> 00:24:25.220 Yes. Yes. And then a manipulation went a little 00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:27.839 bit of manipulation happened and John lost his 00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:30.680 head. Yeah. You make it sound like he lost his 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:34.700 temper, lost his head. Pontius Pilate is going 00:24:34.700 --> 00:24:36.480 to be talked about at the end, but he is the 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:39.500 prefect of Judea during this time, 26 to 36. 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:43.220 And we talked about that there is just a heavy, 00:24:43.339 --> 00:24:46.660 heavy, heavy, heavy amount of taxation going 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:49.880 on in this period of time. So that's a little 00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:52.619 bit about what's going on there. And then also 00:24:52.619 --> 00:24:54.519 during this time, during the silent years and 00:24:54.519 --> 00:24:55.900 also leading up to the life of Jesus and during 00:24:55.900 --> 00:24:57.940 this time, the main teaching form is going to 00:24:57.940 --> 00:24:59.339 be parables. And we're going to be talking through 00:24:59.339 --> 00:25:02.539 a lot of parables. And so I wanted to just briefly 00:25:02.539 --> 00:25:04.839 talk. We did a few years ago, we did a summer 00:25:04.839 --> 00:25:07.779 series on parables. But we talked about in Jewish 00:25:07.779 --> 00:25:10.180 interpretation, there's four levels of what's 00:25:10.180 --> 00:25:13.329 going on in a parable. Well, a good parable, 00:25:13.329 --> 00:25:16.390 I should say. That doesn't have to go on. But 00:25:16.390 --> 00:25:19.650 in Jewish interpretation, parables are they're 00:25:19.650 --> 00:25:21.750 burying treasure for you to discover because 00:25:21.750 --> 00:25:23.470 they want you to actually discover it yourself. 00:25:23.609 --> 00:25:25.890 They want you to come to these conclusions by 00:25:25.890 --> 00:25:29.490 yourself. Yeah. Um, and, and there's also such 00:25:29.490 --> 00:25:31.549 as something about stories that have a much like 00:25:31.549 --> 00:25:35.589 more staying power too. Yeah. And you also have 00:25:35.589 --> 00:25:37.930 to understand that there were people back in 00:25:37.930 --> 00:25:40.369 this day and age that had been reported at being 00:25:40.369 --> 00:25:43.529 great at telling parables and there's the opposite 00:25:43.529 --> 00:25:48.150 is true as well. And so, um, there was a little 00:25:48.150 --> 00:25:50.910 bit of one of the things that was happening is 00:25:50.910 --> 00:25:53.029 you'd have a group of people who listened to 00:25:53.029 --> 00:25:57.000 parables from not good parable tellers. And a 00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:58.799 lot of these are actually some religious leaders. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:02.380 And so it can be assumed that some of those religious 00:26:02.380 --> 00:26:05.119 leaders probably heard some of Jesus's parables 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:10.140 who of which are excellent. Right. And probably 00:26:10.140 --> 00:26:13.339 lost just didn't understand the meaning. Yeah. 00:26:13.400 --> 00:26:15.839 Because they're not used to an excellent parable. 00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:19.440 Yeah. It is actually one of the things that I 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:23.000 love in modern scholarship is that there are 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.920 like Jewish scholars. So people who don't necessarily 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:28.460 follow Jesus, but like Orthodox Jewish scholars. 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:31.180 Yeah. That they say, oh, yeah, the parables of 00:26:31.180 --> 00:26:35.640 Jesus are just on another level. Yeah. And I'm 00:26:35.640 --> 00:26:39.059 like, would you say they're divine? Just ask 00:26:39.059 --> 00:26:46.579 it. You know, but. How dare you. Um, so, so four 00:26:46.579 --> 00:26:48.960 different levels of, of, uh, interpretation and 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:50.140 there's going to be some argument over this. 00:26:50.220 --> 00:26:52.940 So if you, if you have five levels, great. Awesome. 00:26:53.019 --> 00:26:54.579 If you have three levels, great. We're just going 00:26:54.579 --> 00:26:57.240 to talk through these. Um, and I want to stress 00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:00.240 this is that every single level of the parable 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:03.339 matters, but not one is more important than the 00:27:03.339 --> 00:27:06.240 other. Yeah. Um, so if you have the surface level, 00:27:06.339 --> 00:27:07.799 which is the first one we're gonna talk about, 00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:10.019 it's like the, it's called the Peshat and it's 00:27:10.019 --> 00:27:12.180 the surface level interpretation. It's a basic 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:13.539 thing. When you read the story, you're like, 00:27:14.109 --> 00:27:16.490 I need to love people better. Right. This is 00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:19.029 the surface level, uh, understanding. If you 00:27:19.029 --> 00:27:21.170 lived there, there is enough there for the rest 00:27:21.170 --> 00:27:24.349 of your life. Yeah. Um, you know, if you think 00:27:24.349 --> 00:27:28.490 about, uh, the shot meaning of like a parable, 00:27:28.490 --> 00:27:30.910 like the prodigal son, right. God welcomes sinners 00:27:30.910 --> 00:27:33.910 back with open arms. Yeah. Right. If you've wandered 00:27:33.910 --> 00:27:36.130 away, the father is waiting to run to you to 00:27:36.130 --> 00:27:39.529 bring you home. Right? That's a very surface 00:27:39.529 --> 00:27:42.170 level understanding of that parable. Is there 00:27:42.170 --> 00:27:44.230 more going on? Of course there is. But on a very 00:27:44.230 --> 00:27:47.529 surface level, that's what's going on. Is that 00:27:47.529 --> 00:27:51.470 the father has an immense amount of affection 00:27:51.470 --> 00:27:54.750 for his sons. Yeah. Right? Both of them. Even 00:27:54.750 --> 00:27:57.089 the jerk that doesn't want to come join the party. 00:27:58.430 --> 00:28:00.410 So then you go a little bit deeper to the remes, 00:28:00.410 --> 00:28:05.769 which is like the hint. or a consistent trait 00:28:05.769 --> 00:28:07.990 that you see throughout the parable. And like 00:28:07.990 --> 00:28:10.529 one in the, just picking apart the parable of 00:28:10.529 --> 00:28:12.730 the prodigal son a little bit, is that the same 00:28:12.730 --> 00:28:17.049 invitation was extended to both sons. Yeah. Well, 00:28:17.089 --> 00:28:19.630 and there's also in a remez, sometimes you'll 00:28:19.630 --> 00:28:22.150 have a reference to an Old Testament scripture. 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:23.529 So if we're going to stick with the prodigal 00:28:23.529 --> 00:28:27.210 son, let's talk about Jacob and Esau. There is 00:28:27.210 --> 00:28:29.630 a textual allusion which says when the father 00:28:29.630 --> 00:28:31.529 saw his son when he was a long way off, he ran 00:28:31.529 --> 00:28:33.650 to him, picked him up, kissed him, and brought 00:28:33.650 --> 00:28:36.849 him home, right? In the same text in Genesis, 00:28:37.170 --> 00:28:38.829 and any of the listeners are going to connect 00:28:38.829 --> 00:28:42.240 this to when Esau... sees his brother when he's 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.279 a long way off he runs up he greets him picks 00:28:44.279 --> 00:28:46.700 him up kisses him and and he brings back there's 00:28:46.700 --> 00:28:48.759 a there's a lot of contextual connections especially 00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:51.980 when you start looking in the septuagint um where 00:28:51.980 --> 00:28:55.099 they where you have the turn of the century jews 00:28:55.099 --> 00:28:56.980 like making the greek manuscript the old testament 00:28:56.980 --> 00:29:00.240 and so they're making that connection and so 00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:04.640 um now you have The older brother is supposed 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:06.539 to be the one welcoming the younger brother, 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:09.099 and Jesus is now telling a parable where the 00:29:09.099 --> 00:29:11.240 older brother instead is hanging outside of a 00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:14.640 party. And he's like, listen, Esau wasn't great, 00:29:14.819 --> 00:29:18.299 but he still welcomed his brother back. What 00:29:18.299 --> 00:29:23.700 are y 'all doing? Right? They rejoice. It's not 00:29:23.700 --> 00:29:26.180 a judgment. Y 'all screwed up, but you're welcome 00:29:26.180 --> 00:29:28.240 back. Yeah, and you have the hint on forgiveness, 00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.380 right? The forgiveness of the younger son. In 00:29:31.380 --> 00:29:33.059 the forgiveness of the younger brother. Yeah. 00:29:33.180 --> 00:29:37.299 Right. Because Esau's final words before Jacob 00:29:37.299 --> 00:29:41.619 fled from him before their re -encounter. I'm 00:29:41.619 --> 00:29:43.839 going to kill you. Was like, you're a dead man. 00:29:44.339 --> 00:29:47.740 Right. And so rightfully so, Jacob's probably 00:29:47.740 --> 00:29:50.119 a little apprehensive about meeting his brother. 00:29:50.259 --> 00:29:53.200 Yeah. It's fair. But you have this, the younger 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:55.440 being forgiven and then the younger being forgiven. 00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:58.339 You have these ties. Yeah. And you actually have 00:29:58.339 --> 00:30:01.059 those ties in a few other places too. Yeah. So 00:30:01.059 --> 00:30:03.359 you have the pashat, you have the remes, and 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:05.440 then the next one is a little bit harder to quantify 00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:07.180 in our brain because we don't really do this 00:30:07.180 --> 00:30:08.940 the same way. So I'm going to use some examples, 00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:11.460 but it's called the drash. And it's kind of like 00:30:11.460 --> 00:30:13.240 the wrestling. It's where you wrestle with the 00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:16.460 text. And so like using that same example, we've 00:30:16.460 --> 00:30:19.950 surface level. God welcomes us back. Uh, Remez 00:30:19.950 --> 00:30:21.809 level, you know, connecting it with Jacob and 00:30:21.809 --> 00:30:25.069 Esau. Now the wrestling is where we say, uh, 00:30:25.190 --> 00:30:27.390 where in my life in group, in group, but not 00:30:27.390 --> 00:30:29.089 by yourself, but with other people where in our 00:30:29.089 --> 00:30:31.869 lives, or maybe we struggling to, to be the older 00:30:31.869 --> 00:30:36.049 brother at the party. Right? Like, am I actually 00:30:36.049 --> 00:30:39.109 trying to welcome people back? Am I wrestling? 00:30:39.190 --> 00:30:40.710 You know, does that make sense? Like you're, 00:30:40.710 --> 00:30:42.950 you're wrestling with this text. You're, uh, 00:30:42.950 --> 00:30:46.359 um, Discussing, debating, challenging interpretations, 00:30:46.539 --> 00:30:49.480 allowing process of discovery to unfold. It's 00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:51.839 actually very similar to what we do here. Right. 00:30:51.980 --> 00:30:54.240 We're having real conversations about scripture. 00:30:54.380 --> 00:30:56.059 Like, what does it actually mean for us to do 00:30:56.059 --> 00:30:59.319 these things? Right. That's right. We're dropping 00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:05.019 you right into the drosh. Right. Right. And a 00:31:05.019 --> 00:31:07.400 lot of times in that wrestling, we have to face 00:31:07.400 --> 00:31:11.779 hard decisions or difficult choices. um with 00:31:11.779 --> 00:31:13.339 some of the high schoolers i work with i talk 00:31:13.339 --> 00:31:16.720 all the time about how it's way harder to forgive 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:19.259 somebody than to hate somebody like it's way 00:31:19.259 --> 00:31:21.799 harder to be like you know what i forgive you 00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:24.900 i did not like what happened if i forgive you 00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:26.400 we're gonna put it in the past it's way harder 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:29.680 to do that yeah way easier to hold a grudge and 00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:33.019 so in many ways in you get to take you get to 00:31:33.019 --> 00:31:34.680 take stories like the prodigal son and be like 00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:36.960 you can do a couple different ways one of the 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:39.039 things i always do is like which character right 00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:43.099 now in my life do i relate the most with right 00:31:43.099 --> 00:31:47.039 do i relate the most with the dad who's extending 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:49.420 the same invitation to both his sons do i relate 00:31:49.420 --> 00:31:53.519 the most to the older brother who's like i'm 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:58.359 very mad very pissed and i want my younger brother 00:31:58.359 --> 00:32:01.160 dead essentially or do i relate to the younger 00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:04.410 brother where i'm feeling welcomed back With 00:32:04.410 --> 00:32:06.589 love and embrace, even though I wronged somebody, 00:32:06.930 --> 00:32:09.250 right? Like you get to wrestle with that and 00:32:09.250 --> 00:32:11.130 you get to apply that to your own life and say, 00:32:11.170 --> 00:32:14.509 man, okay, where am I? And once again, like, 00:32:14.569 --> 00:32:16.329 yes, wrestle by yourself, but you're wrestling 00:32:16.329 --> 00:32:19.609 in community. Because when you just sit in like 00:32:19.609 --> 00:32:24.289 an empty room by yourself, you don't have the 00:32:24.289 --> 00:32:26.869 perspective of other people who just think differently 00:32:26.869 --> 00:32:30.410 than you do. And that can be problematic because 00:32:30.410 --> 00:32:32.049 you need people who are different than you to 00:32:32.049 --> 00:32:35.319 be able to speak into you. Right. Well, and let's 00:32:35.319 --> 00:32:37.539 just, can we just quantify community just a little 00:32:37.539 --> 00:32:41.619 bit? No. Because I think, I think like a lot 00:32:41.619 --> 00:32:43.259 of times people will be like, oh, I need to do 00:32:43.259 --> 00:32:45.880 this in community. And there are going to be 00:32:45.880 --> 00:32:47.339 a lot of people who are like, oh, so I need to 00:32:47.339 --> 00:32:49.859 get up in front of a group of 500 people at my 00:32:49.859 --> 00:32:54.539 church and confess all my sins. I was like, no, 00:32:54.619 --> 00:32:57.400 no, no. We're talking like have two, three, four 00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:00.039 people that are deeply trusted in your life. 00:33:00.829 --> 00:33:05.950 that you can walk life with and grow closer to 00:33:05.950 --> 00:33:12.789 Jesus with? In the rabbi Talmid disciple, most 00:33:12.789 --> 00:33:14.609 rabbis would have like two or three disciples. 00:33:14.769 --> 00:33:19.700 And Jesus had 12. If we're going beyond 12. He 00:33:19.700 --> 00:33:22.000 had 12 that he had in his close circle the people 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:23.460 that he would wrestle like they wrestled through 00:33:23.460 --> 00:33:25.400 those stories with and he'd be like Don't you 00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:27.960 know what I'm talking about? Like do not do you 00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:32.000 not get this right and and so like it's meant 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:34.940 for small group It's meant for like this that's 00:33:34.940 --> 00:33:36.980 meant for community But also like that tight 00:33:36.980 --> 00:33:38.559 -knit community like going up and find a 500 00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:41.039 people you don't know and you can't really trust 00:33:41.039 --> 00:33:42.880 That's not necessarily where you do your wrestling, 00:33:42.980 --> 00:33:46.089 you know that's not to say that there aren't 00:33:46.089 --> 00:33:47.430 going to be times that you come and bring that 00:33:47.430 --> 00:33:51.490 before people, but maybe talk to your smaller 00:33:51.490 --> 00:33:53.230 group before you go and do that. And they'd be 00:33:53.230 --> 00:33:56.829 like, nah, nah, bro. Keep that to yourself. Yeah. 00:33:57.470 --> 00:34:01.069 Oh, that sounds terrible. Nah, bro. Uh, and then 00:34:01.069 --> 00:34:03.049 the last one is, is a thing called soad. And 00:34:03.049 --> 00:34:05.210 this is what's called the mystery. Um, it's the, 00:34:05.230 --> 00:34:06.490 it's the fourth thing. It's the mystery. It's 00:34:06.490 --> 00:34:08.610 the thing that's only revealed by God. Right. 00:34:08.909 --> 00:34:12.429 Um, And the best example of this is when Jesus 00:34:12.429 --> 00:34:14.769 says to his disciples, he says, hey, who do you 00:34:14.769 --> 00:34:18.389 think I am? And Peter jumps up and he's like, 00:34:18.510 --> 00:34:20.570 you are the Christ, the son of the living God. 00:34:20.809 --> 00:34:23.130 And he says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, 00:34:23.190 --> 00:34:25.210 for this was not revealed to you by flesh and 00:34:25.210 --> 00:34:29.809 blood, but by God himself. Right. Then immediately 00:34:29.809 --> 00:34:32.309 he's like. No, you're not going to go get crucified. 00:34:32.469 --> 00:34:35.610 He's like, get behind me, Satan. So he goes from 00:34:35.610 --> 00:34:38.630 really high to real low real quick. But we'll 00:34:38.630 --> 00:34:41.269 get to that story eventually. I think we forget 00:34:41.269 --> 00:34:45.769 that Jesus walked around with 12 unruly teenage 00:34:45.769 --> 00:34:49.329 boys. Yeah. And some of the conversations there, 00:34:49.369 --> 00:34:52.510 he had to have been like, dear Lord, help me. 00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:56.880 And this is one of the things is that in parables 00:34:56.880 --> 00:34:58.659 and studying the scripture, there are some things 00:34:58.659 --> 00:35:00.199 that are only going to be revealed by the spirit. 00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:05.519 And now I want to caveat this because sometimes 00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:07.719 people think that only things are revealed by 00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:10.880 the spirit. And no, they're revealed in study 00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:13.980 and surface reading and in remez and in community 00:35:13.980 --> 00:35:16.480 as you study the word together. And then there 00:35:16.480 --> 00:35:19.079 are things that are revealed by the spirit. And 00:35:19.079 --> 00:35:22.760 all of those things. work together yeah they 00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:25.800 shouldn't be conflicting and if they are conflicting 00:35:25.800 --> 00:35:28.380 well let's take a pause because something got 00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:31.500 off somewhere yeah right and uh so this is this 00:35:31.500 --> 00:35:34.000 is a pretty pretty common technique during the 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:35.900 during the time of jesus and so jesus is going 00:35:35.900 --> 00:35:39.320 to make a ton of backwards references uh to torah 00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:41.639 to the old testament to life of david to the 00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:43.840 book of daniel to the book of deuteronomy and 00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:45.500 he's going to be doing it all over the place 00:35:45.500 --> 00:35:48.239 in fact uh we're going to we're going to talk 00:35:48.239 --> 00:35:50.039 about john the baptist but the week after we're 00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:52.960 to be talking about jesus in the desert being 00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:56.099 tested by the devil and when he gets out there 00:35:56.099 --> 00:35:59.539 he's going to talk to the devil and quote deuteronomy 00:35:59.539 --> 00:36:03.000 three different times Right. And, uh, he's going 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:04.780 to take present circumstance and he's not telling 00:36:04.780 --> 00:36:06.780 a parable. It was present circumstance, past 00:36:06.780 --> 00:36:11.059 text, applying it to today. And, uh, this is, 00:36:11.059 --> 00:36:12.860 this is just a part of the culture that he's 00:36:12.860 --> 00:36:14.880 going to be stepping into. So this episode is 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:16.920 a little weird because there's things we've talked 00:36:16.920 --> 00:36:18.599 about. We're kind of just putting into one format. 00:36:19.139 --> 00:36:21.860 Um, but these are the things that are going on 00:36:21.860 --> 00:36:24.179 in the life of Jesus. And so like, is he going 00:36:24.179 --> 00:36:27.119 to bet, suffer, bet, midrash, bet, tell me probably. 00:36:28.110 --> 00:36:29.869 We don't know because there's no books written 00:36:29.869 --> 00:36:34.090 about that. But Jesus does come out at 30 and 00:36:34.090 --> 00:36:38.650 has all these things down pat. He's got Torah 00:36:38.650 --> 00:36:41.989 memorized and he's got the sayings of Isaiah 00:36:41.989 --> 00:36:43.889 and the prophets and all these things rolling. 00:36:44.030 --> 00:36:47.750 So he's engaging this rabbinic culture in some 00:36:47.750 --> 00:36:50.329 capacity. And then going to be able to step in 00:36:50.329 --> 00:36:53.170 and talk to him. So just to recap real quick. 00:36:55.190 --> 00:36:57.849 Jewish culture, different than our culture. Study 00:36:57.849 --> 00:37:00.849 it. You want to understand scripture, understand 00:37:00.849 --> 00:37:05.929 Jewish culture. The other thing is that you have 00:37:05.929 --> 00:37:08.909 to recognize the types of teaching that was happening 00:37:08.909 --> 00:37:11.030 during that day. You need to recognize that it 00:37:11.030 --> 00:37:13.369 wasn't necessarily the straight up sermon format 00:37:13.369 --> 00:37:16.550 we hear all the time. It was a lot of storytelling. 00:37:17.150 --> 00:37:20.670 As much as there was written tradition at this 00:37:20.670 --> 00:37:22.429 point, there was still a lot of oral tradition. 00:37:23.019 --> 00:37:26.460 going on right and then the third the third thing 00:37:26.460 --> 00:37:31.840 is recognize that where israel was not just physically 00:37:32.539 --> 00:37:34.880 but in captivity and the struggles that were 00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:37.179 going on there. Going back a little bit more 00:37:37.179 --> 00:37:38.760 to the first one, that ties in a little bit, 00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:42.199 but where there was an intense taxation. They 00:37:42.199 --> 00:37:48.440 were deeply oppressed at this point. Israel still 00:37:48.440 --> 00:37:53.059 had its autonomy as a nation. Rome actually granted 00:37:53.059 --> 00:37:54.639 that to Israel. They're like, we're going to 00:37:54.639 --> 00:37:56.699 grant you your autonomy, but we're going to tax 00:37:56.699 --> 00:37:58.800 you up the wazoo. And also, if you don't do this, 00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:00.719 we're going to come back and... Take that from 00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:03.960 me. Yeah. So it's autonomy. I just put out air 00:38:03.960 --> 00:38:06.139 quotes for the people listening. Yeah. But it 00:38:06.139 --> 00:38:08.400 is a certain level of autonomy. Yeah. And so 00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:11.280 like autonomy in the sense that they were allowed 00:38:11.280 --> 00:38:12.880 to worship how they wanted to worship and stuff 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:16.139 like that. So you need to understand those three 00:38:16.139 --> 00:38:18.599 things. Like if you understand those three things, 00:38:18.699 --> 00:38:21.559 the four gospels are going to come alive in a 00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:24.360 different way. Really dramatic ways. You know, 00:38:24.380 --> 00:38:26.460 I was thinking about even as taxation, when the 00:38:26.460 --> 00:38:28.320 person comes and he says, should we pay taxes 00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:31.900 to Caesar? And every Jewish person goes, no. 00:38:32.039 --> 00:38:34.940 Yeah, should we? Yeah. Can we not pay taxes to 00:38:34.940 --> 00:38:37.219 Caesar? Is that cool? We would love to do that. 00:38:37.239 --> 00:38:40.739 Right? All right. Until we come into it next 00:38:40.739 --> 00:38:45.559 time, we enjoy talking to you guys. Well, I guess, 00:38:45.579 --> 00:38:46.900 yeah, talking to you, you're not listening to 00:38:46.900 --> 00:38:48.679 us. Wait, that's not right. We enjoy talking 00:38:48.679 --> 00:38:54.480 at you. Man, words today are failing me. We enjoy 00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:57.059 talking with you guys and talking about the word 00:38:57.059 --> 00:38:59.320 of God. Hopefully this is building you guys up. 00:38:59.400 --> 00:39:01.860 If you have questions, thoughts, concerns, if 00:39:01.860 --> 00:39:03.619 you have a story that you want to make sure we 00:39:03.619 --> 00:39:06.619 highlight in the life of Jesus, send us an email, 00:39:06.699 --> 00:39:10.000 let us know. Yeah. And I think for the next couple 00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:11.199 of weeks, you're not going to see Spencer and 00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:14.039 then he'll be back. Technically how continuity 00:39:14.039 --> 00:39:16.500 works. We're recording this one after a few more 00:39:16.500 --> 00:39:20.190 that we've already recorded because life. Yeah. 00:39:20.190 --> 00:39:23.670 Because life. Yeah. And so pray for Spencer because 00:39:23.670 --> 00:39:26.309 life is very busy right now. What are you talking 00:39:26.309 --> 00:39:30.650 about? Yeah. And we'll see you guys next time. 00:39:43.479 --> 00:40:02.760 and Facebook at loveandcontext. Love and Context. 00:40:02.880 --> 00:40:04.840 Be sure to hit that follow button and join our 00:40:04.840 --> 00:40:07.079 growing community. Thanks for being part of the 00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:09.199 Love and Context family. Remember, love is at 00:40:09.199 --> 00:40:11.639 the heart of it all. Until next time, keep seeking 00:40:11.639 --> 00:40:13.860 wisdom, embracing love and living out your faith 00:40:13.860 --> 00:40:14.679 in today's world.