Welcome to Season 3 of Love & Context. This season,
we're exploring the life of Jesus step -by -step
and uncovering what His story teaches us about
loving God and others. Here on Love & Context,
we're all about having real conversations about
how to live out that love in practical, everyday
ways, and understanding the Bible in its full
context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive
into Season 3 of Love & Context. welcome back
to the love and context podcast the love and
context podcast i feel like you ripped that jingle
off of somebody nope that's the second time you've
accused me of that sometimes i just have music
in my heart spencer it had a little bit of like
the the tail end of uh spongebob squarepants
feel to it well i wouldn't actually know that
i didn't watch spongebob it's something that
i get harassed about plenty because uh in uh
my age gap apparently like everybody watched
spongebob and i'm like cool i didn't uh yeah
my daughter went through a very quick phase of
like i'm gonna watch spongebob and we put a kibosh
to that pretty quick not because i don't have
anything against spongebob other than the theme
song where i'm like dear lord just stop just
stop you don't want to live in a pineapple under
the sea No. Okay. That's fair enough. We are
in the life of Jesus and you've been with us
for a while. And it's actually kind of funny
because I think we actually have a bunch of episodes
we've recorded out of order. So when I go in
and edit them, hopefully like people don't notice.
But if you're like, man, last few weeks, we feel
like we've had continuity errors. We did. Yeah.
We've had some continuity. Ben and I have had
some scheduling conflicts the last couple months,
so it's been a little harder to find time. But
we're making it work. What is that whole thing
about adulthood? Stupid adulthood. You know,
something about bills. You gotta pay bills. You
gotta, you know, yeah, there's a whole lot. So
where we left off last time we talked, Jesus
was in the temple. He was having this conversation.
Les and I had this conversation about Jesus having
this conversation with the people in the temple
and they're, they're leaving. And, uh, and then,
then it says that Jesus, uh, grew in both stature
with, uh, grew in favor and stature with both.
Sorry. He grew in favor and stature. Nope. That's
not it. You said favor and stature three times.
I know. I'm going to say favor and stature so
many times. Um, what's the word you're looking
for? He grew in wisdom and stature. And favor
and wisdom with both God and men. I thought stature
was the one you were messing up. Yeah, I thought
stature was the one I was messing up. Here's
the thing. I need people to know that I say things
badly, so I'm leaving all this in. Perfect. And
I call him out every time he does. When you're
wondering why Spencer is sometimes laughing mid
-frame when you turn on to YouTube, it's probably
because I didn't say something right like 50
times in a row. And then I have to pull my actor
face on, which I don't have at all. So Jesus
goes home with Mary and Joseph, and then we don't
hear from him again until he's baptized by John
the Baptist, right? We don't hear from him again.
And that's 18 years. So from 12 to 30 and 31,
I don't know, somewhere around that age is when
Jesus is going to be stepping into his ministry.
Historically, traditionally, they're going to
say 30. And so the thing is, while the gospels
don't talk about anything happening during that
time, that doesn't mean nothing happened. that
nothing is happening during that time. So we're
going to have one episode where we're going to
talk about the world that Jesus is stepping into
at this time. Can we put a little disclaimer
on this? So we are going to be pulling a lot
from context. And there's not a lot of scripture
we can pull from. No, this is literally like
the scripture we're going to pull from. Book
of Second Opinions, Second Genesis, Third Revelation.
So this context we're going to pull from is...
Also, very hotly debated as well. And so if you're
listening to this and you're like, I don't know
if I fully agree with that or I heard somebody
say something else or blah, blah, whatever it
is, we're going with what we know, what we feel,
and what we think sounds right and best fits
the day and age based on what we know. Now, with
that said, if you have more insight, please let
us know, and we would love to hear that. You
can send those letters to Spencer McDowell. Care
of. I only accept smoke signals. Smoke signals.
That's all I accept. Oh, man. That's so good.
All right. So one of the first things we want
to talk about is this idea of Jesus as a carpenter.
So from 12 to 30, it's likely that Jesus would
have picked up some of the trades of his father,
Joseph, who the word is actually tekton, which
doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't work
with wood. It's just not going to be exclusively
wood. Yeah. Yeah. Tectons are, especially if
you've ever been in the Middle East, there's
a lot more stone than there is wood. That doesn't
mean that you wouldn't work on wood. It just
means that the majority of what you're going
to be building is made out of stone. Well, and
it's really interesting how we pull theological
context out of our surroundings. Because like
you and I grew up Washington, Alaska, or that's
where we've been, right? I have often been to
Washington, Alaska. I grew up Washington. I live
in Alaska. You grew up Alaska. You lived in Washington.
But right. Like when you hear carpenter, you
don't think stonemasonry. You think wood because
lumber is just everywhere. Yeah. Well, I'm actually
that. And also my mom listened to the carpenters
when she was young. So I also have those songs
in my head that are not applicable at all. But
totally. But but we can often pull from our surroundings
and be like, oh, he was a carpenter. So and then
we think of cutting down a hundred foot tall
spruce tree or something like that and shaping
that. Yeah. And shaping that. Where you go to
other parts of the world, it's really important
to actually, I mean, if you don't travel there
to at least pull up pictures or videos of these
parts of the world, because you'll notice that
Jerusalem and Israel, that whole surrounding
area, while there are trees, there are canyons,
there are ravines, like the size of their trees
are a lot smaller, right? You're not going to
get big lumber beams out of it. What you're going
to get is you're going to get. stone you're going
to get uh particularly a lot of sandstone and
limestone and you're also i mean this goes back
to egypt but you're also going to see a lot of
things made out of like mud brick yeah right
like that's that's a normal thing and uh be shaping
it in and they're also not having to worry about
like where we live it's a ton of rain they're
not getting a ton of rain that i mean you do
want it to be because you do get rain but they're
not getting you know, dozens and inches of rain.
Like they're getting some rain and it usually
turns into flash floods in their area. Yeah.
And, uh, yeah. So there is a, um, there is a
really good couple episodes on the Baymall podcast
where they're talking about different trees,
um, that like a rodent bush, um, a tamarisk tree,
which we've talked about in the past. Um, and
they, so like the wood exists, it's just not
a regular thing. Um, so Jesus is going and he's
learning his trade. Um, working with stone, uh,
from where he grew up, it's, it's possible that
he and his father would have been involved in
projects on either Herod Antipas or, uh, some
of the other Herod's, uh, projects that go on.
There's like a ton of like palaces and things
that were being built and they had to pull trades
people from everywhere. Um, but, um, you, you're
living in a largely agricultural society. So
people who are tectons are really incredibly
valuable because, um, they need to be able to
having, be able to shape and, um, build practical
things is a big deal. Yes. Um, I actually did
like, um, because they, they, they were doing
some, there's an episode of the chosen where,
uh, they have Jesus like making a lock. And,
uh, it's interesting because the lock that they
actually make is actually a lock from that time
period that was completely made out of wood.
And it's incredibly ingenious how it actually
works. Nice. Yeah. So that's a random, uh, context
piece from a, uh, the show, the chosen. So you're
welcome to chosen for all of our. Viewership.
Yeah. For the two people at whatever. Definitely,
definitely us. We are helping build them. That's
what's going on. Yeah. So during this time, there
is continuing religious tensions. We've talked
about like this, there's five main responses,
but there is religious tension going on during
this time, especially while they're living in
captivity. And they're like, okay, well, but
God wants to restore Israel. And they have very
different opinions about what that means. Yes.
So we have the Essenes who essentially take over
the temple worship, but are running the temple.
Not Essenes. Sorry, I said that incorrectly.
We have the Essenes who largely rejected what
was going on with the temple and with Israel
as a whole, and they run off into the desert
in Qumran. They withdrew. Yeah. And we are thankful
to them because we have a lot of Dead Sea Scrolls
and stuff because of them. You had the Sadducees
who... were largely responsible for what was
going on in the temple and they, uh, were, were
set up in, in a large places in the Sanhedrin.
And, uh, but they kind of had this compromised
approach to temple worship, right? Like it became
more of a who status money thing. Yeah. And this
is one of those hotly debated topics, right?
There are people who like Ben saying kind of
had this. you know, semi sort of corrupt approach.
And there'll be other people who will be like,
no, a hundred percent corrupt. Um, and so there's,
I'm going to lean on gracious. Yeah. Yeah. There's
debates on the level of corruption. Yeah. But,
but no debate about corruption, just the level
of corruption, but there's debates on the level
of which it was happening. And especially if
you read some of the things that happened during,
especially at the time of the Maccabees and the,
and the uprising, and then they turned the temple
back over. And essentially, uh, the people that
they overthrew who were desperate, are creating
the temple, they turn right around and basically
manipulate the temple again. You have the zealots
who are kind of like your guerrilla warfare people,
your people who are seeking revolution through
the edge of a sword. Yep. You have your Herodians
who kind of are just this... You know, we're
going to be Jewish, but mostly we're going to
be Roman, you know? And then you have the Pharisees
who Jesus interacts with on a regular basis who
are like, we're going to bring the kingdom by
strict adherence to Torah, you know? And so like
you have like these five different, and there's
more than that, but these are like the five main
approaches. But you got like these five different
approaches and like their perspective and there's
religious tension, especially living in captivity
where they're arguing and they're fighting and
they're backbiting. And they're like, well, no,
like you're the one. keeping the kingdom of heaven
from coming back. It's really interesting because
it's like different approaches that bicker about
the right or wrong way to go about something.
I don't feel like that's relatable. It is not
relevant at all. There is no relevance. Well,
and it's kind of one of those things that reminds
us that we struggle with the exact same things,
right? That is almost like the presence of Jesus
and finding unity in the midst of being his disciple
is actually what brings the kingdom. Yeah. Right.
And I'm actually thankful we live in a town that
is very good about being like, hey, we're going
to work together cross denominationally to bring
Jesus to the community, which is amazing. One
of the things that you will is a is a struggle
in following Jesus is that unless you are willing
to find unity with people who you just like not
disagree about everything, but like you are not
the same as. Yeah. Then you're not really going
to understand. a lot of the, the breadth of what
God is doing. Yeah. Because you're, you're going
to only be able to see what he does in your life
rather than what he's doing throughout everyone.
And being in relationship with people who are
different than you is going to really. Yeah.
I mean, you think about, we haven't got, obviously
this is coming up, but Jesus is going to call
his disciples. And a lot of them are going to
come from these different backgrounds, you know,
and some of them are going to be tax collectors.
How dare those IRS people show up, right? Sorry,
IRS. I'm kidding. We didn't make any money from
this show. Don't come after us. Oh, man. You
just set off the algorithm on YouTube. I know.
I know. Maybe it'll increase our viewership,
right? I don't know. I don't know. And during
the same time, though, they're having this really
– the Jewish population is having this really
– I talked about the Herodians, but they're having
this Hellenistic influence, like this Greek -Roman
influence. And it's really starting to permeate
their culture. Well, so they're under Roman influence
right now. And Rome brought a lot of trade through
Jerusalem in particular, or through Jerusalem,
because it was kind of a hub to get over to Asia
Minor at the time and down to Egypt. And so they
brought a lot of goods through there. So there
was. The other thing that was kind of happening,
and this is another thing that's kind of debated,
is there's actually a lot of wealth that was
getting poured in from foreign countries into
Israel at the time. And so this is where this
Hellenistic influence kind of comes from. You
have Greeks coming down. You actually have Persians
coming over from the east. You have Egyptians
coming up from the south, all bringing different
forms of good and currency. Israel was is the
central hub of a big part of the known world
at the time and we've talked about how it's literally
crossroads so Trading if you can actually put
things through the crossroads typically the crossroads
has a lot of money coming through us spice trading
being the big thing during this time too and
and so Now on the flip side of that the actual
Jewish people are being taxed up the wazoo and
like, you know, they make our taxes look tame
And so you have this place where there is a lot
of money, but you don't have any of it because
it's going out to Rome. This is where the corruption
comes in, right? This is debated again, the exact
number, but it's estimated somewhere between
a 50 % and 80 % tax that was levied on Jewish
people. So getting $0 .20 to $0 .50 on the dollar,
essentially. Right. If you were working a job
in America and you got 20 cents on the dollar,
you. we would have a revolution type thing. And
so the tax was so high that farmers in Israel,
they actually couldn't make enough money off
their crops to pay the tax. And so the corruption
came in where they would stash half away or something
like that and then say, well, I only made such
and such amount, right? Totally doing the tax
evasion bid. But they would do that so that they
could survive. Like, that's a lot of what was
going on with that taxation. By the way, one
of the reasons that Jews got really upset with
tax collectors, especially Jewish tax collectors,
because the Jewish tax collectors would know
these things and actually knew how much money
you had and how much stuff you had brought in.
And so not only are you, like, you're taxing
them on everything, you know? And so, I mean,
there's a lot of reasons that they didn't like
tax collectors, but this is another reason. And,
uh, so during that time, you know, it is, uh,
they all have their distinctive like ideals.
And so I'm going to zero in on, because Jesus
is going to spend a lot of time. He's going to
address all these people and we'll kind of talk
about them, but just remember Essenes, Sadducees,
Pharisees, Zealots, and Herodians. All throughout
Jesus' ministry, we're going to keep referencing
back to them. And when he, he confronts different
perspectives, but the people he spends a lot
of time with is the Pharisees. And, uh, we've,
we've talked briefly in the podcast before about,
there is a during the time where they come back
from Babylon they're overtaken by Rome and and
they're and they're trying to figure out why
they ended up in captivity and and so a lot of
their conclusions seem to be about not knowing
Torah Like not knowing not knowing the word of
God, which I mean, it's not a bad place to start.
And so they develop a rabbinic schooling system
for all their kids moving forward. And so this
is going to be across many of the many of the
different the different responses of Judaism.
Yeah. And in the first. three to five years of
school, they're going to memorize Torah, right?
And then like the kids who are really overachievers
are going to go beyond that. And the kids who
are even greater than this are going to go on
and follow a rabbi of some sort, which we'll
talk more about when we get to Jesus. But during
this time, there are two prominent voices, two
prominent schools of voices that arise in the
rabbinic conversation. One guy by the name of
Hillel, which we've talked about before, and
another guy by the name of Shammai. And so Jesus
is going to step into this. There's eight great
debates they're having during this time. And
we've touched on a few of them, but we'll kind
of just talk through them. But just keep in the
back of your head as you're watching through
the season, listening through the season, that
there's eight great rabbinic debates during this
time that are setting up in the time that Jesus
is growing up. And it's on the lips of everybody's
conversation. If you think about in America today,
we have like the topics that we talk about frequently,
right? Second Amendment. amendment uh the first
amendment like what encompasses like free speech
there's these regular conversations that everybody's
familiar with and jesus is going to step into
a context and talk about each one that is dividing
their culture at that given period of time and
talk about like what does god actually want us
to do right and uh and so knowing that he's stepping
into a context is a really big deal because he's
not just making statements for the sake of making
statements. And I think one of the places we
can get ourselves in trouble, not necessarily
do, but we can get ourselves in trouble in, uh,
following Jesus is when you read a parable that
he teaches and you're like, well, clearly this
is what he means without any regard for his context.
Right. Or the, or the scenario, what, like what
they're dealing with around them. Right. Um,
Understanding context of who Jesus is talking
to is very key in these moments. Oftentimes,
the parables are actually directed towards religious
leaders. Not everyone, but a lot of them are.
And he's telling them in story format, and he's
doing this to see if they can connect the dots.
See if they can be like, oh, this relates back
to this in Torah. And most of the time they don't
get it. Yeah. And so you have to understand that
context because that makes the whole parable
scene come to life. Like a good example of this
is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Where like,
I think Brad Gray talks about this, but how the
road, like we would naturally, like we kind of
envision a big wide road that you can kind of,
the road was actually, it'd be like a small trail.
with a cliff on both sides. So like when you
hear like, Oh, like one crossed the other side,
that means he likely was stepping over the person.
Yeah. The person who was beat up and trying to
get away from him, you know? And so there's,
there's all these context keys where, where you
see in that story, it's actually a very close
encounter for these people. It's not like they
see this person lying half dead on the road and
then they avoid them by 50, a hundred feet. Well,
there's also some beyond Brad Gray. There's another
guy by the name. I think his name is Brad Young.
He's a he's a Old Testament or a New Testament
teacher. And he talked about that same parable.
And he said, you know, the the format of that
is not new. The three different responses that
you have a a. priest, a Levite, and then a third
party, right? Like that is a very normal story
-like structure that is being used in parables.
But the parable usually goes a priest, a Levite,
a Pharisee, right? And so then Jesus is having
a conversation with a Pharisee who's arguing
about what does it mean to have grace? And he
goes, so a priest, a Levite, and they're like,
oh, I know what's coming next. And he's like,
and a Samaritan. What? What are you doing, Jesus?
You can almost hear his jaw drop, hear their
jaw drop during that time. So again, it comes
back to understanding the context, right? Understanding
who he's talking to, the context and surrounding
of what he's talking about. And you pick up all
these little clues that you're like, okay, there's
more to this story than meets the eye for me
reading it from an American English perspective,
right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to go over the
three figures really quick here on very broad
levels. We've talked about them a lot, but there's
an additional figure here. So Hillel, the elder,
lived from about 110 BC to about 10 AD, right?
So he was a contemporary of Jesus, alive at the
same time as Jesus, but was not alive during
his public ministry. And he's known for his compassionate
perspective and also his flexibility in interpretation
of the Torah. Not so strict interpretation. Emphasizing
love, mercy, deeper meanings of the law. His
most famous teaching that shows up in a lot of
things is, what is hateful to you, do not do
to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah. The
rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Obviously,
he didn't say that in English. Yeah. So Jesus'
teachings are going to mirror a lot of that particular
thing, but he's also going to disagree with some
of Hillel's teachings. We'll talk about that,
too. The other guy, Shammai, who was a contemporary
of Jesus, because he was 50 B .C. to 30 A .D.
His approach was much more strict, literal interpretation
of Torah, emphasized ritual purity and separation
from the Gentiles, those dirty Gentiles. And
Jesus often opposes the rigidity of Shammai's
teachings, particularly as it debates on divorce
and Sabbath observance, right? That the rigidity
is not actually serving community. You're having
rules for the sake of rules, not actually seeing
the intent behind them, right? Another guy that
is going to be really important, especially when
you start listening to Paul, is a guy by the
name of Gamaliel the Elder. He was 20 BC to 50
AD, and he was the grandson of Hillel and a leading
Pharisaic teacher in the Sanhedrin. He's most
famous because he advises the Sanhedrin to leave
the apostles alone in Acts 5. He says that if
their movement is from God, you can't stop it.
And if it is from God, we shouldn't oppose it.
Um, but if it's not from God, it's just going
to fizzle out and die, which is a pretty smart,
you know, thing. Um, it does not work out well
for the religious leaders that approach, uh,
oppose them. No. Yeah. And then, uh, there is,
uh, um, Paul is also going to mention that he
studied the feet of Gamaliel. Um, so this is
actually likely the person that Paul studied
under. Um, I actually don't know how. how common
the name Gamliel is, but you got to figure it's
probably the same person. I don't either. I'm
assuming the same person, but I mean, there very
well could have been. We've talked about it in
the past on the podcast, and I'm going to say
the exact same thing I said last time. I always
get his name confused with Gargamel from the
Smurfs. Two very different characters. Two very
different characters. And then the last person,
which we talked about... No, actually, we're
going to talk about next week. Sorry. And one
other person we're going to talk about next week
is John the Baptist. And I'm not going to get
a whole lot into John the Baptist, except that
he serves as... He's preparing a way for Jesus'
ministry. So these are very prominent figures
that are... rising during the time of Jesus.
Yeah. Right. Other historical figures is like
Herod the Great has died, who was not great.
We talked about him last year, and he was going
to kill a bunch of people so that people would
mourn his death. I think you've said it, and
I've said it too. If you're going to refer to
yourself as the great, you're probably not that
great. Yeah, Spencer actually started calling
himself Spencer the Great. It's not great. No,
Ben has been trying to get that going in the
community, and I have shut it down because I
would like to live a life of modesty and a humble
life before the Lord. Oh, man. Listen, there's
not a single person who's listening to this that
believes that for a second. Maybe your mom. Maybe
your mom believes you. She's going to be the
one that's going to be like, bull crap, bull
crap. Oh, man. So Herod Antipas is largely in
charge of the Galilee region. And he is going
to be the guy who's known for executing John
the Baptist, right? Yes. But it's because John
the Baptist came against him for marrying his...
Yes. Yes. And then a manipulation went a little
bit of manipulation happened and John lost his
head. Yeah. You make it sound like he lost his
temper, lost his head. Pontius Pilate is going
to be talked about at the end, but he is the
prefect of Judea during this time, 26 to 36.
And we talked about that there is just a heavy,
heavy, heavy, heavy amount of taxation going
on in this period of time. So that's a little
bit about what's going on there. And then also
during this time, during the silent years and
also leading up to the life of Jesus and during
this time, the main teaching form is going to
be parables. And we're going to be talking through
a lot of parables. And so I wanted to just briefly
talk. We did a few years ago, we did a summer
series on parables. But we talked about in Jewish
interpretation, there's four levels of what's
going on in a parable. Well, a good parable,
I should say. That doesn't have to go on. But
in Jewish interpretation, parables are they're
burying treasure for you to discover because
they want you to actually discover it yourself.
They want you to come to these conclusions by
yourself. Yeah. Um, and, and there's also such
as something about stories that have a much like
more staying power too. Yeah. And you also have
to understand that there were people back in
this day and age that had been reported at being
great at telling parables and there's the opposite
is true as well. And so, um, there was a little
bit of one of the things that was happening is
you'd have a group of people who listened to
parables from not good parable tellers. And a
lot of these are actually some religious leaders.
And so it can be assumed that some of those religious
leaders probably heard some of Jesus's parables
who of which are excellent. Right. And probably
lost just didn't understand the meaning. Yeah.
Because they're not used to an excellent parable.
Yeah. It is actually one of the things that I
love in modern scholarship is that there are
like Jewish scholars. So people who don't necessarily
follow Jesus, but like Orthodox Jewish scholars.
Yeah. That they say, oh, yeah, the parables of
Jesus are just on another level. Yeah. And I'm
like, would you say they're divine? Just ask
it. You know, but. How dare you. Um, so, so four
different levels of, of, uh, interpretation and
there's going to be some argument over this.
So if you, if you have five levels, great. Awesome.
If you have three levels, great. We're just going
to talk through these. Um, and I want to stress
this is that every single level of the parable
matters, but not one is more important than the
other. Yeah. Um, so if you have the surface level,
which is the first one we're gonna talk about,
it's like the, it's called the Peshat and it's
the surface level interpretation. It's a basic
thing. When you read the story, you're like,
I need to love people better. Right. This is
the surface level, uh, understanding. If you
lived there, there is enough there for the rest
of your life. Yeah. Um, you know, if you think
about, uh, the shot meaning of like a parable,
like the prodigal son, right. God welcomes sinners
back with open arms. Yeah. Right. If you've wandered
away, the father is waiting to run to you to
bring you home. Right? That's a very surface
level understanding of that parable. Is there
more going on? Of course there is. But on a very
surface level, that's what's going on. Is that
the father has an immense amount of affection
for his sons. Yeah. Right? Both of them. Even
the jerk that doesn't want to come join the party.
So then you go a little bit deeper to the remes,
which is like the hint. or a consistent trait
that you see throughout the parable. And like
one in the, just picking apart the parable of
the prodigal son a little bit, is that the same
invitation was extended to both sons. Yeah. Well,
and there's also in a remez, sometimes you'll
have a reference to an Old Testament scripture.
So if we're going to stick with the prodigal
son, let's talk about Jacob and Esau. There is
a textual allusion which says when the father
saw his son when he was a long way off, he ran
to him, picked him up, kissed him, and brought
him home, right? In the same text in Genesis,
and any of the listeners are going to connect
this to when Esau... sees his brother when he's
a long way off he runs up he greets him picks
him up kisses him and and he brings back there's
a there's a lot of contextual connections especially
when you start looking in the septuagint um where
they where you have the turn of the century jews
like making the greek manuscript the old testament
and so they're making that connection and so
um now you have The older brother is supposed
to be the one welcoming the younger brother,
and Jesus is now telling a parable where the
older brother instead is hanging outside of a
party. And he's like, listen, Esau wasn't great,
but he still welcomed his brother back. What
are y 'all doing? Right? They rejoice. It's not
a judgment. Y 'all screwed up, but you're welcome
back. Yeah, and you have the hint on forgiveness,
right? The forgiveness of the younger son. In
the forgiveness of the younger brother. Yeah.
Right. Because Esau's final words before Jacob
fled from him before their re -encounter. I'm
going to kill you. Was like, you're a dead man.
Right. And so rightfully so, Jacob's probably
a little apprehensive about meeting his brother.
Yeah. It's fair. But you have this, the younger
being forgiven and then the younger being forgiven.
You have these ties. Yeah. And you actually have
those ties in a few other places too. Yeah. So
you have the pashat, you have the remes, and
then the next one is a little bit harder to quantify
in our brain because we don't really do this
the same way. So I'm going to use some examples,
but it's called the drash. And it's kind of like
the wrestling. It's where you wrestle with the
text. And so like using that same example, we've
surface level. God welcomes us back. Uh, Remez
level, you know, connecting it with Jacob and
Esau. Now the wrestling is where we say, uh,
where in my life in group, in group, but not
by yourself, but with other people where in our
lives, or maybe we struggling to, to be the older
brother at the party. Right? Like, am I actually
trying to welcome people back? Am I wrestling?
You know, does that make sense? Like you're,
you're wrestling with this text. You're, uh,
um, Discussing, debating, challenging interpretations,
allowing process of discovery to unfold. It's
actually very similar to what we do here. Right.
We're having real conversations about scripture.
Like, what does it actually mean for us to do
these things? Right. That's right. We're dropping
you right into the drosh. Right. Right. And a
lot of times in that wrestling, we have to face
hard decisions or difficult choices. um with
some of the high schoolers i work with i talk
all the time about how it's way harder to forgive
somebody than to hate somebody like it's way
harder to be like you know what i forgive you
i did not like what happened if i forgive you
we're gonna put it in the past it's way harder
to do that yeah way easier to hold a grudge and
so in many ways in you get to take you get to
take stories like the prodigal son and be like
you can do a couple different ways one of the
things i always do is like which character right
now in my life do i relate the most with right
do i relate the most with the dad who's extending
the same invitation to both his sons do i relate
the most to the older brother who's like i'm
very mad very pissed and i want my younger brother
dead essentially or do i relate to the younger
brother where i'm feeling welcomed back With
love and embrace, even though I wronged somebody,
right? Like you get to wrestle with that and
you get to apply that to your own life and say,
man, okay, where am I? And once again, like,
yes, wrestle by yourself, but you're wrestling
in community. Because when you just sit in like
an empty room by yourself, you don't have the
perspective of other people who just think differently
than you do. And that can be problematic because
you need people who are different than you to
be able to speak into you. Right. Well, and let's
just, can we just quantify community just a little
bit? No. Because I think, I think like a lot
of times people will be like, oh, I need to do
this in community. And there are going to be
a lot of people who are like, oh, so I need to
get up in front of a group of 500 people at my
church and confess all my sins. I was like, no,
no, no. We're talking like have two, three, four
people that are deeply trusted in your life.
that you can walk life with and grow closer to
Jesus with? In the rabbi Talmid disciple, most
rabbis would have like two or three disciples.
And Jesus had 12. If we're going beyond 12. He
had 12 that he had in his close circle the people
that he would wrestle like they wrestled through
those stories with and he'd be like Don't you
know what I'm talking about? Like do not do you
not get this right and and so like it's meant
for small group It's meant for like this that's
meant for community But also like that tight
-knit community like going up and find a 500
people you don't know and you can't really trust
That's not necessarily where you do your wrestling,
you know that's not to say that there aren't
going to be times that you come and bring that
before people, but maybe talk to your smaller
group before you go and do that. And they'd be
like, nah, nah, bro. Keep that to yourself. Yeah.
Oh, that sounds terrible. Nah, bro. Uh, and then
the last one is, is a thing called soad. And
this is what's called the mystery. Um, it's the,
it's the fourth thing. It's the mystery. It's
the thing that's only revealed by God. Right.
Um, And the best example of this is when Jesus
says to his disciples, he says, hey, who do you
think I am? And Peter jumps up and he's like,
you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
And he says, blessed are you, Simon Barjona,
for this was not revealed to you by flesh and
blood, but by God himself. Right. Then immediately
he's like. No, you're not going to go get crucified.
He's like, get behind me, Satan. So he goes from
really high to real low real quick. But we'll
get to that story eventually. I think we forget
that Jesus walked around with 12 unruly teenage
boys. Yeah. And some of the conversations there,
he had to have been like, dear Lord, help me.
And this is one of the things is that in parables
and studying the scripture, there are some things
that are only going to be revealed by the spirit.
And now I want to caveat this because sometimes
people think that only things are revealed by
the spirit. And no, they're revealed in study
and surface reading and in remez and in community
as you study the word together. And then there
are things that are revealed by the spirit. And
all of those things. work together yeah they
shouldn't be conflicting and if they are conflicting
well let's take a pause because something got
off somewhere yeah right and uh so this is this
is a pretty pretty common technique during the
during the time of jesus and so jesus is going
to make a ton of backwards references uh to torah
to the old testament to life of david to the
book of daniel to the book of deuteronomy and
he's going to be doing it all over the place
in fact uh we're going to we're going to talk
about john the baptist but the week after we're
to be talking about jesus in the desert being
tested by the devil and when he gets out there
he's going to talk to the devil and quote deuteronomy
three different times Right. And, uh, he's going
to take present circumstance and he's not telling
a parable. It was present circumstance, past
text, applying it to today. And, uh, this is,
this is just a part of the culture that he's
going to be stepping into. So this episode is
a little weird because there's things we've talked
about. We're kind of just putting into one format.
Um, but these are the things that are going on
in the life of Jesus. And so like, is he going
to bet, suffer, bet, midrash, bet, tell me probably.
We don't know because there's no books written
about that. But Jesus does come out at 30 and
has all these things down pat. He's got Torah
memorized and he's got the sayings of Isaiah
and the prophets and all these things rolling.
So he's engaging this rabbinic culture in some
capacity. And then going to be able to step in
and talk to him. So just to recap real quick.
Jewish culture, different than our culture. Study
it. You want to understand scripture, understand
Jewish culture. The other thing is that you have
to recognize the types of teaching that was happening
during that day. You need to recognize that it
wasn't necessarily the straight up sermon format
we hear all the time. It was a lot of storytelling.
As much as there was written tradition at this
point, there was still a lot of oral tradition.
going on right and then the third the third thing
is recognize that where israel was not just physically
but in captivity and the struggles that were
going on there. Going back a little bit more
to the first one, that ties in a little bit,
but where there was an intense taxation. They
were deeply oppressed at this point. Israel still
had its autonomy as a nation. Rome actually granted
that to Israel. They're like, we're going to
grant you your autonomy, but we're going to tax
you up the wazoo. And also, if you don't do this,
we're going to come back and... Take that from
me. Yeah. So it's autonomy. I just put out air
quotes for the people listening. Yeah. But it
is a certain level of autonomy. Yeah. And so
like autonomy in the sense that they were allowed
to worship how they wanted to worship and stuff
like that. So you need to understand those three
things. Like if you understand those three things,
the four gospels are going to come alive in a
different way. Really dramatic ways. You know,
I was thinking about even as taxation, when the
person comes and he says, should we pay taxes
to Caesar? And every Jewish person goes, no.
Yeah, should we? Yeah. Can we not pay taxes to
Caesar? Is that cool? We would love to do that.
Right? All right. Until we come into it next
time, we enjoy talking to you guys. Well, I guess,
yeah, talking to you, you're not listening to
us. Wait, that's not right. We enjoy talking
at you. Man, words today are failing me. We enjoy
talking with you guys and talking about the word
of God. Hopefully this is building you guys up.
If you have questions, thoughts, concerns, if
you have a story that you want to make sure we
highlight in the life of Jesus, send us an email,
let us know. Yeah. And I think for the next couple
of weeks, you're not going to see Spencer and
then he'll be back. Technically how continuity
works. We're recording this one after a few more
that we've already recorded because life. Yeah.
Because life. Yeah. And so pray for Spencer because
life is very busy right now. What are you talking
about? Yeah. And we'll see you guys next time.
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