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 to Welcome
to the Talk. We're laughing here because like
literally two seconds before this, I was literally
clearing my throat. It's that time of year. It's
cold and flu season and I feel good. But you
know how when you go to bed and you wake up and
like literally you're like, wow, I thought I
had nasal passages, but apparently I don't. They're
all full, right? Yeah, so I was doing that. I
was clearing out my voice and then there was
a second of silence and... Welcome. So, welcome
back. Yeah. Life of Jesus. Last week, well, two
weeks ago, we left you off with Jesus Confronts
Leadership Part 1. This is Part 2. He's going
to have a couple more. And so, if you remember,
we're in Matthew 22. He had talked to, the last
one was about whose face is on this coin. Who
does that belong to? Why is it in the temple?
Why do you have that in here? That's so good.
And so, today, we're going to be continuing on
with that conversation. So, if you're like, wow,
this. feels like a weird jump into a conversation,
go listen to the last one because that's what
we talked about. All right. So this could have
a number of places, Matthew 22, Mark 12, and
Luke 20. I'm going to be reading out of Matthew.
So let's see here. That same day. Okay. So he's
been in the temple. They come and they talked
about the coin. That same day, the Sadducees,
who say there is no resurrection, came to him
with a question. Teacher, they said, Moses told
us that if a man dies without having children,
his brother must marry the widow and... raise
up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers
among us. The first one married and died, and
since he had no children, he left his wife to
his brother. The same thing happened to the second
son and the third brother, laid down down to
the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then,
at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of
the seven, since all of them were married to
her? Jesus replied, You are in error, because
you do not know the scriptures or the power of
God. By the way, just a great answer in general.
At the resurrection, people will neither marry
nor be given in marriage. They will be like the
angels in heaven, but about the resurrection
of the dead. Have you not read what God said
to you? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the
dead, but of the living. When the crowds heard
this, they were astonished at his teaching. All
right, so pause right here. Let's talk about
the story. So first off, who are the Sadducees?
These are the elite priestly temple -connected
group, right? So these are the people that are
typically in charge of the temple. So if you
go back to the book of Maccabees, right, taking
place between the end of Malachi and the beginning
of Jesus' ministry, there's this book called
the Maccabees where the Maccabean people revolted
against what was being taken over the temple.
They came back. They took over the temple. took
the temple back, they ousted the people, they
purified the temple, all the things that are
going on in that story, right? But the zealots
who did it go, we're not the priests. Yeah. And
so they, during that time, they're like, we know
that Torah says there's supposed to be a priest
here, priestly family, and there's two different
families that can do that. There was the Zadokim.
So the children of Zadok, and then there was
another one that I forgot, and it's just not
off the top of my head. Go Google it. So ultimately,
they end up giving the chief priest role back
to the Zadokites, which become known as the Zadokim.
And when you start doing transliteration, translation,
all these different things, it eventually becomes
the sect called the Sadducees. So Zadokim, Sadducees,
you kind of see how they get there. It doesn't
quite translate into English, but they're descended
from the same people, from the line of Zadok.
And immediately they start corrupting the temple.
Right. So the zealots go, they take it back and
they're like, they're like, yeah, we're going
to purify the temple. We're going to serve God.
We're going to see, you know, glory restored.
And then immediately, uh, the Jewish mafia moves
in. They're like, yes, you are going to see that
and pay me five bucks. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
So that's where the Sadducees are. Now, they're
theologically very conservative in their opinion.
And what I mean by that is that they only accept
Torah, Genesis, Deuteronomy as authoritative
scripture. Right. There's three main things that
they denied, which was the resurrection, angels,
and an afterlife. So there's that joke that says,
why is a Sadducee sad? Because they don't believe
in the afterlife, so they're sad. Do you see?
It's a terrible joke. I don't want to be a Sadducee.
I'm not even kidding. I don't want to be a Sadducee.
Because the Sadducees are Sadducee. So I don't
want to be a Sadducee. There you go. Anyways,
they're politically more aligned with Rome, and
they're more invested in their status quo. Resurrection
hope would actually be destabilizing for their
status quo. Because as long as Rome isn't charged,
Rome says, hey, these guys are the guys running
the temple. You have to follow their guidelines.
You don't really want messianic people coming
in and upsetting the apocart, if you say. Yeah.
Yeah. And so looking at the question, they ask
Jesus. Yep. They're coming to try and embarrass
him to try to discredit him. Yes. Right. Yes.
But the reality is, is they're trying to pick
a very nuanced thing. Right. And they're trying
to pick something where it's like, well, let's
see if we get all the way down through the bottom
of this, what he says. Yeah. So, so like, all
right. A woman marries, her husband dies, and
her husband has seven brothers, and then she
marries the next one, next one dies, marries
the next one, next one dies, marries the next
one, you get the pattern here. So in incident,
if you want to look at the law, the referencing
is you don't want to be 25. Yeah. Right? But
the reality is, how likely is it going to be
that she's going to marry all seven brothers?
Right. Right? This kind of reminds me of the
conversation someone has, though, like, was God
all powerful? Then can you recreate a rock you
cannot lift? Boom, I disproved God. Yeah. No,
you just made up a ridiculous hypothetical that
has nothing to do with basis and reality. Uh
-huh. And so if you look at other times, you
look at the story before this when they challenged
Jesus, they asked Jesus a question, and Jesus
responds with a question. Yeah. Right? And here,
Jesus is like, dude, seriously? Right. So the
setup, like you said, seven brothers, one wife,
all of them die. They all have been married at
some point. Who's in the resurrection? Whose
wife will she be? Now, the whole intention is
make the resurrection look ridiculous, right?
And make it look unworkable, right? Now, what
is the answer? You are wrong. Because you know
neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
thank you jesus for just like the best mic drop
moment i love that one you are wrong because
this is this is by the way there has been times
where i'm having a conversation with somebody
and they make such an outlandish absurd comment
that i'm like i need you to go and do a basic
google search for 10 minutes before we continue
this conversation because if you're going to
say these kind of absurd things i'm not sure
we can have a real conversation yeah Right. Yeah.
Yes. It's quite the thing. But what Jesus does
here is he exposes two issues. One is that they're
ignorant of the scripture or the intent of scripture
for sure. Right. And also they have no idea what
God's power is like. They have no idea of like
God's power for transformation or that God will
assume that God can't create a life that is radically
different kind of life. Right. Yeah. So Jesus
here, he's trying to bring them back to the reality
that marriage is supposed to be a picture of
our relationship with God. Yeah. Right? In that
when we do, when the resurrection happens and
we're with God in eternity, we are his. Yeah.
We don't belong to somebody else. Right. Does
that mean that the Bible clearly teaches that
there's no partnership in heaven with another?
It actually doesn't. No. But like what Jesus
is saying is the things that you think are important
here are not actually what the afterlife and
heaven is about. No, what it does is it echoes
what scripture actually teaches us. Right. Yeah.
Where God is the first priority. Yep. Right.
Where we enter into relationship with God. He's
number one in our lives. Right. Yeah. Not number
three, not number five. And here the Sadducees
are like. Okay. Like, well, her number, her number,
well, seven in this case passed away. But, uh,
so she really liked husband one, two, three,
and four, five was okay. Seven was great. Six
was a side note. I heard a pastor preach on this
one time. And he was like, he's like, I wonder
how difficult of a wife she was to him or the
brothers died. I was like, sure. He didn't get
any messages about that. Oh, he did. It was,
I laughed. I laughed at it. Like pizza. We worked
a bit. I was like, you're going to get so many
emails, so many emails. Sorry. Side note. But
they're like, okay, well, who's she going to
belong to? Right. That's the question. And Jesus
is like, God. Yeah. She's going to belong to
God. Right. Because what he says is they're neither
going to marry nor be given in marriage. They're
going to be like the angels in heaven. By the
way, this is not you will become an angel in
heaven. No. That's actually not what it says.
You're going to be like angels in heaven. In
other words, you belong to God. You serve God.
You're with creation and being joined with God
in what he does, right? Resurrection life is
not more of the same. It's actually something
entirely different that you can't quite comprehend.
Yeah. Social structures like marriage may not
carry over in the same way that you would even
understand them. So, one of the things that I
actually like that Jesus does here, too, is because
he's dealing with Sadducees, who only believe
the Lutheran Scripture, our Torah, so January.
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. You
know, January, February, March, April, and May.
That's not how that works. So, Ben's going to
get a lot of e -mails. First five books of the
Bible. Start with J? No, that's not right. Genesis.
Anyways, he quotes from Exodus 3 -5. It would
be fair. Genesis is a rule breaker. It should
be good. Yeah. Genesis. But that sounds too much
like the beer. I'm sorry. You mean Guinness?
Okay, perfect. So Jerusalem's quotes from Exodus
3 -6 where God is talking to Moses in the burning
bush. He says, I'm the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, the God of Jacob. So God, he says,
God doesn't say I was their God. Right. But that
the covenantal language implies ongoing relationship.
Therefore, he's not the God of the dead. He's
the God of the living. Yeah. Right. I am the
God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I am the
God of Jacob. So there's something that continues
and he's not the God of the dead, but the living.
Right. And. He argues resurrection from the Torah,
which is the very book that they choose to believe
is authoritative. He doesn't even go outside
of Torah, and he's using the opponent's canon
and logic in this conversation, right? He's using
their tools to actually have a conversation with
them, which, by the way, is really a pretty brilliant
tactic for having a conversation with people,
is using something they're familiar with to actually
explain to them something that was always there.
But that resurrection hope wasn't a new thing.
Yeah, it's not a new thing that the Pharisees
came up with. Well, it's not a new thing that
the prophets came up with. It's something that's
been in battle since the very beginning. God's
always been the God of the living, not the dead.
Yeah. Right? Yeah. In the Roman culture, and
in particular, there's a lot of focus on death.
There's a lot of focus. Death was a form of entertainment.
Death was something that like a good death was
something to be praised. Yeah. Talking from like
a gladiator style culture. Like if you died a
good death, you received extra rewards. I don't
know the particulars around Roman mythology and
stuff. We're not not super versed in Roman theology.
But I can tell you like that is a thing where
it's like death is its own reward. Death is a
good death is required for certain things, so
on and so forth. And then Jesus is turning it
back around because Roman culture has seeped
into Jewish life. And Jesus is turning that back
around. He's like, no, it's not about a good
death. It's about a good life. It's about life
eternal with God. So you actually, your life
isn't stopping. It's building towards something,
right? It's the use of theology to avoid uncomfortable
conversations, right? That would never happen.
Yeah, I know. So, like, in their case, the denial
of resurrection supports their power and comfort
because they're in charge of the temple here
and now in the middle of Rome, and they don't
want to think about Rome being overturned. On
the flip side of that... We being Christians
have a tendency to also use our theological positions
to protect our lifestyle rather than actually
submitting to God. That has been the case with
a lot of denominationalism, right? Is that we
want our theological things to be the way that
we want them to be rather than actually finding
a way to work together. Yeah. Right? To be comfortable
in our church settings. Right? Yeah. I just have
that. So I have that real in my head, by the
way, because we go to Pentecostal church. I have
a real in my head of like taking your Baptist
friend to a Pentecostal church. And it's that
scene from the last Star Wars movie where they're
all like dancing and partying and whatever. And
it's like, you look over, it was like, I don't
know. Yeah, it was so good. Yeah. Yeah. Just
side note on denominationalism, if anybody's
listening or cares on this, when you actually.
put the theological stances side by side, you
will find that they line up 85 to 90 % of the
time. Yeah. Or like 85 to 90 % of them line up.
Yeah. There'll be a few nuanced differences.
And the differences, if you look at those and
say, hey, is this a salvation issue? Most of
the time I found it's not. Well, and one of the
things I think with this story that we learn
is the power of God is much faster, bigger. I
go vaster, vaster, vaster than we imagine. And,
uh, it's going to be a new word, vaster. Just
go ahead and put that in your head. Well, it's
going to be the 2026 word of the year. Um, but
our, our inability to picture the age to come
doesn't actually mean that it's irrational. It
just means that we sometimes need to be able
to think bigger than we're capable of. Um, I
have sometimes conversation with people. I was
like, there are things that I know for sure about
God. And there's a lot of things where he's like,
just trust me. Yeah. And, uh, and they're like,
well, I don't know if I can accept that. I was
like, well, if you actually believe God is who
he says he is. The guy who speaks the world into
existence. I am a finite brain. It's like trying
to fill the ocean up in a Coke can. There's just
no way to put the ocean in this Coke can. You
know what I mean? Like Coca -Cola can not, it's
a battle with psych. You know, it's, there's
no way to fit an entire ocean into a can. And
so I have to be able to just accept that there's
more than what I can hold. Yeah. And how many
times has God like brought us to the edge of
what we know? And I'm like, okay, we're going
to take a step further into what we don't know.
Right. Right. And so there's been so many times
in my life where God has led me to a place where
I'm like, I have no idea how this is going to
work out. None of this makes sense logically
and so on and so forth. And then you just start
to see all the pieces come together and God being
like, I got this. Well, and truthfully, if I
could figure out what God was doing. Would he
really be God? Mm -hmm. Like, no, no, no. I'm,
like, I'm basically a little sure, like, in my
life, I see the movement of what God is doing.
But, like, if I actually, like, how the universe
works, and how do you speak it into existence,
and how do you make the planets align, and, you
know, all the different things that go into,
like, just life. Yeah. Like, would he be God?
Mm -hmm. I think the answer, like, that would
be, we'd be looking for you. And so, we try to
bring God down to, like, oh, we completely understand
God. I was like, no, you've got the ocean in
a Coke can. Mm -hmm. Like. And you have to be
okay with the fact that there's a lot more you're
not going to get. Yeah. And if you believe God
is who he says he is, that's the way that it's
going to be. There's just no way around that.
Yeah. The Bible doesn't tell us everything. It's
a canon for the voice of God. Yeah. So that we
know what God's voice sounds like so that we
can engage him in our day -to -day life. Like,
what is his heart? Who is he? What's his story?
And how we fit into it. Right? All right. Kind
of leads us into the next thing. It does. Absolutely.
Where we can't comprehend everything about God,
but what we can comprehend is what he's called
us to. Oh, hold on. There's one thing I wanted
to note here from the book of Luke. So there's
one spot in the gospel of Luke that I love, but
Jesus answered them and it says, they no longer
dared ask him any more questions. That's one
of my favorite lines. They're like, well, we're
done. They're like, we're outgunned. That did
not work out the way we thought it would. Yeah.
So, but this leads us beautifully into the next
part where, where we, you know, have a hard time
comprehending everything about God. We're not
going to be able to do it. Yeah. So what's our
responsibility in all this? Right. And so, and
it's picking up in verse 34 in Matthew. But when
the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the
Sadducees with his reply, they met together to
question him again. Okay. So you kind of see
his tag team thing going on. All right. Sadducees
are out. Pharisees back in. One of them, an expert
in the religious law, tried to trap him with
a question. Teacher, which is the most important
commandment in the law of Moses? Which, by the
way, is a debate at this time between the school
of Shammai and Hillel. Yep. Yep. Okay. No, go
ahead. Okay. Jesus replied, you must love the
Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
and all your mind. This is the first and the
greatest commandment. The second one is equally
important. Love your neighbor as yourself. The
entire law in all the demands of the prophets
are based on these two commandments, right? So
this shows up in Mark as well. And in the gospel,
and in the gospel of Mark, it does seem like
the scribe is asking a legitimate question. Like
he's asking for an answer to this debate. So
he, Jesus probably got asked this question multiple
times. Right. Um, but there was a gone, gone,
gone standing. I am outstanding with my words
today. There was an ongoing conversation in the
rabbinic debate because there's eight great debates
going on that Jesus has been addressing throughout
his ministry. But one of them is, which is the
greatest command? Now, nobody disagreed what
the first one was. Yeah. It was always, love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul,
mind, and strength. Straight out Deuteronomy.
Vertical, love God, and service of God. That's
number one. That's everything, right? In fact,
Jesus just talked about that in the previous
one. He's like, it's all about God. It's not
about your relationships. It's going to be different.
You don't completely understand, but it's a vertical
relationship here. Quoting the Shema, which by
the way is Israel's daily confession, every Jew
would have said it. Love God equals wholehearted
allegiance, affection, will, intellect, strength.
Everything that makes you you is aligned to God.
The debate was the second one. The school of
Shammai leaned on Oboe the Sabbath. So the lens
by which you view all the scripture is God is
first and obeying God. Shammai says yes, but
the second one is actually love God and demonstrate
that by how you love other people. I think I
said Shammai twice, but I meant Hillel. And Jesus
agrees and he says that the second is like it,
love your neighbor. And this is what he calls
1918, you know, that one that people always read.
We shall love you as yourself. And it's emphasizes
and it elevates a seemingly little law, because
if you've read Leviticus, in fact, if you go
back to our total series, it's kind of just couched
in the middle of all this conversation about
how to interact with the other nations. Right.
And so it's like in Leviticus and it's like it's
not like this prominent law that just shows up.
But God, Jesus takes this one. He says, hey.
So it's, love the Lord your God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength. It shows up
multiple times throughout Deuteronomy. Love your
neighbor as yourself. It shows up in the middle
of Leviticus. In the life of the priesthood.
Right? And Jesus, he works them together and
he says, love of God and love of neighbor are
inseparable. If you say you love God but you
neglect your neighbor, your love is theologically
orthodox but practically false. Yeah. i'm gonna
say it's like theologically orthodox but it's
practically false in other words you are saying
the right things but you don't actually live
what you say you believe yeah so he says on these
two commandments hangs all the law and all the
prophets right now he's dealing with sadducees
again or not sadducees anymore he's now done
with the pharisees so he's going to reference
the rest of the scripture all of the law And
all the prophets. Yeah. Right. So everything
in your Ketuvim, your Old Testament, is going
to be hanging on this. And you might even say
that it's like the axle that everything rotates
on. It's the way you unlock what God's mission
has been from the very beginning. Yeah. Right.
And you have to realize how this would probably
have caught the Pharisees off guard because Jesus
said, love God with everything you got, which
is all over Torah, especially Deuteronomy. And
then they take the one time it says, love your
neighbor as yourself. And he says, and that's
the second most important. Yeah. Right. There's
other laws in Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
that are repeated. Right. But there's a one time
where it says that and Jesus is like, that's
the one. That's the one. Yeah. That's the one.
if you were the Pharisee listening to this, you'd
be like, I know that, I know that law. You'd
also be like, wait a second, start to connect
the dots of being like, okay, the love your neighbor
as yourself ties into welcoming in the foreigner,
ties into respect of children and elders. Right.
Right. Like ties into all these things. Yeah.
Like it's the, they would start to connect these
dots, be like. Ew, this is a linchpin. Yeah,
and it also kicks off, and Luke, he kind of goes
a little bit further with it because he ties
it to the story of the Good Samaritan. Yeah.
Right? Those people you don't like, it's demonstrated.
Love for a neighbor is demonstrated by how you
treat them. Yeah. And which would be, by the
way, just the biggest buzzkill when you're under
Roman oppression. Uh -huh. Right? Oh, yeah. It's
just the biggest buzzkill when you're dealing
with that. Oh, yeah. The scribe actually, in
the book of Mark, repeats Jesus' answer, and
he actually says, Loving God and neighbor is
more than our whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
And Jesus tells him, You are not far from the
kingdom of God. Now, that's massive, because
where are they at this point? Yeah. They're still
in the temple. Yeah. They're still in the temple
area. And, and so this scribe having this conversation
with him, he says, uh, he's like, he's like,
yes. Uh, level words. You got with all your heart,
soul, mind and strength, love your neighbor as
yourself. It's actually with more than all of
this. Yeah. All of this we got going on around
us. Right. Um, and Jesus seems to say intellectually,
you're right there. Now I just need you to actually
put it in practice. Right. Uh, because if you
say you believe, love God, it's going to be demonstrated
by the way you love other people. Otherwise,
like I said, Orthodox is correct and it's practically
false. And Jesus ties that in further with Matthew
25. Yeah. Where we're talking about the separation
of the sheep and goats. Where he's like, all
right, you said you love me. He's like, but when
did you feed the hungry? Right. When did you
go visit those who are in prison? When did you
take care of those who had no clothes? When did
you? care for the widows and orphans and like
list all these things. And he's like, yeah, first
John, John is going to reminisce on this and
he's going to say, if you can't love a person
you can see, how could you possibly love a God
you can't see? Right. Uh, your horizontal ethics
are going to reveal how you actually feel vertically.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um, I remember we were preaching
on, uh, we, we, we did Galatians a few years
back, you know, in the summer. Um, and we were,
and I got to the, the fruit of the spirit and
I, I, and I made a statement and it got so quiet
in church and I said, did you know that I know
whether or not you love God or not? And I was
like, man, he was like pin drop. Right. It was
like so quiet. And I said, because to be fair,
it wasn't super quiet. I was laughing in the
sound. But I was like, because I can see how
you treat other people. And whether or not you
love God is going to be demonstrated in the way
you treat other people. Does that mean you're
going to be perfect? Of course not. No, of course
not. Like, because sometimes people are stupid.
Right. And how do I know? Because. that's me
i'm stupid sometimes right uh but you're gonna
figure out ways to love people yeah because that's
that's showing but um uh jesus is also like he's
he's leveling this critique also religious systems
because a lot of times we want to try to uh make
boundary markers uh who's in who's out yeah right
uh who do i have to love who do i have to love
Right? Let's put together traditions and rituals,
which, by the way, are not bad things. No. Right?
Unless they're used to keep people out. But Jesus
here, he isn't anti -law. He's not anti -ritual.
He's not anti -traditions. What he's saying is
if your religion doesn't found you into a God
-loving and people -loving person, it's malfunctioning.
Yeah. It's not doing what it's supposed to do.
Your faith should cause you to love those around
you. Yep. You know for us that becomes problematic
for like American churches because a lot of churches
measure health by attendance giving Doctrinal
checklists involvement involvement, but they
don't actually ask are we more loving than we
were a year ago? Are we reaching out to our community?
One of my favorite stories is there's a pastor.
Their city was listed on the top 10 list of worst
cities in a region, right? And he brought the
newspaper in because he read it in the morning,
and he's like, this is where we're ministering,
this is where we're taking care of people, this
is where we're trying to do good. He brings it
into a staff meeting, and he throws it on the
table, and he says, is this our problem? Or is
the fact that this isn't our problem, our problem?
Like it was listed as like one of the, like number
one in the top 10 worst places to live. And he's
like, that's like, what are we doing? And, uh,
like, you know, us, you know, us, we believe
in like, yes. Preach the gospel. Yes. Love people.
Yes. Do all these things. I was like, but if
you don't actually make any practical difference
in people's life, if you're not actually meeting
them in their chaos, if you're not, you, I'm
going to use your sister as an example, sitting
on the side of the road, giving somebody a sandwich.
What are you doing? War is broken. They need
people to love them. Yeah, absolutely. Like,
the best thing you could check to see if your
church is a good, like, following Jesus or not,
do you love more than you did a year ago? Like,
if people come in and they look at you, they're
like, man, I know that I'm going to have people
that care about me and help me. Yeah. Right?
Yeah. And that's one of the beautiful things
about the church we go to, right? Yeah. Is they
are just so active in the community. Like, just
in their day -to -day lives of, like, we're going
to be out there and be Jesus to people. Right.
It's a beautiful thing. I was talking to somebody.
This is probably 15 years ago. And it was 15
years ago. However, you know, just kidding. Old
enough. Let's say 10 years. I'll make you feel
better. But and it was it was a couple of high
school students and we're talking about church
and what it means, like what it means to go to
church. Like and what like and so I was asking
was like. i was like all right so like do you
guys have a church that you're plugged into like
yeah yeah we do and it's it's great and then
they went on this rant about everything they
get out of it right everything like they're like
we like to meet in a superficial stuff like the
lighting's good on stage we like the music they'll
have good coffee and they look like list all
these things And so it was entertaining. Yeah,
that was one of them. And so I was like, awesome.
I was like, okay, like, um, so what have you
learned about Jesus going to that church? And
it was, again, it was like a pin drop. They were
like, yeah, I was like, okay. I was like, so,
and so then I was like, Hey, do you see the issue?
Yeah. Right. Like you're going to church. You
haven't really learned anything about Jesus.
I was like, have you made friends? They're like,
well, no, not really. right and i was like okay
so you see the issue like you haven't you haven't
fellowshiped with people or lived in community
with people there you haven't learned anything
about jesus um it's kind of like going to a movie
and shutting your eyes during the whole thing
yeah it was it was like so so are you just there
to see the show yeah and they're like well we
never really thought of it that way And so, and
I was like, I was like, if you're involved in
church, it should lead you to a place where you
are wanting to serve your community, serve Jesus
and your community. I probably need to workshop
this a little bit, but church is not a place
to attend. It's a, it's an experience to be lived.
Yeah. Right. Like, and I understand what I'm
saying is like, like going to church is not something
you attend. It's a place that you engage. Yeah.
Right. And like, yes, you're going to have pastors
who are up there and teaching and music and worship
and all. And those are all great things. Like
we love children's ministry and all those different
things that happen. But the purpose is for, to
engage your soul, to, uh, be, be connected, to
be encouraged, to be strong, to be courageous.
If you need to, to lament, right. To be with
family, that's going to, uh, strengthen you so
that as you go and live the kingdom in the world.
jesus goes forward yeah i think sometimes churches
get so scripted that they lose sight of just
being able to be available for those around them
yeah right like uh you and i have played on worship
teams a mini into two yeah a mini yeah right
i've played on worship teams where it's like
where it's like we are on a click track this
is the exact thing you're gonna play this is
the exact fill you're gonna play you're gonna
listen to this version of that song and you're
gonna play that exactly like that carbon copy
where that's where we are carbon copy yep and
then i've been to other churches where they're
like middle of a song and they're like we are
gonna do some spirit worship time here in the
middle of a song and that could go off for five
minutes and you're just feeling out the music
and going with it right neither one of those
are good neither one of those are bad exactly
right neither one's good neither one's bad they're
both an invitation yeah when you let them be
yeah right but sometimes we don't And we need
to let those moments invite people in. So ironically,
because the Bible does this, this actually leads
into the last thing. Because the real question
we're seeing is, do you love God and run with
other people? Who do you actually think Jesus
is? Which, by the way, is what's coming up. So
up to this point, Jesus has been questioned over
and over and over again. So he's Pharisees, Herodians,
Sadducees, Scribes. You know, they've all been
trying political, theological, legal traps. talking
to him in the temple they've been talking to
him in the court like always even closest then
he flips it and he asks him a question so in
22 41 he says this while the pharisees were gathered
together so they just asked him a question he
answered them and then they're like right and
he says uh jesus asked them what do you think
about the messiah whose son is he and they go
the son of david they replied He said to them,
Okay. So, let's talk through really quick here
what's going on. So, the answer is correct. It's
David's son, right? That's the standard answer.
That's what the Pharisees are going to be responding.
And that's not wrong. It's biblical. It's true.
2 Samuel 7 is the promise of a Davidic king,
right? And the crowd expects a political David
2 .0, right? Somebody who's going to go and overthrow
Rome. Instead, Jesus goes to Psalm 110 .1. It
says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right
hand and tell I put your enemies under your feet.
So David is speaking in this psalm, and he calls
the Messiah my Lord. Now he says, if David calls
him my Lord, in this culture, a father doesn't
call his son Lord. It doesn't happen. And we're
like, hmm, right? So there must be something
more to Messiah than what we think. He must do
more than just David's son. The Messiah would
almost have to be both David's son and David's...
By the way, you can see the Pharisees are like,
I don't like where this is going. I don't like
where this is going. So this is actually where
it can be really important is that Psalm 110
is actually one of the most quoted Old Testament
texts in the New Testament. The early church
on a frequent basis used it to talk about Jesus'
exaltation, Jesus' priesthood, and his kingship.
But there's a subtle bit... uh powerful christological
bomb going on here it's because now jesus has
said there is a divine human messiah yeah he's
not just a man he's going to be something more
than man he said your expectations are too small
Sadducees, you have misunderstood what heaven
is. Yeah. Pharisees, you're thinking too small
about what God wants you for you. He wants you
to love him and love everybody else and demonstrate
your love for the people. And your expectation
of what God is going to do in your life through
Messiah is too small. You're thinking about Rome
and I'm thinking about the world. Yep. And they
go. Yeah, this guy's real smart. And they're
like, we better regroup and not ask any more
questions in this moment. Right. Yeah. And, you
know, and so here's the thing. So they wanted
a political liberator. Rome crusher, restorer
of national glory. And he affirms that the promise
is coming, but it expands to something else.
Right? Now, he's going to ultimately, and we're
going to talk about this over the next coming
weeks, he's going to reorient this to the cross
and resurrection rather than a sword and revolt.
Yeah. Right? Yeah. But we also have a tendency
to expect Jesus to be something different than
what he actually is. We're like, hey, Jesus is
a personal therapist. Yeah. He's a life coach.
Sure. a tribal champion in our politics. But
Psalm 110 says, Jesus isn't done with God. He's
not just useful for my agenda. Yeah. Jesus is
not about your agenda. He's about what he's doing.
Well, and it circles back to that. Who is, who's
your Lord and what are your priorities? right
yeah because you have the pharisees here they
their priorities right now and you'll see so
you see this over and over again is to trap jesus
yeah like their priorities prove this guy wrong
yep and don't compromise our power and so when
you look at scriptures it doesn't say that they
are doing this to glorify god Right. It doesn't
say that. And maybe some of them are. Maybe some
of them think they're in the right. And we're
always going to give the benefit of the doubt.
Yes. There's context clues that are not in the
text. And so we can't fill those. Right. Yeah.
But it does say they're doing it to prove him
wrong. And then Jesus often flips it over and
says, cool, I'm doing what I'm doing so the world
can be saved. Yeah. I'm doing what I'm doing
because Father in heaven loves. Everyone. Yeah.
Right. And also, that's been the truth since
Torah. Yes. Right? Yep. Since Genesis 12. Well,
before Genesis 12. Yeah. Genesis 12. Yeah. You're
going to be blessed so that all people will be
blessed. Yes. Right? Right. And so this is what
you have going on. And we can often check ourselves
with this and be like, okay. Am I acting like
when I'm engaging in these conversations surrounding
Jesus, surrounding scriptures, am I acting with
the heart of the Pharisee or am I acting with
the heart of Jesus? Right. Cause it can be easy.
Um, we like to be right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's,
I mean, human nature, right? We want to be, I
actually prefer being wrong. No, that's not true.
Uh, yeah, we want to be right. I, at school today,
I was in a meaningless debate that had nothing
to do with school stuff with our, And I told
him, I was like, it's okay, man, you're entitled
to your wrong opinion. And he's, he's like, I
don't care enough about this conversation. I'm
walking away. Yeah. By the way, it's the more
mature thing to do. I was like, right. But it
was like, I was like, no, I'm right. I'm going
to be right here. Right. But. That's some low
-level brother energy you're bringing in. I was
bringing in some low -level energy. And he was
like, I'm done with you right now. But we have
those moments where we're like, I'm just going
to be right. Right. But we can do that with Scripture,
too. When we talk about Scripture, I'll be like,
I'm right. Your interpretation's wrong. Here's
why you're laid out. And then at the end of those
conversations, you can be like, why did I do
that? Was that loving? Was I actually caring
for that person? Right. Was I actually right?
Yeah. Yeah. yeah it's difficult you know and
uh and i think it's it's reasonable to have conversation
where somebody like pulls scripture will out
of context you can be like hey i just want to
like talk context here for a little bit yeah
and then let's clarify your position yeah you
know and to really talk through that and talk
bible like that's totally acceptable yeah like
in fact that's encouraged yeah that's what we
do here yeah right um but The Bible is doing
a lot more than you think. Like a lot of times
we want to be like it's black and white. And
I was like, man, it's it's it's black and white.
It's multicolored, like infrared, 3D scan, like
all sorts of stuff going on. Right. And the bigger
thing is that the Bible is trying to lead us
into life with God, life into this kingdom, in
this invitation into the kingdom of God, now
accessible through the death, burial and resurrection
of Jesus. Right. Empowered by the Holy Spirit,
like to live a different way. Yeah. It's not
trying to get us into just obey a bunch of rules.
Right. But also the rules are there for a reason.
Yeah. Right. And, and it's just, it's incredibly
problematic because I think, I think a lot of
times where we struggle, people who are Christians
and non -Christians alike, where we struggle
is we don't actually know who Jesus is. We're
like, yeah, Jesus is my savior. Okay. Well, if
he was actually in your Lord, you would actually
do what he tells you to do which is to love people
graciously even when they're samaritans or romans
or religious elites or you know i'm just gonna
keep saying or Yeah. All right. And we're not
going to get into it today. And, but I think,
uh, I, I didn't talk to you about this, but we're
going to do one more week where we talk about
hypocrisy because that's the next thing he talks
about. And he gives the seven woes and talks
about the destruction of the temple. Sounds great.
Right. Because, uh, we didn't talk about that,
but I was like, he's, he's been confronting the
church leadership and then he's going to say,
he's like, they're, they're done debating. Right.
And so now he's going to go on a tirade and he's
like, these are issues. And woe to you because
these things are coming. This is about Jesus
being very much prophetic. The things that you
are doing now are about to crush your life. Listen
to the will and change your way. And their response
is, we're going to kill you. Yeah, their response
is, we're going to kill you. And so we'll get
there. There's a few more weeks before we get
there. But next week, we'll do the third part
about Jesus confronting leadership and address
the seven woes and hypocrisy of what's going
on there. Perfect. Well, until next time. Bye.
And that's a wrap for today's episode of Love
and Context. We hope this conversation encouraged
you and gave you fresh insights into how we can
better love God and others through the powerful
truths of the Bible. We'd love to hear from you.
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