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 in Context podcast. Where we podcast
on a podcast. Yeah. If you're listening today
and you listened a week or so ago, you're probably
noticing that our voices don't sound like...
Yeah, we had audio issues, and I was like, oh,
maybe Spencer and I can recapture the magic.
We can't. No. We can't recapture the magic, and
I wanted to make sure that that was a good dialogue
that I wanted to make sure got on there. Yeah.
So we're going to just pretend like it was great
audio, and for those of you that listened, thank
you. For those of you that didn't, this is what
we talked about last week. And before you guys
start typing comments, like, well, you should
really do this with your audio, it's fine. Don't
worry. Yeah. You'll get over it. Yeah. You'll
be okay. Some of you know who this is, and some
of you don't. Just Abilene Kyle Quinn. Yeah.
Just letting you know. Just letting you know
Abilene Kyle Quinn. 100%. So last couple of weeks,
we're obviously in the Life of Jesus Season 3
podcast. Podcast. Oh, yeah. P -p -p -podcast.
I think I was supposed to do that at the beginning,
but I won't. Last couple of weeks, just kind
of catching up. Jesus has come into the temple.
He's cleansed the temple. And then there's been
this couple of parables that he's been telling.
He's been asked a lot of questions from the religious
leaders. So initially he comes in and he says,
hey, this temple is actually supposed to be for
everybody. It's supposed to be specifically for
the court of the Gentiles. So everybody who is
not part of the kingdom of Israel can come and
hear about Yahweh. And you're making it a place
where you're selling a bunch of stuff and trying
to make a bunch of money. It's corrupted. Boo.
Boo, right? And so then they come at him and
they start asking him questions. And so he starts
telling him parables. He tells him the parable
of the vineyard where there's this vineyard and
God's the landowner and the servants are supposed
to be taking care of it. So the servants are
these prophets and eventually the son comes to
these vineyard people and says, hey, you're supposed
to give me what to do. And they kill everyone
because that doesn't work out well. And then
he has this conversation in the temple. They
said, well, are we supposed to give taxes to
God or to Caesar? And he says, well, that depends.
Whose picture is on the money? Whose image is
on the coin? Let's pull out a coin we're not
supposed to have. Yeah, let's pull out a coin
we're not supposed to have. And ultimately, Jesus
kind of gives them this point. It's like, give
to Caesar the coin, but don't you dare give Caesar
what's God's, which is you. right? Your life,
your devotion, your worship. And then the Sadducees,
they have this ridiculous question about the
resurrection. He answers them, puts them in their
place. You don't know the scriptures or the power
of God, one of my favorite quotes from Jesus.
Then he has a conversation with another religious
leader about which is the greatest command, and
he answers a rabbinic debate that's going on
at the time. He says, love God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor
as yourself. All law and prophets are going to
hang on these two commands. Tell you what, guys,
now that you don't have questions, I got questions
for you. That's what I read in there, right?
And he asked them about this question about who
is the Messiah? And they say, well, you know,
he's supposed to be the son of David. Okay, well,
David calls him Lord, so how would a father call
a son Lord unless he's something more than just
a son of David, right? What if he's something
more than what you're anticipating? What if the
Messiah is so much more than you think? Which
then brings him into this conversation. So he's
been confronting the religious leadership. This
is part three of Jesus confronting religious
leadership. I will tell you the same thing that
I told you the last couple of weeks. If you have
grown up in church, he's probably talking to
us. And it's better for us to hear that and fix
our dumb stuff quickly than to assume that he's
not talking to us, right? By the way, that's
me. That's Spencer. We grew up in church. He's
talking to us. So we pick up in chapter 23, and
he's going to be talking about hypocrisy. So
let's jump in here and read this text. Okay,
so where are they? Still in the temple. Religious
leaders are not... directly questioning him now,
and Jesus starts to talk to the crowds and his
disciples, but it's more than likely these guys
are still within earshot, right? And the big
idea is Jesus is then addressing the leadership,
and he's not using a parable. He's directly telling
them, hey, make sure to do what they tell you
to do, but don't do what they do, because what
they say and what they do are not the same thing.
Boy, if that had to do with modern church. Well,
yeah, and then to also have Jesus say, hey, what
they're saying is more important than their actions.
Correct. Right? Like, as a religious leader,
like, if you are saying one thing, your actions
better line up with that. Exactly. Right? But
you, listener, they are saying the right thing.
What they're saying is not inaccurate. You should
do what they say. Just don't watch them and then
do what they do. Yeah. So there's this thing
that talks about Moses' seat. For people that
are unfamiliar, if you go back to our Torah series,
we talk about this. There is the Bema seat, which
is the center platform for where they teach.
The Moses seat is where you sit from and you
read Torah. And it's a place of religious authority.
And so basically when he says that they sit in
Moses' seat, he's saying that they carry the
teaching authority of the scriptures to the community.
Yeah. And that's appropriate. Jesus says they
do have devotion to the text, and there is a
basic sound as to what they're saying. But don't
do what they do. Hear the text. But don't do
what they do. Don't imitate their way of living
it out. Because they do things like they load
up people with guilt and expectations, right?
And they won't lift a finger to help people.
And they turn their obedience into a show, which
is actually a word that's going to come across.
And we've talked about this in the past, but
it's hypocrisy, upokritas, right? It's play acting,
right? It's much broader than just say one thing
and do another. It's you're putting on a show.
And he says they're not even going to lift a
finger to help them. And continuing on in verse
5, he says, everything they do is done for people
to see. They're play acting, right? They make
their phylacteries wide and their tassels on
their garments long. Are you supposed to have
phylacteries? Are you supposed to have tassels?
Yes, of course. Are they supposed to be wide
and long? No, that's for show. They love the
place of honor at banquets and the most important
seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted
with respect in the marketplace and to be called
Rabbi by others. Okay. Look at me, look at me.
Look at me, look at me. Okay, one more part here.
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have
one teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not
call anyone on earth father, for you have one
father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be
called instructors, for you have one instructor,
the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your
servant, for those who exist themselves will
be humbled. Sorry, those who exalt themselves.
I can read. Exalt themselves will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
look at me, look at me. Stop it. Stop looking
at me. Don't look at me. That's probably not
how this works, right? So what is he not doing
here? So Jesus is not giving a rule about you
can't call your dad father, right? That's not
what he's talking about, right? He's not saying
that you can't have a teacher or a pastor. What
he's saying is you ultimately recognize that
these are all delegated authorities that come
from Messiah or God. Yeah. These are all deli,
and they're all servants that are serving. I
think about how Paul talks about it in Ephesians,
where he says that they equip the body for service.
Titles can be a problem with power and ego. They
can take away from your role of service. And
so if you're seeking a title because you want
power, you want authority, you want people to
go, hey, pastor, right? If that's the reason
that you're in this job, man, that's a problem.
Yeah. It's problematic. Yeah. We are all, when
we follow Jesus, we're all on an equal playing
field. Doesn't matter how long you follow Jesus
or if you just started five minutes ago, right?
We're all on an equal playing field. That basis
is found throughout Scripture. Jesus talks about
it here. Paul talks about it in Ephesians, Galatians,
so on and so forth. All the way back to Genesis,
where man and woman were created as equal helpers
for each other. I like, there's a story you've
told a bunch of times on here about the pastor
when you were getting involved in ministry. It
wasn't about what am I in charge of, but how
do you serve? Right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you
got lots of stories like that, but it's like,
it's like, how do you, how do you serve? Right.
Right. And really, if you're in a leadership
role, really nothing should be beneath you. I
was at a, at a conference and it's similar to
your story about asking you to clean toilets.
But I remember this guy, he was, he. God had
given like a word over him. He was going to go
and evangelize like internationally and stuff
like that. And he's like, okay, great. So he
goes and he's like, but you have to go and serve
under this pastor for a while. So he goes to
the pastor. He's like, yeah, God's given me this
word of things I'm supposed to do. And he's like,
cool. It's time for you to clean toilets. And
he's like, he's like, at first I was like, he's
like, but then I took the toilet and I was like,
I was like, I love Jesus. I'm cleaning the toilets.
You know, he's all going for it. And he's like,
he's like, and you know what I found out is that
I loved serving. I loved serving and God was
preparing me to be the kind of person internationally
that would be able to serve. Well, and the beautiful
thing about serving is when you really step into
this of like, okay, I'm going to be the least
of these. I'm going to do it in a way where,
you know, I'm not doing it for the attention,
right? It allows you to actually just open your
eyes and be like, okay, who needs help? Right?
Yeah. Right? Because when you're doing it for
attention, you're like, who needs help and who
can see me? right and when you take that who
can see me push it aside you remove the distraction
you're like okay that person's over there by
themselves hungry broken hurting they need help
let me go to them right and um and versus when
you do it in front of a big public affair people
will be like oh man that person can be so great
and that uh that uh pride can sneak in so easily
right and and so the beautiful thing is just
being like hey you know what if i'm gonna Do
it for, because I'm playing for God, right? I'm
not playing for man, as Paul says. Playing for
God, I'm not playing for man. So I'm going to
do it in a way to where it's not about other
people's responses. It's about who God has put
in my path and who I'm supposed to be humbly
serving. We have an episode where we talked about
hypocrites, and we talked about this, this upacritas,
this theater word meaning play acting. And so
in English, typically, so I recommend going to
that episode if you want to deep dive into it.
But we typically talk about it, one person who
does one thing or says one thing and does the
opposite. But Jesus is actually commenting that
you can actually do what you say. and still be
a hypocrite if you're performing for the applause
of people, for status or for control. Everything
they do is for people to see. Now, I've been
in ministry a long time. You can't do everything
out of the sight of people because it's just
impossible. People are going to see you. If you
fast and you teach people how to fast, you at
least have to talk to your students. If you're
going to pray and teach people how to pray, you
have to do it in front of them. everything they
do is to be seen by other people, that's problematic.
Even doing the right thing, you can still go
about it for the wrong reasons. You're like,
what was it, how you said? Look at me! Right?
The Pharisees, that's from, the look at me is
from something. I can't remember. Somebody figure
it out what it is and email us because I forget.
But the Pharisees likely saw themselves as completely
consistent because they did what they taught.
But they, at the same time, were missing the
heart of what the Scripture was trying to do
because they had just had this conversation.
It's about love God and love of your neighbor.
And so everything that you're doing in pursuit
of Torah should be about loving God and that
love then extending to your neighbor. And we
know, I mean, chances are either you... or somebody
you know is like this, right? This has been me
at times, where I know my doctrine, I love Bible
studies, and I can keep all the rules, but it's
about being smartest, and it's about being the
holiest, or I'm better at this than somebody
else. I can be in pursuit of the right thing
the totally wrong way. I can say, man, my doctrinal
ducks are in a row. This guy, though? Let me
tell you, right? Or, I mean, coming from like
a worship perspective, when you're worshiping
God and you're having a really good time and
you're like, man, I made this happen. You're
like... And as you're saying that, God's standing
behind you with a two by four about ready to
hit you on the back of the head. Yeah, that plank
that you have in your own eye, it may have gotten
stuck there by God. Right? And this is why, I
mean, I think this is the invitation why I think
we need to recognize ourselves as the Pharisees,
as the leadership, because this is where we grew
up. A lot of us grew up in church, and sometimes
people coming in from the outside, man, they're
not going to have their doctrinal things in a
row. They're just going to be pursuing Jesus
and figuring it out as they go. Our job is to
love them, yes, to help correct them, but in
a way that's actually helpful and brings life,
not to bring shame, not to tie up cumbersome
burdens and put them on their shoulders. Yeah.
Right? Like that's problematic. Jesus' critique
isn't those bad people out there. It's religious
leaders, check your heart. Check your heart.
What's going on? And then he's going to go and
he's going to give seven woes. But before we
actually get into the woes, I'm going to kind
of just give an overview of what the woes are.
Remember that these woes and these critiques
are coming after a long series of conversations.
Jesus doesn't come in and just start declaring
woe. He's already talked to the religious leaders
and had this conversation. Now he's talking to
his disciples and saying, this is why you need
to watch out. And I stress that because I think
that there is a tendency in Christendom when
we think that we are the smartest, are the most
holy. We're like, I'm going to bring the woes
and people will repent in weeping and sackcloth,
right? Will they? And they're animals too, just
quote from Jonah, right? Lead with grace and
truth. Lead with healing. Lead with love God,
love other people. And in the conversation, if
there's a point where you need to bring correction,
make sure there's connection. Right? Yeah. All
right. So seven woes that are going on here.
So I'm going to kind of give you just a high
level. In verse 13, he says that they're shutting
the door of the kingdom. In verse 15, they're
making converts into children of hell. That they
are blind guides and they make vows about temple
and gold, altering the gift. That they are tithing
tiny spices, they're neglecting the weightier
matters. That they're cleaning the outside of
the cup, but the inside is full of greed. That
they're whitewashed tombs, and they're building
tombs for the prophets and continuing in their
murder. So, you know, just chill stuff, right?
Not a whole lot going on there. But he's going
to lead off each of these with a woe. It says,
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisee,
you hypocrites. Now, it doesn't say that for
everyone, but a lot of them it does. The big
picture of these woes is it's not primarily about
obvious sin. It's about self -righteousness,
image -obsessed, power -protecting religious
people. Right. It's about when you place religion
over faith. Yeah. Right. People are so sure that
they are for God that they actually fight against
what God is doing. So let's take the first one
here. Can you read verse 13? Yeah, I can. What
sorrow awaits you teachers of the religious law
and you Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the
door to the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.
You won't go in yourself and you don't let others
in either. That's a rough one, right? Yep. So
Jesus is talking about leadership that makes
it harder for people who are sincerely seeking
God. They guard access to God like a bouncer,
not a priest, right? A modern example might be
churches that gatekeep culture, that gatekeep
politics, dress code, background. Even theology.
Even theology, right? That you can't be here
unless. Yeah. One of the things we talked about
in our church, we have a person who comes to
our church who I love, awesome person. We disagree
on a theological item. Totally fine. We were
having this conversation because of Assembly
of God, and I said, well, this is where AG stands,
and this is what I think. And I was like, also,
you don't have to agree with us, and you can
be here. I was like, you just need to know that
we're not changing who we are, but you're more
than welcome to be here and just disagree with
us. And they stopped, and they're like, oh, well,
that's cool. Well, we'll also do things where
we will add extra layers to stuff. Oh, yeah.
Right? There will be simple theological principles.
We're going to get an email on this one. There
will be simple theological principles like baptism.
Yeah. Right? You believe in Jesus, go get baptized,
public declaration. And you will have churches
be like, we know you need to take a six -week
class on what baptism is. Yeah. It's like, dude,
I can explain that to you in 30 seconds. Also,
it's a seven -week class, not a six -week class.
No, no, I hear you. And a six -week class on
baptism is not a bad thing. No. Right? It's not.
Is there a problem with having a six -week class
on baptism and all the different prophetic symbols
and what's actually going on in the waters? No,
that's fun. That's good. Well, some people think
that's fun. Some people are like, I don't know
if I want to talk about water that much. But
there's also so many instances in Scripture.
Yeah. I'm just thinking of what the Ethiopian
eunuch, right? Philip tells him about Jesus,
he believes, and then Philip's like, where's
the nearest puddle? Yeah. Right? Yep. Like, it
is a public decoration. Decoration. It's a public
decoration. It's you declaring publicly that
you are following Jesus. Right. Right. That's
what it is. Yeah. And because it's modeled after
mikvah for Jewish people is that it was like
a repentance. Like I was one way and now I'm
going another way. Yeah. Right. And like when
we make it a, well, no, you have to understand
all the intricacies of it. Dude, if we had to
understand all the intricacies to follow Jesus,
none of us would be following Jesus. Exactly.
And so. I'm using this as an example. I don't
say that if you're a church that's listening
and you offer a baptism class, great. I don't
have anything against that. We don't actually
have a problem with that. What I am saying is
that sometimes we will gatekeep theology to the
point where we're like, okay, we want to over
-explain this to a point where it's like, okay,
you actually just missed the heart of what it's
about. Do we actually make it harder for people
to follow Jesus than he does? yeah the answer
is yes we absolutely do and we're getting better
at it yes right um but like this this is the
woe is that you're you're gatekeeping you're
trying to make approach to the kingdom of god
harder than it should be you're not even going
in yourself and you're keeping other people from
going stop it stop it yeah you know and um uh,
let's see here. The second one is one of, uh,
this is this, by the way, it was one of my favorites
only because like, it's hit me so hard in my
youth. Right. Woe to you, teachers and law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites, you travel over land
and sea to win a single convert. And when you
have succeeded, you make them twice as much a
child of hell as you are. These are the religious
people, by the way. These are the people entrusted
with the words of God. These are the people that
are called to be conduits in the kingdom of priests
of the community, right? They're zealous for
the mission, but what they're reproducing is
themselves, not God. They're like, I'm going
to reproduce myself, but myself isn't actually
in line with who God is. And also note that religious
leaders, where they were at, they were supposed
to be ministering to the community they were
in. Right. Um, and so Jesus is like, you who's
supposed to be here are traveling way far over
there to do what you're supposed to be doing
here. Yeah. And then, oh, by the way, you're
still not doing a good job of it. Right. Right.
And that's just something to know. Um, a lot,
a lot of places where I see this in, in like,
uh, especially like, um, where a facet of this
we can deal with in our church or our culture
today. Stop arguing with the person on Facebook
that lives in the UK when you're not talking
to the neighbor who lives next to you. I'm going
to leave it there. Yeah. Right. Like stop arguing
with the person that you have no connection to
when you're not talking to the people right next
to you. Right. Anytime that it becomes about
you being right or it becomes us versus them,
you've lost the kingdom of God. Because the only
thing that's us versus them is we want them to
be with us. We want them to be redeemed. We want
them in the family. We want them in the household.
All of the thems. All of the thems. Every last
one of them. Especially the ones we don't like.
Discipleship that teaches people to defend positions
but not to love neighbors and enemies. Yeah.
It's problematic. And it creates the very thing
that you're trying to fight against. Yeah. It's
problematic. All right. Woe three. Verse 16.
I think it's through. Yeah, I got it. It was
a long one. I think it's through 22. Yeah, I
got it. Blind guides, what sorrow awaits you.
I love that. I love that. For you say that it
means nothing to swear by God's temple, but it
is binding to swear by the gold in the temple.
Blind fools, which is more important, the gold
in the temple, the gold or the temple that makes
the gold sacred? And you say that to swear by
the altar, it is not binding. But to swear by
the gifts of the altar is binding. How blind!
For which is more important, the gifts of the
altar or the altar that makes the gifts sacred?
For you swear by the altar, you are swearing
by it and everything on it. And when you swear
by the temple, you are swearing by it and by
God who lives in it. And when you swear by heaven,
you are swearing by the throne of God and by
God who sits on the throne. So holy system of
loopholes, Batman. Uh -huh. Right? Yeah. It's
like they're building this system of loopholes
where they're like, well, we swore by the gold,
but we didn't swear by the temple. So technically,
I don't have to keep my word. Right? Technically,
I'm not bound. By the way, this is very reminiscent
of Jesus saying, let your yes be yes and your
no be no. Anything else comes from the devil?
Yep. Right? It's ways to sound more pious than
you actually are. And Jesus addresses them. He's
like, hey, which of these is greater? In other
words, guys, you lost the plot. You lost what's
going on here. The sacredness is actually about
God's presence, not about the objects or these
games that you're playing. And if you've been
around people any period of time, then you've
probably seen them do this, this Christian version
of loopholes. We do this in church, right? If
we only get this program, if we only have this
curriculum. Yeah. If we only have the next greatest
soundboard, if we have perfect lights and perfect
sound, people will show up and they will get
to know Jesus. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Right? But
in scriptures, now I'm not going to go the route
of like, where does it tell you you need to have
a soundboard in scripture? They weren't invented
yet. That's just a really bad argument. Right.
Okay? Leave it at that. But in scripture, what
is it about? Is it about programs or is it about
relationships? It's about relationships. Right?
So it's like when we were talking like, oh, we
need this program. We need this program. We need
this. We need this. If we have all these things,
it'll make us look like we have it put together
and church will be church again. It's like actually
church is going to be church no matter what your
building looks like if you are doing two things,
loving God with everything you have and loving
everybody who comes through those doors with
everything you have. One of the places where
this will show up frequently, and hopefully this
doesn't hit somebody too hard, just understand
it's meant in the best way possible. But when
you're like, we love our community. And then
you ask, so what do you do in your community?
You're like, oh, well, you know, we have service.
Okay, what else? Like, are you feeding the hungry?
Do you visit the sick? Do you have a jail ministry?
Do you have small groups where people can come
and connect in homes? Do you clothe the naked?
Do you take care of widows and orphans? Yeah.
Do you support whatever it is? Do you get outside
your church walls? Do you get outside your church
walls? And by the way, that might not just be
your church. That might be the members of your
church are actively involved in those things.
That's great, right? If you're a people, you
don't have to organize as a church because the
church is already involved in the community.
That's a good problem. Well, like where we're
at, there was a pretty big natural disaster that
caused destruction of those homes, loss of one
life, stuff like that. And we had people asking
our church, like, well, like, how are you helping
with this? The reality is, is we had people on
the response team who were doing that. We had
people who were part of like fire department,
EMS. We had people who opened up their homes
and house people. Yep. We had people who opened
up their homes and house people. We had people
who went and bought extra food and gave it to
those who need it from that disaster. Right.
And here's the thing. they didn't wait for the
church to be like, okay, here's all the stuff
we need to do. Right. They just went and were
the church. I was, I was so like, uh, I was so
impressed. And so like, man, I love my people.
Yeah. Like I love God's people. Like, cause,
and it wasn't just our church, by the way, there
were other churches who did like incredible stuff.
Yeah. Um, in the community. I just, I, when I
was looking, I was like, I was like, that person
loves Jesus. That person loves Jesus. Like they're
just, you just see them. They're out there. Right.
Um, Like that's when you say you love people,
when you love your community and you're like,
well, we do, but we don't have money to do this.
We don't have time to do this. Love finds time.
Love finds money. Yeah. Right. If you want to
know what you love, take a look at your checkbook.
They might say rent. Maybe you don't love rent.
Take a look at your elective spending. Religion
that is used to manage appearances and obligations
instead of actually simply telling the truth
and loving people is problematic. It is a portion
of woe. Woe to you, because when you do things
like this, you're part of a kingdom, and it's
not the kingdom of God. All right, jumping in
here. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices,
mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected
the more important matters of the law, justice,
mercy, faithfulness. I got a little bit of Micah
kicking in there. You should have practiced the
latter without neglecting the former. You blind
guides, you strain out a gnat, but swallow a
camel. So this is talking about... emphasizing
really tiny details, right? Where you're like,
if you do this, then this. But then there's completely
other things that they just completely ignore,
like loving people or justice or anything that
goes on. There's like this little nitty gritty
rule. There was a guy I was watching a reel and
he said, you know, most evangelicals, we agree
about like 99 .5 % of things and we disagree
about 0 .5 of things. And even those are not
really that big of a deal. And yet we have all
these different denominations. Well, if you look
cross -denominationally, I think it's like there's
agreement on it's like 94, 95%. Yeah, it's really
high. It's really high. And then it's usually...
And don't get me wrong, there are some denominations
that I think have made some deal -breaker theological
stances. Yep. But for the most part, it's like
they love Jesus. They love their community. And
we should probably pause at this moment in the
episode and say, we are making generalizations.
Very generalizations. And that might not be your
church. Correct. Your church might be knocking
it out of the park. For example, I went to a
Southern Baptist church in Georgia, and they
were dancing in the aisles during worship. So
clearly they don't have a problem with dancing.
Uh -huh. Uh -huh. I think it just depends on,
like, there's such a wide range of how churches
respond. And oftentimes we come in and make generalizations
of being like, this denomination believes this
and 100 % acts like this. Okay, I'm going to
tell you right now, a Southern Baptist church
in Georgia. acts very differently than a Southern
Baptist church in the Pacific Northwest. Yes,
it does. Yes, it does. And so these generalizations,
they're just kind of broad, sweeping. So take
it as a high -level conversation, not as a specific
critique. And if you're like, okay, I hear what
you're saying, but our church is better than
that. We're like, yes, deal. Great. We love it.
Great. Okay. I thought we should throw that in
there. It did sound like we were bashing the
church too much. I agree. I agree. We actually
love the church, period. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But
it's also like our brothers and sisters, and
sometimes we have a tendency to talk very plainly
about our brothers and sisters because we love
them. Yeah. But I want to specify, we really
like these people, period. Yeah. Well, and let's
just put... the little cultural piece of Alaska,
which is very much of like, say what you need
to say and then get out of my way. Um, that like
culturally there's that element here where it's
like, Hey, like where you're like, Oh, how's
the weather? Like, what do you want? Yeah. Like
don't, don't be your other, but just tell me
what you want. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, what,
when Jesus is talking about here, he's like,
Hey, the point is not to stop tithing. The point
is to not make tithing the thing and neglect
mercy. The point is not to make ritual sacrifice
the thing and neglect loving your neighbor. These
are problematic things. And so when you become
obsessed with precise theology on secondary issues,
tertiary issues, with worship style, with dress
codes, with the way that your liturgy is set
up. But at the same time, you're having these
conversations, and at the same time, you're not
doing anything about injustice in your community.
You're not doing anything about poverty in your
community. You're not doing anything about loving
people in your community. Like, whoa. Yeah. Don't
stop doing the former. But, dude, you're missing
some massive things. You're sitting here talking
about 10 % on cumin, and you're letting your
buddy down the street die. What is that money
being used for? I'm a firm believer when you
give money to an organization, that's their money
now. You don't have it anymore. It's not yours.
If you don't like what that organization is doing,
don't give your money to them. If you're at a
church and you're like, man, I really don't like
what this church is doing, you don't have to
give them your money. But if you decide to give
them your money, then... You really have no,
yeah. You have no say. Right. At that point,
right? That's at least my stance on it. Right.
And somebody may disagree with us and you are
welcome to your own opinion. Yep. Yeah. But,
sorry, that was a rabbit hole, but it also is
something for us as church leaders, how are we
using that money? That was my rabbit. I know.
I was just going to move past it, but you're
like, I have to bring it up. But it's like, as
church leaders, what are we prioritizing for,
that money for? Are we saying, hey, we want that
money to make the building look good and new
sound system, new lights, new stuff like that?
I'm really hoping Pastor Dick is listening to
this because we got a new sound system not too
long ago. And sometimes those things are needed,
right? Right. But also, like, is that money being
allocated towards missions, towards supporting
local missionaries, to reaching the lost, to
feeding the hungry, taking care of the poor,
et cetera, right? And you can tell a lot about
a church if a church is willing to say, you know
what, this new thing would be nice, but we don't
need that. Let's save up for it, and we still
want to keep our money going towards people.
One of the biggest things about your faith is
if your faith, if your faith as it grows helps
you walk a straight and narrow path, that's not
a bad problem. But if your faith doesn't also
make you more loving, something's off. Yeah.
Right? Yeah. Like straight and narrow, great.
But if at the same time you're not growing in
love, something's off. Yeah. Right? And like
Jesus is saying is like, if you're only focused
on this piece and it's never growing this piece,
what's going on? Don't stop doing the other thing.
There's everything good about that. Yeah. But
worship service on Sunday morning is great. Yeah.
But if you're not loving people in the community,
what's your Sunday morning for? Yeah. Right?
Yeah, man. I got to keep going. We'll be in these
forever. Woe five. What sorrow awaits you teachers
of the religious law and you Pharisees? Hypocrites.
For you are so careful to clean the outside of
the cup and the dish, but the inside is filthy,
full of greed and self -indulgence. You blind
Pharisees, first wash the inside of the cup or
the dish, then the outside will become clean
too. Now, total modern application is super easy
to do, but really quick, I just want to mention,
there is actually Jewish teaching on cleaning
the inside of your cup first. Right. And it's
about like renewing of the heart. And Jesus says
you need to focus on eternal transformation,
outward holiness without inner change is fake.
Well, also when you clean, just take a dish,
for example, when you clean the inside of a cup,
that water overflows and already starts to permeate
the crap on the outside. Right. And there might
be some application for real life in that. Well,
and to what we just were talking about, if your
worship service is great and your pastor dress
is really snappy and he's got a three -point
sermon and the altar call is 5 .4 minutes long
with this song with four verses that's really
good, and yet everybody in there is not actually
being inspired to love God more, love people
more. They're not actually being equipped for
service for the community. There's a problem.
You're cleaning the outside of your cup, and
it looks really nice, but inwardly, it's got
that grime. It's got that grime. Where am I spending
my energy? Am I managing my image, or am I actually
tending my heart? We are sometimes so concerned
with what people think about us that we're never
actually where we're supposed to be. This next
one is a very similar one here. 27. Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful
on the outside, but on the inside are full of
bones of the dead and everything unclean. In
the same way, on the outside you appear people
of righteousness, but on the inside you are full
of hypocrisy and wickedness. Hey, you look really
good, but when somebody gets close to you, man,
you reek of death. You reek of death. Right?
Yeah. I don't want to get into this because I
think that too many of us would be too fast to
jump on our churches about this. Yeah. There's
probably more life there than you think. And
one of the things I want to say here is if your
church is a church that is dead inside, you say,
you're like, man, we are a whitewashed tomb with
bones inside. Jesus also breathed on bones and
brought them back to life. That's your prayer.
Yeah. Jesus, breathe on our church and bring
us back to life. Yeah. Right? Last one here,
verse 29. What sorrow awaits you teachers of
religious law in you Pharisees? Hypocrites, for
you blind tombs you build. Wow. Blind tombs.
Walk out. Watch out. You don't want to blind
those tombs. I'm reading that wrong. Hypocrites.
For you build tombs for the prophets and your
ancestors killed, and you decorate monuments
of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.
Then you say, if we had lived in the days of
our ancestors, we would have never joined them
in killing the prophets. So this, remember, go
back on this tale about the vineyard, right?
Yep. like you honor the dead prophets while the
living word of God is standing in front of you.
Jesus, the torment flesh is standing in front
of you. And you're like, we would never do that.
By the way, we're totally plotting your death.
Right. And Jesus was like, guess what? You're
actually literally about to do that. I'm right
here. I just told you a parable about it. You
know, you're going to complete with your ancestors
started. You were actually perfecting a sin.
of your ancestors. And think about this, because
how often are people quoting Jesus, and they're
quoting Paul, they quote Peter, they quote James,
they quote people from church history, Martin
Luther and Diedrich Bonhoeffer, and just different
people from church history that have had to step
into really gnarly situations and have put the
gospel on their back and they quote from them,
but they're not also the same kind of people
who are willing to go and have that costly obedience.
Right. You have to be willing to step in there
to be different, to break the chain, to step
into what God has called you to do. Yep. Right.
So true. So then Jesus, I'm going to end here
with this because it's his lament. And I, I just,
uh, I'm going to read this and then we'll make
one comment on it. Um, just one. By the way,
he quotes from John earlier. He says, you snakes,
you brood of vipers, how will you escape? being
condemned to hell. Therefore, I'm sending you
prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them
you will kill and crucify. Others you will flog
in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
And so upon you will all the righteous blood
that has been shed on earth and the blood of
the righteous able to the blood of Zechariah,
son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the
temple and the altar. By the way, that's a great
story. I'm not going to get into it. Truly, I
tell you, all this will be coming to this generation.
He's like, guys, it's coming home to roost. And
then he looks at them. He looks at the leaders
and just understand that Jerusalem is a place
of leadership. So he's talking to leaders here.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets
and stone those who sent to you. How often I
have longed to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.
You were not willing. Look, your house is left
to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not
see me again until you say, blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord. Which is ironic
because that's what they said when he came into
town. Right? This is not a gleeful condemnation.
This is a heartbreaking longing. I wanted to
gather you like chicks under my wings. Yeah.
You were not willing. And I couldn't force you.
Yeah. Remember the vineyard story? God sends
servants again and again. Then he sends his son.
And he shows staggering patience and mercy. Right?
Yeah. The human response is reject, kill, push
away those who confront our norms, our views,
our desires. Right? Yeah. It's problematic. So
I have a couple questions here. So if you grew
up in the church, I want you guys to write to
us. Where are you closest to the Pharisees in
this chapter? Where do you see yourself? Ask
yourself, do I load people up with expectations
but not walk with them? Do I love titles, influence,
or the feeling of being right? Do I use religious
language to protect my lifestyle or politics?
Do I strain out gnats and swallow camels? Now,
that's obviously not literally. First of all,
if anybody does swallow camels literally, please
tell me because I want to know. That's crazy.
But obviously, we're talking about to you. focus
on the small things and then just swallow big
things wrong. Yeah. I want to give you guys a
quote from a couple episodes ago. It was either
Spencer and I. We said, when you realize you're
doing a dumb thing, the best thing you can do
is stop doing the dumb thing and course correct.
Right? Yep. Let Jesus clean the inside of your
cup. Ask the Holy Spirit, show me where I'm acting.
Show me where I'm putting on a show. Grow me
in justice, peace, and faithfulness. Return me
to the core of love God and love other people.
Because Jesus is like, I want to take you, you,
the people that are broken, the people who are
awful, the people who are literally murdering
people generation to generation. I still want
you. Yeah. But you got to come. Yeah. I'm not
going to force you. Yep. Think of it like. If
you're a parent, you could probably relate to
this. There are times where I have to tell my
kid, you're doing this right now, right? Ben's
laughing because he knows my kid. I've been there.
And there are also times where I really want
my kid to like the things I like, but I can't
force that, right? Where I can keep inviting
them to come alongside and be like, come experience
this with me. but I can't force them to like
it. And on a personal level, like I'm having
that struggle around a few things with my child
right now, but I can't force her to like those
things. And so that's what God's doing with us.
He's like, I really, really want you to join
me on this journey. Yeah. There's a way life
is supposed to work and I want you to engage
with it, but I'm not going to force you because
you've got to want it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Jesus
confronts leadership. That's the first three
parts. Next week. I forgot what next week is.
Just reiterating, he does confront leadership.
He also starts with grace in inviting them in.
before going to confrontation. So next week,
we're actually going to be getting into a little
bit different, because rather than confronting
leadership and inviting them, he's actually going
to be having an intimate dinner with his disciples.
And we're going to just talk about everything
that's going on in this Seder, this reenacting
of the Exodus, right? And how Jesus is really
bringing about another Exodus. And probably one
of my favorite pictures, when he... Watches at
his disciples feet because they are like, so
like, what are you doing? Yeah. Amen. Yeah. Until
next week. 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
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