Exploring My Strange Bible - One Way Road to the Grave - Gospel of Matthew Part 19

Episode Date: September 10, 2018

Matthew Chapters 11 and 12 are stories about people responding to what Jesus has been doing in chapters 4 -10. What we see here is one of the first notes of people’s rejection of Jesus by the Israelite contemporaries. So in this episode, we situate Jesus how he thought of himself in the tradition of the Hebrew Prophets. He gives warnings that are serious and significant, and they show us that Jesus was fully embedded in the religious controversies of first-century Israel in relation to the Roman empire.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, in this episode, we're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew. These were teachings I gave a number of years ago when I was a teaching pastor at Door of Hope.

And at this point in the series, we are in the middle of Matthew chapters 11 and 12, are a place where Matthew's collected together all kinds of stories about people responding to what Jesus has been doing in chapters 4 through 10. So, it kind of all hinges on that you understand and internalize what happened in those chapters, and now people are responding. And what we're going to see here is one of the first kind of notes of real serious rejection of Jesus on the part of his Israelite contemporaries. And specifically, this is a section where Jesus is pronouncing prophetic woes and oracles of doom against the Israelite towns and villages that have rejected his offer of the kingdom of God. So, I'm guessing these aren't your favorite part

of Jesus' teachings, if you've ever really stopped to think about them. And, you know, Jesus goes from, like, you know, addressing the poor and the crippled and healing people to, you know, assigning whole towns to go to death in the grave. It's really intense. So, what we're actually going to do is situate Jesus, how he thought of himself in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets. And Hebrew prophets often announce these kinds of ultimatums and warnings to the tradition of the Hebrew prophets. And Hebrew prophets often announce these kinds of ultimatums and warnings to the people of Israel. And Jesus is doing exactly what he ought to be doing in his vocation as a prophet. Warnings are serious, they're significant, and they also show us that Jesus was fully embedded in the dust and politics and religious controversies of first century Israel

in relation to their military occupiers, the Roman Empire. And so, prepare to learn a lot. I learned a ton, and this was a significant teaching for me in thinking about how Jesus envisioned his own calling and vocation. thinking about how Jesus envisioned his own calling and vocation, and it makes you think of a whole new set of questions about what it means to respond to these types of warnings from Jesus still today. So there you go. Put on your learning cap. Is that a phrase? Your thinking cap. That's what I meant to say. Put on your thinking cap, and let's dive into Matthew chapter 11. Let's dive into Matthew chapter 11.

Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon. These are two non-Jewish cities further up. They're near modern-day Beirut, but they were large non-Jewish cities. It will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the heavens? No. No, you're going down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. How are you guys doing? It's a little intense, right? It's a little intense, right? Kind of like, whoa, Jesus. So, we've had this portrait of the kingdom announcing Jesus, and Jesus invites into his family of the kingdom, right, all of these unlikely people, the poor, just the no-name fishermen. We've seen compassionate Jesus, right? He reaches out to the sick and to the hurting, to the man with a skin disease and to these hurting people. We've seen Jesus move toward

the outsider, someone like Matthew, the tax collector, and he invites Matthew to celebrate, you know, what God is doing in the family of Jesus. And we like this Jesus. We like, you know, he's kind of like stick it to the man, Jesus, a little bit when he debates the religious leaders. And we're, you know, we're in, that resonates with us. And now it's like mean Jesus, right? Or intense Jesus. Like what's happening here? And I think for many of us, we like those other parts of Jesus.

And then we hear Jesus say things like this. And there's probably just a variety of responses, right? There's some of us who are like, well, yeah, Jesus talks like that because he was the son of God. And so he can say things like that. And maybe others of you are like, whoa, this feels like a bait and switch right now. I was like loving Jesus and now he's like condemning people

and what's this all about? And everything in between, I imagine, is happening in the room, and I've had all of those feelings as well. So what is Jesus doing, right? Is Jesus nice? And then if you reject him, then he all of a sudden becomes mean to you? Is this nasty, Jesus? Like, what's happening here?

Is Jesus angry because people reject him and so off to hell with you? Right, is that what's happening in this scene? So I think this is one of those areas where we need to be patient. And we need to, before we yank Jesus out of the first century and plop him into the 21st century, I think these warnings of judgment, this is the first warning of Jesus that we've come across

in the gospel according to Matthew. It's the first warnings of judgment or some kind of divine justice. And so I just want to camp out here for a little bit because these passages are so liable to misunderstanding, and I think they've actually been so abused and misunderstood that it's crucially important for us to stop and say it's very important for Jesus to speak to us in the 21st century, but not at the expense of what he was saying to his contemporaries in the first century. Why is Jesus talking like this? Why is he so worked up? What would his contemporaries have heard him saying?

What would they have not heard him saying? And so I want to get two perspectives that I think will help us kind of ask some new questions about what Jesus is doing and why he's so worked up, right, and announcing these woes. The first perspective comes from a French author because the French, they're just wise and they're French, right? And then the second is not a modern French author but an ancient Hebrew prophet, the prophet Isaiah. So first story, just put your thumb here, just think, and let's think about Victor Hugo and Les Miserables. Anybody? Any fans? I find that Les Miserables is kind of like cilantro. It just divides the room,

and people love it or hate it, right? And some people do not feel less miserable after reading the story, but that's to butcher the name. Okay, that's a bad joke. Okay, so think through the story. If you know it, I'll just summarize it briefly, because this is a very powerful paragraph from a key moment in the story. Who's the main character? Les Miserables.

Jean Valjean. And he's been released from prison, right? He was in prison initially just for stealing bread to survive, and then he got this long sentence, and then he tried to escape. The sentence became super long. He's out of prison, finally. And, you know, as an ex-convict, he can't find work. Nobody will hire him. He can't find a place to stay. Nobody wants to shelter him. And so he's, you know, as an ex-convict, he can't find work. Nobody will hire him. He can't find a place to stay. Nobody wants to shelter him. And so he's, you know, he's destitute now. But he comes across this figure who's kind and gracious to him.

And who's that? The bishop or the priest, right? This Christian bishop. And so the bishop takes him in, gives him a meal, gives him a place to stay. And so the bishop takes him in, gives him a meal, gives him a place to stay. And as Jean Valjean is eating dinner in the dining rooms, like this fancy, you know, dining room and house, he eyes all of this expensive silverware, right, that make up the dish set and all around the room and so on. And so, you know, he's a hardened, you know, convict, right, by this point.

And so he's just thinking opportunity. And so in the middle of the night, you know, he gets out of his room. He bags up all of this silverware and off into the night he goes. The police catch him, right? They see him sneaking out and they catch him. And he has all this silverware. They put two and two together. You guys remember this scene. They bring him back to the house and they wake up the bishops in the middle of the night. And the bishop, you know,

surveys the scene. And do you remember his response? This is a crucial scene in the opening of the story. The bishop, he looks at Jean Valjean, and then he smiles, and he says, Jean Valjean, you forgot the silver candlesticks that I was trying to give. What? You're silly, right? So he goes and he grabs the silver candlestick. Of course, this is all a mistake, you know, officers, you know, and he hands him the candlesticks and the police go away. And what you would think, right, in the movies it's hard to capture this and they kind of show, you know, Jean Valjean's internal struggle. But this, and what you would think. In the movies, it's hard to capture this and they kind of show Jean Valjean's internal struggle. But in the book, the story just stops

and there's this long internal dialogue that Jean Valjean has within himself because he's not leaping for joy that he's been forgiven and given this. He's deeply scandalized by this. And this is an epic paragraph that gets at the scandal of grace. To the bishop's celestial kindness,

Valjean opposed his pride, which is the fortress of evil within us. He was conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest attack Excuse me, the greatest assault and the most formidable attack to have moved upon him He knew that his stubbornness was forever settled If he resisted this act of kindness But if he yielded to it

He would be obliged to renounce that hatred that had filled his soul for so many years. He knew that this was the moment to conquer or be conquered, and that a colossal and final struggle had begun between his own viciousness and the graciousness of the bishop. Do you see what he's wrestling with here? It's very powerful. So he, I mean, he's this hardened man, right? He's been in like really horrible conditions in prison for so long. His faith in human goodness is like at an all-time low.

And all of a sudden, right, this blinding, right, this amazing act of grace and generosity just comes out of the blue. Totally doesn't deserve it. And he's struggling with it. Why? Because he recognizes that if he just takes this as another chance to do what comes naturally, right, which is just survive, right, his basic instinct, survive, you know, like get off scot-free, take this and go away unchanged, right?

He's terrified of going away unchanged from this act of grace because he has this awareness that somehow it's going to like seal him in his stubbornness, right? And in his evil. But at the same time, he's terrified to accept the act of grace because he recognizes that he must absolutely change forever if he accepts this act of grace because you guys see the tension that he's in. And so, yes, he's being forgiven, but in the same time, he's going to eternally be in debt to this priest if he accepts it.

And that's the scandal. That's the scandal of grace. And so, this offer of grace, it forces Jean Valjean to make a decision about what kind of human he's going to be, what kind of human he's going to become. Is he going to accept? Is he going to do what comes, or is he going to do what comes naturally and just do what he's always, always

done? And it seems to me that what Jesus is doing in this story, Jesus sees himself as a figure like the bishop. What Jesus has been doing is he's he's offering the kingdom he's offering this chance for Israel to embrace a new way of being the covenant people of God and as we're going to see many have many have accepted that offer but many are beginning to reject him and and just imagine like what would happen in this story? We don't have the story, but what if Jean Valjean had walked away unchanged? Then it would be interesting to get this interior monologue

of the priest and his own anguish of watching Jean Valjean be further cemented in his stubbornness and his evil and so on. And so it seems to me that Jesus is putting this kind of decision before people when he announces the kingdom. And it's a decision, it's an opportunity that forces Israel to decide. And the energy, right, the emotion that Jesus is showing here, I believe, is that at its essence, it's an emotion of extreme compassion and concern and grief.

How you guys doing? You with me? So that's, I think that's how Hugo helps us see, right, the offer that Jesus is putting in front of people and why he would respond in this way. So that's the French author. Let's go to an ancient Hebrew author. Because why, I mean, why is Jesus talking like this anyway? You know, are you in the habit of pronouncing woes on people? You know, is this something you do on a daily basis? And it's just kind of a weird way of talking. But it was not weird in Jesus's day. In fact, there was a long history of talking like this. And actually, here, let's just, actually, here, can we take that down real quick? Sorry, I jumped again. I just want to ask a few questions here that'll lead us back to Isaiah, but just look down. First of all, so Jesus clearly has a lot of

energy, and even if it is out of compassion and concern, I mean, is he sending people to hell here? Is that what's happening? It's not what's happening. It's not what's happening. And I'm not shying away from anything here. Jesus talked about hell on plenty of occasions, and we'll get there eventually. But this is not one of them. So let's not multiply problems for ourselves right now. You know, so he does say some intense things here. So let's just wrestle with these. He doesn't say anything about hell. Look down at verse 23.

He says, you Capernaum, are you gonna be lifted up to the heavens? Are you gonna be a town that's lifted up as a place of honor? No, you're going in the opposite direction. Actually, are you going to be a town that's lifted up as a place of honor? No, you're going in the opposite direction. Actually, you're going to where? So, Hades. I'm reading from the New International Version, and it says you're going down to Hades. Any other translations in the rim? Some of you have hell? Yeah, it's King James, Renew King James. Yeah, yeah, any others?

The place of the dead. So this is very interesting. If you have Hades in your English translation, your translators have just decided not to translate that word for you. Hades is a Greek word, and they've decided not to translate it and to spell it with Greek letters.

I'm not exactly sure why, because it's not helpful to just not translate ancient words for people, right? You're claiming to be a translation. Anyway, so, but some of you likely have a footnote, right, that says it's the realm of the dead or the place of the dead. Hades is a Greek word that means the grave. The grave, just the place where people who have died, they are put.

And it's an image of destruction or death. Now, who is Jesus talking to here? This is actually important, too. Who is Jesus talking to? Who is he addressing? He's addressing towns. Do you see that? How many towns?

Three? Three towns, right? Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. He's addressing three. Now, this might seem funny to you, because you're probably not in the habit of going up to Mount Tabor and being like, oh, Portland, like addressing the whole city.

Like, that's a funny way of talking. Why is Jesus talking like that to whole towns? And why is he saying that these towns are going to descend to the grave? Not hell, but they're going to die, be destroyed. What does that mean? And why are they going to go down to the grave? Well, look at Jesus' response here,

or excuse me, look at what triggered all of this. Look at verse 20. What did these towns not do? They didn't repent. Repent, now that's a very religious word for us. In the Bible, it's a very no-nonsense word. It just means to turn around. You're going one direction and it's pointed out to you like, hey, that's the wrong direction.

Don't go that way. So then I turn around, and I go a different way. That's it. That's repent. So what's happening here? Jesus has a lot of emotion, right? Very intense emotion. And he's convinced that these towns are on a one-way road to destruction, to the grave. And he's been appealing, right, like the bishop.

He's been appealing to these towns, apparently, to turn and go a different way. Because he sees that way leads to destruction. You need to come this way. And so he's calling them to repent. And whatever he thinks he's doing when he offers the kingdom, he's offering them a different way. It's like the bishop. He's offering Jean Valjean a chance to become a different kind of human and to change the course of his life. And so Jesus is putting this decision in front of people in these towns. Why is he doing that? What's so important about these towns? Okay, finally, Isaiah. And I forgot

to bring the chalkboard out. This looks expensive. I just don't want to touch it really, but I'm going to just go like that. Is that okay, Esther? All right. All right. Hopefully this one. Okay, good. All right. So Jesus is talking like a prophet. You might not go up to Mount Tabor and address the whole city of Portland, but the Hebrew prophets did it all the time. In fact, that's their most normal way of talking, is to all the people of Israel or to cities, cities within Israel. And Jesus sees him, thanks Liz, Jesus sees himself as a prophet, and he's talking like a prophet. And here's the story of who the prophets are and what the prophets do and why Jesus is taking up the mantle of a prophet right now. So, storytelling time, that's what's happening right now. So, think Old Testament storyline.

You have the nation and the people of Israel. God rescues them out of slavery, right? He brings them to himself at Mount Sinai. He gives them the Ten Commandments and then 603 more. There's a lot of commands at Mount Sinai. And the point of all those commands is to shape the people of Israel, to separate them out from all the nations, and to shape them into a people of extreme justice and generosity

and holiness and uniqueness. And they're called to be a kingdom of priests who will be like, as Jesus puts it, a city on the hill or a light that's high on a lampstand that shines its light to everybody around. But if you actually go read the story of the Old Testament storyline, how does Israel do at this? I hope I've trained you well. How does Israel do?

Poorly, right? Poorly, yeah. They don't do well. They spiral downward, downward out of control. The role that the prophets, huge section of your Bible, right? The 15 books of the prophets. The role of the prophets

were to come along to Israel and be like these, I call them watchdogs for the covenant relationship. They're to call Israel back from the precipice of self-destruction and of faithlessness to their God and embracing the value system of the nations.

Because what the prophets can see is where this is all going, where this is heading. So you have a prophet like the prophet Isaiah. He's one of Israel's most significant prophets. He was the friend of kings in Jerusalem, and he could see where their decisions were leading them. And so if you go read the poetry of Isaiah, a huge, huge amount of it is calling Israel to turn,

to repent, to turn and embrace a different way because he sees where this way is taking them. But at a certain point, Isaiah realizes that most people are not listening to him and the leaders of Israel are rejecting him and his message. And so Isaiah says things like this. Here we go, back to Isaiah chapter five. And just listen, right?

Just listen and think about what it would be like to be Jesus growing up on these poems and on these prophetic words. Isaiah, he pronounces a woe, woe to Israel's leaders. In Hebrew, a woe is hoi, which we think of pirates or something, a hoi, you know. But in Hebrew, it's an exclamation. There's really no good English word for ahoy in Hebrew. It's a word of extreme lament and grief and intense concern. Woe to Israel's leaders who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, but they pay no attention to the work of Yahweh. So Israel's leaders, right, who were called to lead the covenant people, not only are they not paying attention to the words of the prophets and to the scriptures, right, they're hammered by 10 a.m.,

and they're just doing what comes naturally as they run the nation after that. And Isaiah sees where all of this is going. He says, therefore, my people will go into exile for their lack of understanding. Those of high rank will die of hunger and the multitudes will be parched with thirst. Let's just pause. Let's stop right there. So exile, what does that mean? Think through what exile means. If you know anything about the story of the Bible, who is going to take Israel into exile? So here's what Isaiah, Isaiah is living in about 700, the end of the 700s.

And he can see, he can see where this is all going, that Israel is not only not being distinct and separate from the nations, they've actually become worse than most of the nations around them in terms of social injustice, how they treat the poor, and sacrificing their children to the other gods, and so on. And so Isaiah, this is my cartoon explosion right here, comic book kind of thing. Isaiah sees that this is all heading towards disaster, right? This disaster that he calls exile. And what Isaiah can see coming down the line is a hundred years down the line, he can see that the big bad empire of Babylon, that in his day, the kings of Israel are trying to like become allies with and trying to imitate Babylon. And Isaiah, you can see it just 100 years down the line,

like, don't do this. Don't go this way. This is not going to end well for you. And then look at the poetry that he uses to describe how severe this destruction is. Look at the last line. He says, therefore, the grave expands its jaws. Now, Isaiah wrote his poetry in Hebrew, not Greek, like Matthew has written in, but what he's used,

the word he's used there is this, it's the word for the grave. It's the Hebrew word that's the same correspondence to the word that Jesus uses right here. Therefore, the grave expands its jaws, opening wide its mouth, and into it will descend Israel's splendor and pomp. So the grave here, it's a metaphor, but it's not just a metaphor, right? It's just poetry. He's describing something real. He's describing an event that he can see coming, that Babylon is going to march into Jerusalem. It's going to burn the city to the ground. It's going to burn the temple to the ground, and it's going to deport and take captive thousands and thousands of Israelites and haul them off to Babylon where they'll never be heard from again. He saw it coming.

And it's such a shattering event in Israel's story. The only adequate language you can use to describe it is as if the whole nation is descending into the grave. But not just any grave. It's as if the grave has come alive in the form of Babylon. And it's like this grave that's opening its mouth to swallow the nation whole. It's very powerful poetry here.

Do you see where I'm going right here? Jesus, so here's how the story goes, is that the Israelites are taken off into exile and for about 100 years it's just silence. But eventually a number of Israelites return back to the land that was promised to Abraham. And actually that story is told in your Bible. It's in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah

about all these Israelites coming back to Jerusalem. And so they slowly over the next 100 years come back and they begin to rebuild their life there in the land. Except there's one key difference once they've returned and rebuilt the kingdom in Ezra and Nehemiah's time. Because here, Israel had independence. They were like a genuine kingdom, and they had autonomy. But now, for the rest of Israel's history, as we go into the period in between the Old Testament and the New Testament, Israel is perpetually under the thumb of other empires under military occupation.

So it started with the Persians. In Ezra chapter nine, they're under the authority of the Persians. And Ezra, he has this great prayer in chapter nine and he says, we're in our own land, right? We're in the land of our ancestors, but it's like we're slaves. It's like we're back in Egypt,

even though we're in our own land. And the Persians get replaced by all of these other sequence of kingdoms, the Greeks and the Egyptians and the Syrians. And up about 400 years pass under military occupation until you get to Jesus' day. And who's the big bad empire in Jesus' day? until you get to Jesus' day. And who's the big bad empire in Jesus' day? It's about 40 years before Jesus was born. Rome takes over the whole empire of what we call the Middle East. And it's just the day-to-day in Jesus' life

is Roman soldiers, heavy, heavy taxation, and just random sporadic violence of the Romans to kind of keep things at bay. And this is the world Jesus grows up in. It's the same world that he's seen. It's the same world that he watched play out in the story of the scriptures and it's the world that he lives in today.

And there were different responses in Israel to that military occupation. So some Israelites did what comes naturally. You survive. And so if that means collaborating with the Romans, then collaborate with them. And maybe I can get rich in the process. Can you think of anybody in Jesus' circle who went that route? So you got a Matthew, right? A tax collector. And so he cashed in, right? And then all of a sudden, A tax collector. And so he cashed in, right?

And then all of a sudden, Jesus approaches Matthew, and he says, dude, that is not the way to be a human being. And Matthew repents and embraces the way of the kingdom and follows Jesus. There was a different kind of response. There was also a response of just militant rebellion. And so you had a whole brewing movement of Jewish freedom fighters who they thought they would build the kingdom of God at the expense of Roman blood. And Jesus also recruited one of those people into a circle of followers. Do you remember his name?

Right? I mean, chapter Simon, what's he called? Simon what? Simon the Zealot, right? So whatever Jesus thought that he was doing when he was offering the kingdom, here's like what you would feel Jesus saying in the first century. Jesus is convinced that this whole story is repeating itself all over again. And he sees himself in precisely the role of the prophets, warning Israel, don't go down this way. In this sense, it was imitating the

other nations and becoming like Babylon. In this sense, it's fighting Babylon with Babylon's own weapons of violence and murder. And Jesus says this is not going to end well. This is going to end in the grave, you guys. And so Jesus sees his offer of the kingdom as a completely different way to be Israel, to be the covenant people of God. And it's actually, it goes against all of their natural instincts, right? So Roman soldiers, right, they come through, you know, your town in Galilee, and they pillage the town and take advantage of the women and burn some buildings, and they have a drunk riot, and then they move on to the next town. How do you, how are you feeling right now? What's your, what comes naturally?

What do you want to go do to those roman soldiers you want to go kill him just just stop and think about how you would hear the prophet jesus just think about the sermon on the mount right that we read in matthews five through seven why Matthew 5 through 7. Why do you think Jesus talked so much about revenge and retaliation and about not responding to evil with evil and about abandoning violence as a way of confronting evil and doing good and loving your enemy? Like, why did Jesus talk about that all the time? Because that's precisely where these people were at. Are you with me here? Jesus sees himself as a prophet, and he's calling Israel to turn, to turn and embrace a new, different way of being the covenant people of God. And as he begins to see people in these towns rejecting him, rejecting his message, he knows

where this leads. He's seen it play out in Israel's history before. And so he uses the language of the prophet Isaiah. This is not going to end well for you guys. It's going to end in the grave. And the grave is precisely what happened. Now, this is even more interesting. One more geeky thing, and then we'll tie it back in. But remember, how many towns is Jesus addressing

here? Three, right? Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. This is awesome. Let me show you a picture. So all three of these are towns right close to each other along the lake or the sea of Galilee. And they were all fishing villages. The picture up above is a picture you can go right down to the water still today from the ruins of ancient Capernaum. And if you look south and west up into the hills of Galilee, the hills where Jesus grew up, you see this huge thing standing in front of you, right? This huge mountain. It's actually a plateau called Mount Arbel. It rises 1,200 feet above the water in this huge plateau up there. And then the picture below is standing on top of Mount Arbel. It's a rock climbing park now, right? Because of the sheer cliffs. It's really an amazing place. And so there's the view. From the top of Mount Arbel, you can see all the shoreline of

the northern part of the Sea of Galilee. And Capernaum, Chorazin, Bethsaida, they were the bustling towns. If you're standing on Mount Arbel, you could see them all, right? Right from there. They're ruins now, but they're just, all of them are a few miles for each other. But here's what's so interesting, is that in Jesus, now you can go rock climb, go hike around in a park. In Jesus' day, you could have never gone up there to stand on Mount Arbel. And that's because in the caves and in the cliffs and the rocky hillsides, and in the cliffs and the rocky hillsides, the Jewish military rebel movement had taken over that mountain.

And there's a whole, it's so interesting. You can go into them still today. There's a whole network of tunnels and huge caves. There's like a city dug into the side of that mountain in all these networks of tunnels. And that's where the zealots, it was their home base. It was the epicenter of their whole movement, and they stored weapons and money, and they would pour out from the hills down onto Roman convoys and slaughter the soldiers and all this kind of thing.

So just stop and ask yourself the question, why would Jesus personally focus his mission of announcing the kingdom on precisely these towns that stand under the shadow of Mount Arbel? I mean, Jesus isn't stupid, you know what I'm saying? Like, he knows what he's doing.

Jesus intentionally, he sent his disciples out to other towns, but he's focused right here. There's something about these towns that's the epicenter. It's the recruiting zone, right, for the violent revolution against Rome. And Jesus goes there to announce the mission of the kingdom to a different way of being the people of God, and he watches as many in this town reject him. And he knows where this road leads. Those who kill by the sword do what? Die by the sword. Jesus is calling Israel to repent. He's calling Israel to behave in a way that does not seem natural, right? I mean, just imagine hearing Jesus

as the Roman soldiers leave after pillaging your town, and instead of saying, let's kill them, Jesus is like, no, let's hold a prayer meeting for them. And let's actually bake a whole bunch of fresh bread that we can give the bread to them next time they come through, whatever. And let's meet their violence and evil with acts of goodness and kindness.

And people respond like, Jesus, you're crazy. You're freaking crazy. That's what you are. And he, I mean, are you with me here? What Jesus is announcing in the kingdom is so counterintuitive, and he sees it as a turning point. There's something about rejecting Jesus and what he's calling Israel to that it creates this turning point. And if you reject Jesus, what you're saying yes to

is what comes naturally, and what comes naturally leads to the grave. Now, you might, if you're Jesus, you might experience that kind of rejection by the leaders of these towns. And Jesus wasn't a stranger to these people. Like he lived in these towns, right? These are the bakers and the blacksmiths and people that Jesus knows. And so you would think Jesus might be devastated, right, by people rejecting him.

And that's what's so amazing. Let's keep going through the passage. Is that he obviously has strong emotions, but he finds in this rejection, he finds a very strange comfort. Look at what he says. At that time, Jesus said, this is verse 25, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and you have revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, this is what you were pleased to do. So Jesus is able to find this place of comfort and peace in what's happening, right? As he sees the kingdom mission, as he discerns what God's will is for his vocation in doing that.

And actually what Jesus sees is once he sees the upside down value of the kingdom here, right? The people who are leading Israel are precisely the people who are the most blind to what's actually happening, and who are the people who accept Jesus and recognize who He is and what He's doing? What does He call them? Little children, babies. And what's He referring to? He's referring to us. He's referring to his disciples. And so he sees this paradox. It's like Israel's leaders who should be the first to recognize the God of Israel and what he's doing through Jesus, they're precisely the ones who are clueless.

And it's actually, it's these fishermen, right? These no-name fishermen and these people, and these rejected tax collectors, and all these unimportant people who make up the movement, the growing movement of Jesus, they get it, and they see who Jesus is, and they see they have turned, and they've embraced a new way of being human beings as they follow the way of the kingdom. And Jesus sees here it's the same upside-down kingdom that weaves its way through the whole storyline of the Scriptures. And Jesus sees here it's the same upside down kingdom that weaves its way through the whole storyline of the scriptures, right? So, God wants to build the nation of Israel, right, out of nothing. So, how does he start? Oh, I know. Let's pick an 80-year-old couple who's never been

able to have children, right? Let's start there. That's how the nation began its life. God wants to rescue the whole nation of Egypt. Oh, I know. Let's pick like a snot-nosed punk teenage Israelite, right, whose brothers hate him and sell him into slavery in Egypt. Let's use that guy, you know. Let's pick a king for Israel. Oh, I know. Let's pick the, you guys with me here,

pick the runt of the litter, right? David, like he's not even in the lineup. This is how the God of Israel works. Apparently, the God of Israel has some place in his heart. As the proverb says, he opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Israel's leaders have everything to lose if they follow Jesus, because they have to admit that they're dead wrong. But see, the little children, like, what do they have to lose, right? They're already nobodies. They don't have, all they have to do is to recognize and name their neediness,

which is clear to everyone else around them, and to follow the way of Jesus. And look at what Jesus says next. It's so interesting. He says that actually people who are in these low positions, the positions of these vulnerable children, it's people in those life scenarios that can see Jesus for who he really is. Look at verse 27. Jesus says, all things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. So Israel's leaders, they just see Jesus. He's another prophet. He's another rabbi, and he's crazy. Like, let's not listen to him. But it's the vulnerable. it's the little children, those who will actually turn and follow the way of Jesus,

they begin to see Jesus for who he really is, which is not just another prophet and not just another teacher, but Jesus is the embodiment of Israel's God. He is the God of Israel become human, and he addresses God as his father, and he calls himself the son of God, and there's that whole deal going on there that we won't explore right now. But the point is this, is it's how do you come to recognize Jesus for who he is? There's something, think back to the bishop. There's something about when you

personally respond to that offer of grace. Jesus is offering a whole different way to be a human being, and he's pioneering the way for you. And you can hear Jesus talk about it, and you can rearrange all the furniture in your head and, head and try and figure out what Jesus was saying and make sure you understand everything correctly. But there's something that happens that cannot happen any other way. To truly see Jesus for who he is, as the Son of God,

it begins and it becomes real to you. Not just an idea, but it becomes real to you when you follow him, when you actually follow him. And this is something that's been really important for me personally in recent years. I mean, I've given most of my adult life to trying to figure out, like, what is the truth about Jesus and the truthfulness of the Bible and where it came from and all that kind of stuff. And I think those questions are crucially, crucially important. of the Bible and where it came from and all that kind of stuff. And I think those questions are crucially, crucially important. But in my own journey, Jesus becomes real to me, not just when

I arrange ideas in my head correctly. It's when I reject my instincts of what comes natural to me as a human, and I make decisions that seem crazy to me, but they're decisions that are following the way of Jesus. And then all of a sudden, Jesus becomes not an idea. He becomes a presence and a reality, and it's the presence of the living God. And the disciples have eyes to see it, and those who try and make sense of Jesus from their own perspective, they can't see it.

They're blind to it. And Jesus knows this is going to be hard, and so this is why he ends the way that he does. Look at verse 28. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So Jesus, he fully acknowledges that what he's inviting people to come be a part of is difficult. But he's putting a decision in front of you. What's actually more difficult, right? Because what you can do is just keep going the way you're going in life and use all of your natural instincts.

And Jesus says, let me tell you where that story of human history goes, collectively or individually. But if I follow the way of Jesus, what do I find if I follow Jesus? What does he say? He says it twice here. What do you find?

He says you find rest. You find rest, but you don't escape your burdens. Do you see that? He doesn't say, come to me, you who are weary and burdened, and you won't have any more burdens. Do you see that? What does he say?

He says, actually, I have another small little burden to put on you. It's called my yoke, my yoke. And he's using this as a metaphor for his teaching and the way of life he invites his followers into. And so he, he knows that resisting this trajectory of human history in our lives, it's very difficult, and that life is hard, and that there's so many complex situations. I mean, don't, don't tell me that living in those three villages under the shadow of Mount Arbel, and you hear Jesus and what he's saying

about how to respond to the Romans, and then you see Simon the Zealot and like what he tells you how to respond to the Romans, and you see Matthew's tax collector, like it's very complex. How are you supposed to make decisions? How do you know what's the right thing to do? And it's the right thing to do?

And it's the burden of living in such a broken, fractured, compromised world. It's very difficult. And Jesus knows that. And following Jesus doesn't mean escaping all of that complexity and all of those burdens, but it does transform how you carry them. He talks about, so let's say, right, you got a big backpack, you got a 50-pound pack, and you're wearing it as a backpack.

What does that feel like on you? It feels like a 50-pound pack on your back, right? And in about three hours, it'll feel like 75 pounds, right? And that's how, because it's resting square right here. And what Jesus is saying is, you don't get to just escape your burdens and parachute out of the world, right? And that's how, because it's resting square right here. And what Jesus is saying is, you don't get to just escape your burdens and parachute out of the world, right? What you do is you take off your burdens, and you put them in this wagon, and then you attach the wagon with ropes to a yoke. It's the way of Jesus. And you're still pulling, right, all of the weight that you were, but what does a yoke do, right?

It's a piece of wood, and it's supposed to be as light as possible, but it shapes around your neck, and it goes into your shoulder and your arms. It's distributing the weight, right? And all of a sudden, you're still carrying 50 pounds, but it feels like 35 pounds, right? Because its design actually begins to decrease the burden. And so you carry it in a way that doesn't crush you because you're following this new way. It transforms your experience of the burdens. And that's what Jesus seems to me, that's what he's getting at here. Jesus is making this offer that he knows is difficult. So, in Jesus' day, the hot issue, right, is violence and what we should do in our response

to the Romans. But if you look at the yoke of Jesus, right, just look at the Sermon on the Mount, and he didn't just talk about retaliation and violence. I mean, it was the whole gamut of human life, right? He talks about money and what his disciples should do and their priorities with money. He talks about relationships and what Jesus' disciples do with broken relationships. He talks about sex and what disciples of Jesus do and don't do with their bodies. And all of those same teachings plop them into the 21st century, and they sound as crazy to us as Jesus' teachings about peacemaking did to them in the first century. Jesus is crazy, right? Or maybe we're the crazy ones, and he's the normal one, you know, that whole thing. But do you see what's happening here? It's difficult to follow Jesus,

and he knows that, but he just throws the offer out there. He says, listen, like, you know, if you follow your instincts and just what comes naturally to you as a human being, where does that lead? Where does it lead these towns? But Jesus offers the difficult way of following Him that paradoxically becomes a way of rest. You carry your burdens and somehow find a way of rest when you carry the yoke of Jesus. So what does this mean for us? It means that following Jesus is as counterintuitive and as difficult for us as it was for the people who first heard him announcing the way of the kingdom. And so here's what I would encourage you to do, is in the time that we have,

as we have every week in our gatherings, I would encourage you to just ask Jesus to bring insight into your life. All of us have complex situations that you're in, whether it's your workplace, right? There's some decision in front of you, and what's the ethical thing to do, or what's the right thing to do? There's some relationship in our lives that's intention, right? And did you do it first, or did they do it first? And like, who didn't? You're trying to figure out that, and who's supposed to forgive each other, and it's all screwed up, and it's difficult to figure out. There's all these areas with money, screwed up and it's difficult to figure out. There's all these areas with money and sex and relationships, and it's so hard to follow Jesus. And so let's just ask Jesus, like he knew this,

let's ask Jesus to give us wisdom. Like what is the way of rest? How can I find rest in the midst of this burden? What does it mean for you to actually follow Jesus in the midst of that difficult situation? And just ask Jesus to guide you. Ask Jesus to bring you back to his words and to his teachings. And as we do that, I mean, foremost, what Jesus is committing to us is that as we do that, we discover him. It's actually in obeying him and repenting and turning towards him that we see him for who he truly is. And you find the presence of Jesus carrying you in ways that you've never experienced before, precisely as you step out in faith to follow him. And so I don't know what that means to you, but let's just take advantage of this time this evening and just ask the Spirit of Jesus to give us insight and wisdom, to give us courage and hope that we can follow him in the midst of our burdens. Amen?

Thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible, the podcast. We're going to continue on exploring the gospel according to Matthew in future episodes. So we'll see you next time. Thank you.