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0:30
(Music)
0:50
This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:54
Let's get into it. Welcome back to the Forging Table, the mission of Undaunted Life
0:59
is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:04
At the Forging Table, you will see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience
1:07
by digging into God's Word. And we're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with us.
1:11
That's digging. That's Adam. That's the horn. We're going to dig into Matthew 20 today,
1:15
but you're going to see from the text and all of you should have read this before you got here
1:20
because that's the job. That's the one thing you owe us here at the Forging Table is to at least
1:24
have read the text before you get here. I want to talk about bad jobs.
1:28
The worst job you've ever had. Okay? Now, Dagen, you're already shaking your head so I can tell
1:32
you you got a good one, but I'm going to launch out from the beginning because not all of us are
1:36
like you, Adam, where we go through school, we get our CPA, and we immediately go to work as a
1:40
CPA and you kind of have your track for your life ready to go. So the worst job I had,
1:45
we are so I graduated 2008 from college. You might remember 2008, 2009, financial crisis.
1:53
There are jobs. Nobody's hiring. So I graduate top of my class and I can't find a job like at all.
1:57
Right? So I was selling insurance there for a little bit. I was a part-time teller at a bank.
2:02
Like there was all these bad jobs, but at the time it's like, okay, my wife and I just got married.
2:07
Like at some point we got married in 2009. It's like, all right, I'm going to prove to her
2:11
that we can, you know, I'm going to do whatever it takes to provide. And so, you know, I was mowing
2:15
lawns and I was telling people like with, you know, building countertops and doing different
2:18
things like that. But then I got this job where I was selling coupon books door to door. Okay?
2:24
Now when I say coupon books, these were actually legit coupon books, but it would be for like
2:28
family fun parks or spas or like the Texas Rangers or something like that. And it's one of those
2:34
books that you pay 20 bucks. And if you actually use one or two of the coupons, you basically make
2:39
up the cost of it. But basically the job, what they would do is they would give you a map,
2:45
like a zip code or a map, a section of the city that you were in, and you were to walk door to door
2:51
to businesses and or neighborhoods selling these coupon books. Okay? And so I take this job in like
2:57
August and you have to wear a suit and tie. And we live in Oklahoma. And so I'm in a suit and tie
3:02
all day long, walking my grid, right, going door to door. And the people that like that train me,
3:10
they were so dopey. Like they would literally walk in the door and be like, you know, walk
3:14
right past the no solicitation sign and go, Hey, is this where the party's at? And the person at
3:19
the front desk would be like, I'm sorry, sir. How can I help you? Oh, Jim was just telling me
3:23
this is where the party's at. But hey, I'm here on behalf of Andy Alligator's Family Fun Park.
3:27
How many of you in here have kiddos? And I'm like, Oh man, I have to become this person if I'm
3:32
going to be successful. And we got paid. This is what we got paid. We got paid $10 every time we
3:37
sold a coupon book. So if you sold 10 coupon books in a day and you made 100 bucks, you were like
3:43
gold medal level like salesperson, right? And so I lasted two weeks and this is the only job
3:51
I quit via voicemail. Like I called my boss and I literally was just like, yeah, I'm not only
3:57
not coming in, I can't come in. And guys for years afterwards, I would drive by mini malls and get
4:03
like a miniature panic attack because just the thought of like staring at a mini mall and all
4:08
the different, you know, people and all the different businesses that were in there that I would have
4:11
to walk in disrupt their day to sell a coupon book, like by far to this day, the absolute worst job
4:17
I ever had. So somebody please stop that because it was terrible. My first job when I got out of
4:22
college was an auditor. And so I do taxes now people like me because I try to help them make
4:27
their taxes go down. When you're an auditor, nobody wants to see you coming because when you're the
4:31
auditor, you're this kid out of college who thinks they know what they're doing, it really doesn't,
4:36
but you're going to come in and review somebody else's work and try to tell them why they're wrong.
4:40
My first job was in Cleveland, Ohio, in a concrete basement in the dead of winter.
4:47
It was about four degrees outside, snowing, freezing cold. They had no heater in this room,
4:54
and I sat in a metal chair on a metal table. Do they want you to quit? They want you out.
4:59
That's the whole purpose because you're there doing this audit and they don't want you there.
5:03
It's the bank who's hired us or a larger VC company. And so the people there that were doing the audit,
5:09
they don't want you there. So they're going to put you in the most uncomfortable position possible.
5:13
And I remember freezing in that basement for a good two or three weeks before the audit was done
5:20
and was excited that I had just spent five years of my life at college and getting my CPA to go
5:25
waste away in a basement in Cleveland, Ohio. Does somebody come by every like 30 minutes and
5:30
tell you to put the lotion on the skin? The lotion in the basket. Is that your job?
5:36
Because hopefully that has to do with what your background was. We didn't have a coupon for that.
5:40
You didn't have a coupon for that? No. I never really had a bad job. My job out of
5:45
college was I worked for a medical device company. So I went straight into sales and
5:52
became a product manager for this company. And the best story that I have was we had this lady.
5:58
She was kind of like, I think she was bipolar, but she'd always get on people's nerves. But then
6:03
she'd act like your best friend. And she's given me a hard time one day. And I was good friends with
6:08
the COO. And he came by and he's like, Hey man, could be worse. He goes, one of my plumbing pipes
6:15
to my house crack today. And the plumber came by. He goes, I got out that morning. And he didn't
6:22
know I was in the backyard. And I was out in the backyard having my cigarette and all I could hear
6:25
was, Oh God. Oh God. This is my job. This is what I chose to do. And I'm like, you know what?
6:35
That's like, that makes you search your soul right there. You know, it could be worse. I could be
6:38
knee deep in that guy's crud. You know, but but yeah, I think that would be the, that's the worst
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job story I've heard. My jobs have been pretty, God's blessed me. So I haven't anything too bad.
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Well, that's super lame day can save us. We need bad job stories. We don't need bless stories. I
6:56
I've got one quick one, my worst job in high school, uh, or in college, we would get a Christmas time
7:02
jobs like Christmas season jobs at Honeybaked Hands in Oklahoma City glazing ham. And when you
7:08
get told you're going to get paid money, and then it's all the ham you can eat as a college kid,
7:13
you're like, this is amazing. This is amazing. And then like two hours into glazing hands,
7:19
you're just like, you're so repulsed by the word ham, the smell of ham, the glaze, you're really
7:25
like putting this gelatinous funk all over these baked hams and you're like, blowtorching it.
7:31
And uh, it, it was, it was foul. It was rancid. And like, uh, I haven't been able to eat like
7:37
Christmas hams literally since I know how you feel. No Christmas ham for me. None. None.
7:42
I've literally said the phrase ham is life like a lot of times in my life. And you can't do it.
7:48
It's delicious. If you spent, if you spent November glazing hams, you'd change your,
7:53
your tune on that. I worked down for Christmas. It's just turkey. No, I ain't ham for Christmas.
7:57
That's like, no, dude. If you get a choice for Thanksgiving, yeah, turkeys for Thanksgiving.
8:01
It's turkey for both. I do turkey for both.
8:03
Ham for both. You're turkey and ham over both. Yeah.
8:07
Ham, you know, you're having ham for both. What? Why would you do turkey for both? Because ham's
8:12
terrible. You're talking about ham is good. Okay. Did he just rub off on you by sitting next
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you? The ham is amazing. What is wrong with you? I'm going to get my honey baked ham for Christmas
8:22
when it comes around this year. I get it every before college schlub had to glaze that stuff.
8:26
Well, I worked at an ice cream store. So I couldn't, I didn't need ice cream for like five years.
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Cause I was like, if I smell freaking cream, I'm going to throw up and started drinking my coffee
8:34
black then. We're going to have some issues. I still, I don't know if I can get over this ham
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thing. Like I just, cause turkey's fine, especially like a smoked turkey or a deep fried turkey,
8:43
like where it's actually like moist and yeah, like there, you can have good turkey, but
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you can eat ham year round. I'll just, I'll come, if you make ham at your house on a random
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Thursday in March, I'm coming. You have any type of pork at your house. He's there.
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Yeah. Well, you can take that. We'll just keep going.
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There's so many kinds of pork I'm thinking about right now. We got to get to the Bible.
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Guys, hurry up. Let's, let's go to the Bible before something bad happens. Okay,
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Dagan, let's read about the laborers in the vineyard. So let's read Matthew 20 versus one through 16.
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For the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out in the morning at dawn
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to hire workmen for his vineyards. When he had, when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius
9:25
for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And when he went out about the third hour, he saw
9:30
other standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, you also go into the vineyard and I will
9:35
pay you whatever is right. And they went, he went out about the sixth hour and ninth hour and did
9:41
the same thing. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing around. He said to
9:46
them, why haven't you, why have you been standing here idle all day? They answered him because no
9:52
one hired us. And he told them you go into the vineyard also. When evening came, the owner of the
9:57
vineyard said to his manager, call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last
10:03
and ending with the first. Those who had been hired at the 11th hour came and received a denarius
10:09
each. Now when the first came, they thought they would get more money, but each of them also received
10:16
a denarius. When they received it, they protested and grumbled at the owner of the estate saying,
10:21
these men who came last worked one hour. And yet you have made them equal to us who have
10:27
carried the burden and the scorching heat of the day. But the owner of the estate replied to one
10:33
of them, friend, I am doing you know injustice. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what
10:40
belongs to you and go, but I choose to give to this last man the same as I give to you. Am I not
10:48
lawfully permitted to do what I choose? And with what is mine? Or is your eye envious because I am
10:54
generous? So those who are last shall be first and those who are first last. So my very first
11:01
note on this, I just got to admit was, I hate this parable. I absolutely stink and hate it,
11:07
because I would have been the person in the crowd that's like, yeah, there's an injustice
11:12
happening here. Because one thing that's interesting, there's so many colloquialisms or sayings in
11:17
culture that come from scripture, even though no one really knows it. So when it's talking about
11:21
the 11th hour, like, Oh, yeah, this guy got me his, you know, all of his w twos and whatever at the
11:25
11th hour or something like that. What he's saying is, this is a 12 hour shift. People were hired for
11:31
a 12 hour shift. And these dudes were hired with 11 hours of the shift behind them, right? So they
11:37
came in for one 12th of the time and got the same exact amount of money. And if I was the dude that
11:43
worked in the vineyard for 12 hours, and I saw some schlub get over there and get in there and not
11:48
even not even start sweating by the time we were done, I would have been furious, which means
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this story is exactly for me. This is exactly for me, because I feel this injustice and I gotta,
12:01
you know, take care of this injustice. But there's a reason why in this story, the owner of the land
12:07
paid the last people first. He wanted the first people that people that have been working all day
12:13
to see this again, this is a story. This is made up story. It's a parable. But I don't know if you
12:17
guys had like, I had a dig in candied ham reaction to the story to where I was just repulsed by it. I
12:25
hated every last bit of it. So I don't know if y'all reacted the same way. But yeah, this was like
12:29
a visceral one for me because I knew it was directly for me. I didn't get repulsed by it. I felt convicted
12:37
by it, especially like just thinking back about how you become a Christian back when I started
12:46
becoming a Christian, I was very legalist and very much about Oh, I've done all these things.
12:52
And I think what God's saying right here is saying, you know, we should be happy for those who
12:57
find him, you know, at the 11th hour. And so I kind of looked at it in that way as just like,
13:05
hey, I'm looking at these Pharisees and Sadducees who feel like they're leading their lives by
13:10
hitting every note in the law. But now they're seeing these prostitutes and these tax collectors
13:17
coming to Christ and coming to what God finds, you know, beautiful. And but they feel like they
13:24
they're owed more. It comes back to the last episode we talked about about being owed. And
13:29
it's just not having a grateful heart for you. You agreed to do this for a denarius. These guys
13:36
came in and agreed to do it for denarius. But now you think you're owed more and you're worth
13:41
more because you've done something longer. I was like, man, that really made me think like I can
13:45
become across, you know, very legal minded, dotting the eyes and crossing the T's when I should be
13:53
like, happy, you know, for somebody. It's like the baptism thing that we talked about. Like,
13:58
someone says, you know, oh, my, my daughter accepted Christ and she believes in him. It's like,
14:04
well, you know, you want to go into the theology aspect of everything and say, no, God, God, God
14:10
had sovereignty over her. You know, no, you don't say that. You just, you, you relish in the beauty
14:16
of what just happened. One of the people that don't know exactly what Ryan's talking about.
14:19
So when we were having one of our reformed Calvinists, you know, different debates or whatever,
14:24
you will have, I guess you could call them, you know, the cage stage Calvinist that. Yeah, if
14:28
somebody were to say, you know, they're telling the story about how they got saved. And they're
14:32
like, yeah, and you know, I accepted Christ when I was 14 years old or whatever, they'd be like,
14:37
er, er, sorry, sorry, sorry. You didn't do anything. God shows you. That means your elect
14:44
stop being a moron. And so whereas like, you know, you, you've admitted Ryan that you were in a cage
14:50
stage for a certain period where you would have been one of those Theo bros, like throwing one of
14:53
those poison darts out. But, but now it's just like, who cares what you say. So typically when I like,
14:59
I was on an interview, not that long ago, where I was like, you know, when I was in high school,
15:03
depending upon your theological preferred language, I chose Christ or Christ snatched me up. Who
15:09
cares. And then we just kind of move on. And isn't that the better posture? What you said to just,
15:14
just be excited that a soul was saved. Don't be like men's words with like, oh, they use a
15:20
word in the prayer. I didn't like be excited that your brother got into the audience is going to be
15:24
able to feed his family tonight. Right. You know, like, yeah, you worked harder, but you agreed to do
15:28
that. But but I honestly, I don't parent that way. You know, like, like, we have this tree in our
15:34
backyard and it, the wind blows. And I don't know what's wrong with this tree. But sticks
15:40
continually fall. I mean, sticks fall off this tree, like hair off my head in the shower, right?
15:45
And I'm like, how is this tree still a tree every year? Because I'm picking up these sticks, but I
15:49
get my kids out there. And I incentivize them, like, I'm going to pay them, but I'm going to pay them
15:55
for like how many sticks they bring me. Right. So if somebody brings me this, like, they get
16:00
three sticks, well, they're not getting as much money as my hardworking middle daughter who's going
16:04
to get loads and loads of sticks. Right. It's like my mentality. It's there's a quantitative
16:11
and qualitative element to work that this scripture completely blows out of the water. I'm a little
16:17
bit more on your side where, like, I'm not immediately happy for everybody, you know, like, you know,
16:22
I'm sorry, like, you say that I'm like, man, I am, I'm a punk. I'm not happy for these people.
16:26
But I don't, I don't treat people that way, you know, like, if I have employees, there are people
16:32
that, that get bigger Christmas bonuses than others. And it's merit based, right? Like,
16:39
so, so it's hard for me to see this and immediately, like, receive it as, oh, this, oh, yeah, that's
16:44
totally makes sense. I have to work my place in a, I've got to work myself into a place to get there.
16:50
What about your neighbor who hits the lottery? Are you happy for them? Or are you jealous?
16:54
Um, he's smiling. Ladies and gentlemen, that means he is jealous. Do you have you had a
16:59
neighbor hit the lottery? Like, I got a neighbor that if he hit the lottery, I'd be so, so happy
17:04
for him. I got another neighbor that he had the lottery. I'd be furious. I want to come over
17:10
for a ham dinner and I can, so I can meet both of these neighbors, if I can guess which one.
17:14
My, my, my type A personality and my experience has always been digging what you're talking about.
17:19
Hard work gives positive results. And that's what we're trying to strive towards. And so when you
17:24
see somebody circumvent that and you see this story where somebody's gone and done an end around
17:30
and gotten the reward without the hard work, it makes me mad. Yeah, very mad. Well, it's,
17:34
it's giving out, it's not keeping score at soccer games in little league and giving everybody a
17:39
participation trophy. And I know that's, that, that's probably jumped the shark and we don't
17:42
care about that anymore. But that was a big deal. Like, when I was an early dad, yeah, and it's like,
17:47
no, no, no, no, no. Like it's an opportunity to teach people how to be gracious winners and,
17:53
or humble winners and gracious losers. Like we're taking that out and just calling it all. So I
17:58
kind of correlate that to this. It's like, well, I can get sour on this because of, of there's a
18:04
feeling of deserve. I couldn't get sour on it though. Because it's, and it comes back to this first
18:09
right here, friend, am I doing you no wrong? Did you not agree with me for a denarius? It's like,
18:14
you agreed to it. Like when I read that, I'm like, yeah, I can see why you're upset. But then I'm
18:19
also looking at like, you just didn't know how to negotiate very well. Well, you know, I have this
18:23
same gripe because I don't follow the NFL closely because apparently I'm a racist and so I'm not
18:27
allowed to watch the NFL. And so the, the thing about every training camp, you have four or five
18:34
prominent players that will hold out for a new contract, which means they signed a contract.
18:42
Thankfully, they were, they couldn't sign a fast enough to make millions of dollars to play a child's
18:48
game. And then at some point, they have a better season than what they were expecting. And then
18:54
they want to hold out and basically hold themselves and their talent ransom over the rest of the team
18:59
until they get what they want. And I've always thought about this because I typically take the
19:03
side of the business owner or the, the owners in these types of disputes, but it's like,
19:07
the owners are taking the risk. So a better example would be Major League Baseball because
19:11
the contracts are guaranteed. So Shohei Otani, last year, signed the biggest contract in North
19:17
American sports history, $700 million over 10 years, $680 million of which is deferred,
19:24
which what a great job by the Dodgers. That dude is getting paid $2 million a year to be
19:29
basically Babe Ruth. And he's going to get paid all of it on the back end, but we won't, we won't
19:32
dig in. But a Shohei Otani in spring training takes a fastball to the face. And he can't baseball
19:40
no more. You know how much money he's owed by the Los Angeles Dodgers? $700 million. Now they're
19:47
going to take out an insurance policy on that and they're going to be able to find some ways to
19:50
counteract some of the negative things that's going to happen. The owner is taking the risk.
19:55
And so why would you not just be thankful for the contract that you signed? Why not like when
20:01
teachers complain about how much they don't get paid? It's like you sign on the dotted line to do
20:06
the job and it's guaranteed payment and it's almost impossible to get fired. What are you
20:10
complaining about? I like your sports analogy. And it reminds me of US women's soccer.
20:14
Same thing. All of the money comes in and the men get X and then not near as much money comes in
20:21
for the women and the women demand that they must have X exact same number. It doesn't make
20:26
sense. Their percentage is drastically higher if they're going to demand the exact same pay.
20:30
Yeah. And luckily for them, they don't get what they deserve. When people talk about NBA salaries
20:35
and WNBA salaries, so if you take out the amount of money that the NBA gives to the WNBA to keep
20:40
them afloat, basically keeping them afloat for the last 30 years, like if these women would have to
20:46
pay to play basketball if things were absolutely fair. And so that's the thing that I remember
20:51
with with something like this, because I remember the first time I had to have a kind of a come to
20:56
Jesus with myself about a deathbed salvation and how unfair that felt because Mickey Mantle,
21:02
who is an Okey, you know, one of the greatest baseball players ever played for the Yankees.
21:06
Number seven, switch hitter, like all the things has all the records when the greatest players
21:10
literally of all time. The story goes that he accepted Christ on his deathbed. And also,
21:14
the story goes that he wasn't a very good dude throughout his life. He was an amazing baseball
21:18
player, but an atrocious human being. And then on his deathbed, he accepted Christ. And then you
21:23
will have people use the example of, let's say everyone uses Hitler. So let's say Stalin,
21:28
okay. So Joseph Stalin is responsible for millions, if not tens of millions of deaths over his life,
21:34
an incredibly cruel, like a historically cruel human being. What if when his deathbed,
21:41
a priest had come to his his side and preached the gospel to him and he accepted it?
21:45
We would all turn in to the people that started working at the first hour, because we couldn't
21:53
possibly fathom how someone so depraved and someone so sinful in our eyes, got in at the last minute,
21:59
like it would just violate all of our understandings of justice on the cross. Exactly. But that's
22:05
the thing is we want to go after we use Joseph Stalin as an example. Like, yeah, maybe he accepts
22:11
the gospel. But what do you do when you're accepting the gospel? You're repenting. And if
22:16
he repented for all that he did, that's an amazing thing for somebody to come to that self-realization
22:22
and know that they were wrong. No, no, no one's doubting that at all. But it's like everybody else.
22:26
I think that's the part we miss when we say like, all right, he accepts the gospel. Everybody
22:31
thinks it's like, oh, he just he believes it in Jesus. But nobody believes it after effective
22:36
the repentance. And we don't talk about that. And I think that's what we should talk about.
22:40
Well, I'm I we skipped over something that I think is hilarious. The very, very first line of this,
22:46
the first sentence, I think like as someone came up to you on the street and said, Hey,
22:50
you're a Christian man. Like, tell me like, what what what's heaven like? And you said, well,
22:55
you know, heaven's like the owner of an estate who went out in the morning dawn to hire workmen
23:00
for his vineyard. I mean, you're quoting scripture with that answer. Right. So I'm going to be like,
23:04
so confused. I just I'm sorry. I read that and thought, man, that is that's that's an
23:10
incomplete thought right there without going into further context. I think it also shows like,
23:14
you're going to be cared for in heaven. You're going to be taken care of no matter if your first
23:18
or last. Just be grateful. Yeah. And I think another thing that was happening here again,
23:23
I don't want to, you know, impugn motive to Jesus here, but he's he's showing people,
23:27
especially the disciples because who had more license to be cocky than the apostles, right?
23:32
Their Jesus has chosen 12. They, you know, they're they're special and as we'll see here in a little
23:37
bit, some maybe are more special than others or at least want to be treated as such. But you get
23:41
into this circumstance where you have cherished access to the Messiah. And wouldn't it be so easy
23:50
for them to downgrade future believers and conversions down the road? Because they didn't get to walk
23:55
around with Jesus for a few years. Like they didn't get to see the miracles. They were endowed
24:00
with some of his powers when he went away to be by himself for a little bit, when they were sent
24:04
out, which that's what apostle means is like those that are sent. And so like, just imagine
24:09
being that person and being so like feeling high and mighty over some lowly person with some disease
24:16
that comes to faith in Christ because of something they saw, like perhaps the resurrected Messiah.
24:20
And I think it's exactly right. The thief on the cross, which what you talked about,
24:23
which every time I hear thief on the cross now, I think of Alistair Begg and that just absolute
24:27
fire part of his sermon. But the thief on the cross and Billy Graham are the same in the eyes of God,
24:32
you know, and there are differences in 1 Corinthians 3, you know, he talks about the different levels
24:36
of reward and you know, all that we don't need necessarily get into that. But it's like everybody
24:41
gets salvation. Can you imagine people in heaven complaining about the golden road leading up to
24:46
their house being a little bit bumpier than the guy next to him? Like that would just be such a
24:50
silly thing. But that's basically what people are like quibbling about with a story like this.
24:55
Let's go and keep it going. Oh, before we do, I do want to talk about that stack of books right
24:59
there just very briefly. If you guys want to start your own forging table, go to the show notes,
25:03
that stack of books right there. That is a partnership we've done with Crossway. It's five books that
25:08
you can get for 50% off and it's going to help you. There's a Bible in there, there's a devotional,
25:12
there's some great materials, and there's a promo code that you can check out here in the show notes,
25:16
such as BSSP 50. That's Bravo Sierra Sierra, Papa five zero, all the ways that you can get that stack
25:23
of books. If you want to get serious about doing your own Bible study, check that out. It is in the
25:26
show notes. So let's go to the next part here. Adam, if you can read Matthew 2017 through 19.
25:34
Verse 17, now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem on the way. He took the 12 aside and said to them,
25:41
we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests
25:46
and the teachers of the law. They will condemn them him to death and will hand him over to the
25:52
Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified on the third day, he will be raised to life.
25:57
So this is the third time that we see that Jesus has predicted his own death and resurrection.
26:02
And so I don't know if you guys found something else as you were digging in,
26:08
but I'm still shocked that the apostles are shocked because again, we know the entire narrative,
26:14
so it's very convenient for us to look at this and be like, what a bunch of idiots,
26:18
but he's not implying to them what's going to happen to him. He's telling them what's going to
26:23
be happened. Like, look, I'm going to be mocked. I'm going to be flogged and I'm going to be
26:28
crucified and everyone knew what that meant because crucifixion. I think Eugenia Constantine,
26:34
whose book the crucifixion of the king of glory is great for understanding this.
26:38
It was so visceral in this moment, the word crucifixion. It was one of those words that if
26:43
you said it, people would be like, I don't even want to think about that because of how demeaning it
26:48
was, how painful it was and how ubiquitous it was. This is just what the Romans did. This would be
26:53
like us in modernity, having public floggings and public executions. And some are circumstances,
26:59
I think that should be brought back. Yeah, you're a pedophile. You get caught with a kid. Sorry,
27:03
we're going to string you up and we're going to kill you right now. And so, but like at this time,
27:06
to tell your followers, look, I'm going to be crucified. And none of them remembered what he
27:13
said. But don't worry, guys, three days after this horrible, horrible thing that you're going to
27:17
witness, I'm coming back. We have no indication from the scripture that the disciples, the apostles,
27:24
were waiting on him. Everyone thought he was dead. And that was the end of the story. How? I just
27:28
don't get it. I think it's interesting that, yeah, they thought it had to have been hyperbole or
27:34
exaggerated. It wasn't exactly what he was saying. They just thought, okay, well, he's saying this
27:41
for some reason, but we don't understand why this isn't really going to happen.
27:44
Yeah, it's been preaching imperables. Right. So, yeah, right off preaching, this is a parable.
27:48
Yeah, this is a parable again. Yeah. You know, I think like if I'm in the disciples' position
27:54
and I'm hearing this, you know, they've been waiting for this Messiah, but I think their vision of the
27:58
Messiah was like this conquering, you know, going to come free them. And really what they felt like
28:03
they needed to be freed from was Rome, right? They didn't have this like, I need to be freed from
28:08
sin. They kind of had their avenue through sacrifice and stuff to get that. So, so they didn't really
28:15
understand the mission. So for them to hear this, I think like, are they, are they thinking of themselves
28:19
like, wait, wait, wait, like you, you're supposed to like conquer Rome. You're not supposed to like,
28:26
like go surrender to them to have them like kill you in this terrible way.
28:32
Right. And so that's what the Jews were looking forward to like for thousands of years was their
28:37
conquering war hero. And we'll see this here in the next few weeks when we talk about how Jesus
28:42
was welcoming into into Jerusalem, he was welcomed like a conquering king. And you can see that by
28:48
the fact that they laid their cloaks down. And you only did that for, you know, a conquering hero or
28:52
the king or the aristocracy of the time. And so yeah, that's a great point. What else on on that
28:58
part right there? Again, I'm just, I'm always shocked. But I mean, I never thought about that
29:02
way, Ryan, that maybe they were thinking he was talking in parables again and that he didn't actually
29:06
mean it. But man, you would think that somebody would have been paying attention throughout this
29:10
process and would have just reminded me guys like, oh, I just remembered Jesus crucified guys 72
29:15
hours is going to be a party and none of them did. And that this message was only for them. He took
29:19
them aside to just talk to those 12. And you would think if you're sitting around the table, this is
29:23
the third time he's told us a story, maybe we should figure this out. You know, something just
29:28
occurred to me. How many times has Jesus or how many times has God communicated something to me?
29:34
And I was like, yeah, I don't get it. That doesn't make any, you know, or maybe you heard it and you
29:38
chose not to listen to it. Like I can't really mean that. Yeah, like that's not the last parable.
29:44
You're like, oh, man. Oh, well, I think I've talked about this on the show as well. Like the I always
29:50
hated the parable, the prodigal son, because I thought the kid should have died with the pigs.
29:54
It's like screw that little lazy idiot. Like I was always for the older brother. I was like,
29:58
the older brother is righteous. I get it. And it wasn't till our, you know, second string pastor
30:03
at our church did a sermon on it, where it just like, it finally clicked, like through my, you know,
30:09
through all my defense systems in my brain, it's like, the older brother is just as lost as the
30:15
younger brother. It's been there the entire time. Like the other guys just just a dork and a jerk
30:20
off. And then this, this guy is just like self righteous. And it's like, they're equally lost.
30:25
And I like, I was always mad at the dad. Like, why would you kill the fattened calf for the stupid
30:30
son? And it was just like, Oh man, this is all so perfect. But again, that's, that's where things
30:36
like how many times did God try to communicate to me through that story? And I was like, God,
30:40
I don't think you I don't think you're right on that story. I think you're thinking about this wrong,
30:44
even though you gave me everything, including my brain to reckon. But yeah, sure. Let's just say
30:48
you're wrong. And we're saying that it's ridiculous. It's the third time that they've heard it. But
30:53
how many times did we hear about the Israelites wandering in the desert over and over and over and
30:58
screwing up? So I guess the whole thing is that humans are really, really stupid. And we just
31:03
don't really listen. We will never have the knowledge of God. Yeah. Well, well, that's the thing is,
31:08
when, okay, so when you're given scripture, is this not the knowledge of God? Is that not what
31:13
we're holding here? And again, we always try to put ourselves in these pages. Like these stories
31:18
are about us. And a great reminder, Matt Chandler, is that the Bible's not about you? No, the Bible's
31:24
for you, right? But it's not about you. You're not David, the story of David and Goliath, your problems
31:29
with that person at work, that is not Goliath, your problems with the IRS, that is not Goliath.
31:34
Like it's just simply a story that's pointing to the narrative of Christ. The totality of the
31:40
narrative of scripture is pointing to one person in one event, and that's Christ and the resurrection
31:45
and a crucifixion. And that's what the Bible's for. It's to give you that knowledge of why you need
31:49
God and why you need Christ. We're never going to understand God fully 100%. Because we don't have
31:55
that knowledge. We only have what he gives us. That's right. All right, let's hit this next
31:58
section here. Let's go to verses 20 through 28. Ryan, you want to hit it? Yep. All right, let's go.
32:03
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons,
32:06
bowing down and making a request of him. And he said to her, what do you desire? She said to him,
32:12
say that in your kingdom, these two sons of mine shall sit on your right and on your left.
32:17
But Jesus replied, you do not know what you were asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm
32:23
about to drink? They said to him, we are able. He said to them, my cup, you shall drink. But to
32:29
sit at my right and to sit at my left is not mine to give. But it's for those whom it has been
32:35
prepared by my father. And after hearing this, the other 10 disciples became indignant with the
32:41
two brothers. But Jesus called them to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles
32:47
dominate over them. And that those in high positions exercise authority over them.
32:51
They got right through 25 my apologies. Oh, go through 28. Yeah. You want to go through 28? Yeah.
32:56
It is not this way among you. But whoever wants to become prominent among you shall be your servant.
33:02
And whoever desires to be first among you shall be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come
33:08
to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So there's quite a bit
33:15
that we can discuss here. Just to kick us off, the mother is Salome. I think it's how you would
33:20
say it. S L or S A L O M E. And she is talking about the sons of Zebedee, which is James and John.
33:26
Now what I saw is that this this woman is likely Jesus's aunt, which would make James and John
33:33
Jesus's cousins, right? Some scholars are, yeah, that this totally makes sense. Others are like,
33:38
no, doesn't but so take it. It doesn't really change the whole part of the story here. But I
33:43
want to focus in on the conversation that they're having with Jesus. And when he says, are you able
33:49
to drink the cup? I am to drink it and you can just tell here because it kind of seems like, oh,
33:54
you know, the mother takes Jesus aside to have a one-on-one conversation. But Jesus' response is
34:00
heard by James and John. So it seems like they're all three there together. So it's the mom going
34:05
up to the baseball coach asking for more playing time for their son. And the son's kind of back
34:09
there like, I really hope I get it. But this is really awkward. I don't really want to be here.
34:13
And so he's talking and referring back to all of them and he asks them, are you able to drink
34:18
the cup that I am to drink? And they said to him, we are able. Now Jesus' response says,
34:24
you will drink my cup. And that ends up happening because James was beheaded. He was the first
34:29
apostle. He was first apostolic martyr. We see that in Acts 12. And John was tortured and exiled.
34:35
Like he was the only one. Like they tried to kill John a bunch. I think they put him in like boiling
34:40
oil or multiple times or something like that, trying to kill him. And he just wouldn't freaking
34:42
die. And so they're like, okay, man, go to the Isle of Patmas. And so he was basically put out
34:47
to pasture kind of a thing. So it wasn't like he was at Club Med for the rest of his life. Like
34:50
he was tortured and exiled. But I'm struck by, as you were reading it, Ryan, when they just
34:56
immediately responded, we are able. Were they responding in their confidence that they were able?
35:02
Were they responding in? We hope we're able, like almost like an aspirational identity when
35:08
people are like, you know, believe it and achieve it and that kind of thing was. And so I don't really
35:13
know exactly how to take them because it's such an immediate response. And they seem so sure of
35:17
themselves. And Jesus doesn't call him on him. He's like, yeah, you will drink this cup.
35:21
I don't think there's any humbleness in it at all. I think it's self-seeking. And they're doing it
35:26
in front of the other disciples because they become indignant. And it's just a mom wanting to see her
35:31
two boys lifted into a higher above the other place of prominence. So I don't think there's any
35:38
humbleness at all. And so when they're asked, you know, like, are you able? They don't even know
35:42
what the cup is. I don't think they have no idea what the cup is. He just talked about the cup
35:46
the verses beforehand. And they didn't even understand that. So they have no idea what the cup is. They're
35:53
like, yeah, yeah, we can drink that cup. And then they get to know what that cup is. He's like,
35:56
yeah, you will drink the cup because I know what's going to happen to you. And they do drink the cup.
36:00
And they and they're steadfast in their belief, which is awesome. But like he said, he said,
36:06
you know, it comes down to God sovereign to you who's going to be at my left and who's going to
36:09
be at my right. I don't make that choice. So technically does because he is God with the disciples
36:15
getting mad like they're immediately like furious, right? Like, are they furious? Because, man,
36:21
that was a bad thing. I can't believe you guys did that. Or were they furious? Because it's like,
36:25
man, they beat me to it. You know, like dad, dumb at you guys, like, you know, you got to the boss
36:31
for I did. Yeah. I think they're just trying to get they're frustrated because they see James and
36:35
John trying to get a leg up and be elevate themselves over the others. So I want to go ahead. I think
36:41
they're all trying to move for position. Like every one of them is trying to move for a position.
36:45
And that's why they're getting jealous and indignant. When I think they're they're trying to move for
36:50
a position, but this just shows the competitive nature of the disciples. They've all lost sight
36:57
of the fact of who they're with to begin with. It's like there are 12 of us because when they
37:02
talk about the apostles, they are typically talking about the 12 because those are the ones that were
37:06
sent. The disciples could have been hundreds or thousands that were just following them around
37:12
through Galilee and then on the road back to Jerusalem, like there's so many of them. And so
37:17
they are already in precious, cherished territory because of the access that they get. So I think
37:22
about like, you say you work at a large corporation, right? So here locally in Oklahoma, see we have
37:27
Pacom. So that's kind of the big dominant force here now. So the people that work there that get
37:33
paid a good living, maybe they're, you know, a coder or something like that, they've never met
37:37
the CEO, Chad Richardson, who has donated a lot of money to the my alma mater. So I'm very thankful
37:43
for that guy. They don't get the same access as the board of directors, right? But there's a lot
37:48
of people are just tickled to death to be able to work at Pacom so that they can tell people, hey,
37:52
I work at Pacom, they put it on their LinkedIn and then they're so excited about that. But imagine
37:56
being one of the inner circle people that makes an extraordinary living and has a tremendous amount
38:03
of impact on a growing and thriving company and then being disappointed that one of the other people
38:10
on the executive board talked to Chad and gave them the idea that you also had but they did it
38:15
before you did. Like imagine how petty that would feel. But I literally just described
38:20
every corporate scenario basically in existence because these little infighting succession battles
38:25
like these just happen all the time. Well, imagine somebody going to Chad Richardson
38:29
and it's somebody's mom. Hey, would be both of my sons work for you. They're really good.
38:38
They're really awesome. Can you give them a promotion? Can you give them a promotion over
38:42
these guys over here? And they're actually standing there. Like they're actually hearing their mom do
38:47
it and they're cool with it. Yeah, yeah, they're like, yeah, mom, go get them. You're gonna hit
38:51
something on that. Yeah, but and then so mom is coming to ask for something and what do they get?
38:56
They get you're going to drink from the cup of suffering. You know, congrats. This is what you
39:00
want. Yeah, exactly. You know, that actually implies even more so. I think that they had no
39:05
flipping idea what the cup would mean, which, which is kind of a catch 22 as we discuss it,
39:10
because they did drink the cup. Yeah. And as we see, and this goes back to one of the greatest
39:15
apologetics for the Christian faith, which is that you will not die for you for something that
39:23
you know is not true. Now, you might die for something that you think is true, because how many
39:29
people have blown themselves up thinking that they're going to get 71 virgins at the end of the
39:32
rainbow, they're just flat out wrong, right? But because that's people are like, Hey, you know,
39:37
how do we know Christianity is true? Because people are willing to die for it. So are Muslims,
39:41
so are Buddhist monks, so are all these everything's they're willing to die for their faith as well.
39:45
But if this was all a ruse, if this was a multi millennia, like conspiracy,
39:53
carried out by Jesus and his Mary men, none of the apostles would have accepted their fates.
39:59
None of them. And because that's the thing, guys, if you if you're an atheist out there listening
40:03
to this, which if you're listening to this, we're so unbelievably glad that you're here listening
40:07
to this discussion, we're so glad you're here. Stay plugged in. You have to reckon with that
40:12
question, perhaps over any other question, which is why did why do we have no accounts from Christian
40:19
sources, Roman sources, Jewish sources, just secular sources of first century disciples and
40:27
apostles going back on what they said? You know, I was I was kidding. I was kidding. Yes. We thought
40:33
we could get a lot of money and hose by supporting this guy. And you know, this is all part of a
40:37
ruse. Jesus actually had a twin. You know, this is all this is all we just, you know, we just played
40:42
y'all nothing. We have these people knowing that they're about to be torn to shreds by animals,
40:48
singing hymns on their way to making that happen. People that were lit on fire to light up
40:53
Nero's court so that they could have parties. These people just walk there. It doesn't mean they
40:57
weren't scared. It doesn't mean they weren't, you know, really anxious about what was about to
41:01
befall them. But again, why would they allow themselves to do this? Why would they not go back
41:06
on it? It's not because of just what they believe is because of what they saw. They saw a guy get
41:11
flogged and crucified. And then three days later, they saw him walk that walking out of the tomb
41:16
or they saw him raised from the dead. That's the only explanation for why people would actually
41:20
believe that. I think of how little what little it would take to pull me out of a lie and to
41:27
expose myself as oh my gosh. Yeah. Like what what like ridiculously small thing it would take for
41:34
me to be like, all right, I'm like, and especially like if Adam and I are telling a lie and we're
41:41
conspiring together and Adam gets crucified upside down right for that lie, right? Like it's like,
41:48
are you way we're lying. And it's the prisoners dilemma, right? Where you have, I didn't forget
41:54
it off the top of my head, but it's like, okay, if you, you know, if you both rat on each other,
41:58
or you know, and if one rats versus the other, and it's just like, even if that were what was
42:03
happening, I think that's another reason why were there 12. Now, one killed himself, but what you
42:07
know, the other 11, why would there be 11? Because you know, it's easy to explain away.
42:13
One guy that walked around with Jesus for three years and he went to his desk saying, no, I saw him,
42:20
he was raised from the dead, but the scripture doesn't give us that the scripture gives us 11
42:25
plus 500. Because it we get from scripture that 500 people saw Jesus raised from the dead all at
42:30
once. And so it's like, that's a much better explanation than, well, you know, this whole
42:36
Jesus story comes from sacred mushrooms that people took. And they thought, you know, these
42:41
mushrooms were God's semen. And this was like, this is the Joe Rogan explanation. This is like
42:45
a real thing. Okay, I don't know where you know, it's called. It's called like, Jesus in the holy
42:50
mushroom or something like that, like back, like this whole thing, they're they're trying to trace
42:53
the language back to think that people at this time thought that, you know, God's semen would
42:58
would infiltrate these mushrooms. And if they took these mushrooms, it would give them enlightenment
43:02
and stuff like that. It's like, okay, you guys believe that because a podcaster that is currently
43:08
high set it, but all I'm saying is like, yeah, 11 dudes, plus 1000s and 1000s more for years and
43:14
years and years, happily went to their desk because of what they saw, not just because of what they
43:18
read or heard about. Like, come on. I think digging brings up a good point. I was watching the show
43:22
called, it's like about special forces and these B list, C list actors and celebrities go on and
43:29
they do a special forces thing. And at the very end, it's always the interrogation. And in that
43:33
interrogation, like they go through all the tactics that would be happening to them to get them to
43:40
spill their lie because they're lying about why they're there. And at some point in the
43:45
interrogator always says this and says how you kind of win the game at some point, you got to
43:48
figure out the right time to tell the truth to keep yourself alive. Right. And so the fact that
43:53
these guys knew the truth and know what the truth is and are saying the truth, they had no they
43:58
couldn't keep themselves alive. So I thought when I look at that and I thought about what you said,
44:04
I was like, man, that's an amazing concept to think about because if you're in a lie at some
44:07
point, it's going to come out to save yourself. Well, and again, I think the overwhelming point,
44:11
which we just kind of passed over, which is my fault. I mean, verse 28, even as the son of man
44:15
came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, they're
44:19
substitutionary atonement. So for those of you that are really weirded out by this idea,
44:25
yeah, like it's like substitutionary atonement's like a curse word. It's like,
44:29
that's what they're saying. Like, that's what the word ransom means money obtained to free
44:34
a slave. That is the context of the use of the word ransom here. And when it's saying that he died
44:39
for us, that means in place of another way of saying that is substitute. This is a substitutionary
44:46
atonement, which we're not going to, you know, fully break out here, you know, as we're we're
44:49
rounding to a close, but that's a very, very important thing to talk about. I think what's really cool
44:52
here is he kind of Christ is the architect of the servant leader. And I don't know how many people
44:59
have bosses, and I've had many bosses. And one of my bosses had like the philosophy of being a
45:05
servant leader. And like, he's the guy that's pulling the sled with you, not sitting on the sled,
45:10
whipping you to pull it. And, and it's, he's been the best person I ever worked for. Like,
45:16
I've left two companies to go work for him again. And I think that when you look at this,
45:21
and you can just look at what Christ has done just for us through substitutionary atonement,
45:25
how can we live our lives as being selfless? And I think this is something that really
45:30
grown me as I was reading it was just like, and I was, I was talking to my wife about it. I was
45:35
like, I want to live my life a little bit more selfless and a little bit more of a servant towards
45:39
you and towards the, and towards our kids and our family. All right, let's round out Matthew 20,
45:46
Dagen, let's go verse 29 through the end, which would be 34. As they were leaving Jericho, a large
45:52
crowd followed him. And two blind men were sitting by the road. And when they heard that Jesus was
45:58
passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. The crowd sternly told them
46:03
to be quiet, but they cried out all the more. Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. Jesus
46:10
stopped and called them and asked, what do you want me to do for you? And they answered him,
46:15
Lord, we want you to open our eyes. Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes and
46:21
immediately they regained their sight and followed him. So one thing that I want to talk about here
46:27
is, and it just occurred to me as you're reading it, just calling him son of David,
46:32
to those of you that think that we should unhitch the Old Testament from the New Testament,
46:37
this, they would have not even known to call him the son of David. Like, what do you mean? That
46:44
there would have been no description of the, the Davidic line from which the Messiah would come
46:48
from that was, that was promised in the Old Testament and the prophecies. So that's a really
46:52
important point. But I do want to admit something that I'm not like super proud of, but part of the
46:59
thing when you read the Bible that I have to check myself on is if I know what's about to happen,
47:04
I don't read it, I skim it. And when I got to this section, because I mean, we're, we're 20 chapters
47:10
in here, we're years into Jesus's ministry. And the first time I read through this, I was like,
47:15
Oh, yeah, a couple blind guys got healed. All right, moving on. Chapter 21. And I kind of got checked
47:20
and convicted in that moment to be like, Kyle, hey, hey, there were two blind guys. That doesn't
47:27
say how long they have been blind, but they're blind. They can't see how hard is it to operate
47:31
in the world if you can't see anything in the world. And Jesus had mercy on these men. He took
47:37
pity on them, touched their eyes and immediately immediately they recovered sight and obviously
47:42
started following him. And so that's been one thing as I've worked my way through Matthew for the
47:48
last several months, it's like being able to pause long enough to think about what was actually
47:53
happening. And this is again, everyone has our own opinion about the chosen. That's something
47:57
that the show is really done for me is it is slowed the gospels down for me. As I've talked about a
48:04
lot and I get choked up every time I talk about it, but the woman with the problem of blood that
48:08
story is like three or four sentences in Matthew, right? It's nothing. And I read it like that. Oh,
48:16
yeah, this woman, you know, she was bleeding and all that for whatever. But that's like three hours
48:20
worth of television, right? It takes you 30 seconds to read it. But it was like three or four episode
48:26
arc of that story in the chosen. And then all of a sudden that story is like one of the most
48:32
impactful stories to me that as he's going to save a girl that very likely was born on the day that
48:38
this woman's problem of blood started and he this woman touches the edge of his garment and she is
48:45
saved and he calls her daughter. And it's just like, I've missed it for all these years reading
48:51
these stories or even hearing pastors talk about it, they skim over it. Oh, yeah, the woman with
48:55
the problem of blood and she touched his cloak and they want to, you know, do a 30 minute diatribe on,
48:59
you know, Jewish garments. And, you know, why that's important. And I just like, I want to remind
49:05
myself and I want you guys to keep me accountable. And I want to keep you guys watching and listening
49:09
to this accountable that as you're reading these stories, as you're reading them, you've got to
49:13
slow down and think about the actual ramifications of this. I know I went on for a long time there,
49:17
but y'all hop in. Think about them being, for some reason, they were physically blind, but they
49:22
spiritually had sight. And why did they know that Jesus was the son of David? And imagine this
49:29
crowd is surrounding him and they're trying to shout them down. Be quiet. Don't bother
49:34
them, but they're persistent over and over. I'm not sure that I would have been that persistent,
49:38
but they knew. No, I think the imagery of this healing is powerful. I go back to what you said
49:45
about the chosen. I started reaching watching it recently and I'm into season three and it's kind
49:50
of made me slow down and read this and I actually did slow down and read this. And this is what I
49:54
wrote. I go, the imagery of this healing is powerful. These men's sight had been taken and they just
49:59
wanted to see. And with their faith, it was granted. Oh, how we ask God for many things. But when we
50:06
receive the gospel, our eyes are open to our sinfulness. And then through Christ, there's
50:12
forgiveness and change. So there's healing through that. We, these guys are asking for sight. And when
50:17
we come to Christ and we hear the gospel, we're at, we're asking for sight. And we get our sight.
50:22
And what we see is our depravity. And we see the reason why we need Christ. And so I just think
50:26
it's a beautiful healing to kind of show even those of us who can see and can't see spiritually
50:32
sometimes, we get that spiritual look. Well, in, in previous chapters in Matthew, you know,
50:37
you have the story of the rich man who comes to him and is telling him how good he is and
50:41
everything. And, and he comes to him in a really cocky way, right? Where these, these two men,
50:48
verse 34 starts out, it says they move, Jesus was moved with compassion. Well, it was, it was
50:54
their posture and how they approached him, right? It's, it's not a, hey, we, I, we deserve this.
51:02
Like I had a good day today, Jesus. Like I was really nice in some way. Can you just make me see
51:06
hook me up, man? Right. When here's the other thing, this is not meant to be a joke. I'm not
51:10
saying this sarcastically. These dudes literally couldn't see him coming. Right? Yeah. You would
51:15
assume they had heard about this Messiah healer guy. So we, the things we don't see in the text,
51:20
like were there buddies of them that brought him there? But like something put them in that space
51:26
where they were able to, even without all of their faculties, even without all their senses,
51:31
be able to accept this. It only says all they knew is they heard that Jesus was going by, right?
51:36
There was a large crowd, right? How did they know anything else?
51:39
Like it could have been literally thousands of people, right? And they just heard that he was
51:43
coming through, right? Yeah. Well, and these are two guys like in this, in this time, in this
51:47
society, like having any type of physical ailment or physical, like you're an outcast,
51:52
right? Like like for being blind, like you are lesser than, you know, and, and they're sitting on
51:58
the road that well, they are probably so disgusting, right? It's, it's not they are dirty. Like I don't,
52:05
I don't know how many people you talk about their buddies brought them. Like do they have
52:09
buddies or are they just like, Hey, we're each other's buddies. That's why there are two of them.
52:13
Right. So the only friend of God is the guy in my, in my same lot in life. And, and the fact that like,
52:18
of course they cry out and everybody, it says verse 31, the crowd sternly told them to be quiet.
52:25
That's probably a really gentle way of describing how the crowd was treating these two people.
52:30
And again, I am not so naive as to think that I would not be telling these blind guys to stop
52:36
being so fricking annoying. Like, Hey, I want to hear what Jesus has to say. Like it's the same
52:41
thing. We've all had that moment. Maybe you've been at a comedy show or some sort of speech or
52:45
a concert and there's that one drunken idiot that's like keeps yelling out and all that. And you
52:48
kind of feel like it's ruining your experience. Are they feeling that way? Because if you're sitting
52:53
in a crowd and someone's like ruining it, you feel like righteous aggression. Like this should
52:57
stop. This isn't injustice. I paid 75 bucks to listen to this guy and make me laugh. And everyone's
53:02
just focused on this moron. And so like, again, I would have been one of the people telling these
53:06
blind guys, can you all shut up? Like, I would have been one of the people that have been like,
53:09
Oh, yeah, he's over there. If he was actually over here, you know what I mean? Like, I would
53:13
have been one of the guys like, Oh, yeah, he's right there. Oh, no. Hey, guys, I'm Jesus. So say
53:16
whatever you need to say, just say to me. And so I just I don't ever want to read stories like this
53:21
and think I wouldn't be so depraved. But if you read these stories so quickly, you're gonna miss
53:26
the points that that Jesus would actually want to show you or that or that the Holy Spirit would
53:31
actually want to teach you. So anybody have anything on Matthew 24 we wrap this up? No, no, no. All
53:37
right, guys, we're gonna have to leave it there. But come back here next Sunday, where we're gonna
53:40
dig into Matthew 21. So make sure you read all the way through Matthew 21. So if you're a little bit
53:44
behind, get caught up. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost.
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