Ep. 33: Would Jesus Be Cancelled Today?

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode. All the Like Stars The Podcast

[00:00:10] on your house. Goodman and excited to jump into some more topics with you together. As I mentioned

[00:00:16] on the previous episode, I'm doing kind of a short four episode arc, I guess, kind of

[00:00:21] a mini-series. Looking at some of the difficult sort of challenging things that Jesus said

[00:00:26] and did that might kind of rub us through on way or make us confuse. We kind of started

[00:00:30] that last episode looking at some of the, I don't know, almost the meaner things we heard

[00:00:34] him say in the last episode. And in this episode, I'm actually going to look at one passage

[00:00:39] that's in both Mark and Matthew where Jesus actually seems to straight up insult a woman

[00:00:46] by calling her a dog. And he's like, what in the world? Why wasn't he canceled? So we're

[00:00:50] going to walk to that a little bit and see another difficult challenging aspect of the

[00:00:55] way that Jesus communicated and some of the things that try to come to us cross culturally

[00:00:59] through the scriptures. Before I do, a few couple little, just small things. Just remember,

[00:01:04] hey, as I mentioned in my last episode, my audiobook for Like Stars Out, you can find that

[00:01:09] an audible or apple or Amazonos great places if you haven't read the book yet. And you're

[00:01:14] wanting to, if you'd like a free copy, as I mentioned again over the whole course of these

[00:01:18] four episodes, I'm going to give them away. You can jump on YouTube right now, leave

[00:01:22] a comment. And if you're one of the first people to leave a comment and ask them for

[00:01:25] a book, I'll get you one. If you're locally, you can pick it up. If not, I can send you

[00:01:28] a digital copy or give you a free code to download the audiobook from audible. So I'd love

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[00:01:52] it if you'd help with that. Now my sponsor for today for this episode is a real sponsor

[00:02:00] to kind of my sponsor is Diet Coke. Yes, Diet Coke. Listen, unfortunately for you,

[00:02:08] humor enthusiasts, I obviously have nothing funny or clever to say about Diet Coke partly

[00:02:15] because that would be a complete sacrilege to the greatest gift mankind has ever been

[00:02:20] graced by our loving and wise creator other than Jesus. But also because it's been, it's

[00:02:29] been quite a few couple of weeks for me personally with some major transitions happening in our

[00:02:35] world and in our church community. Some of you that follow the podcast from my church

[00:02:39] rice that he knows going on. And so really the truth is if it wasn't for this holy nectar

[00:02:45] of heaven being pumped straight into my veins 24, 7, I'm not sure I'd even still be awake

[00:02:50] right now. And look, just to be clear, I get asked sometimes, I'm not saying I'm addicted

[00:02:56] to Diet Coke or anything. Okay, let's not push down below. However, my daughter did ask

[00:03:02] me recently what I would do if they found out that maybe there's all this talk about

[00:03:07] his ass, but team good for your like. And she said, Dad, what would you do if somebody

[00:03:11] scientifically proved that Diet Coke is actually lethal and will take years off of

[00:03:18] your life by drinking it three times a day like you do? And my answer was quite simple honey.

[00:03:23] It was well, I would die young and happy. That's what I would do deal with it. Not probably

[00:03:30] the answer my daughter wanted, but it's the truth. I am addicted. But yeah, I say that kind

[00:03:37] of joke and kind of serious. It has been a pretty challenging season. My brother and

[00:03:42] I on our lead pastor is transitioning out of the role of lead pastor. And so it's affected

[00:03:46] my frequency and ability to get some new episodes out to you, but I still want to keep at

[00:03:50] it. And there might be some more spacing over the next few episodes. But I really am

[00:03:56] enjoying this topic and want to keep working through it with you guys. So we're going

[00:03:59] to keep talking about some of the difficult sayings of Jesus starting here in episode two

[00:04:04] and continuing on with this really difficult statement he made to a foreign woman. Now

[00:04:10] I heard a statement said, it wasn't to me, I think it was online or something. And I heard

[00:04:13] someone talking and they were talking about today's culture, right? The world today

[00:04:17] and they were talking about cancel culture. We all know what cancel culture is, right?

[00:04:21] Someone says something they shouldn't say and they get canceled online. And I heard this

[00:04:25] really funny. They go, if Jesus was alive today, they'd probably cancel him. And I

[00:04:33] heard it. I thought I'd never a second. And I was like, yeah, Jesus kind of got canceled

[00:04:42] himself back then. You know, they did crucify him. Remember? And today we're all like, oh

[00:04:48] man, that comedian said something. He got crucified on social media. It's not the same

[00:04:53] thing. Not the same thing. Jesus absolutely was canceled as the worst way possible. And

[00:05:02] I really want to, I don't say that just randomly because there's some ties as we saw in

[00:05:05] the last episode Jesus often spoke very harshly to people in power and those were the people

[00:05:10] that ultimately were so angry with them. They got rid of them. They cut them off. But

[00:05:14] we'll even see here on this episode with this passage I'm going to look at that sometimes

[00:05:18] Jesus spoke and acted in ways that were uncomfortable and made people kind of uneasy. Now my big question

[00:05:25] last week was essentially you know, was Jesus a jerk? And in some ways, I guess my big question

[00:05:30] this week is, should Jesus have gotten canceled? And I think what we'll see is in both instances

[00:05:36] what we have to do is we didn't last episode really look through the passages together

[00:05:40] for culture and context. And when we do, we actually find that even though it might be

[00:05:45] rough around the edges for us today in our culture, there's really a lot of power and meaning

[00:05:49] in what Jesus was doing. So I want to look at a passage. It's kind of long enough if you're

[00:05:52] on YouTube, I'll put the words up here on the screen with you. I want to look at this happens

[00:05:56] in two places in Matthew. I'm going to look at Mark 7. It says this in verses 24 and moving

[00:06:01] on he says, is Jesus left that place? He was in one area, it argues people in leaves

[00:06:06] and went to the vicinity of tear or tire. He entered a house and didn't want anyone to know

[00:06:12] it yet he could not keep his present secret. In fact, as soon as she, a woman heard about

[00:06:17] him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.

[00:06:22] So a woman is in need, she wants something, she comes to Jesus with all those feet. The

[00:06:26] woman, Mark tells us was a Greek born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the

[00:06:34] demon out of her daughter which you know, this is the story, right? This is Jesus. People

[00:06:38] that have needs, they Jesus is the son of God. He's God human flesh, he's coming to people

[00:06:41] who loves people. A woman in need Jesus, please help me. And of course Jesus responded

[00:06:46] the way we would all expect him to. And he says first let the children eat all they

[00:06:51] want. He told her for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the

[00:06:56] dogs. Okay, smokes Jesus. What in the world are you saying to this poor woman? You can't,

[00:07:03] you just call her a dog. Okay, if there's ever a moment, you're like, okay, Jesus, you're

[00:07:09] getting canceled, buddy. I mean, right here she's coming for your help. She's a foreigner

[00:07:14] and you call her a dog. Like what are you doing? There's almost a sense of racism and

[00:07:18] all this stuff going on. What is happening? All right, so we're gonna walk through this

[00:07:23] a little bit. Not necessarily like a Bible study, but I really want to unpack it because

[00:07:27] I think there's something profound and powerful in these words. And the way we do it, like

[00:07:31] I said in the last episode, remember we talked about the style of writing which here's pretty

[00:07:35] clear. The style is just a story, but then about context, context is king. So let's start

[00:07:40] there. So this interaction happens both in Mark and Matthew, both of them tell the story

[00:07:45] right after Jesus was in a back and forth with some Jewish leaders. And the argument with

[00:07:51] the Jewish leaders was about what is clean and unclean. And they were arguing about Jesus,

[00:07:56] you're not washing your hands, you're not cleaning stuff properly. And Jesus responds by

[00:08:00] saying, you're so worried about the outside, you should spend more time worrying about

[00:08:03] the inside, right? And so that was kind of the idea. They were focused on outward things.

[00:08:07] Jesus was talking in there. And right after that, this story happens. And then there's

[00:08:12] some specifics about this story that are so key, they'll make a lot more sense when you

[00:08:16] get them. So he leaves his hometown, all right? His hometown, a region known as Galilee,

[00:08:23] which was a predominantly Jewish area. Everybody there was mostly Jewish and he's leaving it

[00:08:29] and he's traveling into a region known at this time as Phoenicia, modern day Lebanon

[00:08:36] and it's city of tear or tire. And this was a predominantly non-Jewish area along the

[00:08:42] Mediterranean coast. And that's so important because we really are talking about things

[00:08:47] like ethnicity and race here. It's coming into play. Jesus was in his very Jewish area.

[00:08:52] Now he's traveling to a very non-Jewish area. But it goes even deeper, because the book

[00:08:57] of Mark calls this woman a Greek. And we all know that Mark and Matthew were written to

[00:09:02] a different audiences. And so Mark's audience, this was probably more understood language.

[00:09:08] Now obviously when you hear the word Greek, you think of people from Greece. But back then,

[00:09:11] Greek was kind of a generic way of labeling all non-Jews who spoke Greek, like calling

[00:09:16] all English speakers Americans, all you can be Canadian or whatever. But that's kind

[00:09:21] of a Greek was like everybody that sort of didn't, they weren't Jewish or Greek. So in

[00:09:25] a sense you'd say that ethnically she's called a Phoenician, Matthew who's written to a Jewish

[00:09:31] audience that would have been more familiar actually calls her a Canaanite, which was the ancient

[00:09:36] term for these same people. So in Jesus' day the Greeks were called Phoenicians but the Jews

[00:09:41] knew these people as Canaanites. Now if you have familiarity with the Old Testament, this really starts

[00:09:47] to raise some interesting things because in the Old Testament the Canaanites remember where the

[00:09:53] original inhabitants of the land that Moses and Joshua and everyone came and battle war with and

[00:09:58] drove out in a sense. So they got a thousand years of problems between these two people,

[00:10:03] they were prominent in Jewish history. They were essentially Israel's fiercest swaring enemies like

[00:10:10] Canaanites and Israelites were like at it for a thousand years. They were notorious among the Jews

[00:10:16] for their idolatry, pagan practices. We read in the Old Testament that Moses and the original

[00:10:21] Israelites were commanded by God to have nothing to do with them. The two were at war from the very

[00:10:26] beginning and they had been. So even though now they were called Phoenicians and Greeks Jews knew

[00:10:30] these people as Canaanites, they were the enemy, they were the other, they were the people you don't

[00:10:35] associate with. And this idea of like Canaan or Tear entire, this area, these people for the Jews

[00:10:41] it was like synonymous with wickedness and they were forbidden to marry, you couldn't associate

[00:10:46] with them. And this was even rooted in why their own stories of the Exodus and the conquest on

[00:10:53] those things, where that comes from is essentially they believe that God had sent them to this land

[00:10:58] to dry those people out because of how horrible and wicked they were. And so you're still looking at

[00:11:03] this many, many, many centuries later, there's still this sense that these were the other,

[00:11:08] these were the people you're against. You have the story of the ancient king of Israel,

[00:11:12] Ahab, if you're familiar with him during the life of Elijah, he was famous for disobeying God and

[00:11:18] marrying a Canaanite woman from Tear. This same city her name is Jezebel.

[00:11:22] If you're familiar with Jezebel, yeah it probably doesn't ring good thoughts. She's the bad guy

[00:11:27] in the Bible. She led him into horrible sin, eventual downfall of the entire nation. It was all like

[00:11:33] Kate and I's fault. It's a Canaanite's problem. There are there are enemy. So a lot going on here.

[00:11:39] When this woman comes to Jesus she's not just a random foreigner. She's a Canaanite.

[00:11:44] And what we realize and it's still continuing even though that was like over 800 years earlier

[00:11:50] it doesn't appear to have been much better in Jesus' day. The historian Josephus who lived

[00:11:55] right around a little bit later than Jesus, he's quoted in his own book saying that Phoenicians of

[00:12:01] Tear the Canaanites are known to have the greatest of ill will towards us the Jewish people.

[00:12:06] The end they went deep when both ways they hated each other and really a great scholar of the

[00:12:13] ancient world Craig Keener. He talks about how for the Israelite people the Canaanites he calls

[00:12:18] the most morally despised of all Israelites enemies. And he said like somebody hearing this story

[00:12:26] and even thinking of a Canaanite coming to Jesus would have sort of set a Jewish readers on

[00:12:30] edge like oh, walk Canaanite what if they held any common racist tendencies towards Canaanites

[00:12:36] this was this was rough and they most likely did. And so I'm telling you this because of this

[00:12:42] ethical separation when Jews looked at Greeks in general but especially Phoenicians like

[00:12:48] this woman they actually had their whole plethora. Do you know what a plethora is? Three of

[00:12:55] me goes they had a ton of derogatory terms that they had available to call these people

[00:13:01] ways of putting them down of insolvening that constant fighting with each other. One of the most

[00:13:05] common one was to essentially refer to them as what was like a lowly dirty scavenger something

[00:13:11] less than human they called them dogs. Now culture again is different because today you know

[00:13:18] dogs like man's best friend we love our dogs little puppies or whatever in the ancient world

[00:13:22] that's not the case the Bible describes dogs as scavengers who devour carcasses and lick blood

[00:13:29] dogs were filthy animals they were terrible they were gross people didn't like them

[00:13:34] so suddenly Jesus words take kind of a darker tone don't they?

[00:13:39] for while Jesus is likely quoting a metaphor about priorities or whatever you make no mistake calling

[00:13:44] a Gentile like her a dog was a grave insult it was a put down plain and simple. It was a Jew telling

[00:13:52] a dirty foreigner you don't belong in our tribe this is not for the likes of you right if this took

[00:13:59] place today everyone all around him like whoa snap only did he did not just say that it was a

[00:14:05] bit of major serious issue and what's even interesting we look at the story the sad truth is the

[00:14:10] woman wasn't even surprised like her response to this wasn't like you said what she only just

[00:14:16] kind of takes like no one was surprised because this kind of talk the degradation the racism the ethnic

[00:14:22] separation was a normal and accepted part of their lives she doesn't even respond to the insult

[00:14:29] if you keep on reading she just kind of rolls with it like being called a dog was a typical part

[00:14:33] of her day maybe it was in fact Jesus's followers were probably all nodding in agreement at the sick

[00:14:40] burn against a race of people they despised and other outsider who didn't belong right like

[00:14:46] Gitter Jesus you know and then Jesus like this is probably they're probably cheering at this moment

[00:14:52] because this is what humans do and just a side note here right we we've created these words like

[00:14:58] race and ethnicity so we can separate so we can compare and distinguish one group from another

[00:15:03] we find a meaning ways to put those who aren't like us down who don't look like us who don't talk

[00:15:08] like us who don't have our backgrounds don't belong so we can feel superior and above it's like

[00:15:13] it's a human nature we see those not like us and we build walls of our differences in order to say

[00:15:19] we are us and you were you and we're not the same and all these kinds of things and we talk today

[00:15:24] about our problems with with racism in America and it's true it's huge it's such a real thing

[00:15:31] there's a real problem in our world but unfortunately it's not new like it's not like

[00:15:37] American invent racism stereotyping people and creating barriers and class distinction was a routine

[00:15:43] part of life in the Roman world of Jesus' day now I will point out that it was different in

[00:15:50] some very key ways in the ancient world first and foremost is to know that if you were to go back

[00:15:55] in time and live in the Roman Empire of Jesus' day you would find that people weren't separated because

[00:16:00] of skin color physical features almost never came into play that's that's a whole bundle of

[00:16:06] dehumanizing evil we created in the last few centuries but there were still plenty of things

[00:16:11] that created divisions especially gender women were definitely less than men culture where you came

[00:16:18] from your your background your ethnicity social class how much money or power you had literally

[00:16:24] even just geography in the Roman Empire they thought of the city of Rome itself in Italy as

[00:16:31] the center of the world and the further out from Rome you went the less important

[00:16:36] a you were like the further away you live from Rome the less value has a person so different

[00:16:42] climates different environments like and so yeah they didn't care about your skin color but maybe if

[00:16:47] you had too much of a tan you're like oh you're probably you know some field workers right all the

[00:16:52] social class all these kinds of things gave them reasons to look down on each other and see each

[00:16:57] other as lesser or greater even language the term barbarian which sometimes you know cone the barbarian

[00:17:04] like it was not it was an insult it was essentially making fun of anyone who didn't speak Greek or

[00:17:09] proper Latin like a good Roman someone uncivilized someone beneath that so goes ba ba ba ba ba ba

[00:17:16] right that's they were like making fun of Germanic tribes languages and things when they came up with

[00:17:19] bar bar bar barian kind of thing it was it was a put down you know like you're an idiot because you

[00:17:23] don't talk our language but again this wasn't physical issues like skin color nor even necessarily

[00:17:30] nation of origin that wasn't really a thing but whether someone shared the same cultural behavior

[00:17:36] among the Greeks and then the Romans ethnic identity was more of a social or political

[00:17:42] construct than a biological one like it wasn't like oh you're you have funny ears so you don't

[00:17:46] like it was more like you're from where you you know you have this background whatever

[00:17:51] I heard a great scholar say that the Greeks did not see ethnicity so much as disclose it in

[00:17:57] their actions meaning I don't see your ethnicity but when you start acting and talking and I hear

[00:18:01] your voice or I find out where you're from or who your parents are now I start to build racial

[00:18:06] divides and ethnicity and all these kind of things either way I'm not trying to make one they're

[00:18:13] all crappy the world has always been full of ways to demean and separate to point out how certain

[00:18:21] people don't belong don't fit arenas valuable there is a sickness in us as humans

[00:18:29] and what is sort of equally disappointing is that this same mentality didn't seem to have escaped

[00:18:36] the very people that got originally called to be different the Jewish people the Israelites

[00:18:41] and you read their writings you see they were just as ready as anyone else to put down and reject

[00:18:46] those outside their circle in fact they had a prayer this was a literal prayer Jewish prayer

[00:18:52] said this I'm quoting praised B to you Adonai our God because you have not made me a Gentile a woman

[00:18:59] or a slave which is just such a what can you want I cancel there's cancel praise God I'm so grateful

[00:19:08] that I'm not one of those lowly women a foreign Gentile dog or slave I'm so much better than that thank

[00:19:15] you God I mean look that's a that's a Jewish prayer they were praying literally thanking God for

[00:19:22] that truth is things like racism and things runs deep sometimes it's hidden sometimes overt but it's

[00:19:28] within us when you can make it a prayer man it's inside of you but while for much of the world the

[00:19:35] separation it was about status or culture for the Jews it was often about their understanding of

[00:19:39] religion man and you know it's not being a woman or slave or free those aren't really like a lot

[00:19:45] times it was just as much as I don't know anything else but it was often about religion again we've

[00:19:50] talked about this in the podcast before you go ahead but if you go back to these Canaanites the

[00:19:54] ethnic group they're opposed to um they were actually now get this these people were actually Israelites

[00:20:01] closest ethnic relation they looked the same you could not physically tell these people apart they

[00:20:07] they have roots tracing back a thousand years it was their lifestyle for the Jewish people those

[00:20:12] people's lifestyle was evil and God wanted to keep his people away from them not out of racism that

[00:20:18] because God was a racist or cultural superiority but because he didn't want them going and following

[00:20:24] their evil ways that was the primary reason why he called for some separation you know we've discussed

[00:20:29] this again many times in his podcast or ways he gave the Jews special laws in some more moral but

[00:20:34] others were about being separate or distinct there was a sense that you should stay away from their

[00:20:38] practices and things that they do so the food and purity rules and Sabbath and all these kind of

[00:20:43] things distinguished them and created separation but really at the core of it it's just so important

[00:20:49] to remember that the being Jewish was never about race or ethnicity at all what made a person Jewish or

[00:20:58] part of the people of God was whether they chose to adhere to the law and make God king of their lives

[00:21:04] those who did lived and looked differently on purpose their lifestyle was distinguished from others

[00:21:10] and in fact anyone from any nationality could become Jewish you don't have to be born into it you

[00:21:15] could you could become Jewish if you're willing to fully obey the Torah and be circumsized the

[00:21:21] obey the law all the stuff and people did people converted Judaism all the time so again we're not talking

[00:21:27] about like physical blood relations all the time or where you come from you could come from anywhere

[00:21:33] and become Jewish but being Jewish meant you took on these rules that made you look different others

[00:21:38] and herein lies the problem and we've touched this before I'll bring it up again

[00:21:42] what God originally intended as a means of distinguishing his people of saying hey I don't want

[00:21:47] you to google that kind of behavior became just one more way for people to keep others out

[00:21:53] to be just as racist and segregating and as the pagans were supposed to they're different then

[00:21:57] they're doing the same thing they have the same sinful sickness and religion to justify these laws

[00:22:03] that were intended to make God's people stand out actually became barriers that kept other people

[00:22:08] from getting in and now you're starting to see it with this woman but this completely misses the

[00:22:13] point and this is a lot of the new testament a lot of Paul's arguments like in Romans 2 Paul says

[00:22:18] a person is not a Jew who's only one outwardly no they're one inwardly something to give the heart

[00:22:25] he's saying like we're missing the point if you think this is about physical things or exterior

[00:22:29] where you come from who your parents are what God is doing is all in their heart

[00:22:34] which all of that brings us back to this weird passage so right after Jesus argued with some

[00:22:40] religious leaders some Jewish religious leaders about what was clean or unclean don't worry so much

[00:22:46] about what's on the outside worry about what's on the inside right you're so worried about the

[00:22:51] outside am I following all the external rules he's like what about what's actually on the inside

[00:22:55] what about what actually matters to God you now see this story where Jesus mentions a scavenger

[00:23:01] unclean dog which is the primary reason why Jewish people chose that because dogs were unclean they

[00:23:09] they weren't what they were you know they did the things that you're not supposed to do in God's

[00:23:13] God's economy so was Jesus a racist was Jesus a mean person as we talked about this episode

[00:23:20] joining the crowd and putting down the outsider I don't think so and as I've studied this passage

[00:23:26] and really dug into it a lot there are a lot of great scholarship that talks about this and it shows

[00:23:31] a different angle of it I think what he was doing was and we'll see some of it I think Jesus

[00:23:36] was using a racial connotation an idea that was common not to insult the woman but actually

[00:23:42] to demonstrate something to his followers for while they were all probably happy to hear him put

[00:23:48] her down right they were probably cheering yeah Jesus you get her you put her in place what came

[00:23:55] next must have just driven them nuts because after he makes this statement essentially calls her a

[00:24:02] dog she replies by calling him Lord now get this this is in mark seven this is the only place

[00:24:12] in the entire gospel of mark where a person addresses Jesus as Lord think about that it's the

[00:24:19] only place in the entire gospel of mark where a person calls Jesus Lord and who does it a can

[00:24:27] in a night he then dog an outsider who's not part of the group someone that they would never accept

[00:24:33] someone who they thought has no business being part of anything they're doing calls him Lord before

[00:24:40] they do to see what maybe is happening here I think that Jesus was using this occasion to actually

[00:24:48] challenge some deeply rooted prejudices in the hearts of his disciples I think what's happening

[00:24:54] here is Jesus was using this not to speak to her but to speak to the listeners they would have

[00:24:59] all been nodding in agreement with the routine humiliation of a race of people they despise and

[00:25:05] other didn't belong and he begins the way that they would expect an approval first ignoring

[00:25:11] this female Gentile dog and then once she won't take her cue and leave an ethnic insult to put her

[00:25:17] in place it was as if Jesus was essentially saying I know what you think of these people and I know how

[00:25:24] you expect me to treat them and he kind of starts to but then what you see is he's actually setting

[00:25:31] them up in order to challenge some of their beliefs using their almost own racial anger and resentment

[00:25:38] verbalizing their deepest prejudices for them to hear and be challenged and I think he was showing

[00:25:45] his somewhat racist audience who you know thought he was only there for them and their little

[00:25:52] close community that he was actually there for the world and that this cana knight quote unquote

[00:25:58] dog was just as loved and welcomed as they were and why because she ends up possessing what is ultimately

[00:26:05] most important in the Matthew account Matthew 15 Jesus answers her she basically says well

[00:26:11] Lord I'll take what I can get and Jesus says man woman you have great faith your request is granted

[00:26:19] here it is and here's what it has always been about faith commitment loyalty to God an inner choice

[00:26:25] to make him Lord and and obey him and trust him and what Jesus cares about is not the color of your

[00:26:31] skin or where you were born or what your ethnicity was or what language you speak what kind of church

[00:26:35] you go to whatever whether you will choose to offer your loyalty to God and live like he created

[00:26:41] you to live to trust and obey him going all the way back to Abraham and the calling of the Jewish

[00:26:47] Paul will later talk it's always about God restoring our humanity through being willing to trust

[00:26:52] and obey never about buying into our sort of continuing our racial brokenness human sickness that constantly

[00:27:00] divides Jesus came to fix us and that means removing that brokenness inside of us that constantly

[00:27:06] tries to separate and segregate and make others small I believe in Jesus what we've seen in Paul

[00:27:12] will mention so many times in his letters that God was about bringing us together uniting humanity

[00:27:18] under one common banner known as faith in Jesus but the Jewish people had taken all the outward

[00:27:25] laws and made them ways to divide just like we do remember that prayer thank God I'm not a Gentile

[00:27:30] a slave or a woman notice what Paul would later write to the Galatians when speaking of sort of

[00:27:35] this tension with the Jews in Galatians 3 20 60 says so in Christ Jesus you are all children of God

[00:27:41] through faith all of you no matter where you come from Greek pagan slave where there is neither

[00:27:46] Jew nor Gentile neither slave nor free there's neither male or female you're all one in Christ

[00:27:51] Paul is showing how Jesus is actually undermining all of it he wasn't actually being racist he was

[00:27:57] bringing the races into the surface to just destroy it and dismantle it and show how misguided it

[00:28:03] actually was and for Paul in the followers of Christ this committed faith that King Jesus

[00:28:09] is what brings us together not what divides us it brings down the dividing walls it's what erodes

[00:28:15] our heart and racist tendencies what tears down the dividing walls between gender and social class

[00:28:21] and race and cultural background and all this nonsense how much education you have how much money

[00:28:26] you have or whatever and we become united in our decision to obey Jesus this one King making one

[00:28:33] family and him all things that once separated us begin to disappear we're not one community one

[00:28:40] people one family and this means that everyone's welcome even the outcast the enemy even the most

[00:28:46] the worst of the word the canon eyes they're the canon eyes they're the people that we fought against

[00:28:51] with Moses they're welcome the social misfit the less civilized the one who looks and speaks

[00:28:57] acts differently than me in God's kingdom there are no second class citizens

[00:29:06] in his great book dominion the historian Tom Holland scholar and us white or man actually talks

[00:29:11] about the way that this radical and crazy idea of unity and oneness was so weird to the world

[00:29:21] of the day like the Romans and the Greeks did not understand they looked at Christians and I'm like

[00:29:26] what are you doing it was a complete breakdown of the way things were ethnically and socially

[00:29:33] Christians were this just crazy group of people who would be friend and love anyone and everyone

[00:29:38] regardless of their race class or gender they didn't care about which money you had or what

[00:29:42] you look like or who your parents were and it freaked people out like you can you guys can't hang

[00:29:48] out together you're different social statuses you what do you you guys are from different you're

[00:29:52] barbarian what are you being friends for this is so weird this is so strange but what's so cool

[00:29:58] about it and what Holland also points out is the way that in the end it won people over

[00:30:04] it was in sharp contrast to the barriers to the ethical line ethnic lines to the way that we

[00:30:11] divided and put on each other down Christianity following Jesus's teaching comes in

[00:30:17] and rather than continuing these oh you're just a dog get away from me it says oh I know you've

[00:30:21] been other for thousand years but now come on in if you want to have faith in me you are welcome here

[00:30:27] all of you are welcome here and the Greek and Roman world at first thought these people were

[00:30:34] weird and crazy and stupid and then over time they started looking at them saying actually I think

[00:30:41] I like that it became attractive a world that was so divided started found themselves looking

[00:30:51] at true unity and love and couldn't look away and I guess I wonder sometimes as Christians living

[00:31:02] today in the 21st century are people looking at us and seeing a love and unity so powerful that they

[00:31:10] can't look away or are they just seeing more divisions strife ethnic barriers and racism

[00:31:16] and all they want to do is look away and I think we need to seriously and honestly

[00:31:23] process where we're at with those things I don't think the American church is doing a very good job

[00:31:28] this man whether it's politics or racial issues or ideologies or all like we've become so good at

[00:31:38] putting up walls and telling the world who doesn't belong and who's not part of us who we don't like

[00:31:44] who were against and here's Jesus welcoming in the greatest enemies and telling us in John

[00:31:51] that people will know your my disciples not by the walls that you put up but by a whether or not

[00:31:57] you love one another it that it's our unity that tells the world our faith is real our decision to

[00:32:03] leave behind all the racial and ethical barriers ethnic barriers and joining together and being one

[00:32:09] this is what was attractive in those first few centuries and eventually turned the entire

[00:32:13] Roman empire to Christianity it was this kind of love for each other being willing for the rich

[00:32:21] to give to the poor for those who had a lot to give those to them a lot for those of high standing

[00:32:26] to reach down and break bread with those of low standing it was attractive to the world

[00:32:31] now look and I'll just say this kind of some of you're probably thinking ahead this doesn't mean

[00:32:34] that nothing divides us okay faith is real and faith in a king and obedience to a king

[00:32:40] will separate and divide people at times but loyal faith in Jesus is a choice it's not genetic it's

[00:32:46] not based on where you're from or your parents are or your skin is so having faith doesn't mean we

[00:32:51] all have to look and act the same quite the opposite God created diversity and it's amazing Christianity

[00:32:57] is not about making everyone look the same it's calling us to live like Jesus and worship him together

[00:33:05] it's not calling for sameness it's calling for unity and when the world is constantly saying be

[00:33:11] divided be different your other you're not the same christian is I don't know let's all look exactly

[00:33:15] the same dress same talk to him no no it's just saying regardless of how you look regardless of

[00:33:19] how you dress regardless of where you come from in Christ we can be united in love each other

[00:33:25] to recognize that despite our differences we are all equal in his family if we choose to follow and

[00:33:32] obey him we are being united under the same king and members of the same kingdom the

[00:33:38] regardless of color culture language political affiliation preference for how you worship and

[00:33:43] church whatever you are one in Christ through your loyalty to him and I was kind of with this

[00:33:49] I mean this is the picture scene revelation revelation seven nine I love this verse and read it for you

[00:33:53] john says after this I've seen things I looked up and before me there's a great multitude that no

[00:33:57] one could count from every nation every ethno-synthesity try people and language standing before the throne

[00:34:04] and before the lamb this idea of multiple languages again you're talking about a culture that was

[00:34:09] literally racist towards how you spoke and here's john saying man in heaven we all speak different

[00:34:13] languages we're not all the same we're not all homogenous but we're all united in our love for

[00:34:17] Jesus and for each other and I think in some ways we better get comfortable that now when I was

[00:34:22] living in Colorado about 15 years ago our pastor we had two pastors and one of them was a Malaysian

[00:34:29] and he used to talk about we're a predominantly Caucasian church and he has used to say because

[00:34:37] he was darker skin he said look just to be clear there's more of me on earth than there are of you

[00:34:42] so you better get down with the brown and I think he can't stop saying that his point was look like

[00:34:50] heaven is going to be so diverse so multi-cultured so many different languages so many different backgrounds

[00:34:57] and it will still be united because we're able to be in it we're able to love each other

[00:35:02] and see past those things because of Jesus our faith in Christ means we follow his example

[00:35:08] and so Jesus wasn't just being racist he wasn't putting this woman down he actually wasn't following

[00:35:13] the cultural stereotypes he was sort of riding the wave a little bit waiting for the moment we could

[00:35:20] totally flip it on its head he was he was using this moment they were all expecting yeah he's doing

[00:35:25] he's gonna get her get her Jesus and then showing actually guys I'm getting you you're the ones

[00:35:30] I'm after I'm actually coming I'm not coming after her I'm coming after what you think about her

[00:35:35] because it's wrong it's misguided I love her just as much as I love you and that's something amazing

[00:35:41] and beautiful about our faith in Jesus he loves all of us equally and there's no reason for the division

[00:35:47] so would Jesus get canceled today yeah probably he was canceled back then but not because he was a

[00:35:54] racist he couldn't have been further from it he was the greatest unifying force the world has

[00:36:01] ever known okay with that we'll wrap this episode up on my next episode I'm gonna go even heavier

[00:36:07] heavier than that yeah heavier than that what about slavery because he even mentioned like

[00:36:14] I am God thank God I'm not a slave what's going on there slavery you know and talk about racial

[00:36:19] issues and how these fit together so I'm just gonna dive into it in the next episode I might

[00:36:23] I mean a few weeks for that so it might not come out right away but on my next episode I want to

[00:36:27] talk about Jesus' attitude towards the idea of slavery because it's I think it needs to be discuss

[00:36:32] it's not something we should just gloss over and ignore because it's real it's there he talks about

[00:36:36] it he uses it sometimes in his stories and he talks so we're gonna break it down we're gonna talk

[00:36:41] about it see it culturally and what that means and how do we come away from the scriptures understanding

[00:36:47] how that fits in there in a way that lets us keep our faith and trust in the Bible so it's going to

[00:36:52] be a heavy episode but I think it'll be one worth checking out when it comes out soon and then like

[00:36:58] I mentioned before again if you'd like a free copy of my book be one of the first to comment on

[00:37:02] the YouTube channel I'd love to get you one and please like share subscribe all those fun things

[00:37:08] and we'll see you on the next episode of the Like Starts Podcast.