Latest / Red Couch Theology / Answering Your Questions: Chronology in the Bible & Toxic Masculinity

Transcript

Answering Your Questions: Chronology in the Bible & Toxic Masculinity · Red Couch Theology

1:05
Music. Music.
2:45
And he is deployed. Hello, hello.
2:48
We're supposed to be live and we're just chatting away here.
2:50
Chatting away. About my punk brother who I love
2:56
and who made me think that he was wounded in battle but was
3:00
actually in a training exercise. Hi, what Red Couch Theology
3:03
podcast listener Listeners, thanks for joining us.
3:07
Hello friends. And whether you're joining us
3:09
live or joining us after the fact at some later date, we're
3:14
grateful that you're here. Yeah, we have a lot of ground to
3:17
cover. We really do.
3:19
I don't know how we can. I actually don't know how we're
3:21
going to do it all this. This podcast that was sort of
3:23
designed to field questions from the congregation.
3:26
Now that we got three questions in one week, I don't know how to
3:28
run the podcast. How do we can we claim back 20
3:35
minutes that we didn't use last week?
3:37
Maybe. Like, I mean, we so we were,
3:39
we're like. I have to pick my daughter at
3:41
1:00 so that's my cut off point as I've got a.
3:43
Meeting at 12:30 so we got perfect.
3:46
All right, so how about this? I think that the questions are
3:49
big enough and time consuming enough work in in order for us
3:52
to address them fully. Yeah, that we should spend the
3:55
bulk of our time on that. So if you're OK, would you give
3:57
us a quick overview of the sermon?
4:00
Just remind us of where we were at if you remember.
4:04
Yeah, I do. I got it.
4:06
So. So the overview is in the week
4:10
before Jesus is at a wedding in the north of the country that is
4:14
now called Israel. He turns water into wine.
4:20
It doesn't feel, it feels like a a surprising start to a
4:24
ministry, one that he didn't even seem to expect.
4:27
And then he comes down to Jerusalem to a start that would
4:30
have made sense as a start to a ministry where he walks into the
4:32
temple, the center of the sacred world for those people 2000
4:41
years ago and drives everybody out who's selling things now.
4:46
Now the marketplace element to to the temple was a necessary
4:49
feature. It wasn't a it wasn't a floor,
4:52
but where it was located to Jesus seems to have been a
4:56
floor. It was located in the area for
4:59
worship for the Gentiles. Anyone who came from a different
5:02
country was allowed into this certain space.
5:05
And so he kind of clears that out and then gets into this
5:09
really interesting dialogue with a group just labeled as the
5:12
Jews, perhaps the Pharisees or maybe probably the Pharisees.
5:18
And in the midst of that debate, then says, knock down this
5:26
temple and I will rebuild it again in three days.
5:30
And John just leaves us with this like this, this parting
5:33
thing of like, but the temple he was talking about with his was
5:36
his body. So my my thesis on this passage
5:39
is that actually Jesus is doing something really interesting
5:42
with with sacred space. It's like the beginning of a
5:46
longer journey. So for a whole bunch of people,
5:49
sacred space had been a distinct part of life.
5:52
There was the sacred things. You went to sacred place, sacred
5:55
man, maybe a sacred book, all those different things.
5:58
And, and you would go and you'd go there to be with God and then
6:02
you go back to the normal world. In this passage, Jesus actions
6:08
actually like they do something with sacred space.
6:11
They actually maybe expanded a little bit or make sure that
6:14
people have access to God of all sorts of different places.
6:19
But then he kind of like points to a day coming where sacred
6:27
space will be no more. In actual fact, he's going to do
6:31
this multiple times in the next few chapters.
6:35
Like he'll do it in a conversation with a Samaritan
6:38
woman. He'll start to nudge on this end
6:42
to the sacred and this idea that all things now are sacred, which
6:48
for us is actually really important because if we live in
6:52
this old narrative of sacred space and, and then the
6:55
Commonwealth, well, well, the, the things that really matter
6:58
that you can do are the sacred place things.
7:02
It really matters if you're a priest or a pastor or you work
7:06
in a church or you run a faith-based non profit or
7:11
something. Those are the only kind of roles
7:14
that really matter and everyone else is just making the world go
7:18
round. But I think actually Jesus moves
7:21
us to a place where you can do anything almost.
7:24
I mean, it seems like there's some exceptions, but but, but
7:27
there are. But there's almost nothing that
7:30
you can't do really, really well and bring some of the sacred
7:35
life to the world around you. So when Jesus says or Paul says
7:40
about us now we, we're, we're not the temple.
7:42
There's no physical temple anymore.
7:44
God has made us his temple. Well, think about that as this
7:47
beautiful idea. The temple no longer waits for
7:50
people to come to it. The temple actually goes out to
7:54
other people who've never thought about coming to it.
7:58
You know, we get to bring the sacred world wherever we go, and
8:03
that seems to be where the story is going.
8:05
Yeah, and I so I think I probably even showed little
8:08
chunks of this on the show in some past episode.
8:13
I'm trying to see if this is the one.
8:17
Oops. No thanks.
8:19
Shut this off. Let's see if we can just Fast
8:21
forward the section. I loved this this image.
8:26
How you going to describe it to people in the?
8:28
I'm going to describe it this way.
8:29
So there's like there's this Bible project video that talks
8:32
about heaven and earth, but the part that like sticks with me
8:35
most. And the premise of the of the of
8:37
the video is to describe theologically heaven space
8:43
versus earth space and what the Bible, the Bible treats them as
8:46
this as these two different environments and that God's
8:50
preference in the Garden of Eden was that the event that both
8:55
spaces were overlapped. Heaven space and earth space are
8:59
together. So a picture of Venn diagram,
9:01
the two circles of the Venn diagram are overlapped on top of
9:05
each other. For those who are watching the
9:07
video, you can see here like this this space.
9:10
Well, then when sin enters the world, the Vende Graham like
9:14
breaks apart heaven, space and earth space are sort of
9:17
separated and broken apart. It disappears.
9:21
But then the cross or Jesus shows up on the scene and it's
9:25
like when he says let you like the language of let your Kingdom
9:28
come or the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
9:31
He's basically saying heaven space is back, baby, you know,
9:34
like, and I am heaven space. That's that's the teachings of
9:38
Jesus in the gospels is that he is the heaven space.
9:42
And so there's these little moments in this video where you
9:47
sort of, you see these pictures of Jesus walking into, into the
9:55
non heaven space and bringing lights, like bringing the, the,
10:00
the combination. So now you in the video, you
10:03
have the Venn diagram, but then you have like these little
10:05
outposts of the crossover of the Venn diagram that starts to show
10:08
up inside the dark spaces. And that's what the invitation
10:11
of Jesus is for the church. He's like, I want you to bring
10:14
heaven space to earth space. You're now like an an ambassador
10:19
of heaven's space. Which is also what will happen
10:21
when we get to this week in John 316, where Nicodemus comes in
10:25
the dark both physically and spiritually looking for light.
10:30
And then John, as he unpacks what Jesus says, starts to say,
10:35
you know, like the true light was in the world, just as you
10:38
said in the prologue. Totally.
10:40
Yeah. So anyway, when you, when you
10:41
were talking about that, this is the image I picture this
10:44
specific scene where there's these little outs out posts of
10:49
heaven and earth combined, but inside of the Venn diagram where
10:54
they don't belong. Like, and that's what the
10:56
current church era is, is Jesus kind of like gradually bringing
11:01
heaven, yeah to earth more and more and more.
11:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is awesome.
11:05
Yeah, I love it. Beautiful stuff.
11:07
So that's where we went and and then the invite is, you know, I
11:10
got to pray for someone and got to talk about how like there's
11:13
almost like anything that you can do and enter into.
11:17
Yeah, so you prayed for a a chemistry teacher.
11:19
Yeah, you know, and we sort of pray, prayed a prayer of like
11:24
Commission of ministry, bring heaven space to the and.
11:27
We could have actually done that for everybody in the building,
11:29
like everybody in the building gets to enter into that.
11:32
That's not like. That's the invitation.
11:34
That's all of us. Awesome.
11:37
All right, so there's the overview from the sermon.
11:41
The questions we received are sort of outside of that space
11:47
predominantly, but that's fine. That's what this show was
11:49
supposed to be. So we're going to try and figure
11:51
out how to make this show what it was supposed to be.
11:55
So the first question I'll get is, is related to the book of
11:58
John specifically. We had someone who wrote in and
12:01
said Alex has mentioned a couple different times that chronology
12:08
is not as important to ancient authors and especially maybe to
12:13
John. Well, the maybe, well, I would
12:16
say certainly the first part, the the second part of that is
12:20
really up for debate. Like there's some writers that
12:23
would say no, Johnny's the one that actually.
12:24
Is most. Chronological.
12:25
The most chronological. Interesting.
12:27
It's the others that don't care about chronology.
12:30
Yeah, OK. Like like so if if you go to
12:32
almost any church who talks about Jesus ministry, they'll
12:36
throw out like Jesus taught for three years.
12:39
Well, there's only one place they could get that from.
12:42
Like John is the only author that suggests it was anything
12:45
close to three years. If you were to listen to
12:48
Matthew, Mark or Luke, you'd guess like 9 months.
12:52
So there's there's some argument that John is the one who's like
12:57
Mr. Chronology. OK.
13:00
But and then the other ones are not as obsessed.
13:03
With yeah, so, so specifically this comes into this passage
13:07
around the the clearing of the temple, OK.
13:10
Which let me get this, the question asked specifically
13:14
about that. So I think John uses the purging
13:17
of the temple for a different purpose than the synoptic
13:20
Gospels, correct. So he has the story right after
13:24
the wedding. I was wondering if the anointing
13:27
of. So then it jumps to another
13:29
story and asks if there's a purpose behind a different
13:32
scenario. So yeah, go ahead and address
13:34
the whole what's the purpose of having the clearing of the
13:37
temple in proximity to the OR why is it different?
13:43
What's the agenda John has that's different than the?
13:46
Synoptics again couple of options one option let's say
13:49
there's three options. One option is there were just
13:52
two temple clearings. Yes, like it happened twice.
13:55
Yep, that doesn't doesn't fix the problem of why the.
14:01
Other ones. Matthew, Mark and Luke are so
14:03
short. Like why?
14:05
Why they only have Jesus in Jerusalem once for a Passover
14:09
when John says he was at 3? So, so that that, like, problem
14:15
doesn't go away by by saying, you know, that, that there were
14:18
two temple clearings. But it does just explain why
14:21
they're slightly different or why one's really early in his
14:24
ministry and one's really late in his ministry.
14:27
Yeah. One really precedes death and
14:29
resurrection. 1 is like, this thing's just getting started.
14:35
John seems to use it as this kind of like, you know, the
14:40
start of the ministry, actually the public start after this
14:44
surprising like out of nowhere start back at Cana that nobody
14:49
really sees the. Modern wine, then?
14:53
This one, yeah. Yeah, only his disciples really
14:55
get to see that, plus a couple of servants that some people
14:59
suggest become disciples. So.
15:01
So there's that piece. But then this is like the public
15:05
here I am, and this is like a prophetic statement that says,
15:09
no, I'm going to make this again, a space for people to
15:12
come and worship. If you wanted to know when my
15:14
ministry started, how about when I chased everyone out of the
15:17
temple? Yeah.
15:20
Where whereas Matthew, Mark and look like Mark specifically uses
15:24
it as this moment that talks about what's happening in
15:27
Israel. Like, like there's, there's this
15:31
theological concept around Mark called the Mark and Sandwich.
15:35
Like he, he almost like pauses an event and says, oh, now watch
15:39
this scene. And then he hits play again and
15:42
you get the rest of it. So in in in Mark, Jesus is
15:46
walking to the temple and he sees a fig tree and there's no
15:49
figs on it. And so he curses it and in.
15:53
Then he clears the temple. Then he comes back to the fig.
15:55
Tree and sees it yeah yeah with with with sees it withered but
15:59
but in the other stories the story just keeps going about the
16:03
fig tree They he curses it and then they're like oh the next
16:06
day he walked past and it was now with it.
16:08
So Mark seems to be saying when you think about the fig tree
16:14
think about the temple ministry and everything's going on there.
16:18
This this fig tree didn't produce fruit and now it's dead.
16:22
This temple ministry didn't produce fruit and now it's dying
16:26
so so like he's got this agenda there as well which seems to be
16:30
in line with with Matthew and Luke.
16:32
So broadly I I'm a bit of a John chronology guy really I I
16:42
actually think like just because of the three years and it seems
16:46
to be like so rooted in our understanding of what Jesus did.
16:51
I'm like if, if, if they've got this, if John's got this strong
16:54
sense of no, no, it was three years.
16:55
It was much longer than you think.
16:57
And we talk about that all the time.
16:59
Like we talk all the time, like Jesus like started ministry at
17:03
30, died at 33. We, that language is in church
17:06
language all over the place. So I'm I'm a bit of a fan of his
17:10
chronology, so. You think that it was 2
17:11
cleansings? No, I think it was 1 and and I.
17:15
Think that it happened early. Mark and Luke just they they
17:18
truncate Jesus ministry so there's just one Galilee scene
17:23
and one Jerusalem scene. Has more like either more
17:29
knowledge or wants to give more of the long.
17:32
Picture in between. Spaces.
17:33
I find it easier to believe that three riders decided we're going
17:36
to make this like, real clear, like hometown ministry goes to
17:41
Jerusalem, dies resurrection. Rather than that, John decided
17:46
I'm just going to add a couple of years in.
17:49
You know it. Yeah, because like he.
17:52
Yeah, he's yeah. So he has some more specific
17:54
stories he wants. And that that could be just my
17:57
western mind, in that I find it easier to to explain someone
18:01
shortening a story to a level that we can grasp than than
18:05
someone just making up a couple of extra years.
18:08
I think as a westerner I find it easier.
18:11
Or relocating events for a theological reason, which is
18:15
maybe more where I had sort of leaned with the book of John.
18:20
But but but relocating the temple is one thing but but like
18:26
Jesus either did three years of ministry or he didn't.
18:29
So to add an extra 3 years of ministry seems like a weird
18:32
move. But again, maybe a?
18:34
Western The reason I've always kind of treated the cleansing of
18:39
the temple in the Book of John as just a out of chrono
18:43
chronology choice or A2 cleansing choice to to highlight
18:49
that there was actually 2 cleansing is actually yeah,
18:54
maybe this isn't fair, but it's actually just because if you're
18:58
looking for an impetus for why in the world what did the
19:00
religious leaders kill him. The aggression of Jesus, like in
19:05
the book of John, Jesus moves in pretty aggressive and in all the
19:10
other in the in the synoptics, you get the impression that
19:14
Jesus is very, very cautious early on basically so he can
19:20
finish doing his teaching ministry before he gets
19:22
murdered. And that's I feel like even in
19:25
the book of Mark, that's almost a thesis statement of why he's
19:30
so cryptic. Part of the reason he's so
19:32
cryptic with parables is because he's trying not to prematurely
19:37
get murdered. And then it would, it feels like
19:41
he comes in and cleanses the temple.
19:43
Thousands of you know, people hear about this.
19:46
It's so he comes in swinging for the fences.
19:52
Why would the religious leaders even entertain conversation with
19:56
with him after this unless it's that order?
19:58
This is one of the problems with the John temple cleansing.
20:02
Yeah, yeah, like the the the temple cleansing in the
20:05
synoptics where Jesus comes in with a whole crowd of people.
20:10
On the entrance, the the triumphant entry that Jesus
20:16
seems to have the people collateral to cleanse the temple
20:20
and to get away with it. You know, to human terms.
20:24
The John that kind of walks in with no reputation.
20:27
The Jesus that walks in and John with no reputation and and maybe
20:31
5 or 6 followers that seems that seems harder to see.
20:34
It's more just shocking and they don't know what to do with it.
20:37
Yet again, we're talking in very human terms, because this is
20:40
Jesus. This isn't yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:42
This isn't me. OK, so that actually wasn't even
20:44
the full question. So before we continue, let me
20:46
actually highlight what some of the other questions are going to
20:48
be in case you want to try and skip ahead to a future question
20:51
that more interests you. We have a question about, uh, a
20:56
comment you made about male talks masculinity.
20:59
Toxic. Masculinity wanting some
21:00
definitions around. So we'll address that hopefully
21:04
in this episode. And then we also had a question
21:05
about some of your comments you made at the beginning of the
21:08
service in regards to the murder of Charlie Kirk and the shooting
21:13
and the immigrant who was murdered on the subway.
21:17
And some of your comments there and just feeling like they're
21:19
grieving still and wanting to just for us to linger a little
21:23
bit more on that topic. So those are the topics.
21:25
Oh, and the rest of this question, which is related to is
21:31
it the woman at the well, I think that asking about a
21:36
chronology question in in John. So if you're interested, those
21:40
are the topics we're going to try and cover for the rest of
21:42
the episode. So if those interest hang with
21:44
us or Fast forward to one of those sections.
21:47
So the rest of this question, Weird chronology, first premise.
21:52
I was wondering if the anointing of Jesus oh so the the woman who
21:57
anoints his feet with oil is another example of the author
22:00
using it chronology for a different purpose.
22:04
Some people believe that Jesus purged the temple twice.
22:08
I just wondered how many times Jesus was anointed.
22:11
Who did it and where was the perfume poured?
22:16
Is the anointing of Jesus similar to the purging of the
22:19
temple where the author has a different purpose?
22:23
And if so, what's the purpose? Because I guess his observation
22:28
is he's he gave us a chart here. I don't know if I can pull the
22:33
chart up full screen, but it's a chart that compares the
22:37
synoptics to John, and I think the anointing text is similar to
22:43
the cleansing. It's relocated pretty
22:45
significant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
22:46
And I think even the woman that relocates is more clearly
22:49
defined in John. As for burial?
22:54
As like it's it's a person in John, right?
22:57
Is it John that that names a person?
22:59
Someone just says a woman and then someone says Mary who Jesus
23:05
cast seven. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:07
So. So there's more specifics.
23:09
I can't remember so. I think one of the one of the
23:11
things it's always important to remember when dealing with
23:16
authors from this period, so. Yeah, you're right.
23:21
Yeah, John names her. Yeah.
23:23
So none of the, none of the original of the closest to
23:29
original, the oldest manuscripts we have attach a name to any of
23:33
these gospels. It's really early church legend,
23:38
but but none of them in the beginning say hi, I'm John, I'm
23:43
writing hi, I'm Matthew. I'm writing hi, I'm Mark, Hi,
23:47
I'm Luke. Like this is like early 2nd
23:51
century story that seems to get passed down from a guy called
23:58
Eusebius who is a disciple of John.
24:02
And so Irenaeus that that has this idea says the the Matthew
24:11
wrote and then Mark, a disciple of Peter wrote and then Luke
24:15
wrote and then John wrote. So he kind of he names the four.
24:19
The order. And and names the people.
24:22
Oh, the people who? Wrote and the only one he really
24:24
gives order to is later, John wrote.
24:26
He doesn't speak into Matthew, Mark or Luke.
24:28
Who or or who comes first. Like most people think Mark came
24:33
first around 60 AD, but some people think Matthew was written
24:37
in Hebrew 1st and that we just don't have it.
24:40
So some people think Matthew came first because it's got a
24:42
very Jewish element to it. Or maybe he wrote in Aramaic.
24:47
So the attachment of those names is is like early history that
24:56
was given to us from people that were right there at the.
24:58
Scene and strong evidence or like, not strong evidence, but
25:04
it's educated inference. As well.
25:06
Absolutely. Yeah.
25:07
So, so. But the thing to remember there
25:10
is that if those things are right, if those names are right,
25:15
only two of them were there on the scene with Jesus.
25:19
Only Matthew and and John were actually present.
25:24
Luke and Mark are working from a source, so these stories are
25:29
passed down orally to, to and and maybe from first person.
25:34
I mean that would make sense if Mark and Peter are very close.
25:37
It would make sense that Peter passes his story to to Mark.
25:41
Yeah, a lot of theologians. Travels with Paul and has access
25:44
to all sorts of people as he travels around.
25:47
It makes a lot of sense that Luke has some very direct
25:49
sources and writes like he's done a lot of research.
25:53
So so those are all really credible sources.
25:55
This is the beautiful thing about being a follower of Jesus.
25:57
Like we have the best sources out of any ancient manuscript.
26:01
I think 25,000 sources for Jesus and what he did.
26:06
I think the life of Caesar a generation before, I think it
26:09
was 4. So I mean, it blows almost
26:12
everything else up the water for it's like tracking historically.
26:16
Yeah. So all this talk of the
26:17
Synoptics versus John and all this stuff, like if that gives
26:20
you a little bit of anxiety, biblical anxiety.
26:23
Out of the entire Bible, the most anchored of all the books
26:29
is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Texturally, the the most copies,
26:34
the most textual evidence, the most clarity, the most anchored
26:39
then and then from there those quote other books and so forth.
26:44
Like you start to rebuild this this pretty strong Canon process
26:48
based upon these but these four books, which is the ones praised
26:52
by by God's mercy and his wisdom and by the Spirit of God, the
26:56
ones that give us the closest access to the person of Jesus
27:00
are the most textually. And I would I would extend Luke
27:03
to Luke Acts as well. I mean act is.
27:05
Almost. As you're going, it's like we
27:08
were doing this, we're doing this right now.
27:10
It's like step by step. So, so they're, they're
27:13
incredible sources, but we know ourselves, we can put four
27:20
people at the scene of a big event and one person will say,
27:24
Oh, I really noticed this thing that happened.
27:26
And another person will say, well, I was the other side of
27:29
the room. I saw this thing.
27:32
And another person will say, well, I kind of like was in the
27:34
middle of a car and I saw this thing and, and, and they'll give
27:37
four different accounts. So to me, it's no problem to
27:41
think that John saw saw a temple scene and just took something
27:51
different from it. It's no problem for me to think
27:54
that Matthew, Mark and Luke name a woman who came and anointed
27:59
Jesus feet and John's like, no, I know her like she passed away,
28:03
but I'm going to put a name in so people like people know who
28:07
did this and they're all comfortable using these stories
28:12
to show something about Jesus that that's not bad history.
28:16
That's not bad recording. That's that's storytelling.
28:21
Yeah, it helps us. Get into what it means, not just
28:25
what happened. And actually, textual critics
28:28
would say that it it actually lends further weight to the
28:31
credibility of these sources because if if they'd been
28:33
heavily modified by later people, you should definitely
28:38
harmonize them and you should make sure that they all sound
28:41
similar. They all have the same agenda.
28:42
What's? Actually, what's happened with
28:43
the Koran, like they've agreed an official copy and everything
28:47
else gets destroyed. So you narrow it down to one.
28:49
Yeah, it. It makes it easier to like,
28:53
yeah, you just eliminate the ones you that are problematic
28:57
and that our account doesn't do that.
28:59
And they're only problematic because there's humans
29:02
observance and perspective involved and as as followers of
29:08
Jesus and as Bible Christians, for lack of a better term.
29:12
That's actually a feature, not a bug.
29:14
Totally, Yeah. And, and the fact, so the fact
29:17
that we have whole copies of the New Testament that go back to
29:22
the early 4th century is incredible for a, for a culture
29:25
that didn't pass around. No one carried a Bible round
29:29
like they do today. It's an oral culture still.
29:31
Most people don't own any books. Only rich people have books.
29:37
The fact that we have that that you can go to the British Museum
29:40
and see the the code codex and Atticus and and actually like
29:47
see how early this thing is. Just is just a gift.
29:50
Yeah, so, so I think. So then getting back to the
29:54
anointing thing, do you think that John has like a theological
29:59
agenda for sort of? Treating her still actually
30:01
telling the same story. Yeah, about like sacred and you
30:04
know. Versus secular, Yeah, yeah,
30:06
yeah. And and I'm sorry.
30:07
So I think there's your answer. Yes, he has a purpose for why he
30:11
tells it the way he tells it versus the Synoptics.
30:13
But interestingly for who? For the person who wrote in this
30:16
question, I think you actually already know that because the
30:20
research that you sent me in your question is so thorough
30:24
that you, you probably could be on the show and answer it more
30:27
thoroughly than we could off the top of our head.
30:29
I think you already found the your own answer.
30:32
You have a chart diagramming the different agendas of each gospel
30:37
about this particular story. And I think you might, you could
30:41
have answered this question for us on the show.
30:43
So thanks for sending it in. And so let me give a really
30:46
quick story about how that seems to work in in the synoptic
30:51
gospels, Matthew and Luke both have a story about Jesus sailing
30:56
across the lake with his disciples.
30:58
When they get to the other side, they are approached by,
31:03
according to Matthew, 2 Mad Men who live in the tombs.
31:07
And according to Luke, one man, man to John, search to Mark 1
31:13
madman who lives in the tombs. Yeah.
31:15
And Jesus heals in Matthew the two Mad Men, and two in Mark the
31:21
the one madman. Now for us, it might be
31:26
necessary to say, you know, because we value that historical
31:31
accuracy so much, it might be easier to say, well, they must
31:34
have, it must have happened twice.
31:35
But the pattern and the point in the story are very similar.
31:39
And so again, this is a beautiful element to to have
31:42
the, the Bible collaborates itself while also not being
31:45
exactly the same. Matthew, if we are comfortable
31:49
with those 4 authors, which I'm totally comfortable with,
31:52
Matthew was there and remembers these two people that were
31:55
healed. Mark gets his story from Peter.
31:58
And perhaps Peter doesn't remember the the OR doesn't
32:01
mention that there's two, but he just talks about how he
32:04
remembers this one guy that came back.
32:07
Yeah, like that There's one guy that comes back and falls at
32:10
Jesus feet and says, let me follow you wherever you go.
32:13
Yeah, it's the same story, but two people that remember
32:17
different details about it. Yeah, the most important part
32:20
for that particular story for him was that this guy came back
32:24
and he's. Yeah, yeah, that's why he's
32:25
telling the. Story and actually the the thing
32:26
that the story has in common is Jesus ability to heal even those
32:30
that are most broken. Yeah, awesome.
32:34
Well, thanks for sending that question in.
32:35
And then we'll we'll jump, we'll jump into this this second
32:39
question. So Pastor Alex, during the
32:41
sermon this past Sunday, you refer to toxic modern
32:44
masculinity approximately 20 minutes into the sermon.
32:48
Please expound as to what you meet meant by this as it has
32:53
become this increasingly commonplace language in our
32:56
society to to reference, but often without context or
33:03
explanation as to what qualifies as quote UN quote toxic or
33:07
masculine. I look forward to hearing you on
33:10
this matter. Yeah, that's a great question.
33:12
And and it was probably a term that's gotten thrown around too
33:15
much to have used without some explanation.
33:20
Yeah, yeah. So.
33:20
So I would say it in this sense. There has been, I think, a
33:31
definition of masculinity around Jesus specifically that says
33:38
that began with some some preachers like Mark Driscoll,
33:42
who was at the time over in Seattle.
33:43
Yeah, yeah. That would say things like, you
33:46
know, like I can't respect a Jesus whose ass I can kick.
33:49
Excuse the language I'm quoting directly.
33:51
Yes, which to me over highlighted the need for Jesus
33:57
to be in modern. Like a.
33:59
Man's man, a macho man and actually turned the value on
34:07
Jesus into physical strength. And then you couple that with
34:13
like a, a modern like breed of masculinity.
34:18
People like Andrew Tate, I think now maybe back in Britain has
34:24
been in Romania, who brings this culture of like actually being a
34:30
man means you take what you want.
34:32
Like, it doesn't matter about how people feel.
34:34
You're a conqueror. Like he actually says things
34:37
like, you know, if you, if you've only slept with one woman
34:39
in your life, you're doing it wrong.
34:40
You're doing masculinity wrong. So like, there's these elements
34:47
of what it is to be considered a man that sneak into society like
34:53
you're you're measured by your body count, by how many people
34:56
you can beat up, by whether you're the strongest guy in the
34:58
room and all sorts of things. Yeah.
35:00
So I was trying to emphasize the fact that Jesus brings this
35:03
energy to the temple scene. Yeah, that that undoubtedly if
35:07
you've ever tried to move a cow anywhere, like my aunt was a
35:12
cattle farmer. So these cows like that come
35:15
around you and stuff that you're trying to get through.
35:17
They are serious animals like and these are.
35:20
When they decide not to move, they don't move.
35:22
They don't move anywhere like you.
35:23
You have to exert some serious energy to get a cow moving.
35:27
Once you get them all moving like they, they you can't stop
35:31
them. But they but they, you know, so
35:34
Jesus clearly walks into this scene with some, some like
35:38
determination. Yeah, but that doesn't turn him
35:42
into a guy that's only determined by physical strength,
35:48
you know? And this, this is like, like
35:50
people like Jr. Tolkien wrestled with this in
35:53
some of his narratives. There's actually two brothers in
35:56
the Lord of the Rings series, one who is described as loving
36:01
war for its own sake and only been interested in feet of arms,
36:05
and another who loves poetry and song and music, but also is
36:12
super gifted as a warrior, you know, but he's like a throwback
36:17
to another year. The only loved war when it was
36:19
necessary, not for its own sake. So, so like there's, there's
36:24
this almost like there's this masculinity I think that that I
36:28
think is good and healthy. Like there is masculine and
36:30
feminine and those things are OK.
36:31
It's it's, you know, it's not clearly defined lines, but but
36:36
but that ability to defend and fight and have energy for a
36:41
purpose, not loving it for its own sake.
36:45
Yeah. OK.
36:46
And so I, I grew up with guys who loved it for its own sake,
36:51
who like was super proud of like, you know, fights they got
36:56
into and, you know, store, they'd come home with stories
37:01
after a Friday night of man, like this guy was on the door of
37:06
a club and I just hit him before he even knew what happened and
37:11
left him lying on the floor. Like they were very proud of
37:14
those stories. Yeah.
37:17
So I, I don't know why this may be a ridiculous illustration,
37:21
but I think about Karate Kid. Yeah, think about the two
37:24
sensei's. Yeah.
37:25
Yeah, totally. So the one Sensei, is this like
37:28
John? John Priest?
37:30
Yeah, he's just like he He projects power and strength, and
37:35
he's a big talker, and he's physically bigger and looks more
37:39
muscular. And then you have the other
37:42
sense of Mr. Miyagi, who seems so calm, collected, but then
37:47
destroys him in the moment. So Jesus shows up a little bit
37:52
more like Mr. Miyagi. What's?
37:53
John Cruise's language as well. Like, we do not teach mercy
37:56
here. Yeah, like, and.
37:57
And Mr. Miyagi actually says it to him at the end, almost
38:00
doesn't like as a joke. Like, you know, we do not train
38:02
to be. He remembers all the lines.
38:04
Totally. So Mr. Miyagi is actually more
38:08
powerful both emotionally, psychologically and skill, but
38:15
doesn't project that. And so maybe the toxic one is
38:19
the one who projects it, but then actually is maybe
38:21
psychologically, emotionally more immature.
38:25
That might be quote UN quote the toxic version of it.
38:27
And then the more the total like true biblical masculinity
38:34
actually is this like capacity to be physically strong, but the
38:40
wisdom and the grace and poise to actually defend the weak with
38:45
that strength. So if you carry the, the, the,
38:48
the like, what we, what I, you know, maybe mistakenly labeled
38:51
toxic masculinity, you can do what Jesus is, is able to do as
38:57
a Carpenter. Like when you think about what
39:00
it is as a Carpenter to, to work and to hammer a nail into
39:05
something, you know, the energy different things take, but you
39:10
could never lie on a cross and take the nails with those that
39:14
level of toxic masculinity, like, because it's all about you
39:18
really. And it's all about your sense of
39:20
pride and who you are. And so Jesus is able to exert
39:24
this energy into a scene, and yet he's also able to stay
39:28
passive as nails are hammered into his wrists.
39:34
Yeah, without fighting back. Humanity without fighting back
39:36
like that, that's not. That's masculine.
39:38
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true masculinity.
39:41
Yeah, which is not at all trying to feminize a man at all,
39:45
actually. It's like beautiful.
39:47
It's a beautiful, like tempered strength that's that's powerful.
39:52
Love it. Yeah, that would be my answer.