Latest / Deep-Grace Diving with Tim Wright and Terey Summers / #26 Touching the Untouchable

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#26 Touching the Untouchable · Deep-Grace Diving with Tim Wright and Terey Summers

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, everyone.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Tim Wright here.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that stopped early.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Tim Wright here along with John, the thoughtful John D. Burgess and with Terry Summers.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, did you, have you ever touched something?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: You were absolutely grossed out by it and you just couldn't wait to get to a sink
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: or to someone hand you a wipe of some sort,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: maybe someone's gum or,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: just,
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: what is it,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: John?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: What comes to mind that you can say?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I, you know, it's a,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was moving furniture for a friend once,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: and I was moving the headboard of a board in one of their kids' rooms,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: and I grabbed it to haul it out,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: and I realized that the back of it was covered with boogers.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, my gosh.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go wash my hands now.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Terry, anything comes to mind?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think of picking up,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: somehow just picking up really loosey-goosey dog poop,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: and it just sort of gets...
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's disgusting.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: I think mine happened to be a slimy little portion of a...
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: The snail.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Those parts.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: At my grandma's house.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I got chills.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not comparing a guy with leprosy to that.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: But when people thought about lepers back in Jesus Day,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: which we'll tease out,
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: they had that same kind of visceral response.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not touching that thing.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly how they saw lepers.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus does something radically different.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: We are doing a Bible study together.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Tim Wright here.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Again, John's with us.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Terry's with us.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're walking through the gospel of Mark.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we're doing it somewhat slowly, but we're not doing every passage in Mark's gospel.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to kind of hit some of the highlights that give us insights into who Jesus is.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Last time we were together,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: we talked,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: we spent a lot of time talking about the kingdom of God because everything that we
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: talk about from now on is Jesus bringing the kingdom of God to us.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And Terry, kingdom of God is?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: God, you scared me.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's Jesus doing God's work in the world.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Doing God's work, yes.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not a place we go to.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus coming to us.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's his work.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's his God moving.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's Jesus now doing that kingdom work through us,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: through those of us who are his followers,
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: by the power of his spirit.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have a story today where Jesus shows us what the kingdom of God looks like.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: before we get to this story,
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: just to give a little bit of a summary,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: some things I skipped,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: not because they're not important,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: but just because some passages lead to some better discussion than others.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right after Jesus says,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: the kingdom of God has come near,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: repent and believe the good news,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: or the kingdom of God is here,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: the reign of God is here,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: follow me,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: would be another way of saying it.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus then goes and recruits disciples.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And he says to them, follow me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And immediately,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: according to John,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: who loves that word immediately,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: according to Mark,
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: who loves that word and uses it a lot,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: immediately these guys got up and followed Jesus.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: So there was something compelling about Jesus where when he said, follow me, they said, I got to go.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a repent, right?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it meant to repent.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: They left behind their nets.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: They followed Jesus.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: We have Jesus casting out a demon, whatever demons mean.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll probably do a demon story somewhere along the line.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: But he cast out an unclean spirit out of a person on a Sabbath day,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: which,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: number one,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: he wasn't technically supposed to work on the Sabbath.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: But number two,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: by healing that man said it's more important to heal people than to keep the Sabbath,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: that people are more important always than rules.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: We have a story where Jesus heals people over at Peter's house.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm at Peter's house,
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: including Simon's mother-in-law,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: which,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: by the way,
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: our Catholic friends always have a little bit of a problem with.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because if the Pope comes from the line of Peter and Popes can't get married, well, Peter was married.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it always is just a little tricky.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I'm not Catholic.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not the only reason, but I did want to get married.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus goes out a little bit on a preaching tour.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then we get to the story that we're going to look at today.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love this story.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much in it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to have John D. Burgess read for us.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 1, 40 to 45.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're willing, you can heal me and make me clean, he said.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I am willing, he said.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Be healed.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Instantly the leprosy disappeared and the man was healed.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell anyone about this.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus and he couldn't publicly enter a town anywhere.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: All right, a lot of stuff in this one, and we're going to dig some of it out.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of these great stories when you read it to sort of imagine yourself in the crowd.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Even,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: for example,
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: imagine yourself being one of Jesus' disciples,
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: and you are out walking,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: and you hear this leper,
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: and you not only hear the leper,
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: but the leper comes up close to you.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And how freaked out you probably feel at that moment.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: We just had this experience not long ago.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's still within our living memory of COVID and how afraid we were to get near
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: people because it could kill you if they had it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: That was a similar kind of fear that they had.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: getting close to lepers.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So just to set the stage and then we can talk a little bit about, you know, how they were feeling.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Leprosy was a skin disease and it was the kind of disease that affected their, their ability to feel.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: So as they, as the leprosy progressed, they would lose their ability to feel and,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it was also a skin disease, but the worst part of leprosy was you would lose your ability to feel.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's why so many lepers,
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: they would maybe cut themselves on their foot or on their hand or on their arm and
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: not know it.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: It would get infected.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then it would exacerbate their disease.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, they could be filled with other diseases.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've got people...
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: with really severe leprosy,
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: they're going to look horrible as they've got these big blotches of skin falling
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: off or disease.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can imagine, you know, I don't want to paint a horrible, horrible picture, but we do.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can imagine pus coming out of some of these sores.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're wearing bandages.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And people were deathly afraid of catching leprosy.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: So lepers were forced out of the city gates,
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: outside of the city,
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: and forced to live in leper colonies where they could only hang with lepers.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So they're cut off from their family and friends.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're cut off essentially from any kind of human touch.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And if people get too close to them,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: They had to yell out,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: unclean,
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: unclean,
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: which you can imagine what it would do for your self-esteem every time someone
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: comes near you.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: You already look horrible, and then you've got to tell people you're horrible.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: There was also rules about getting too close and where the wind is coming from,
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: because they were afraid even the wind could sort of blow that disease onto you.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it's sort of easy to say, well, they were superstitious.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't know science.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: But we just went through that.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: We know what it's like to be terrified with a sneeze that might be caught in the wind or on an airplane.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we know that it does happen.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I just heard of another relative who just got back perfectly healthy when they left,
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: got off the plane,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: had COVID.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we do understand in part what they're feeling.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got these disciples and all of a sudden a leper is breaking social
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: protocol and runs up to Jesus.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: So Terry, this is sort of your touch in that slime moment.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: The booger, the dog poop, although those things are just real minor compared to the fear that they had.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: So if you put yourself for just a moment in the minds of the disciples and kind of
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: think through,
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: now,
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: if I was with Jesus in that moment,
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: what would I be advising Jesus to do?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Terry, what would you be advising Jesus to do?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: To get away, to turn in the direction, to...
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: To tell him to stop.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: And John,
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm guessing the disciples,
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: you being one of them,
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: would be quite shocked to sort of hear Jesus ignore you or see Jesus ignore you and
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: take a step toward that man.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're...
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Initial reaction is to mask up and get away.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: and then there's probably a little chastisement as Jesus is like,
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey,
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: you guys missed it on this one.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do something different here again.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And, and so remember the context, the kingdom of God has come near.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: What does the reign and rule of God look like in the world?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And this is an example of God's reign through Jesus breaking into history and
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: to put a broken man back together or to say it another way, to touch the untouchables with God's grace.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have this really interesting story.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, if you choose, you can make me clean.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Tim,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to talk to you about that because I think we're coming up on like one of
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: the most powerful words in the gospel that strike me.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that that is such a human question.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're willing, you could heal me, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's maybe it's tinged.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got my background.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was born in the upper Midwest of the United States.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a little bit of an upper Midwestern question, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, if it's not too much of a bother,
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Could you change my life?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's too much of a bother, like no harm, no foul.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So there's just so much humanity in that question.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then for Jesus to say right away, I am willing.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I,
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: that's like a life changing words for me,
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: because I feel like a lot of the times you go to Jesus and say,
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: you know, wow, I could really use a hand here or an explanation or some comfort.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think his response is, I'm willing.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let's go.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: There are a couple.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead, Terry.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I have a little bit of a perspective question.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I find it,
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: and I'm not trying to jump ahead or behind even,
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: but I find it interesting that the leopard that knew better,
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: right?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because they were kept from their family.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: So they knew that you just don't roll up on someone, but yet they were compelled to.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: And all that might've been going on would maybe answer my question,
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: but don't you find that interesting that they trusted something about what they'd
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: heard or learned?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I know there are things that we may have skipped over in other readings,
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: but why do you think that's so?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's such a great question because
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: One way of looking at this story is that this guy approaches Jesus and asks Jesus
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: to do something,
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: and Jesus says,
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: okay,
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'll do it.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: So in other words, we have to ask before Jesus will respond.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: But there's something about Jesus that compels this man to go to Jesus.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: He's not trying to move Jesus to act.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: He already knows Jesus can act.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not something that he sort of conjured up on his own.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's something about Jesus that has filled this man with hope and expectation.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's sort of in response to all the things that he's heard about Jesus.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Think of it as repentance at this point.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: He turns and runs to Jesus.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there's been good news somewhere he's heard about this Jesus guy.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And now he's going to run and ask for help.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: It also shows, I think, some real human desperation.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus may very well be his last choice or last hope.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what I like about his prayer too, John, is some of the humanity.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: We sometimes hear people say, you just got to be in the face of God and tell him what you want.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: You got to name it and claim it.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like we are the ones who boss Jesus around.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that there's a certain humility in approaching Jesus, a humble expectation.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to demand, but Jesus, this is where I'm at.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: It would really be nice.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think it'd be nice if you'd heal me of this.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now,
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: you may have something better to do or something different,
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: but it's not my job to tell you how to do your job.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I would just like you to help me out here.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's something about a humble expectation.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then, John, as you say, to look for how it is that God's going to respond and
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure as we go along,
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: we're going to hit some of these stories where things don't quite work as they had hoped.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what does that mean?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Terry's just been through it.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Terry's going through it.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you were crying out to God when Jonathan was in those moments between life and death.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Say, God, come on, do something.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And God didn't seem to do something.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think we maybe see it a bit differently, but it wasn't what we had hoped.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And some of that's the way life works.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: But in this case, we have a guy, he's not demanding.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: He is coming into the presence of grace like a little child would do and say,
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: hey,
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: daddy,
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: could I have this?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And in this case, Jesus says, yeah, I am willing.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's a couple of interesting things right here.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 41, moved with pity.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And in some Bibles like mine, I have a little footnote.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it says, other ancient authorities read anger.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Moved with anger.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So let's tease that one out for a moment.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Moved with anger.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: How does that change what you hear and see and read?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Just a second.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: For me, Tim, it's still, you know, he could very well have just healed him and walked on.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, I am willing.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when I read those words, they come off like not like I am.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm willing, but more like, oh, I'm willing.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's like, yeah, we're going to do this.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's some forcefulness behind it.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if I have to read it moved with anger,
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think Jesus is like,
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: yeah,
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm this is my you know,
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: this is my child who's been hurt and has had lots of difficulty.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm all about making a change here.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Along with the healing,
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: which is what ultimately if he had just healed and said nothing and the guy would
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: have walked on,
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: it'd still be phenomenal.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he's saying, yeah, I'm willing.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Terry, does it change it for you when you hear moved with anger versus pity?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it does.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I have a lot of questions.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know that I would have thought immediately the way that John did, though I appreciate hearing it.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think pity...
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: it doesn't feel a lot better, but anger feels like what was the anger about?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not,
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: I really don't have,
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: I don't,
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: as I even read,
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at it right now and I don't have,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have anything other than that.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: That makes me feel, um, Ooh, I don't know.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Embarrassed that I might've asked or, you know?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I,
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's always good to look at a verse like this and remember, first of all, a context.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God has come.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the kingdom of God is going to come to fix things that are broken.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And to set people free who are living under oppressive conditions.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And the anger that... Go ahead, Terry.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, I just hooked into something.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, Terry.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: The anger that Jesus is expressing here is not anger at the man.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's anger at what's happened to the man.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's angry that this man is sick.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's angry at the system that has kicked him out.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: He's angry at the lack of compassion that won't care for this man.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's angry at everything that has happened to this man that has robbed him of his
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: humanity and made him less than human.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we oftentimes think of anger as a bad emotion, but it's a God-given emotion to get stuff done.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Many of the great movements that have happened in our world on behalf of the poor
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: and the oppressed have been spurred on by anger.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So anger,
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: in my generation,
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: John remembers a little bit,
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: but the ML,
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther King,
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: that whole civil rights thing was spurred on by anger and
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: fueled positively to bring about change.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just anger to blow things up.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was anger to bring about change.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe we would say outrage.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's outrage.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's anger at injustices.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you use it positively to bring about change.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, injustice should make us angry.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: when for those of us who have kids,
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: if somebody takes advantage of our kids,
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: we're going to be angry about that.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to want to fix the problem.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Our challenge in our culture today is,
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: especially in a grievance culture and social media culture,
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: we use anger to blow things up rather than anger to fix things.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so I don't even think we know how to do anger at all in our culture anymore
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: without blowing things up and hurting people.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus used anger the way it's meant to be used to do something, to fix something.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so then the next thing that Jesus does
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: is he touches the man.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it's important again to understand the context here.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: He could have just said, be healed.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody be happy as clams.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: He did that once in Luke's gospel when 10 lepers came to him and he said,
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: hey,
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: go back,
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: show yourself,
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: be healed.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he didn't touch him, but he touches this one.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: And when you touched a leper,
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: you are automatically ceremonially unclean.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you had to isolate yourself from healthy people and from the church until you
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: could get a clean bill of health.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus not only touches the man, but he takes on that man's illness, so to speak.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: But in this case,
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: rather than the illness being transferred from the leper to Jesus,
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: grace and healing is transferred from Jesus to that leper.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus here touches someone that everybody else would have said is untouchable.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And another really tangible example, touchable example, of how the kingdom of God works.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yet in the kingdom of God, nobody is untouchable.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: In the kingdom of God, everyone is a human being and needs to be treated as such.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if they're in situations where they are being made to feel inhuman or dehumanized,
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: then we need to touch them with grace and love and we need to be about the business
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: of changing those systems,
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: those circumstances that dehumanize people,
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: like hunger,
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: like racism,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: like bullying,
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: whatever it might be.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a part of what Jesus is doing here.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: This is what the kingdom of God does.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is shocking, right?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is that to listeners of this story, when it was originally, this is shocking behavior.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: That you didn't just push this person away.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: You reacted with compassion.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then the most shocking part.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: In doing this, you reached out and actually physically touched him.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So again, imagine yourself a disciple.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: You're following Jesus along, and this leper starts running toward you.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're already backing up.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then you see Jesus reach out his hand,
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: and your instinct's going to be to just tackle him to the ground so that he doesn't
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: touch this guy.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: They would have all been horrified by what Jesus did.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely shocked because you don't touch lepers.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Remember,
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think you guys are all old enough to remember this,
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: how shocking it was when Princess Di touched AIDS patients.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: How that made international news because she went in, took the mask off, right?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: She touched lepers and humanized them, brought their humanity back.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: that would be sort of a modern day equivalent of what Jesus was doing.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was shocking at that time when Princess Di did that.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And even in COVID,
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: God bless all those nurses and doctors,
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: but they had to suit up every time they went in.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: They had to wear masks and they had to wear gloves and they had to wear all kinds of protective gear.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus just in this case, of course, he's Jesus.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: He just goes in and he touches the man,
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: risks getting leprosy in order to rescue that man from the dehumanizing experience
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: he's going through.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: So by touching the man, he restores the man's health.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: He restores the man dignity.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: He restores the man's ability to go be with his family and to worship in the community again.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't just about making him well.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was about making him well mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Tim,
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: does it seem like the rest of the reading is Jesus saying,
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: don't tell anyone,
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: which is a question.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why would you not tell anyone?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: But do these other things.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then the guy's like, yeah, I'm just going to go blab it all.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It seems a little ungrateful.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, the one thing I'm asking you is to follow these, follow the rules.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy's like, yeah.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I, okay.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So to understand the context,
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: the only time a leper could get a clean bill of health is if he was examined by the priest.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So the priest was sort of like the doctor at that point.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you need a clean bill of health to get back to work after COVID,
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: you need the doctor to sign off on it,
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: you'd bring that note to work or school,
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: however that would work.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: In this case,
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: it would be the priest who would say,
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: yeah,
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: you're leprosy free and you can now worship with your community again.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why Jesus encourages them to go there.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Get your credentials so you can go worship again.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: But John, if Jesus suddenly placed his hand on your head
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: and you grew a full head of hair, you're going to tell somebody, aren't you?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I think it would be obvious.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's pretty obvious if your nose isn't falling off anymore, too.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so I don't think it's being ungrateful.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was an act of absolute gratitude.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: He just wants to blab to the whole world, look at what this Jesus just did for me.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: he just couldn't contain himself.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: He had to tell somebody.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you think Jesus,
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: because I know he was pretty adamant in other situations,
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: like I think I read earlier,
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: maybe it comes later,
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: but that a demon identifies him and knows who he is,
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: and he's trying to hush everybody up.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: What is the purpose of that?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Why would he tell them, don't tell anyone?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there are a lot of different theories for that.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Some people say he was just using reverse psychology.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't tell them so that way they will.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's it.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus is trying to control the story a little bit.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: He knows that if word gets out too quickly and claims are made about him too quickly,
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: he's not going to have the chance to define who he is.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: Got it, got it.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: If,
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: to John's point from our last podcast,
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: many of those people expected the Messiah to march in on a horse and to basically
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: boot out the Roman Empire and reestablish the reign of David's family onto the throne.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so if Jesus doesn't have a chance to articulate that,
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the kind of Messiah I am.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not a Messiah who claims power through war or violence.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the kind of Savior Messiah who claims power through death and resurrection.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he needs to demonstrate what the kingdom of God looks like.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: In some ways,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: he may be trying to control the narrative and slow things down,
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: which is virtually impossible.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because almost every time he does a miracle and says,
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: don't do anything,
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: they instantly go out and do it anyway.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: And in this case,
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: part of it too is don't forget to go see the priest because you want to get back
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: with your worshiping community.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: You want to get back with your family.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: So in your excitement, don't forget, you got to get a clean bill of health.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: And part of it, that guy needs to clean bill of health.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: He may look healthy on the outside, but
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: but they really want to make sure he's healthy.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: just like for us today,
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: if someone's had COVID,
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: we really want to know that they're okay before we start hugging them and kissing
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: them on the forehead.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we need something to say they're good.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Tim, is there something there if in verse 44, that's where he says, don't tell anybody about this.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it's Jesus talking.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: So while he's saying,
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: don't tell everyone about this,
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: he knows full well this man's going to go tell everybody about this.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: And why does he even bother?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, or is it, yeah, why does he bother?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or is it a little bit of, does it show that there's some grace and love here?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus is saying in many places in the Bible, here are some ideas for better living.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some ideas that, you know, on marriage or whatever.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing full well that we're not going to listen to those sometimes.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's some truth to that.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I think in this particular case, he's probably trying to control the story a bit.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: With not a lot of luck.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: And probably knows it's not going to work, but I'm going to do it anyway.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then it says what happens afterwards,
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: he could no longer go into a town openly,
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: but stayed out in the country and people came to him from every quarter.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: So he knew once this enthusiasm starts building, he's lost control
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: in some ways of where he can go and what he can do.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now he still does his ministry.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like that, but he's got to work in and out of now expectations, crowds.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: He knows he's got people who are going to misunderstand him from the political elite, religious elite.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And all of this just adds complication upon complication to,
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: to doing what he came to do in the first place was just put broken people back together.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: You see Terry for a minute there.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was onto something huge.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you were John.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: And how you, yeah.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: How are you feeling about that now?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's something a little bit less than huge.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, keep it to yourself this week.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so there we go.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's the cleansing of the leper.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Again,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: a picture of what the kingdom of God looks like and how radical Jesus was for his
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: time and still is.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going to come back next time in our next podcast.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I believe I'm just going to look it up here.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to be looking at Mark 2, for those of you who want to get ahead.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Mark 2, verses 1 through 12.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: And again,
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: as hopefully you've captured by now,
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: these Jesus stories have a lot of depth and nuance to them.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so we hope you'll join us.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you're enjoying this, please tell your friends, share with your friends.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: If you've got some questions, leave some questions down in the comment section.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we will be back with you next time.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm an advocate for this Bible study because just in that bit about asking me how I
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: felt about hearing anger,
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: having the explanation changes so much.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I would not have ever,
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: no matter how long I've been reading the Bible,
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't have known to look that direction.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I thank you for that.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate both of you.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: Good stuff as always.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: And a little Morse code to take you out.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is spelling the word grace.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: See you later.