Latest / Cultivator Podcast / Episode 10 - Trio Talks - Self-Portrait

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Episode 10 - Trio Talks - Self-Portrait · Cultivator Podcast

• Justin Stice: Yeah. Welcome friends. We are, as we promised ⁓ last week, we're gonna jump right into the Sermon on the Mount, and it starts with the Beatitudes. So this is the Kingdom Cultivators Podcast. We are jumping into the Sermon on the Mount, and I just want to read these, and this is gonna just kind of guide our discussion for today. So this is in Matthew chapter five. I'm gonna read the little intro to it, the black letters before we get into the red. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them, saying, and here's verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I mean that's just that's not like you know, every her ⁓ Homiletical class I had said, you know, start like that. No. Like you No. You gotta have some story that engages people. Jesus comes right out slinging. Okay, this is really terrible what I'm about to tell you, but I remember watching a ⁓ episode of Seinfeld. Okay. And in that episode, George realizes that if If he'll just do the opposite of what he ever thinks to his life will go mo so much better and and and they live that out in that episode. Yeah, well it I mean, the who would think that a blessed life would be poor in spirit? And the word poor there is abject poverty, the the poorest of the poor. You you're so poor you can't help yourself. In spirit. Yeah, in spirit. Right, right. Man. Yes. Honestly, when I think about and I read this, it's like, man, I I suck. Like I'm never gonna get like that, I am never gonna be able to like be this person. But it's not your job. There's okay. That there's no verb in that. There's no Jesus never calls for action in that list of beatitudes. Yeah, it is not a be poor in spirit so that you are blessed. Right. It is a statement of what does that mean? What what could that mean? Well, to To your point, what you said, when when we were preparing for this, I told you guys for a couple of nights I just listened to it. Yeah. And I was just struck in listening to it by how impossible it is. Yeah. Like the whole sermon is something that ⁓ you know, one of the reasons I think we want to talk about this is the sermon can gets weaponized by in politically that says, Well, you don't look much like Jesus described, so you can't be a follower of Jesus. Right. Well, that that person has never read through it through the lens of their own self. Because as I read through it, I'm like, that's the right response. I that's not me. Yeah. And if that's supposed to be what following Jesus is, I suck at that. I can't live up to that. Yeah. But the problem with that is you cannot take, just like you can't take the Beatitudes out of the Sermon on the Mount and have it make sense, you can't take the Sermon on the Mount out of the narrative arc of Matthew and have it make sense. Yeah. Matthew is the gospel that's written to the Jewish people. Jewish people of this time loved their laws. There's no way that Jesus is taking an old law and replacing it with a new law that says you have to do these things. We had Ten Commandments there. Well, I'm gonna ask more of you. You know, as we get into it, you know, if if you you heard it said don't murder, but I tell you if you don't like somebody that you're so that clearly is not what's going on here. So we have to take this in the whole narrative arc of what's going on. Right. And so we can't look at it as a Jesus is describing and saying This is what you have to do. That right there relieves pressure, right? If I'm sitting there and like, ⁓ all right, this is not something that I'm he's getting added on to me. These are things that I have to work and I have to do, because that's not what's being said here. It's saying, Hey, no, this is this is who you are. I'm just well, I'd say well, the question goes back to this is who Jesus is. And ⁓ Scott had a great c ⁓ thought a second earlier. He's talking about people will come up to him and ask you what did they ask you? Well, yeah, what I wish I knew what Jesus looked like and I'll say, Well, go read the Beatitudes. That's what he looked like. 'Cause that's what he's doing. He's giving a self portrait. Yeah. In the Beatitudes. And that's beautiful. I love that. I love the idea that we can look at the Beatitudes and we sell we see this self portrait of Jesus. And in that we see then what he's longing to do in us. And it's not us having to do it, but it's the work, it's the formation of Christ in us doing this thing. Yeah. And so But I'm ca I I maybe all of us I know for I've had surgeries where I had to be awake. And as they're doing the procedure, they talk to me. They'll Okay, now I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. You're gonna feel a little pressure here. Okay, now I'm moving over here and I'm gonna you know, and they're just letting me know what they're doing to me. I think that's what the beatitudes are. I think that that's what Jesus is doing. He's letting us know what he's gonna be doing. to us as he makes us like himself. Yeah. No, I mean I I think it absolut absolutely fits. And you know we were talking offline earlier about why this blessed word isn't happy, because happy has external circumstances. But I'm struck by in the Beatitudes how many of them are based on external circumstances, just not positive. Because you I mean being mourning is something that is thrust onto you. It is not you don't choose to mourn. Like we don't I mean that's my world, right? I mean hospice death is my world and nobody wants that. I mean you get to a point where when they're suffering you go, it's better for them to go on. But like nobody wants to mourn. Yeah. You know, nobody meek meekness, nobody w nobody seeks after that. I mean so many of these are blessed are those who per are persecuted. Like those are things that are done to us. And I I think too our earlier discussion about blessed is what Jesus is doing is just flipping on his head. I mean I think that George Costanza thing is a great I mean Knowing his character, right? He always is an idiot, right? Yeah. And so let's flip what I think I should do, I'm gonna do the opposite, and that's probably the right thing to do. I I think there's an element of that that Jesus is saying this. Yeah. You think blessing looks like this, I tell you it looks like this. Yes. Yeah. There's also probably an element now this is speculation, but he's speaking to a lot of people that are mourning that are not r they're not they know what poverty is. They know what that is. He ⁓ there's they're hungry. They're people that are he's speaking to a cr the these these are not the successful citizens of the Roman Empire. The you know, he's not speaking to them and so he's you know, he's saying to them, ⁓ w you know You you you are the ones that I want to make my kingdom with. And then and it's just like, this this is way upside down. Cause I've been taught to be poor or to mourn or you know, to be meek and gentle. That you know, that's to get pushed around, beat up and taken advantage of. And Jesus, no no no. This you're you're my people. You're the ones I want. Well, with that, I'm thinking about that context and understanding s Jesus is talking to an audience smack dad right in the middle of being ruled by the Roman Empire. Mm-hmm. And how much of what Jesus is saying described is totally the anti empire. Right? Like you y if you if you you thought about how the Roman Empire works and functions and operates and then you hear what Jesus is saying and there is a stark difference between the life and w and what it looks like to be blessed versus what you see the world around you within the Roman Empire that's taking place. And so I but I here's the thing, we don't live in under the Roman Empire, but we still live under this idea of the empire. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right? There's there is another empire, I don't think we live there's another empire of culture that's around us, that when we read the Beatitudes, this is still totally upside down, opposite of what the world would say is the way you should live your life almost. Yeah, there's another empire in here that I have to confront. Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. And and for me and how I would describe it This is my own words and these what stuff is like there's a empire of what I would say is the false self. Yeah. Is the ego of yeah of this thing of I'm having to prop myself up and be dependent upon myself and and so yeah, I you're right. There's this empire of false self within me that I have to look internally to see what is it that I've maybe been forming or shaping in my life. And then all of a sudden w what do I do with what is it that Jesus is the surgery that Jesus is wanting to do in me, what that's gonna look like in me. Well, I remember when I first became a Christian, I had no clue what Christianity was. And I was reading I started with Gospel of John and got started with Matthew and came to the Sermon on the Mount. And like Dave said earlier, it's like I I just like this is impossible. This is just absolutely impossible. And so I remember when I got to blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake, for they will be satisfied. I remember I got to that and I just stopped and I said, Lord, make me hungry. Because I knew I couldn't do it. I knew it wa that wasn't in me to do. So make me hungry. And and I I think that has been he's I think he was joyful to answer that prayer and has continued to answer that prayer. the rest of my all through my life. Yeah. And and then but it that's the dynamic. It's not that, you know, look, I've done all these things. Aren't I blessed? You know? No. You know, it's like this is what he's wanting to do in you. I so I wanna I I found this today and I think this is really important for this because your first reaction reading it, I suck. Yeah. My listening to it, I suck. And that makes perfect sense. If we read it as I'm not poor in spirit, I'm not mourning. I'm not hungry. So this is Stanley Harawas, right? Real, real smart guy. And I I just want to read some of this because I think it's important. I know usually it's insulting to read to people, so I apologize. This is a smart guy. ⁓ he says the sermon is not addressed to individuals, but to the community that Jesus begins and portends through the calling of the disciples. The sermon is not a heroic ethic. It is the constitution of a people. You cannot live by the demands of the sermon on your own, but that is the point. The demands of the sermon are designed to make us depend on God and one another. So that communal ethic. Then he says, the sermon, therefore, is not a list of requirements, but rather a description of the life of a people gathered by and around Jesus. To be saved is to be so gathered. That is why the Beatitudes are the interpretive key to the whole sermon, precisely because they are not recommendations. No one is asked to go out and try to be poor in spirit or to mourn or to be meek. Rather, Jesus is indicated, indicating that given the reality of the kingdom, we should not be surprised to find those among find among those who follow him those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn and those who are meek. Moreover, Jesus does not suggest that everyone who follows him will possess all the Beatitudes, but we can be sure that some will be poor, some will mourn, and some will be poor. I think you know, so one of the I think Justin, one of the lessons that you and I have gathered over the last half decade or whatever is that we find Jesus among the poor. Yeah. And I I mean I think that there is in kind of the worlds that we gather in, there's it's not a I mean it's not go hang out with poor people, but it's like if you want to find Jesus, you will find him among on the edges, along the margins. And I mean I think that that that I ⁓ I love that they say this you will find these in the community, but it's not a checklist. So if you don't mourn, that doesn't mean you can't be blessed. That just means the community, in the community there are those mourning. In the community, there are those who Mm-hmm. Does that make sense? ⁓ yeah, totally. And I think that that takes it out of the man I suck thing because it's like, does my community show this blessing? Yeah. And I I I think that's an important distinction to make. Not does my life. I mean, I agree. I agree that there's an internal working here. Yeah. But the the scriptures were not written to individuals for the most part. They were written to a community of faith. Well I You've heard me argue that the the process of becoming like Jesus can never be solo. Right. There's no way. It takes c you know, community effort for all of us to become more and more like him. So yes, I just I Amen to that. I love that. I think you're you're we're hitting on this idea there there's an individual aspect of it then there's a a communal aspect of it. And you you can't you have to have both. Right? It it's one feeds the other and vice versa, right? It's it it all kind of is like in there where it's this work that has to happen, but that work can't happen unless you're in community. Yeah. And yeah. Which, you know, Justin, this ⁓ I think this hits at some of the stuff that we've struggled with as a faith community in this place. As we have decentralized. It's felt very disconnected. And I think that that's a hard thing to do because I can work on me, but if I'm not working on me in community, I I mean I have my blind spots, right? I mean, it's one of the things that I love about Whiskey Night is we sit there and we're transparent with one another and you see something in me that I don't see. It's not that I'm intentionally being whatever that is. And ⁓ I I I think that this is a challenge to me to think about, you know, whatever our Sunday gatherings look like or our ⁓ other you know our other gathering points. We don't do it so that we can check it off a a a checklist and say, I went to church or I went to, you know, Kingdom Community or whatever. It's because we're formed in that. We're designed to be formed communally. Yeah. I I I now I think there's a hint in the in the black words that you read, ⁓ there's y we're right before the Beatitude star, I think there's a hint at this where It says he sat down and then it has these words and his disciples came to him. And there's there's the key. If he i we we need to be coming to him for him to shape us into this, but disciples is plural. It didn't say disciple. It didn't say each individual came to it said his disciples came to him. So I think there's a hint at this very thing that you're talking about. It's communal, but it's wrapped around him. It's not about it's not wrapped around to dos. It's not wrapped around laws. It you know, it ethics. It's not that. It's wrapped around him. But it's together. Man, this is just getting like my thoughts are going all over the place of like how ⁓ how important formation is how much how important community is in the formation of us becoming and being like Jesus. And I think this just ties that in there. Like we can't It is in the work, God is working in and through community for, I believe, these things for us to be this kind of people, to become that kind of people. And so often we come to community only looking for what we can get out of it. Kind of even that a c like I hate to be like almost that idea of like money we we see it almost as a commodity. that I'm gonna come and see what I can get out of and if this isn't beneficial to me at this time, if I'm not getting what I want out of this, then I'm I'm good. Rather than how can we approach a community and say what maybe what what does that community need to like do in me instead of what am I gonna get from it? Does that make sense at all? Yeah. And so I don't know. Yeah. But that takes that's hard. That's scary. That takes A bunch of different things. It takes vulnerability, it takes patience, it takes forgiveness, it takes all these things to allow Jesus to form us in the midst of community. It takes to me, it takes a willingness for a reversal to take place in my life. Because I'm coming to get something. But what if what if What I'm needing to do is coming to give. Even if it's just give worship to him or contribute to someone else, what if that you know, it it takes a reversal in my and that's exactly what the Beatitudes are. They they are an upside down thing, a reversal. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. ⁓ and just for our sake, 'cause as I was thinking about this, let's maybe I I I think it's real easy to focus on the first parts, but like ⁓ maybe let's focus on the the promises of that as I read through. Not the blessed are part, but the promises. So ⁓ starting in verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons, children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I mean, just in thinking about what what a blessed, fulfilled life looks like. I mean, it's there's an inheritance, there's a comfort, there's a fulfillment. Fulfillment, satisfied. There's a like you said, well, I want to know what Jesus looks like. They will see God. Like it's the pure in heart will see God. Mm-hmm. Those that seek and thirst for rushes, they will be filled. Yes. They've like will be called children of God. Like I mean y they're The promises of that are are are what is where the blessing is, right? But I think that we st and not that we shouldn't, but the first part we focus on, well, I have to be poor, or I have to mourn, or I have to but like it's the promises that we're looking for. You know, I I think that if Jesus called his disciples together and said, You're going to get the inheritance of the kingdom and you're going to be comforted, they'd be all for it. But I think the first part in their mind would be, blessed are the powerful, for they will for theirs is the kingdom, right? Blessed are those who never have to have anything go wrong in their lives for the b you know, and I I just think that first part flips everything on its head. The promises of that are what they're looking for. But the way the path to that is just fundamentally different from how we well and it speaks to the people that are there because you they are people of in mourning. They are people in poverty. I mean like all these. And so it's he's speaking to the place of where the people are to say, Hey, no, no, no, like This is where you are, but I I trust me, like this is where this is the promise. And it's in me. Th these are these things are fulfilled and lived out and experienced in me. In a community where I am at the center of it. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean the crazy thing about it is really we've just read it a couple of times. We've kind of talked a little bit macro, but like there's a l I mean we could spend forty eight episodes of this just kind of going, what does it mean to be a peacemaker? What does it mean? I mean, there's just such a depth here. It's w ⁓ you know, one of the things that I say all the time when I'm when I'm in front of people preaching is like there is a depth to the scriptures that is unbounded. You just keep digging and there's still more. Yeah. Yeah. So I think maybe that's what we do in the next one. Like we can keep on going, but like I think We just dive into a few of them and and really I love how we focused on the promises of these at the end. And so I say the next time we actually kinda go into each one a little bit, yeah. And and kinda see where that takes us. Is that cool with you guys? Yeah, that sounds awesome. Absolutely. So, man, I hope this is good for you guys. This is good for me, man. This is really good just to hear this because it it really is our desire with this whole podcast, this whole thing, is to be a place where you're being able to ha have something that's helping cultivate internally but then also giving practical things what it look like in externally. And so right now this kind of season of man, what does it look like for the kingdom to be cultivated in us? This is the I feel like the place that we have to sit for a little while. Yeah. ⁓ to allow Jesus to do that. So thank you guys. ⁓ man, I'm gonna encourage you to to c can I just this is the practical thing is sp spend some time you personally reading ⁓ these Beatitudes. As we're talking about it here, but man, I think it would help be helpful for you. to kind of have a an understanding grasp and read through this ⁓ this next week a few times. So when we jump back on here, there's there's some familiarity ⁓ with the Beatitudes as we're looking at this. So but hey, thank you guys for hanging out with us and ⁓ we'll see you next time.