22. Severed Heads and Hungry Crowds [Matthew] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

hi everybody are you guys happy Sunday and do you two been here at least someone's having a happy Sunday yeah welcome good to have you guys here welcome to the door of hope my name is Tim one of the pastor's here and you are you and I'm sure you're very nice welcome to door hope this is our Sunday gathering and you know our Sunday gatherings they have a liturgy they're kind of predictable we come together we sing about Jesus we worship Jesus we we hear stories about Jesus or teachings of Jesus and then it all culminates in a moment of worship and taking the bread in the cup together so you don't really come on Sundays to be surprised do you not so much and that's okay that's alright what we've been doing for the last 10 10 months about a year and a half ago Josh and I and we you know had this idea - we haven't done this at door folk before - take one long the book of the Bible and just slowly go through it however long it takes so we jumped into the Gospel according to Matthew 10 months ago you guys and today we reach chapter 14 so I invite you grab a Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 14 and some of you whatever Bible geeks you might know that the Gospel according to Matthew has how many chapters 28 so it's kind of symbolic today because this we're halfway through 10 months we're halfway through now here's what's interesting all of the books of the New Testament were written first and foremost to be read aloud not read silently like most of us do on on a page but to be heard read aloud in a gathering all at one go so you the Gospel according to Matthew takes a slightly less than two hours if you read a normal pace aloud take slightly less than two hours it's like into the movie basically to hear the whole thing read aloud and it's very powerful if you've never heard any of the four accounts of Jesus and the Gospels read all the way through beginning to end in one sitting it's a very powerful experience and so what we're doing we're taking 20 months to do well you could read aloud in two hours and I think that's great personally I'm having a great time and and I was actually not selfish but as I asked around to people I know we're all just were rediscovering Jesus we're falling in love with Jesus he's amazing but there is something lost when you crawl through that such a slow pace so we don't have two hours right now but we do have about eight and a half minutes and some of you know one of the big projects that I'm giving my time to right now it's called the Bible project we're making short animated videos to sum up every book of the Bible and so we just finished Matthews nobody seen it would you like to see it yeah exactly right so and it's just Matthew part one actually yes but anyhow here we go list this will just kind of help us the Gospel according to Matthew it's one of the earliest official accounts about Jesus of Nazareth his life his deaths in his resurrection the book itself is anonymous but the earliest reliable tradition links it to Matthew the tax collector who was one of the Twelve Apostles that Jesus appointed and he actually appears within the book itself for about 30 to 40 years the Apostles orally taught and passed on their eyewitness account about Jesus along with his teachings they had all memorized and Matthew has then collected and arranged all these into this amazing tapestry and designed the book to highlight certain themes about Jesus in this video we're just going to cover the first half of the book specifically Matthew wants to show how Jesus is the continuation and fulfillment of the whole biblical story about God in Israel the Jesus is the Messiah from the line of David that he is a new authoritative teacher like Moses and not only that Jesus is God with us or in Hebrew Emmanuel and Matthews designed this book an introduction and then a conclusion and these act like a frame around five clear sections right here in the center each of which concludes with a long block of Jesus's teaching now this design is very intentional and it's amazing just watch how this works chapters 1 through 3 they set the stage by attaching Jesus's story right on to the story line of the Old Testament Scriptures so Matthew opens with the genealogy about Jesus that highlights how he is from the Messianic line of the son of David and he's a son of Abraham that means he's going to bring God's blessing to all of the nations after that we get the famous story about Jesus's birth and how all of the events fulfilled the Old Testament prophetic promises that the nations would come and honor the Messiah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem but even more than that Jesus's conception by the Holy Spirit his name Emmanuel all these work together to show that Jesus is no mere human he is God with us God become human so you can see two of Matthew's key themes right here in the introduction he's from the line of David he's a manual but Matthew also wants to show how Jesus is a new Moses so like Moses Jesus came up out of Egypt he passed through the waters of baptism and he entered into the wilderness for 40 days and then Jesus goes up onto a mountain to deliver his new teaching so through all of this Matthew was claiming that Jesus is the promised greater than Moses figure who's going to deliver Israel from slavery he's going to give them new divine teaching he's going to save them from their sins and bring about a new covenant relationship between God and His people this Moses and Jesus parallel also explains why Matthew has structured the center of the book the way that he did these five main parts highlight Jesus as a teacher and he's created a parallel Jesus as a teacher parallels the five books of Moses Jesus is the new authoritative covenant teacher who's going to fulfill the storyline of the Torah now in the first section chapters 4 to 7 Jesus steps onto the scene announcing the arrival of God's kingdom and this is really key the kingdom is in essence about God's rescue operation for his whole world and it's taking place through King Jesus Jesus has come to confront evil especially spiritual evil and its whole legacy of demon oppression and disease and death Jesus has come to restore God's rule and reign over the whole world by creating a new family of people who will follow him obey his teachings and live under his rule so after Jesus begins healing people and forming a movement a community he takes his followers out to a mountain or a hillside and he delivers his first big block of teaching traditionally called the Sermon on the Mount and here Jesus explores what it looks like to follow him and live in God's kingdom and it's an upside-down kingdom where there are no privileged members so the poor the nobodies the wealthy the religious everybody is invited and is called to turn to repent and to follow Jesus and join his family Jesus says that he's not here to set aside the commands of the Torah or the Old Testament rather he's here to fulfill all of that through his life through his teachings he's here to transform the hearts of his people so that they can truly love God and love their neighbor including their enemy after concluding his great teaching on the kingdom the next section shows Jesus bringing the kingdom into reality in the day-to-day lives of people so Matthew's arranged here 9 stories about Jesus bringing the power of God's kingdom into the lives of hurting broken people there are three groups of three stories and they're all about people who are sick or have broken bodies or they're in danger and jesus heals or saves them by these acts of grace and power and then right in between these triads we find two parallel stories about Jesus's call that people should follow him Matthew's making a point here one can only experience the power of Jesus's grace by following him and becoming his disciple now after Matthew has shown the power of the kingdom through Jesus Jesus then extends his reach by sending out the twelve disciples who are going to go do what he's been doing and this leads to the second law block of teaching chapter ten and here Jesus teaches his disciples how to announce the kingdom and what to expect once they do many among Israel are accepting Jesus in his offer of the kingdom but Israel's leaders they aren't they stand to lose a lot if they repent and become disciples of Jesus and so Jesus knows they're going to reject him and persecute his followers which is exactly what happens in the next section chapters 11 through 13 matthew has collected a group of stories about how people are responding to Jesus in his message and it's a mixed bag so some stories are positive people love Jesus and they think he's the Messiah others are more neutral like John the Baptist or even the members of Jesus's own family and they make it clear that Jesus is not what they expected and then you have Israel's leaders they're entirely negative you have the Pharisees and the Bible scholars they all reject Jesus together they think is a false teacher he's leading the people astray they think he's blasphemous and these exalted claims he's making about himself but Jesus isn't surprised or thrown by all these diverse responses in fact he focuses on it in the third block of teaching chapter 13 here Matthew's collected together a bunch of Jesus's parable about the kingdom I like about farmer throwing seed on four types of soil or about a mustard seed or a pearl or buried treasure these parables are like a commentary on the stories that you've just read in chapters 11 and 12 some people are accepting Jesus with enthusiasm others are rejecting him but God's kingdom is of ultimate value and it will not stop spreading despite all of these obstacles so that's the first half of the Gospel according to Matthew now here's a few more things to look forward you read through these chapters Matthew's presenting Jesus remember as the continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament storyline so look for how he weaves in quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures and what you'll find is that they're placed at strategic points in the story explaining more about Jesus and his identity so stop take time to go look up these references and read them in their Old Testament context and most often you'll discover really cool interesting connection lastly pay attention to the types of people who accept Jesus and follow him and you'll see that it's most often people who are unimportant than nobodies or they're irreligious and these are the people who are transformed by their trust or faith in Jesus and follow him and it's the religious and the prideful who are offended by him so how is this tension between Jesus and Israel's leaders going to play itself out that's what the second half of Matthew is all about there you go it's not helpful it's helpful for me okay so ten months eight and a half minutes you know time well spent I don't know anyway one other thing just because I see him here in the room and he's going to absolutely hate me for doing this but to Nate meaning right up there in the corner always in the corner he animated that there you go he did that [Applause] um Nate so just quick note and then we'll dive back into Matthew Nate's a part of this team some you know I showed this couple months ago we received a large gift of resources to just pedal to the metal for one year and just make as much as we can and so we're going to turn out one of these a week for the next 12 months so you know we built the team and it's really exciting and then like we're actions have formed the to-do list for the next 12 months and I think we're all frightened and overwhelmed like I was just gonna get done and it's one of those moments where you just ask people please pray but please pray for us there's people all over the world who are using these and it's really intimidating and it's exhausting and hopefully it will get done so anyways we would really appreciate your prayers there you go Matthew chapter 14 I mean I couldn't it just all came together for this Sunday you know the video was finished and everything so Matthew 14 the key here is it all comes down to this a key moment halfway through of the story is of this mounting tension as Jesus he's put himself out there the kingdom movement is there and the most important people the most influential people the powers that be are suspicious of Jesus or they reject him outright and we have another story of that today but then we also have how Jesus responds to that rejection is very powerful Matthew chapter 14 so at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard reports about Jesus and he said to his attendants imagine him and like you know governor's throne room or something like that he said there's got to be John the Baptist he's risen from the dead but why miraculous powers are at work in him let's pause real quick here that's the story more gonna unfold out of that but it's this little strange report about Herod one of the governors of the region and he's hearing about Jesus Jesus has momentum lots of people around him he's doing these signs and wonders and so he gets on to the Herod's radar right the regional governors radar and this seems quite odd to us we're like what he doesn't he hears about Jesus of Nazareth and he says who's this guy it's got to be John the Baptist who who's dead now just stop right there if you've been following through Matthew so far what's the last thing you learned about John the Baptist usually appeared at the beginning of the story and then we heard about him just a couple chapters ago you remember and chapter 11 was in prison he's in prison that's the last we heard about John about he sent messengers he was asking Jesus are you are you sure you're the one that was this question to Jesus are you sure you're the Messiah that's the last thing we heard about John the Baptist and now all of a sudden he's what he's dead he does apparently this is Jesus cousin it's very close person to Jesus they were colleagues together how did that happen so Matthew knows that you don't know the story so this is a you know this dates me in a million ways but Wayne's World this is the moment so we didn't visit couldn't it right it's this is a flashback but very is really interesting in the Gospel of Matthew he pauses the story and then he goes back in time do you reaiiy know that you don't know that John the Baptist is dead but you learned through Herod so now I'm going to tell you the story Matthew says verse 3 now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias his brother Philips wife this is because John the Baptist had been saying to Herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother Philips wife now Herod he wanted to kill John but he was afraid of all the people because everyone else considered John to be a prophet okay so stage is set Matthew just gave you the the backstory here now this is here's what I'm gonna do I don't use I sometimes show you maps they're all very simple Maps this this time I want to show you a very complicated map and everything I'm about to say in the next three minutes you're going to promptly forget right and that's the point all right so don't it's it's not just work with me all right work with me here is a political map of Israel Palestine food in Jesus's time as an adult so we've heard of Herod's before in the story haven't we remember Herod so we had a Herod at the beginning of the story Jesus is born in Bethlehem rumors are out there's the Messiah born in Bethlehem what was Herod's response right he kills all the baby boys in Bethlehem horrified he was a horrible person a murderous murderous man this is not that Herod this is that Herod's son does that Herod's son who took the same name because he wanted to be like dad and he's no better here's what happened it's very fascinating and history geeks you'll love this so that all of the region kind of colored you can see maybe inside of a thick red line was big bad King Herod's kingdom and it was his kingdom given to him under Rome he was kind of like a puppet king he was half Jewish a horrible man ruled with an iron fist when he died he had three significant sons who were all vying for power a civil war almost started if they each of them tried to become King in dad's place and so what they eventually had to do was iron out a treaty where each of them got a big section of land so over the green is a guy named arc Elias he became a governor as you can see in the map there about six ad Jesus would have been about eight or nine years old when the map changed here so so our coleus is over the green the green is where Jerusalem is and Bethlehem down by the Dead Sea and so on okay up in Galilee do you see galilee up there well colors that that's gray so gray is ruled by a guy named Antipas who called himself Herod this is given name as Antipas but he took on the name Herod when he became governor because he wanted to be like dad so he takes over Galilee which is where Jesus is doing all of his stuff the kingdom movement starts in Galilee through Jesus now Antipas had great aspirations to become you know like his father and so this is what you see he's not only over Galilee where else is the gray do you see it right down there as a whole other section called Perea down there a little little south so here's the fascinating story of how that happened so if you see on the bottom right of the map there's a region called Nabataean do you see that remember you're going to forget all this there's no quiz right you're going to forget all this the best part of the point right so so Nabataean a Bhatia was a kingdom whose capital city still exists today carved into stone in modern-day Jordan what's the name of that tourist site petra country you know petra have you seen the pictures of petra kingdom carved in stone right that was the capital city of the Nabataean kingdom so Herod he makes this alliance with the king of Nabataean to get all of this land by marrying his daughter the princess of Nabataean which has a great ring to it okay Mary and so we get this whole stretch of land right here alright that's the second son the third son of Herod is Philip who gets this region up here kind of in the upper right off the map it's tan do you see that there okay here right here's the story this is like a political soap opera like you wouldn't believe so the whole family is accountable to Caesar out in Rome so of all the family and their wives the three brothers and their wives and so on they go on this trip to Rome and they're Antipas over Galilee falls madly in love with his brother Philips wife who's the governor of the upper right you see that right so and so they have this whole affair and so on sex scandal this kind of thing right and so they agree in rum they're going to come back and Antipas have to talk slow and intentionally here because the details are so murky Antipas divorces the princess of Nabataean and sends her back that doesn't go over well with the king of nabbit ayah and so the king of nepotism declares war on all of this land that Antipas just got so now there's thousands of soldiers dying on the border because of a sex scandal right so that's from the divorce from the princess of nabbit a then phillips wise whose fell madly in love with Antipas she goes back and she divorces Phillip that doesn't go over well so now there's virtually civil war on that border up there and so now Antipas has his love Herodias and they're living in the region of Galilee together where this story happened you with me war on the borders sex scandal right I mean it's just is anything new Under the Sun you don't have sex it doesn't change does it and that's part of my point here this is all forgotten isn't like we don't you're going to forget this five minutes from now and why is Matthew giving us all of this backstory here it's sort of like the shadow of Herod looms over Jesus in the kingdom at the very beginning almost right almost murders Jesus and kill all these baby boys in Bethlehem and now here at halfway through the story the chef the shadow of Herod's family looms again over Jesus in the movement of the kingdom and what is what is that shadow it's the same shadow of the human condition that all that is the human history of human history somehow when humans get together and we make kingdoms it's just it's not a friendly environment for the kingdom of God right because it's just ego and lust and power and money just writ large and project it out and thousands of people die and unfortunately and tragically John the Baptist becomes a casualty as the kingdoms of this world Rumble on and here's the story verse six on Herod's birthday so John the Baptist was an outspoken critic of Herod and this marriage he thought it was super screwed up on Herod's birthday royal birthday party pink throne room royal birthday party lots of wine you get the deal the daughter of Herodias this is his new wife daughter so used to be his niece right now is his daughter La danced for all of the guests and pleased Herod so much read between the lines what's royal they party lots of wine used to be my niece now my daughter comes pleases everyone with her dancing this is this is not a Puritan movie right I'm saying here she pleased Herod so much then he utters this rash drunken vow he promises on oath to give her whatever it is that she want so then her mother comes in and says hey tell him to give you John the Baptist's head on a dinner platter the king was distressed he's like dang it why did I say what dang it what no no but because of his oath and everybody the dinner guests who were there he's like what I can't lose face here I would lose his pride and honour so he ordered that her request be granted and he had John beheaded in the prison his head was then brought in on a dinner platter part birthday party dinner platter severed bloody head of John the Baptist given to the girl who then carries it across the royal throne room in to birthday party and gives it to to mom that's the story the kingdoms of this world they Rumble on doing what humans have always done right it's about money it's about land it's about power and it's about sex and John the Baptist John the Baptist dies a grisly horrifying death because of the thoughtless rash drunken vow of an irresponsible King what kind of world are we living in good people horrible things happen to them bad people sit and pout you know what I mean Matthew's giving us a portrait of the world as we know it and right here it looks as if everything might come crashing down because that's the fate of John the Baptist and who just came on to Herod's radar for the first time Jesus this is not good news this is not good news verse 12 so John's disciples came they took John's body they gave it an honorable burial and then they go and they tell all this to Jesus and then we're back to the Jesus story here's a long digression dude right this will stay here long digression and then we're back to the present moment and this is all backstory to yet one more hostile threat to Jesus and in the kingdom movement and so then it raised the question here like what does Jesus is going to do he's well he's flown under the radar up to this point just catching flack from the Pharisees and so on and they've already plotted to murder him but now it's like he's not under the radar anymore right the stakes are high you know like what the Herod's family is aware of Jesus now and that is not good news and so look at Jesus's response this is how Matthew frames the story that follows that is familiar to us at least many of us here's the story that follows look at what Jesus does since when Jesus heard about all this heard what happened , the puss so just stop Jesus hears that report this john's disciples and friends they come to jesus they tell him everything that's happened how how are you feeling about life right now you Jesus he's your close cousin this is this is someone who Jesus is formative moment remember in his baptism and anointing as the Messiah John was right there there they've been colleagues together in the kingdom of God Movement and so Jesus like just imagine what's sinking in for Jesus as he hears as he hears this with the careless drunken flick of a wrist John the Baptist's head is gone so there's grief there's surely fear for Jesus and there's surely he's wondering like what's ahead for me look at what Jesus does when Jesus heard about all that had happened he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place it's emphasized in three ways what Jesus trying to do right now get away get by himself know people now privately he's never by himself entirely he's got this crew 12 who he's committed to they go with him everywhere so he but that's his first response is I got to get out of here and so he gets there you know there around the lake Sea of Galilee so get 12 them and they take off and secret and in private she's somehow sail along to some really isolated secluded section of the coastline on the other on the other side that's jesus's whole point and so I think Maddie is this is window we're supposed to I think reflect on what's happening inside of Jesus why does why would he want to get away I could just do the grief right the pain right the sadness that something so horrible would happen to someone who was like a man of such principle like John the Baptist and he's just annihilated because of the stupid drunk King is horrifying and he's thinking of course about himself and the state of the Jesus Movement that he's begun like you can just imagine what kind of mindset Jesus would be in and this is the way Matthew introduces us to the familiar story that follows I'm just going to read it hearing of all this the crowds followed Jesus on foot from the towns so when Jesus landed what did he see people what was Jesus trying to get away from people all right he's trying to get by himself and process all of this heavy heavy stuff and he lands and who's there the crowds they're always there always his needy people but when Jesus landed he saw this large crowd he had compassion and he had compassion on them and healed their sick as evening approached the disciples came to him and they said Jesus we're out in the middle of nowhere here we're in this super remote place it's getting late these crowds they need to go because they need to go to the villages and get food Jesus jesus replied they don't need to go you give them something to eat that's a bad idea Jesus right we only have five loaves of bread and two fish here we brought food for 12 Jesus she bring that here to me he said so he directed the people to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and he gave thanks for some of your translation said he said a blessing then he broke the loaves and he gave them to the disciples and then the disciples gave them to the people they all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over and the number of those who ate was about five thousand just counting the men not to mention the women and the children and that's the end of the story actually it's not the end of the story so I give reading immediately Jesus made the disciples get back in the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd then what does Jesus do dismisses the crowd gets up on a mountainside by himself to do what to do what he was trying to do all along which was get by himself and pray verse 23 pray so Mattie's framed this story you have this intense heavy tragic news Jesus withdraws to get by himself and it's his efforts are totally frustrated can't escape the crowds but he doesn't see the crowds as an inconvenience he just does what he always does which is a lot of people and move towards them in compassion he does that and then he finally gets to do what he was trying to all along which is go pray and process this heavy heavy news you guys with me here the flow of the story so in in frame right in there is a story that's probably familiar to many of us which is Jesus feeding this huge thousands of people with his meager little amount and I think most of us you know we read these stories and bit we never read them two hours of whole rice we never actually hear the stories in context so we're here we're seeing that this story takes place in a great time of great emotional pain for Jesus and we read the story of the feeding of the 5,000 you know it's Jesus is powerful and Jesus can do amazing things basic point of the story you guys get it Jesus is amazing you can do powerful things should we go home now it's great any go now there's one more layer to it remember from the video Matthew has this new mo Jesus as a new Moses thing and so I think Matthew's intentionally put the story here can you think of another story in the Bible where you have this relights wandering in the middle of nowhere without adequate food and then the leader of God's people miraculously provides food for everybody out in the middle of nowhere can you think of that story that's the Moses story isn't it right from the wilderness in in the stories of the Torah and so Matthews is another part of Matthew portraying Jesus of the new Moses but there's even more here and this is what I just want to use the rest of our time to reflect on and this is this story's beautiful and then it's actually immensely helpful for me in the last couple weeks what the focus of this story on pay attention to what Matthew focuses on and it's this conversation that Jesus has with the disciples Jesus feeds these thousands of people but he feeds them through whom through the disciples who actually gives the bread to the people did you catch that Jesus gave the bread to the disciples the disciples give the food to all of the people this is a story about the disciples this is a story about Jesus in giasses grief and pain he does what the only thing he knows to do which is to love people and he loves people and he provides for them in their moment of need and brokenness through his disciples and the focus of this story is this conversation Jesus has with the disciples and it's beautiful and so as a practice that I found we've done it a few times Matthew when you come to a familiar story in the Bible and you think you already know it it's a practice I found helpful is to pause and to count up how count up all the different characters in the story who are all the main characters in the story and then to slowly read the story through using your imagination as if you were each of the characters and and just to allow the story to affect you from all these different angles and the disciples are key in the story here this is a story about Jesus and the disciples so let's put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and let's sit ourselves in the context Matthew's given us so you're you're you're one of the twelve you've been hanging out with Jesus every day for the last year and a half and you're with Jesus when he writes these disciples of John come they look they just look broken and they're crying and they come and you hear them have this conversation with Jesus about his cousin and you just you watch like what would that news do to Jesus when Jesus has other family member Lazarus died and was placed in a tomb what was Jesus's response to them in the Gospel of John he was broken and he wept so just you imagine a grieving Jesus over John and Jesus comes to you the disciples and he's like we got to get out of here we got I gotta get away and see like yes absolutely you know we've got the boat and so on so you come and you get onto the boat and Jesus is broken he's saying nothing and so you okay we got to get Jesus somewhere where there's no people right so one of you is like okay we know the spot you know let's go here you know it's a few miles this way no one find us there no one knows about it there's a cabin my friend or something I don't know you know use your imagination right you know sanctified imagination so they're trying their whole point is you're trying to care for Jesus and get him away from people so he can process his heavy news and then once you come around and you start to see the shore and you can make out the landing what do you see there people crowds and you're one of the disciples you're protective of Jesus and you're like dang it where do these people come from rise like pop up out of the ground they're everywhere Reilly is hurting broken people they've heard about the of God and they've heard that Jesus can bring healing and salvation to their lives and so they come they come from everywhere and so there they are the crowds and so yours you think what you would be thinking in that moment you're bummed for them this is a huge inconvenience right for what you think Jesus needs and then oh then Jesus sees the crowd and he has a very different response than you do and how he responds is how he always responds to people and it's what Matthew describes right here as compassion it's like Jesus has this bottomless well of love and compassion for people especially losers right and especially people whose bodies don't work and who were poor and so the mud and you watch Jesus is powerful and think about the context here Jesus surely is experiencing grief and sorrow for John the Baptist and almost certainly for himself as he thinks about what this means for him right if Herod knows about him now and he sees the crowds of hurting people and he does what Jesus always does he turns his sorrow and grief over himself and John and he translates it into compassion and sorrow for other people and for their pain and for their loss and so you land at the shore and Jesus is not bummed at all he just moved he just does what he does and he's good moves in he starts getting people's names he's praying for them right he's healing them he's speaking good news and God's loves to them and you're just like this this is why I followed this man all right I think this is quintessential Jesus right this is this is why we love him I'm speaking present-tense out of story yeah right this is this is a Jesus moment where you just liked I love this man he's so amazing and he's so wise and he's so loving and so man you speak you're one of the disciples you spend a year and a half every day with somebody who treats people like this it will rub off on you rides contagious and so he's doing this Jesus doing his thing he's healing people the hours are going by rising yours watching does the Jesus thing and then you know you'd be like man Jesus loves these people and all of a sudden Jesus is rubbing off on you it hits you it's late in the day we're in the middle of nowhere there's like thousands of people here I don't know many people arrive they need to eat like people need to eat there's a lot of poor people here there's no like there's no food in the middle of nowhere I should tell Jesus about this so you go and tell Jesus this idea you're like Jesus man people have no food it's late in the day they need to go to the villages and so Jesus is like a good job you thinking about someone else for your change you know someone other than yourselves a really great job you know so that's cool he's rubbing off on you this is progress you know so Jesus but look at Jesus response so this is your idea Jesus these people need food I've got an idea with a we should help them get back to the villages so they can get food and Jesus has great idea but they don't need to go away look at what he says they don't need to leave now you're just like wait a minute no they do need to leave because there's no food here Jesus like that's my whole point is that there's no food here they actually do need to leave and Jesus look at what Jesus does and he says know what no they don't need to go away I really like your idea you give them something to eat do you see that this is just not what you were hoping to hear right if you're one of the disciples so what's happened here this is how Jesus works with his disciples apparently Jesus rubs off on his disciples and they begin to notice things that Jesus would notice like people are hungry and need food it's great progress and then so you take this idea to Jesus and you like it Jesus hears these people here's the situation I think that you would care about this kind of thing and Jesus is like yeah that's that's really good you do something about it so where do we go from here well you're one of the disciples and a million reasons come in your walk mind why that's a bad idea right for you to be the one to give them something to eat so here's the one that you think of I'm Jesus we only brought food for twelve all right I'll get these five loaves of bread and two fish right we're in the middle of nowhere this is our food that we brought for the twelve of us and in your mind you bring that to Jesus because that clearly is going to end this conversation you know I mean Jesus will hear that and you'll be like oh oh oh yeah good point yeah you don't have any food I guess I have to go now right I guess did you have to go right what's your motive for saying we don't have anything well we just have what we brought for ourselves that ends the conversation right put Jesus in this place right what it was wild ideas about us feeding people and then look at Jesus response Jesus me everything just a little bit for us when Jesus says last perfect perfect what you bring it right here bring it here so in Jesus is mine this is all going according to plan for Jesus right he rubs off on his disciples they notice things that he would notice they bring their ideas to him and then he like turns it all around and hands it back to them with a challenge for them to go do something except now the challenge is this monstrous kingdom of God tasks that they're totally inadequate for and so then they think about million reasons why I'm not the person to do this and why this is a really bad idea but I'd be the one and then Jesus says oh you only have that little bit oh that's perfect that's exactly what I was envisioning so why don't you bring that here to me so and then and then what happens is this to me the beautiful beautiful part of the story because what Jesus does when his disciples bring the the little the next and nothing that they have and they bring it to Jesus what Jesus does with that next to nothing is is mysterious and profound he bring them here to me he said he directed the people to sit down on the grass and then he took the five loaves and to fish and he looks up to heaven right to to the father he gave thanks or some of your translations have not he gave thanks but what he said a blessing said a blessing and then he broke the loaves then he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people so Jesus takes the next nothing that the disciples give and he holds it up in prayer and in blessing to the father and son and he breaks it and as something happens there now there's a number of things that are really cool going on in this story but here's here's one that you'll find really cool can you think of another story in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus took bread set a blessing broke it and gave it to his disciples oh there you go spoiler alert right there all right Matthew 26 Matthew 26 right this is the Last Supper right the last Passover meal this is the night that Jesus was betrayed Matthew 26 as they were eating Jesus took bread and after saying a blessing he broke it and then he gave it to the disciples and he said take eat this is my body then he took a cup and when he had said a blessing he gave it to them and he said drink of it all of you this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness for many for the forgiveness of sins so think think with me here think back to the video Matthew the composition of Matthew takes place you know 30 ish years then matthew has been telling and retelling and retelling these stories for decades now and so as Matthew reflects back on this story of what happened in the middle of nowhere with the five loaves and the two fish matthew retells it using the language of his memory of the Last Supper you with me in other words these two events are connected in Matthew's mind how are they connected so the Last Supper is this moment where Jesus Jesus was trying to communicate to them the paradox of how he would truly become King and how the kingdom would be inaugurated and come in and crashing to earth here and it would happen through his it would happen through a grisly execution that that's even more disturbing than John the Baptist John ends up with his head on a dinner platter Jesus ends up being executed on a Roman execution rack because of the jealousy of some priests in Jerusalem and a corrupt Roman governor right and it's Jesus who's this kind of person and he treats people this way and he ends up talk about good people meeting a horrible end Jesus is going to end up crucified and and he's trying to communicate his disciples like this actually isn't a tragedy this is the way it's supposed to go because right right here the broken body and shed blood of Jesus becomes paradoxically the place where the love and the Justice of God meet together we're God's justice on all of the horrible screwed-up things that humans do to each other that just get projected out large like John the Baptist and so on but what is all what is happening in Herod's birthday party it's just the human condition it's just what goes on inside of your heart in mind all the time we just most of us lack the power and the resources to actually act this terrible right but if most of us have this plan of power and authority we would act the same way and let's not try and pretend that we wouldn't right and so Jesus ends up actually actually embodying God's justice on all of human evil and sin but at the same time embody and God's love as the judge takes his own judgment into himself and Jesus's death on the cross it's his absorption of sin and evil so that forgiveness can come to screwed up people like you and like me and Jesus likens hid this seemingly tragic event to to his body being broken and given to others somehow this crazy thing that happens to Jesus become something that gives life to others and so Matthew uses the language of the Last Supper as he remembers the story of how Jesus asked them the disciples to participate in the kingdom coming into the lives of these hurting sick people right there on the on the shores and so you guys see what's happening here this is beautiful somehow Jesus takes something that seems insignificant or nothing or negative and then he breaks it and he prays for it and he blesses it and then it becomes a gift to others and Jesus did this with his own life and death and Jesus now does it with the next to nothing that the disciples have what by the way whose food is this five loaves and two fish whose food is a four this is disciples what are they giving away they're giving away everything that's the only thing they have right now right what a stupid thing to do give away your food in the wilderness but somehow it like it's this year we are the kingdom costs everything it's like the parable Cameron taught for the Pearl is treasure it's somehow Jesus invites us into this journey of being his disciples it's going to cost everything everything and I have to do with Jesus rubbing off on us so that we begin to notice situations and people and things that Jesus would care about and so we bring this to Jesus's attention well okay this is really screwed up and I that kind of thing shouldn't happen in God's good world and these people should be cared for and right it's this you begin to care about people the more you immerse yourself in Jesus's story and then you bring that to Jesus's attention and Jesus and Jesus says yeah that's a really good point you go do something about it and then you have a whole bunch of reasons why that's a bad idea you know I mean I've you know I'm just I'm nobody I don't really have anything I just gave these loaves and fish or whatever I just have whatever I just have my paintbrush you know I just have you know my musical abilities right I just have a little bit of time and money and I just have these relationships or not I'm not significant or whatever and Jesus says is perfect it's perfect why don't you want to just bring that here to me and so you offer that to Jesus and he enters your gift into the paradox of who he is but it's somehow through giving up everything and it's giving up your pride and it's giving up your actual life what you consider your life's and sustenance you give it up to Jesus and he does something profound with it he breaks it he breaks it and then he prays and blesses it and then he gives it back to you and then you you have this basket of fish Medan you have this basket of fish and bread and so you go out and he says now you go see the people and so you go out and you know the first run this is freaky okay so you come up and you whatever you like 15 people right and you're like okay as if you go back to Jesus and there's more and so you take it and you go back out again and this is really strange because well I don't know where this is coming from and then you run out and you're exhausted you know then you go have acted to Jesus and there's more and now you're really weirded out whatever and you go back and knit and that's the story that's the story this is how Jesus works so this message has had a bunch of different pieces to it we've had this video we had this bad soap opera of the kingdoms of this world but what the story's giving us is this portrait of what does it actually mean to be a disciple of Jesus and you know kingdoms of this world are going to do what kingdoms of this world are going to do the world is no more unstable or unpredictable than it was 2,000 years ago because there's people in it it's just and what does Jesus do Jesus does what he always does he does what the kingdom of God is about about loving God loving your neighbor and it's about moving towards people and noticing hurt and need and then Jesus invites his disciples into this experience and they're completely inadequate and they're completely confused and that's actually makes it so beautiful and paradoxically Jesus takes that paradox into himself he blesses it he breaks it and so whose idea was it to seed the people with your idea there's one of the disciples but then again like how it actually all ends up is totally not your idea and how it worked out and there you go there you go and that's the mystery and the terrifying thrill of being a disciple of Jesus and I ask if I'm if I'm not actively engaged in some part of that process of this story I should I should pay attention and I should ask myself if I'm actually following Jesus so what does this mean what does this mean for us I I can't answer what the story is going to mean for you and what it means for you to respond to it but I just would say this we have this times we do every week to worship Jesus and take the bread in the cup and we have a chance to ask Jesus to remind remind us of people of circumstances in our lives that he would care about and the he would notice and then to pray this terrifying prayer of like Jesus something should be done about this and I'll already tell you what you're going to hear Jesus say you did you do something about it since you're my disciple and then here we go and and so let's treat the bread in the cup today as as a moment of bringing these these people and these circumstances to Jesus and to ask him what are you asking me to do and then bring your objections and then know that he'll have objections of your objections hi and then and let's just sit and listen to what Jesus wants to say to us as his disciples it's the only thing I know how to do in response to a story like this amen let me close in word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Id: N5cGPZGZ5fI

Length: 54min 20sec (3260 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 20 2017