Hey friends, welcome to another episode of the podcast Sunday.
Sit down. I need to start remembering the
name in my introductions. And we are happy that you're
with us. We're talking about everybody's
favorite R words. It's not reduce, reuse, and
recycle. It is revenge, retribution, and
rejection. So you may already want to turn
this thing off, but we hope that it helps you think a little bit
deeper about your own faith, your relationship to Jesus, your
relationship to others. And ultimately, we hope that
this pushes you toward community and conversation and deeper
connection with those around you.
You missed another. You could have had more
alliteration in their community. Community was it was the other
word you said. Community conversation,
conversation and Christ likeness.
There we go. If I do too many of those
though, I just start saying the wrong words like I got 2IN me.
That's it, that's all. Hey, we do.
We hope that this encourages you this week.
And we know that many of you listen to these things in the
car, on your drive, where things like revenge and retribution
might become part of, you know, your way of being or felt
experience. And we also know that many of
you are just like out for walks, working out, exercising, doing
chores, commuting to work all the places.
But really, at the end of the day, we want you to hear this.
We hope that our conversation challenges you to have your own
conversations with those around you about the deep and
meaningful things of, of faith. So we're in Luke 9 still, which
if you are not new, won't surprise you.
We've got one more week left in Luke 9 and then we're into 10.
So this week we will close out Luke 9.
But let's jump in. This passage is short enough.
Justin, why don't you read it for us?
And then we'll we'll jump into some conversations.
Sounds good, and it's worth noting we did.
We did miss last week. We we missed it, we missed a
week. It doesn't happen often.
I think it's only the second time it's happened, but so we
didn't get to unpack the previous week partly because of
this guy one pointing to myself, if you're listening, I having an
illness and so that kind of threw off our week
substantially, but we'll make up for it with a good one today.
Hope we're back. All right, let me read from Luke
9 starting at verse 51. So as the time approached for
him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for
Jerusalem. And he set and he sent
messengers gone ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get
things ready for him. But the people there did not
welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord,
do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?
But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and he then he and his
disciples went to another village.
So it's probably worth connecting some dots I think
because we didn't have a conversation.
So thanks for that reminder. Like I'm already we were talking
about this. I'm already so far into future
passages like this coming Sunday.
I'm having a hard time even remembering this past Sunday and
then the Sunday previous. But worth connecting a few dots
for people. One, the main event in our
passage from this past Sunday is Jesus and his disciples not
being welcomed. And that word is used
specifically by this Samaritan city, by the people in this
town. If you look back at the
disciples arguing about who is the greatest in the Kingdom,
what Jesus says is whoever welcomes, right?
So it's all about hospitality. Jesus has just taught the
disciples about they themselves learning to welcome and embrace
the last and the least. So giving hospitality, giving
what is due a guest of honor to little children who in Jesus's
day were not deserving of of that type of welcome and
hospitality. So the disciples have just got a
teaching from Jesus on hospitality and it's not one
where they look great. Like they're, you know, they're
thinking they're trying to push out.
There's this guy running around casting out demons in Jesus's
name. That's not one of the disciples.
And the disciples are all worried about it.
They're like, not that guy, right?
We don't have to welcome him. Like we don't have to embrace
him. He's not included.
Certainly like he doesn't count. He's not one of like the in
crowd and Jesus like so they're arguing around, you know who's
the greatest? Jesus says you need to learn how
to welcome the least. And then they still they're
like, yeah, but not this guy, like, no, even that guy.
And then now they're on the receiving end of in hospitality
and they're angry about it. So it I.
Think. It is.
It's painful to watch the disciples go through this over
and over again because they just don't.
It's like they they're not. They're not adding it.
They're now angry for the thing. It's like they flip so they
don't offer hospitality just like, Hey, you got to offer it
to the last and the least. Now they're like, oh, look,
they're not offering hospitality.
Now we're going to be angry, but it's like they flip and now
they're they're like, they're angry and they've got this
indignation because they're not receiving hospitality after they
were just lectured on giving hospitality.
So man, the disciples are going through this like back and forth
kind of whiplash. Why not understanding what
hospitality really is and looks like.
Hmm. And now they've got their backs
up because they're not being shown hospitality.
They respond in a way that, yeah.
And you and you kind of went through this on Sunday of like
it. It almost seems like if if you
removed from context very random, like would you call down
fire from heaven? You know, like, do you want us
to do that for you? Like, we'll do it.
We'll do it. And, and, and obviously it's,
it's a callback to to Elijah the prophet and, and the, the events
that happened in at the top of the mountain there with the
prophets of bail. And but it's, it's such a it's,
it's, it's a comical response in some ways, right.
And I don't know whether it's intended to be, but for, for me
as a modern reader, it reads almost like this is
unbelievable. Like, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it is. So you get the disciples who who
couldn't cast out the demon from the kid Jesus has to step in and
now they're like, but we'll call down fire from heaven.
And like I read that and I go, no you won't maybe.
You couldn't do it before. You couldn't do the Yeah, you
can do anything before, So what makes you think you can do?
That makes you think, yeah, yeah.
And I think I said, I think I said that on Sunday.
And obviously it's not in the text, so you can't read it into
it, but I like to think that it's kind of there.
At any rate, that's what goes through my mind.
It is. So it's the disciples are
pulling forward from their history from First Kings 18,
which is the contest on Mount Carmel, where the prophets of
Baal or Bail and the prophets of Ashura.
I've heard another ball. I've heard that as well.
Yeah, I'm probably gonna say it wrong and different ways for the
rest of the podcast, I think. I said just name it and just go
with. Just go with.
It I said it both ways in the sermon was it just depends on
the sentence. But here's the connection there
that I think makes it a little bit more sense is the way I read
that first Kings 18 and kind of the lead up to it is I believe
it's so Ahab is king at this point.
There's famine, people are starving, and a lot of it has to
do with the people rejecting God.
So the people have rejected God because they've been LED astray
by these prophets. And Elijah comes and he says,
hey, let's set the record straight.
No more 1 foot in one foot out. No more following Ashra Bale and
their profits and God and his like and Elijah.
But you know, it's, it's you're all in or you're all out.
And we're actually going to double down on that specific
idea this coming Sunday where Jesus says you can't look back,
you have to look forward. And what he's saying is you're
either all in or you're not. And so in First Kings, what
happened is that the people are not all in.
They're very split. Their loyalty is split.
And in splitting their loyalty, they are inherently they're
rejecting God because God says, listen, like I'm it or not at
all. And so Elijah calls up everybody
up to the top of the mountain. He says, hey, you know,
whichever God shows up and lights this altar on fire,
that's the true God. All of it.
Like that stage is set because the people have rejected God.
And so I think that in some way now also if you look like there
are some geographical similarities and even like
Samaria is named in the lead up to that contest on the top of
Mount Normal. So like, if there's even
cultural, historical similarities there in terms of
where they are. Yeah.
None of that made it into the sermon.
Yeah. But like, there's a lot, a lot
of those cues would kind of be prompting the disciples who then
say, we think we know what this is.
The people of Israel rejected God.
Elijah called down fire from heaven.
Prophets are killed at the end. All of that started because the
people rejected God. Now these people are rejecting
Jesus. They don't follow the true God
they worship. Not in Jerusalem should we call
down. So the similarities start to
mount and then you go, OK, that it does make some sense why
they're immediately there in their minds.
Yeah, because it feels a little extreme, but when you, when you
unpack the context, it definitely makes a lot more
sense. And then on top of that, the,
you know, the, the relationship between the, the, the Jews and,
and the, and the Samaritan people.
Hmm, which you unpacked a little bit as well.
But it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's hard for us to comprehend
just how deep the chasm is between these people.
Like it was the, the hatred between them.
I think there are probably some modern analogs you can listen or
fill in the blanks with what you think it might be because I'm,
I'm not going to name them, but I think we could, you know,
think of some modern analogue to that.
But I don't think that we here in North America have an have a
have a similar divide in the way that these two people did.
No, no, I don't. I don't think so.
So, yeah. Deeply historical, Deeply
theological. Political.
It's almost. It's everything that you're
told, like hey, on a first date, don't talk about these things.
Or like when you meet your potential future in laws for the
first time, don't talk about these things.
It's like all of those. Religion, race, culture,
politics, all all of the. Things, it's all of it wrapped
together, right. So which essentially is the
human experience. But yeah, it, it very, very deep
divide. And it it does, it does lend
power to the way Jesus wants to talk about the hospitality
that's meant to be given within the Kingdom of God, right?
When he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.
And like, when he's, he's talking through how to properly
love your neighbors, he's not talking about loving people that
you enjoy being around. He's not like, hey, you know,
invited us for a BBQ last week so we're going to go help shovel
their snow. Like their drive.
What I like it's not isn't like friendly.
Love your neighbors, it is love people.
You are deeply divided with and who you have deep, deep
disagreement on and even resentment toward at times, but,
you know, love the people that you've been placed beside.
That's a much more radical call to hospitality.
And it's also like it's wild to see Jesus telling the story
around like in a sense, like the hero of the Good Samaritan is
exactly the is. It's exactly not the person they
would have been expecting. Yes.
Yeah, so you know it. Yeah, big, big divide.
But all of its settles, all of it kind of lands on this idea of
rejection. So the people of Samaria in this
town are themselves, like historically, I think somewhat
like internalized as a culture, a rejected people.
Yes. And so in some ways, it makes
sense that they would, you know, they would have their hackles up
a little bit and they're they're not going to be automatically
receptive to this, this message that Jesus and his disciples
were bringing. Yeah, like it, it makes sense.
We see elsewhere, like John chapter 4, the woman at the
Samaritan woman at the well. And and that story there, you
see it, it doesn't start it. You know, it happens slowly over
time where they build this relationship and connection.
And then the gospel spreads to the Samaritan people there.
But here, they're not ready for it.
They're not ready for it. And and they reject it.
Right. And I think you can see you can
be really practical here. You can see how for us it's
still, I think it's still the same in inside of relationship.
Rejection begets rejection, right?
How many times do you with friends, spouses, relatives,
what parents, parents in-law, like whoever the relationship,
name a relationship, but how often do you reject because you
feel that you've been rejected, right?
And that's like that's a spiral of negative sort of, I feel
rejected, so therefore I'm going to reject.
Rejection begets more rejection, and that chasm just grows, which
is exactly what's happened here over a long period of time.
Like, we're talking hundreds of years at this point.
So it is a situation where, you know, it's not as simple as this
one town just didn't accept Jesus, so we're going to be
angry. Yeah.
This is, Yeah. Generation after generation of
people who are deeply divided and have been, like, pushed
away. And like, I think again, just
really practically in terms of our own relationships, I know
that I need like there are seasons and there are moments
where I need to just choose to stop that cycle or you just have
to actually name it and stop that.
Like, I feel rejected. You feel rejected.
I'm prone to reject like reject like pushing harder.
There's I think a significant, um, like practical wisdom to
learning to name that and just like arresting it because like
how many, even just I think of how many marriages have wrestled
with that kind of negative input, like feedback loop spiral
of yeah, rejection. And I mean, rejection is, is
common to all of us. It's something we all experience
in one way. In other words, whether it's
like a job rejection or, you know, unrequited love or, or, or
just someone who you want to like you doesn't like you, You
know, like, I even like going back to like elementary school,
right? Where you, you try to be friends
with someone and they just sort of shove you off, right?
But it gets us something so core to our identity, right, That
when we feel rejected, we take it naturally, very personally,
very deeply. And, and one thing I, I've
noticed in myself as I've experienced rejection in various
ways is that when I've been unhealthy and I would say like,
I would categorize that as like not connected with, with God in,
in healthy ways and healthy rhythms.
When I am listening to voices, I ought not to listen to you.
When I, when I am unhealthy, I end up experiencing the
rejection so much more personally, so much more like
unobjective rely and it and it rattles me to my core, you know,
and I can name a season where I was feeling a, a number of
rejections and, and feeling like a whole bunch of people, like
separately were all rejecting me is in a tough season of
ministry. And, and I meanwhile, there were
so many other who were surrounding me with love and
care and support and, and, and propping me up, but all I could
focus on was the rejection. And so I think about that and
then I think about how, how we can receive rejection in a, in a
healthy way. The disciples did not receive
rejection in healthy way here. They kind of played into the the
history and they played into all of the things and they were
like, let's just, you know, let's just destroy them.
Which, yeah, I think that categorically unhealthy.
But when I know who I am just feeling sure of who I am in
Christ, Hmm, who I am just as as an individual when I know my
strengths, when when God is is affirming who I am not, not
everything because I'm not perfect.
We all know that. But like that when I when when
God is is speaking into my life in that way, then I can
experience that rejection in a very different way of like, hey,
this, this is not the end of the world.
Hmm, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I think, I
think you're exactly right. So rejection I think at its core
is connected to identity. And so a couple weeks ago we
talked about some of these core longings that people have and
the on borrowing language from Terry Wardle and others who talk
about like the human being having these created longings,
like heart longings. So these are desires, wants,
needs. You know, we're kind of wrap all
of that up into one, but they're gonna pull you in directions.
You are gonna constantly be seeking them because you've been
created for them. And one of the core longings is
to belong. And one of the other one of
another one of the six is I can't remember the exact.
I think it's significance. It's either significance or
purpose that used. And I anyways, I can't remember
the exact word, but so I think I think rejection hits at multiple
levels of that. So it it speaks in a negative
way against that belonging, right?
So each of us want, need, long desire, look for belonging.
We need to know that there is a community that we are a part of
and that we fit within that community.
And it's kind of like we see the disciples fighting amongst
themselves. Who's the greatest?
That's what that's exactly what they're looking.
For they're looking for exactly. So they're doing this social
comparison thing where we constantly compare ourselves to
other people because I'm trying to understand who I am and I'm
trying to understand where I belong.
Do I like, is there a place for me?
Is there a role for me? Do I have like, is there
something meaningful for me to contribute that I can uniquely
contribute to this community? That's what we're trying to
wrestle out. And so rejection is is in so
many ways like the the antithesis of that.
It plays on, it plays toward that that belonging and that
need to belong and it plays toward that need for
significance and that meaning that my life has meaning within
this community. So when you're rejected, it
pushes against that. One of the other court longings
is simply to be loved, right? Human beings were created to to
experience love. So what I mean by that is to
love one another, to be loved and to love.
And when you're rejected, it's again, it is severing so many of
these things that we've been created to experience and look
for and long for. Um, and rejection is ultimately,
yeah, just the I'm going to cut you off in so many ways from
what you've been created to experience.
And so I think ultimately, and we all struggle with this, but
ultimately, um, like I believe you've been created to
experience those longings inside of a relationship with God
ultimate like that the highest form of those longings are
satisfied our filled inside of our relationship with Jesus.
Yeah. So you're always going to look
for love until you find it in the one who created you in love.
You're going to try to find it in ways and shapes and forms
that are less than that love. Not that they're bad, they're
just less than. And so I see this happen.
Like what happens? Yeah, people get married and
then they, you know, let's say they have kids.
The kids become like the the thing like that, that they are
your meaning in life, your life existence is to raise these kids
and to love them and to see them successful.
And that's a good inclination. But how many couples do you and
I see over our careers who become empty nesters and then
eventually separate? Just implodes, right?
Yeah. Yeah, You haven't.
You haven't taken that time. It's funny that you bring that
up. My, my niece, 16 years old,
she's in high school. She, she FaceTime me last night
and she's like, hey, I have some questions.
I'm doing a project on parenting for school.
And, and, and the first question that she asked was like how, you
know, how do parents like, make sure they, they like, make time
for each other after having like a, a newborn and a kid?
And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, that's, that is the challenge.
And you and you have to do that like, otherwise exactly what
you're describing when you, if you don't, at least at times,
prioritize your your marital relationship, by the time that
kid leaves, it's like, what do you have left?
Yeah, yeah. So I would even take it one step
further because I think couples that end up in that position and
end up in it for a variety of very difficult reasons.
Sure. But what I do see is when people
get married, the marriage becomes the most important
thing, like the idle. And then when they have kids,
the kids become the idol. And then when the kids grow up
and leave, well, they've just shifted one out of front.
So this this hasn't been worked on.
You're not likely to go back to the the the spouse being the
other cause that's old news. When when actually what was
problematic is that the marriage was the idol to begin with.
And so it's, I think until we find, until we find ultimately
a, a source of or what it is like to be loved by God.
Hmm. Our, our we will prioritize our
loving relationships and put them in places that they weren't
meant to be. Yeah.
So whether that's, you know, we elevate the marriage or we
elevate the kids or we elevate the friendship, we whatever it
is, we're we're putting it in the we're looking for something
that ultimately are created to experience inside a relationship
with God. So like it happens with love and
belonging community, like all of it.
What I think what the Christian invitation is, is to find those
core identity longings, those pieces ultimately first really
inside of your relationship with Jesus, and then to work them out
inside of your relationship with other people.
But again, like until, until that first relationship is
first. So I think of some of it like
the letters, the letters in Revelation, right?
You've forgotten your first love that I think that we, we missed
prioritize things and you know, just to come back to rejection.
Uh, I think the firmer and, and this is, this is what you've
said, the firmer or the more solid concrete lived out,
experienced, your identity is inside of relationship with
Jesus. The less emphasis you're gonna
put on kind of trying to grab these other relationships and
the less you're going to give them credit for things that
don't belong there. Yeah.
So the you're it's not that you're not gonna.
The rejection still sucks. Yeah, it's still stings.
Yeah, and it's like it's, it's hard and sometimes you're
rejected for horrible reasons. You're like, what's that about?
And sometimes you need to hear rejection and go, oh, OK, I got
some stuff to work on. Either way, it's still sucks.
Like, it's not pleasant, but I think where we fall apart is
when we're were accidentally or implicitly looking for those
things inside of those relationships.
Yeah, that are really, truly meant to be found in God.
So just to take it really practical, uh, you know, you're
rejected at work to some degree or another.
Maybe it's your ideas, maybe it's for a promotion.
Maybe it's that you've been laid off.
Maybe it's that you're fired for whatever reason, you have
rejection at work. Well, if it works my idle, like
if I live to work, if my identity is my job, if all that
I am is this profession, then that rejection is going to
shatter your identity as a human being.
And I go, that's not the way we were created.
So again, that's not to like heap shame and guilt on people
here. Be like, I'm already feeling
rejected and now you're telling me it's my fault.
No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, yeah, I, I
think the important work that the Christian can do is to
deepen your, your relationship with Jesus, grow your spiritual
health, your emotional health inside of that place.
Yeah. Find inside of that place those
things that you're longing for, and you'll still experience
rejection, but it won't shatter the core of who you are.
I think something worth naming, just as we're talking about
rejection, that there is a type of rejection that is so deep.
You know, I'm thinking, I'm thinking about like kids whose,
you know, parents rejected them, right?
The the kind of the kind of thing that just feels like a
betrayal of the just the, the way that things ought to be,
right? And that that sort of person
where a love of loved one rejected them in some like deep
betrayal or whatever, right? Like that is the kind of stuff
that like you're going to feel that regardless of how of how
concrete your relationship is with Christ, you're going to
feel that deeply. And some of that kind of stuff
is going to need some extra help, right?
You know, there's like like some therapy and things like that.
I just want to name. But that is like if if you are
listening to this and you have some like just deep seated
rejection for that's like from your childhood or trauma, like
that's not something we can just sort of like we can't always
just strengthen our relationship with Christ and hope for the
best, right? Like there's often some other
stuff that we gotta unpack there with with the Lord, right?
And with sometimes a professional.
Yeah, just a little pitch. Always.
We should end every podcast with a pitch to go to therapy.
Yeah. I think a really good, helpful
resource in that vein that I've found is Peter Scazzero,
Emotionally healthy spirituality.
And his whole one liner is that you cannot be spiritually mature
while remaining emotionally immature.
And ultimately, I believe the the inverse is also true then,
and I think you would say it as well, that you can't be
emotionally mature fully without also being spiritually mature.
Those things need to progress together.
But we've got a lot of people who sound spiritually mature,
but who are emotionally immature.
And so it, it's, it's helpful to start talking in that direction
of, yeah, being OK with, hey, you've got some emotional health
things that will accompany your spiritual journey and that's
great. So Peter Scazzero stuff I, I
found really helpful. He has a 30 day or 40 might be a
40 day, like daily office. Hmm, that's also just really a
good resource. And then Henry nowen stuff on
just that, like inner, uh, inner child, longing to be loved, you
know, wound and or longing. Hmm.
His, some of his stuff is just fantastic for slowing down and
reading through it in a way that just like for me anyways, like
it's just spoken to my soul. So two, yeah, helpful resources.
So, and the disciples here, you know, are I think you could make
a strong case that they were not exactly emotionally immature or
even spiritually mature here in this moment.
And and so they respond to this rejection in a way that yes,
calls back to to the prophets and there's a large context, but
ultimately it is their response to rejection is those other two
R words, revenge and retribution.
And and so I wanna talk about that a little bit and, and our
inclination as a people and even at times as Christians to
respond in in ways that are are deeply on Christ like and
unhelpful. And it's, you know, likely not
going to be us requesting, you know, Jesus, if we can call down
fire on on people like that's that's typically not going to be
the thing. I at least I I hope not, dear
listener, but I think there are times when we do, we do wish ill
upon people in in even even in our our mind, right?
So like it might be helpful to name.
Yeah, I, I certainly hope people aren't like calling down fire
from heaven. Yeah.
You know, I, I think we see like we see imprecatory Psalms all
through the book of Psalms. I think there's a right place to
wrestle some of that out with God in a, in a good, right way.
So, you know, I think naming anger is a good thing.
The the desire that the disciples have is a little
different. It's should we do this?
Like we got a category for it. Like Jesus, is this our time?
Like can we kill these guys? Is this it is really what
they're asking for? And so that is different than
say praying with the language of the imprecatory Psalms like,
yeah, would you do this is different than saying, hey,
Jesus, can we like, can we call down fire from heaven?
And underneath, underneath it, with a lot of those Psalms and
other parts of Scripture, it's ultimately a cry for justice to
be done, right. And in this case, like the, the
people just happened to reject them this time, right?
Like, it's not like they, you know, I mean, the, the, the, the
scripture doesn't say here that there was any sort of like
violence toward them or so we can't infer that.
But it, it just, it feels, it feels like this goes beyond the
realm of like, just like, hey, we want, we want justice.
It feels like it's like disproportionate response.
Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.
So, OK. But let's talk for a minute,
though, about some of the ways we do call down fire from
heaven, because practically speaking, I think this can look
very different and maybe not as dangerous, but like almost as
dangerous as as the disciples. So the the end of the story is
that they don't call fire down from heaven.
That's that's not what happens here, but the desire to do it
is, I think, something that we all wrestle with.
And something that Jesus speaks to.
Right. And so Jesus rebukes them, right
for this. And I think that if we're not
literally calling down fire from heaven, I think we call down
fire from heaven online in how we post and respond and react.
Like I think the, the anger with which I see people posting and
writing and speaking online is, is in line with the disciples,
like often in line with the how the disciples respond.
So I think we can, like, we can call down fire online.
I think we can go scorched earth on relationships.
So, you know, you reject me. So rather than confronting you
and discussing it and being vulnerable about my hurt, I'm
just gonna burn this bridge to the ground.
And I think I said like jokingly on Sunday, it's like the you're
not going to break up with me. Like I'll break up with you
first. You can't fire me.
I. Quit exactly like that.
That gut response is the disciples response.
So I think it's easy to say, well, I didn't call down fire
from heaven and I didn't pray asking Jesus to murder these
people. But did you go and write a
Google review just like decimating that company for the
little thing that they got wrong on your like Uber Eats order or
something, you know? Right.
Yeah, or, or, or just the the vile comments that are left on
social media and how easily it seems like people are willing to
show the worst parts of themselves in those comments
because they're hidden, kind of like behind this glass wall.
And there are, there are some, you know, like say you know,
something like Facebook where you know, generally you're not
anonymous. You're it's your name and your,
you know, profile picture, etcetera.
Not all the time, but like in that instance, I think people
are still getting pretty like pretty full on these days, it
feels like. But it's, it's even worse where
there is any degree of anonymity.
Yeah, because you, you, you just the mask, the guard comes off
all of the inner thoughts, which is I think interesting to kind
of go into a little bit. All the inner thoughts end up
coming out because there you don't need to filter because you
don't have anyone to be accountable to.
So what are we? What are we seeing right now in,
you know, 2025 is that people are starting to be fired for
what they say online. Yeah, right.
And that's a rabbit trail we probably don't want to go down,
like, right or wrong, free speech.
Let's not go down that trail. But there are starting to be at
least consequences. And you can agree with them or
not genes, like, say, right or wrong.
But we're starting to wrestle that out.
Like, should there be consequences to what people
write online? Yeah, like, probably, right.
Should the group of teenagers who bully a kid endlessly until
they do something about it? Should they be held accountable?
Like, like there are situations where I think we're starting to
see that happen. But I would challenge anybody
like if you're listening to this and you have like an anonymous
account, that's probably like, that's the same spirit here as
as the disciples. And even if not, if you're just
like brazen with it and you're like, I don't care if people see
that it's connected to me. Like I wish that people thought
for a few seconds longer before reacting online.
So I think we do that. We do, we do it in real world.
I'm giving like air quotes here like as well like face to face
relationships where we do react and torch long standing
relationships because we're hurt.
I think at the end of the day, um, what's there's like that
cliche line? Hurt people or hurting people
hurt people, Yeah. And rejection is a legitimate
hurt, Yeah. So when you are hurt, what are
you prone to do? And I think those that's at the
end of the day, that's the question that I need to wrestle
with. Like when I'm hurt, what is my
initial gut like punch back kind of response?
Because that's going to be different for everybody.
I don't blow up on like Twitter and go like scorched earth
online. Like that's just not what I'm
inclined to do. But what is the thing that I'm
inclined to do? Because for some it is like to
vent and to rant or to post or whatever.
'S been there. For others, it's in person.
Yeah, right. So we just go like, push away.
I think, oh, when I look at the course of my life, that would be
like when I'm rejected, I go to that place of OK, fine, I just
don't care. I'm gonna cut this off, right?
And whether that's like a confrontation or just like a I'm
going to leave. Like that's kind of that would
be where my heart goes when I'm like when I feel rejected, when
I feel hurt, it's toward that. OK, whatever.
This doesn't like I'm going to pretend that this doesn't matter
and I'm going to cut and turn right.
So that's something that like when I'm at my worst, I wanna
just right, avoid or ignore, walk away or cut off and justice
be done. Like, and that's it.
Like I'm just, I'm done at my best.
It's OK, I know that. That's my inclination.
How do I lean in and actually learn to say I'm hurt?
Yeah, that's the difference between, you know, there's the
there's this kind of common theme over the course of
Scripture that starts all the way back in like Genesis 4 when,
when Cain kills Abel, where, where it's like the beast is
crouching at the door. You know, this imagery of like
our, our worst desires and tendencies that come most
naturally US are, are always there ready to go.
And, and the, the art of becoming like Jesus is that we
work to overcome by, by the help of the spirit in us, right.
We, we work to overcome the worst inclinations that we have.
And, and that's what you're describing there is like, Hey,
this is at my worst. This is what I want to do when I
when I am more centred in who I am in Christ and who I am.
I, I can, I can work at it from a different angle.
You know, and I was just reminded of, you know, when
we're talking about this and, and Jesus words in Matthew 5
about about violence. He says, you've heard it said to
people long ago, you shall not murder and anyone who murders
will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who
is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to
judgment. Again, anyone who says to a
brother or sister raca is answerable into the courts, and
anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Like Jesus has very strong words for not just the outward action
of violence, but the inward posture that we carry toward
people. And you're like, you got to deal
with that. Otherwise, it's going to make
its way out in some way, whether it's on a keyboard or in person.
No, absolutely. Which so often.
I love those teachings where Jesus begins like you've heard
it said. But I say to you and I go, OK,
I'm listening. Yeah.
Like, let me have it. Yeah.
What am I prone to do? Yeah, what do I need to do?
Like I'm in. But I think all of Jesus's
teachings is much more like, it's not about behavior
modification. Like we're not talking.
It's not just, you know, do the right thing.
Yeah. So you can become a good person.
Like this actually wants to transform your heart.
So you start to actually feel the thing that you wrestle with
diminish, right? It's it's not just that.
So so it is I agree with you, like you, you become able to
face the worst parts of yourself and say, I'm not going to do
that. We actually believe happens,
though, is that those pieces begin themselves to diminish
like those voice and that mean literal voices, but those voices
or inclinations lose their power over you.
So, you know, you just, you start to you, what you are
inclined toward is, is toward the good.
And that's when you know, like, OK, like Jesus is actually like
working on my heart and my posture toward God, toward
myself and toward others as opposed to all right, like, and
it needs to start. You just need to start by like
arresting the thing. Like I'm just going to not do
the thing. I'm going to choose to do it.
Like I'm going to choose to name it.
I'm going to choose to lean in. And that's a hard like
screeching fault sometimes. And then slowly what God does is
he like he changes your heart and what you are inclined
toward. And not into perfection, but I
think that you start to see the fruit of the positive things,
reactions, ways of being, etc. It's like I think, I think of, I
think it's Paul and I'm, I would need to go look, but he's
talking about right, like orderly communion and orderly
worship. And he's like if, if you know,
if you come to the table and there remember that your brother
has something against you, stop. First Corinthians Yeah 11 and.
Go and be reconciled and then return and take communion.
And it was a long time time ago. I remember the first time that I
sat and wondered, should I take communion?
Should I be like because I think the the the behavior
modification thing is, I'm gonna take it and this will help me
the next time around. Just be a better person.
The heart posture change is no, I'm going to not take this.
I'm going to 1st go, I'm going to be reconciled and then I will
come into communion. I can picture exactly where I
was sitting when I wrestled that out for the first time in my
life and went I don't know that I can like I need to stop.
So, um, you know, I like that, that I think that's ultimately
my hope for myself and, and for others is that level of not
behavior modification, but heart transformation.
I think I've seen that play out in my life, like I've often
talked about my, you know, like my feisty on online Ness on
Twitter X. It will always be Twitter.
It'll always be Twitter, but you just, you know, I, I don't wanna
anger some people, so I'll give it both names.
But like, and I, I think there was a season where I felt I had
to have a reaction to everything.
And eventually it just became exhausting.
And like, I was constantly anxious and constantly on edge
and just realizing this is really bad for my mental,
emotional, spiritual health. And over time now a part of this
has been like me almost, almost totally withdrawing from social
media, except when absolutely necessary.
Yep. Because I'm like, you know, my,
my like temptation and just like, like propensity to want to
respond. And, and, and so we used to be
that like I would have half written responses and they were,
they were probably more antagonistic than they needed to
be. And then I would erase them and,
and just be like, I'm not going to do this.
And then, and then eventually it's like, now it's going to
turn. Like, I actually just don't even
need to give that any further headspace, you know?
And, and like the world is not going to end by me not
responding to that, you know? And, and the Lord has worked on
me and I've been very slow to learn, but yeah.
I think that's the benefit of a discipline though too in your
life. Like just to name that piece and
and call it a discipline, call it a habit, call it a rule.
Like I, I do think that there's a reason why, man, again, I
remember, I have these like glimpses of memories from this
one from my childhood, but I remember when we drove out West
for the first time. And if you've ever driven the
Rocky Mountains across Canada, like so Cascades Rock, I
couldn't tell you exactly which of those two passes it is, but
there's like a good stretch where you're driving through the
mountains and there are no guardrails.
And I'm like, this is what is happening.
I just can't handle. It's terrifying, yeah.
And then I remember the first time I did it driving like as
the driver with my kid in the back.
And I'm like, I like, what is like, why are we like this now?
We're, we're like, you know, 30 years later, we're still like,
we're still doing the no guardrail thing here.
Yeah, and then I think mountainous Peru on mud, on like
mud roads. Right.
And like there is a place for guardrails.
I remember the first time I went snowboarding in the United
States on the West Coast where they don't have like, have you
ever been skiing or snowboarding?
Our chair lifts, all of them in Ontario have those look like
buckle things that collapse over your waist.
So we have like baby mountains here.
They're like little bumps and big mountains.
Then they don't have them. So again, I'm like, I'm doing, I
remember the first time I'm doing this, I'm like, this is
horrible. I'm never gonna like, there's no
joy in it. I don't like, I'm not having
fun. My anxiety is through the roof.
I'm shaking like crazy. Now I gotta snowboard down this
mountain and do it all over again because we're on the
opposite side. Like, I just think there's a
goodness to these rules of life or these habits, these
disciplines that for each of us, we know are just gonna put us in
better positions to succeed with certain things.
So like online engagement on social media, probably one of
those arenas, right, where it's in the long run healthy.
Yeah. So it's what I think what we're
doing. Like what disciplines, What
habits, Spiritual disciplines, I should say, spiritual
disciplines and habits cultivate are that ease toward what is
right and good. Yeah, instead of making it easy
toward what we know is reactive and drives us insane toward
anger and just frustration with ourselves and with others.
It, it's only just going to damage our relationships with,
with people that we love and people that we are called to
love, even if they are not are, you know, friends, right?
And that, that, that's the, that's the, the, the hard thing
for me is like, not only does some of this division interrupt
our, our, you know, the connection with our family and
closest friends, but people that Jesus calls us to love, right?
That Jesus calls us to love, neighbor, enemy alike.
Hmm. And so if if what we are doing
and the way it's whatever's happening in our heart is
impeding on that we got, we got to look inside and say what's
what's going on here? Lord, Yeah.
Yeah, I think one of the last things that I see in this
passage, which, yeah, we didn't spend a lot of time on on
Sunday, is the idea of, um, being comfortable in the rebuke,
right? So like, like the disciples are,
Jesus rebukes the disciples, which is something that we've
typically seen Jesus do toward demons and evil spirits, right?
So he rebukes the Spirit, he rebukes the demon, he rebukes
what is evil. And like, I think many of us,
and I say maybe most of us like we wanted Jesus, who's like, I'm
gonna reassure you and comfort you and make you feel great
about yourself. And yeah, like in many
instances, Jesus leads us away from shame and toward learning
to embrace who we are, toward life, toward peace.
Like those are gifts that that God gives.
But I, I think we need to learn. I need to learn to be
comfortable in the rebuke. Yeah.
And in learning that. No, there are, there are, there
are times when that's the level of language that Jesus would use
toward me for my actions and thoughts.
And what I know and what I believe to be true about Jesus
is that the rebuke is toward life.
So when Jesus rebukes an evil spirit, it's to lead a person in
a community toward life, right? When he rebukes an illness, it's
toward health and healing and wholeness and restoration.
There's another R right there. And so here he rebukes the
disciples. Yeah, like, which is an
uncomfortable thing, but what he's doing is he's confronting
their sin. He's speaking against it.
It's a word of judgment. It's a word that I think at the
end of the day, really, ultimately only Jesus can speak
in its fullness, in its entirety.
It puts it in its place so that the disciples what, so that they
can move on, so that they they went on to another.
Village is disciples went to another village.
Yeah, they and and it it it it freed them it freed them to to
be able to to leave that situation.
And and I think it it obviously because they didn't call fire
down on these people. It freed up the, the Samaritan
people to be, to be able to experience the gospel as, as you
kind of alluded to in the sermon, that when you go into
Acts, you see, you know, Jesus saying, you know, this message
will go out to Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea, the ends of the
world, right? And, and, and so like, there's
something incredible about Jesus not only wanting to better his
disciples and say, like, Hey, guys, this, this ain't the
thing. Like you.
We like, let's, let's move on from here.
And, and I'm going to teach you a better way, but also the, the,
the freedom that it, it causes for the people in that village
that they're, you know, not destroyed and one day can again
receive the message of Jesus. Yeah.
Yeah, so like, I think it's beautiful that they just, they,
they went to another village like Jesus demonstrating exactly
how he wants them to be. As he said at the beginning of
Luke 9. But he frees them up to do it
and then leads them in that direction.
And that direction for them leads toward life like it still
takes Jesus toward Jerusalem and the cross and his death and
resurrection like it it. His direction for them is one
that leads to their own life and to their own redemption and
restoration, as well As for this Samaritan village.
So I think learning, learning that piece is difficult, but
being comfortable with the way Jesus would rebuke me and then
choosing to trust that it's going to lead toward life.
I think the other thing that I see here is that like the
disciples, and again, like it's not here, but it's also not
here. The disciples, there's no shame
and guilt. There's no, how could you be so
stupid to think that you could call down fire from heaven?
Like he, he speaks very swiftly against that thought and that
question and that act and action in them and then moves on,
right? There's not this lingering.
I'm gonna make you feel the weight of your shame and guilt.
And let's just soak here for a minute and like, you know, feel
horrible about ourselves and like again.
But I think that's the human inclination is we want, you
know, we want someone else to feel as bad as they made us.
That's what revenge, retribution, like that's what
we're trying to accomplish. But then we turn around and we
feel horrible about who we are in those moments and wrestle it
out. What is ironic in a beautiful
way, is that Jesus's rebuke leads to life.
It doesn't lead to shame and guilt and soaking in the like
pool of horrible, like self loathing.
Yeah, it allows them to be freed to move on and to keep moving in
the direction that Jesus is leading them.
And that's what I need to learn to trust for my own life.
And it's what we, you listeners, I think each of us needs to to
learn and figure out and wrestle out is yeah, choosing to trust
that even in especially in those moments of rebuke, like that's
where you can also experience the greatest life on the other
side of it. Absolutely.
So we do hope that this is helpful for you, as I Grant said
at the beginning, to have conversations with friends,
family, and we hope that this is just helping us to all work on
some of these inner pieces of our life that shape who we are
and how we, how we live out as followers of Jesus and as we
seek to enact the Kingdom in in our city, in our world.
And so we do have questions. You can send the questions into
questions@courtrightchurch.org. And we usually, you know, record
some points often on Monday, not always.
And so if you get those questions in on the Sunday
afternoon or Monday morning, we're likely to, to see that.
And so we do hope you have a great week and we'll see you
next time.