Is there a third way between avoiding the harsh realities and conflicts of the world, on one hand, and joining an entrenched position and posture of conflict, on the other? Jesus tapped into a rich vein, a kernel of truth, that we often miss, that enabled him to go from quiet reflection in the countryside to the heart of most tense geopolitical conflict of his day, with strength and authenticity.
Is there a third way between avoiding the harsh realities and conflicts of the world, on one hand, and joining an entrenched position and posture of conflict, on the other? Jesus tapped into a rich vein, a kernel of truth, that we often miss, that enabled him to go from quiet reflection in the countryside to the heart of most tense geopolitical conflict of his day, with strength and authenticity.
Welcome to The Willing Fool. This is season four, episode six. I'm your host and lead fool, Paul Tremble. We have been hinting at, teasing, uh, talking about the secret that Jesus walked with through the streets and fields and villages of his homeland. And how did that enable him to, on one hand, talk about the flowers of the field, the birds of the air, and how they had what they needed, and not to worry, uh, and then at the same time to, at a certain juncture in his life, be called to the crosshairs of the mighty Roman Empire and its local rulers.
and manifestations, uh, caught in the crossfire between the Roman authorities, the Jewish authorities, many of whom had it out for him and handled himself with complete aplomb, with complete, uh, calm and with solidity, stood his ground and, uh, changed, of course, the course of history. And in a way, uh, that is not simply something we read about in the Bible and say, okay, good for Jesus.
I guess I now know this historical thing and thank God it happened that way. But also in a way that we can learn from, we can grow from, we can take as It's a model and I've mentioned over and over that I think that Jesus did have this secret that he walked with and not just, Hey, I'm the son of God, I'm going to do these great things and it's going to be victorious.
Um, maybe he thought or felt that way. I don't know. But, but I think what we're talking about is something a little different where he was drawing upon a, uh, truth, a reality, a message that had been ingrained in him by his. Family by his culture and that we have largely lost and whether you're a believer or not I think this is very very powerful worthy of consideration Now if you're if you're not a believer, it may be quite a bit of a stretch And you may be out of your comfort zone, but I encourage you just to listen anyway I mean, you don't really have anything to lose except maybe like 25 minutes or something But you you may have seen something tremendous to gain Uh, and if you are a believer, I think you're probably going to hear or see something new anyway that you haven't heard, or at least haven't heard recently or in the way we're going to talk about it.
But to talk about this, I actually want to go back to Jeremiah. Who in their right mind wants to talk about Jeremiah? Well, I do because, uh, Jeremiah was one of those prophets and there, there are many, but this is one of those prophets that Jesus's life and ministry has a lot of reflections and resonances with.
So Jeremiah, as you know, uh, or may or may not know, but you're going to know he had a moment where he confronted the temple authorities in the temple, delivering a powerful rebuke, a sermon, a critique of the, uh, the authorities and the direction that the, the people were going, the Jewish people were going and, Obviously, that's the same thing that Jesus did.
And in fact, when Jesus did it, he quoted Jeremiah from that, that incident, that event, Jeremiah 7. And I think Jeremiah did it again in Jeremiah 26. Uh, there's another account there. Jesus also quoted Isaiah from Isaiah 56, but we're going to focus on Jeremiah today. And if you read the book of Jeremiah, which maybe you haven't in a while, it's a long book.
And it's, you know, it's not a genre that we're, it's, it doesn't have like a analog in the modern world, so it can seem very foreign to us, but I've read it recently, and to me it's fascinating. One of the ways that it's fascinating is that Jeremiah was this guy who, like Jesus, was caught in a potential crossfire, uh, uh, uh, crosshairs.
Because In his day, the, the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem were facing, uh, probable destruction by the people of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar was in charge, uh, and he was going to destroy Jerusalem, take the people and exile them, etc, etc. And so there was this, like, existential threat. That was very, very present in the people of Judah had to decide, well, how do they want to respond?
Do they just give in and go with the king of Babylon? Do they not fight? Do they fight? Uh, because they believe we're the people of God, we're, you know, God's on our side. He'll defend us. Do they flee into the arms of the other superpower of their day, which was Egypt. Many people wanted to flee to Egypt and take up residence there under the relative protection and security of Egypt.
And, and Jeremiah had to figure out, well, how do I, how do I fit in? And Jesus, likewise, in his day, he's facing the Roman empire, who's kind of playing the role of Babylon. These are almost like mere events of each other. And in his day, of course, there's people who are saying, we need to resist Rome. We need to resist this.
You know satanic imperial authority who's oppressing us and to do that we need to militarily oppose them However, we need whether it's through alliance whether it's through rebellion we need to Hold our own and and resist and so Jesus too had to decide how he wanted. So both of these figures Jesus and Jeremiah We're in really hard situations where there was an existential threat.
There was their own people, many of whom were going in another direction of resistance. And they had to decide, like, do I go this way? Do I go that way? Or is there some third way that I can go that is a viable option? And I say this, just pause for an aside here, partially because, as set up in the first episode of the season, I do think that many people, and I include myself in this, have felt a similar pressure, it's not the exact same scenario of course, but we sense the oncoming tide of a particular cultural wave coming at us.
And Uh, I've done my best to kind of paint a very thumbnail sketch of some aspects of that in the season. I, I look at it as, you know, pretty much bankrupt. It's corrupt. I don't think it really holds any answers. Um, and then at the same time I can look at people who sort of withdraw into a counter position, a counter attack position.
Sort of, uh, climb into the bunker and just say, whatever they're saying, we just want to say the opposite of that. We're opposed we want to resist or or we want to counter attack and we're gonna win back the culture We're through culture wars and da da da da da and that's a that's a tempting position to take that would be like you know allying yourself with a Powerful military alliance to defend against who you perceive as a threat or something like that or a rebellion a military resistance And the question is like, is, is there, is there a legitimate third way that is not either of those two things?
And so this is kind of what got me interested in reading and thinking through Jeremiah, but through this particular lens. And it is fascinating what happens with Jeremiah because, well, for one thing, you might think like, okay, the, the, the main point of, of what we're reading in Jeremiah and maybe Jeremiah's message himself.
It's got to be like against babylon, right babylon is biblically the enemy to god's way it is the city civilization that most resembles and represents Uh contrariness to god's will and god's way and they were a ruthless imperial force, right? They dominated people. They absolutely oppressed. That's what they did Happy to do it happy to brag about it No credence to god whatsoever And so you might think that, uh, the, the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah himself are launching these tirades against Babylon through the book, and that's not what's happening.
It's good to note that what, what really is happening, uh, through most of the book. Now, eventually, Babylon does get its comeuppance, but in the bulk of the book, who's getting ringed out is not Babylon. It's Israel. AKA Judah in this case. So Judah, I'm going to call him Israel sometimes because it's easier mentally, but Israel is getting reamed.
They're getting rebuked. I mean, constantly, Jeremiah is ruthless. He's relentless and he faces all sorts of opposition, which culturally makes sense, right? If you're in nature under threat, you're definitely the oppressed and you're facing this existential crisis getting wiped out. And someone comes along and just starts criticizing your own people and saying, you know, a lot of this is, is you're responsible for and you're accountable to God for your, your mistakes and your sins and your failures.
That's gotta be an extremely unpopular message. And it was. So Jeremiah was opposed, thrown into wells, you know, beaten, uh, almost killed like over and over through the whole book. People are like, we want to listen to you, Jeremiah. And then he'll say what he says. And then he gets. Punished. You know, the king at one point, um, takes everything that has been written down, that Jeremiah has said that has prophesied from God through his scribe and just starts, uh, tearing it up and throwing it in the fire.
That's the king's response. Jeremiah just keeps re-saying what he said before, but it's fascinating that apparently from God's perspective, Jeremiah was in the right to hold. It's about Israel, Judah's feet to the fire and accountability and to rebuke them. And through the bulk of the book, Nebuchadnezzar is actually referred to by God as my servant.
Nebuchadnezzar, this evil king, is my servant, Nebuchadnezzar. Uh, while Israel's getting reamed. It's almost, I almost feel bad reading it. Like, this just seems like a complete double standard. And it points to I think that that chafing against our sensibilities and certainly against the sensibilities of the people of Judah of that day and then of the Jesus's peers in Jesus's day, you know the things that Jesus said and did cut against their sensibilities Of course, Jesus was in the right just as Jeremiah was in the right and these things got recorded And I think the benefit to us is we can look and see Oh God's perspective seems to be very different than our perspective his lens Uh, seems to be very different than our lens.
The way that he holds people accountable and who he holds accountable for what and when and how is very different than our sort of natural sensibilities about justice, about obligation, about the rules, about fairness, about responsibility. Because we would look at these and be like, okay, Babylon's clearly the bad guy.
Rome is clearly the bad guy. Uh, the people that are about to be destroyed are the ones that are oppressed. They're, they're definitely not perfect, but they're better than these bad guys, so they must be the ones on the right. And we need to support and, you know, go, go for them. Uh, and so all that's just fascinating.
And it makes you think like, what is going on here? What is, what did Jeremiah see and understand, and what did Jesus see and understand that, that maybe we don't. And so to understand that. It really helps to go all the way back to Genesis 1, when God created humanity. And it says that, this very famous thing that's resonated through the centuries, He created them in the image of God.
And He gave them this task of ruling, of subduing, and really of extending the goodness of God's creation, the goodness of God's created order, uh, and maximizing it, intensifying it. They're placed in this place, uh, in Eden, which seems to be, you know, pleasant and, and, um, a paradise of sorts. It doesn't say that it's all of the earth and, and, and the humans are supposed to go and fill the earth and multiply and fill it.
And presumably extend that goodness and maximize that goodness everywhere that they go. And by doing that, they are fulfilling that calling to be the image of God. Now, there's not a lot of rules at this point. There's not a lot of laws. There's not a lot of, you know, um, justice that's been put into codes, you know, legal codes.
It's just, they have a calling. It's to be the people of God. Of course, it goes very badly from there. And we talked in, I think it was last season, About how, what happens from there and the quote fall that happens is really quite a bit more interesting than I think has often gotten the spotlight. And in fact, there's three big falls.
There's not one fall. There's three big falls in Genesis. That's Genesis 3, the very famous story of Adam and Eve, the serpent, the fruit. There's Genesis six with this very weird incident with the sons of God, the daughters of men that leads right into the flood of Noah's day. And then there's a Genesis 11 where the tower of Babel is being built and the people become scattered.
And then later in scripture refers back to that incident. And there's an illusion made that the, the people in the nations were divided up, um, among the, throughout the earth and actually allocated into. The authority and rulership of these spiritual beings called the sons of God and that God from that point forward It's a very clear shift in Genesis 11 Genesis 12 with Abraham and his family that God is going to focus on Abraham and his family and from that group he's going to call a people to be his very own Not simply for their benefit But for the benefit of redeeming and restoring all of humanity who by this point has fallen about as far as Humanity seems to be able to fall and so that's the setup for the story now It's very very interesting in a lot of different ways but one of them is that each of these falls you can look at it as human Falls and it is But in each of these there's also this element of these what we're calling spiritual beings that are are making choices Just as the humans are making choices.
You have the serpent In genesis 3 along with the humans who is cursed And he appears to be an enemy of what God's trying to do. And he has obviously wreaked some havoc on humanity as well. In Genesis 6, right before the flood where God is grieved with humanity and what he sees as sin all the time, there's this incident with the, the sons of God and the daughters of men.
And it, it, once again, it seems to be spiritual beings who are acting against God's will and in rebellion to God. And then in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel, obviously it's being built by humans, but again you've got that account in Deuteronomy 32 where, um, it appears that spiritual beings are scattered and allocated in accordance with the scattering and allocation of the humans, and so it's a very, the sense you get is these stories are parallel and the falls are parallel, and therefore the falls are intertwined and the fates of the humans and these spiritual beings are They're at least related, if not intertwined, um, so that's different than, you know, sort of the, the picture book version of Genesis and of the Bible that I think most of us probably grew up with.
You may be listening to this and thinking, oh, that sounds really weird. I think it's because we've kind of screened it out, um, through the centuries and we, we haven't, we haven't recognized that. There and so it becomes hard to even see even when we're reading right over it Anyway, I think throughout the scriptures you see this This bent that many of the spiritual beings have who do have some power do have some authority and some sway Towards thwarting humans towards thwarting god's desire for human flourishing towards introducing any distortions or warping that they can that will Prevent humans from fulfilling their their calling And their ultimate destiny and this is where it just gets so fascinating I wish maybe one day we'll do more seasons just on this topic.
But But it is it is really fascinating that The frame of the story is not The fall the frame of the story originally is not sin It's that god created this good creation and he had a a destiny and an intention You know a vocation of telios for for humanity and it's good It is a calling it's meaningful work, but it involves and includes intimacy with god And I would say ultimately the point would be union with god so There's a a well known Uh, early teacher in the church named Irenaeus.
He's a couple of generations removed from the apostles. But, I was reading a summary of his teachings the other day. And one of the things he says, uh, or highlighted was that, at least in his view, we, we have this history unfolding through the scripture and what we see with our own eyes that is shaped by the fall and is shaped by sin.
And we see Jesus appear on the scene, and we understand that Jesus appearance and mission, um, a big part of it at least, is in response to that sin problem. And like, how do people get forgiveness of sins when we've clearly disobeyed and rebelled? And Irenaeus says, um, yes, yes to those things, but, but in fact, there would be history even if there was no fall and if there was no sin.
There still would be history. It would just take a different shape. And, you might think about that and say, What does that mean? Well, Well, it's like, what do you think would have happened, hypothetically, if Adam and Eve, first humans, had not sinned? What do you think would happen? Uh, anything? Anything of interest?
Or, those two just live forever, in Eden, and that's, that's kind of the most boring story ever. Uh, or analogously, would there be, would Jesus Calm, exist on the earth, live as a human, would that happen? And Irenaeus answer to both of these is, there would be history, and there would be Jesus. Uh, and because there's more to the story than just the fall, and there's more to the story than simple forgiveness of sins, uh, and Jesus would be part of that unfolding history.
Even if there had been no fall. Because God does have a calling and does have a vocation. And always has wanted to be at intimacy and union with humanity. And so as Jesus comes, you know, God becomes flesh, becomes human. So the reverse becomes possible. Humans can become like God. Not humans can become God.
But there is this idea in Christianity of deification, divinization, theosis. Those are all synonyms. And it has to do with this humans growing to be, um, like God and to participate in the divine nature, which is what is said in scripture. So, all this to say, um, the story is bigger than we think and more interesting than we think as well.
Um, another aspect of that is just that, as we mentioned, accountability doesn't seem to work the way we would expect it to, as we see in Jeremiah and in Jesus day. Evil itself doesn't seem to work in the way we would expect it to. For example, in Genesis 1, uh, there's this interesting part where in addition to all the familiar creepy crawly creatures that we're used to thinking of being created, there's these beasts of the sea called Tanin.
They're monsters. They're like dragons. And they appear throughout the scriptures and sometimes by different names. Or there's related ideas that have different names. Rahab, Leviathan, Tanin. They're all, they're all somewhat related. Um, and it's like, well, what are these? Are these just animals? Are they just creatures?
Um, but what, what's interesting that made me think of this, relevant to what we're talking about is, uh, Nebuchadnezzar himself in Jeremiah 51 is referred to as like a Tanin. As if he swallowed up Judah. He swallowed up Jerusalem. Like a tannin, like a sea dragon would swallow up a lesser creature, and this is not the only incident where, or incident where a human is Referred to with the label of a tannin.
Pharaoh of Egypt is as well in Ezekiel 28 and so you've got You've got humans who clearly commit evil, but then you've got these spiritual beings Who also clearly commit evil and they've got this third really kind of interesting ambiguous category of these Sea creatures. It's like are they just animals?
Sometimes they seem to be something more sometimes humans seem to be able to play the role of them, but they have this they're they're in this category of of part of creation That seems to work against god's good creation and pull
Um, and so the picture of evil seems to just work differently, uh, in, in the Bible and in Genesis. Then, then we might think where it's just, it's either all human or it's all supernatural or it's all not human, not supernatural. Just no, it was just the outworkings of the creation is just part of reality that bad things happen.
And there's no real blame to go around. It's almost like. You, you could, you could kind of see any one of those three possibilities through the, the models that are presented in the scripture. Anyway, I think all that, I don't know exactly how, but all that does relate to this very interesting shape that Jeremiah takes and who gets called to account.
And, analogously, in Jesus day, uh, what, what happens, who gets called into account. Because Jesus, like Jeremiah, doesn't say, yes, uh, fellow Jews, Rome is clearly the bad guy, we are clearly the good guy, and the oppressed ones, so whatever we do is justified because We are at least not as bad as them and also we're in the role of the oppressed so whatever we do it's got to be Fair right by playground rules playground rules if you poke me in the eye I can at least poke you in the eye.
Maybe I can poke you in the eye and maybe poke you in the other eye Just as a deterrent to keep you from continuing to do this bullying behavior. There's these sensibilities we have. There are justice, playground rules, and it seems like God is just playing by an utterly different set of rules. And it isn't, it actually isn't rules based at all.
It seems like, if I'm reading this right, that the frame for God is way more relational. and way more, uh, what I'll say is vocational, meaning it's it's based out of what he has called me, us, you to do and to be. And so in Jeremiah's Day and Jesus' Day, the the people of Judah are receiving heavy, heavy, heavy accountability because they are the people.
That God has reached out to through their ancestor Abraham and said, I want to bless all nations through you. They are the people who he has reached out to in Exodus 19 and said, Listen, I'm going to give you the commandments. I'm going to form you into a people. I'm going to give you some guidelines because you are to be a kingdom of priests to me.
For me, meaning priests. People who advocate and connect between me, God, and the people. I want you to reflect me, my goodness, to them. And I want you to do everything you can to draw them to me. That's, that's your, that's your job. That's part of your job as imager of me. That's what I want you to do. And so this is incredibly high calling.
This is incredibly high accountability. That. It just transcends and outstrips playground rules of justice and God, why aren't you on our side? Because at least we're not as bad as Babylon. God was not at that moment expecting Babylon or Nebuchadnezzar to be his kingdom of priests. He wasn't expecting him to be that, that holy nation.
He wasn't expecting him to be the light to the nations. He, he knew that Nebuchadnezzar was a stray, um, and though he might call him his servant because Nebuchadnezzar did play a role in executing the will of God, and God may not have been in a vacuum upset with Nebuchadnezzar's actions, you know, ultimately, Nebuchadnezzar ultimately did get his judgment and did get his comeuppance, but it was carried out in a way that if you're a person of Israel.
It's got to look so bad, like so disjointed and double standard. Um, but it's because God is framing this in an utterly different way that is driven and dictated by His calling to His people. And so it's like, if you want to be in that, if you want to be in that role, in this case they were in that role by virtue of their calling, then man The standard is high because it isn't about okay, tell me what rules exactly I need to follow and what are my obligations and, um, you know, did I do worse than them or better than them?
That's irrelevant! That is irrelevant. You are called to be the imager of God. In other words, if God was here in my shoes, what would He be doing and saying? That is an utterly different Standard of accountability and of judgment.
How does this even relate? I mean, we started this season talking about looking at things like the Israel Hamas conflict and you know, almost all the conversation I've heard around that has to do is looked at through the lens of this, you know, what are the international law? What are the. Just general rules of human fairness and justice and kind of that playground default rules and You know, it's not I don't think it's illegitimate to have that conversation to look at it through that but but if you embrace this view that There is a calling Should you choose to accept it that there is a calling a vocation a role That is It's way higher than that.
It says, your role is to be the imager of God, a kingdom of priests. You're to be a priest. Then what is required of me? What does that look like? And I think oftentimes that the, what the answer to that is, is so different and so much higher than any of the rules you're going to come at. Come to any of the answers you're going to come to looking through the lens of Okay by playground rules.
What is the The most fair here or what's what am I allowed to do or what's the least I can do and fulfill my obligations? That's a different set of questions one. That's very natural to us And there's a place for it, but It's not this. And I think it's Jeremiah and Jesus were, in their scenarios, they were framing everything they were looking at through that lens.
What does it mean to be the imager of God here? You know, Jeremiah, it's so interesting. He, at some point, he's been asked over and over what he thinks, and of course, it never matters what he says because people don't take it seriously, um, though they say they will. And, uh, You know, the people who treated him best were the actual Babylonians.
They actually gave him a choice of what he wanted to do. It's like, at least at the point that I was reading recently, the people at that point who had treated him the best were the Babylonians, shockingly enough. Uh, but the people of Judah, at some point, late in the game, in the story, um, they beg him, like, what do you think we should do?
Whatever you say, we'll do it. And he tells them, he says, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking you need to go to Egypt and hide out. And, and you'll be safe from war and safe from famine. He's like, you won't. You go there, you put your trust in Egypt, you know what's going to happen? Um, everything you're afraid of is going to chase you there.
It's going to chase you down there and get you. And you know what they do? They don't listen. Not only do they not listen, they kidnap Jeremiah and take him to Egypt with them against his will. I mean, it's a fascinating story and it, it, it certainly says something about human nature. And it says something about our desire to, um, our desire to control our circumstances, our desire to look through this lens of what am I allowed to do, what's the least I can do to fulfill my obligation, what are the playground rules in effect here.
But to miss, to miss the biggest question, which is what is the, what is God's calling on my role here? What does it look like to be an imager of God? A completely different question. Jesus, as well, was at odds with both the enemy, you know, he ran afoul of the Roman authority, obviously, um, at least by virtue of the way he was trapped, and he also ran afoul of many of his own people and his own culture, uh, because he was holding to this question.
And so, I mean, it's easy for me to sit here and say that this is the, this is the frame, but it doesn't mean that it leads to, it doesn't mean that it leads to a good, easy outcome. I mean, in these guys case, it led to them personally a worse outcome. I mean, I think they fulfilled their vocation and so that's its own reward, but it isn't like their life worked out better or easier because of it.
It didn't. It worked out. It's like, Mr. Miyagi said, you know, you go on this side of the road, you're safe. You go on this side of the road, you're safe. You go on the middle of the road, you get squished like a grape. And I'm not saying they went down the middle of the road, I'm just saying they didn't put themselves in the comforting arms of either of the opposing forces that were at war with each other.
And they, they did get squished, um, like a grape. And so this thing is no light thing to ask, what is the vocation? What does it look like to be the image of God? Um, but there is a great reward and I want to talk about that in the next episode. So there's a little more to come, but just wanted to take that time to reframe, uh, a different way of looking at these questions.
And you can say, you know, this applies not just to geopolitical conflicts, obviously. It comes down to things like identity and expression as well. I mean, if you're, uh, If, if you have no vocation, no calling that's given to you from somebody or something external, then you have to admit that whole cloth.
And so you got to come up with, what does it mean for me to be me? And I need an identity and, and you know, I could choose that in my gender association or my sexual expression or, and, and these things can get so tightly tied by us to our identity, but that's a choice. That's not the only way to look at these aspects of life.
That is a, that is a choice, uh, one among more than one, uh, I could look at my identity and say, no, my identity is something much, much more tightly aligned to what God has asked me to, to do and to be. And yeah, all these other facets, they're going to be facets of that, but they're not like number one.
They're not at the top of some pyramid. They're not, certainly not the only thing. These are just facets. Of my life and of my reality of my identity, which is in what my calling is, what my vocation is. That's, that's the thing that ties everything together about who I am, my identity and what direction I'm going.
And, of course, people can experience that as oppressive if they want, but need not be so. That, if that is tied to reality whatsoever, then that It could be true it could be noble and it could be a relief It can relieve a lot of pain and existential angst. I I think that option is available to a lot of people in a way that Um, we just don't realize um So that's it for today.
Uh, look forward to next time with you until next time See you then