About 120 years ago in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece, some sponge divers are looking for, I guess, sponges, because they're sponge divers, and they find what looks like some kind of oasis of dead bodies down underwater, like crazy way down underwater. And I guess they understandably freaked out because there shouldn't be perfectly preserved dead bodies down there. Well, eventually they call in people to figure out what's going on, and what they find is something that we now refer to as the Antikythera shipwreck. This thing is one of the most incredible archaeological finds in all of history. This is eat your heart out of Indiana Jones kind of stuff. This shipwreck that happened about 70 years before the time of Jesus was probably something that was bound from a wealthy destination in Greece, maybe an estate or a manor, or maybe it was an art vendor or something, or maybe it was one of these old thinkers like Archimedes or Aristotle who were working on these eccentric projects and were shipping their stuff across the sea toward the Italian peninsula, and the boat goes down, and all of this incredible stuff is lost. Stuff that should just be gone forever, but it's not gone forever. Among the wreckage is a thing called the Antikythera mechanism. We break this thing down big time on my other podcast that I do with my buddy Destin from Smarter Everyday over on No Dumb Questions. That's the name of that one. You can go and find it. Maybe I'll remember to link it or whatever. But additionally to that, there's a sculpture that gets found. And it's a mess, but there's something to it. And this sculpture ends up being called Antikythera Ephebe. And it's a sculpture of a young man. And here's what's so incredible about that. If you've ever traveled to Rome or Greece and you've gone around to the museums, you start to recognize people. You're like, wait a minute, that guy with the neck beard, that's Nero, right? I've seen that one like four different places. And I see that one with the Louvre. And that guy right there with the curly hair, that's Hadrian, isn't it? Well, I saw that somewhere else, didn't I? Well, the reason you keep seeing these things again and again and again in all these different museums is because sculptures got copied in the ancient world. It wasn't that they were just molds or forms, but an excellent sculptor would look at a quality work from the past and then duplicate that. And that's why there can be some sense of certainty about the appearances of some of these people from the super ancient world. Like Julius Caesar probably really looked like we think Julius Caesar looked. Hadrian probably really looked like Hadrian looked. This is pretty awesome. But what that means is you've got these families, these sculptures of sculptures of sculptures of imitations, and you can compare those to kind of develop a family tree for where those images came from. Here's what's crazy: this sculpture that they pulled out of the Antikythera shipwreck doesn't match anything. It's a completely original, uncopied, no pre-existing copies sculpture. I mean, this is just for people who understand the art from the ancient world, this must have just been utterly mind-blowing. But the thing was a mess, right? And it's got barnacles all over it, and it's going to be, you know, all calcified and everything. And so, very carefully, over a very long period of time, I think three different experts tried their hand at pulling off centuries of calcification and barnaclefication and mess to reveal this beautiful thing that was actually there underneath, not this jagged thing that if you touch wrong, it has like coral or something like it coming off of it and it gashes you and makes a mess. And what they put together is truly astonishing. And again, I'll try to link that as well. Likewise, and there's always a likewise. What Jesus is doing with the law in Matthew chapter five, whether you are into this stuff or not, is beautiful. He's taking something that for centuries had gradually become calcified up into the kind of thing that if you got too close to it, it would nick you and make you bleed. It would just hurt you, it would cause problems and disruptions. But what he's doing with each one of these, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, but now I tell you statements, he's chipping off ever so carefully a little bit more of that stuff that has grown over the top of this actually very beautiful thing. And he's pulling the beautiful thing back out. And what he's doing, step by step, is showing people that the law is actually lovely, that the law is actually proactive, that the law is actually something that is kind of nice to get up next to because it prompts good things in people, and even where it ultimately points out our inability, because it's far more beautiful in terms of its ideal of what it holds out. Even there, it holds up this ideal mirror to us and gets the person who starts to see the beauty of the ideals of the law to a place where they understand, okay, I don't match up to that level of beauty fully, and puts that person in a position to seek somebody who does. The beauty of the law not only points out the inability of us to match up to its beauty and the ideals it holds out, but the beauty of the law in its true form also points people toward their need for God, the true source of atonement. And I think that's what Jesus is doing here. So we just had a really weird conversation, you and I, about like the whole adultery thing. I know for some of you you're like, I just I don't know, I just always got everything right. And I'm sorry other people have weird stories, and I don't know why you think that would be weird. I know there are other people who are listening to this who've had your hearts broken by that. Either because it's something you did or something that happened to you, or maybe both, or who knows what. I don't mean to nitpick at that and try to draw things up that hurt, but the reality is I understand that conversation could have hurt. And I understand that that's the kind of conversation that can cause us to recoil from what Jesus is doing, because it's just, it's not fun to talk about, it's not fun to revisit, it's not fun to imagine. That's the kind of thing that really does have very serious weight to it. I get it. And yes, at the most basic level, what Jesus is saying there is don't commit adultery. At the most basic level, what Jesus is saying before is don't murder people. But the most basic level was already assumed by everybody in the room. There's no reason for Jesus to say that if he was just going to say the most basic level. So, yeah, yeah, okay, we get it. Adultery is bad and murder is bad. Cool. I think we can all sign off on that. But what he's really driving deeper toward is the fulfillment and the completion of the law, stripping away all of the calcification and the sharp edges and the barnacles to reveal something that is infinitely loving in both cases. Love, commitment, loyalty, love for your enemy, proactive care for the person who would despise you or oppose you. These two fulfilled laws, the one on murder and the one on adultery, make for a much more beautiful kingdom than a kingdom that would only have two prohibitions. As long as you don't do these two things, you're cool. Well, that kingdom sounds fine. But what about a kingdom where the values are not only do you not murder and commit adultery, but if you do, there's some path for atonement and grace and healing for that. Whoa! For murder? For adultery? Are you kidding? That seems to be what Jesus is driving at here. And another thing that sounds way better than a kingdom where you just basically don't murder and just basically don't commit adultery, is one where love is held up on such a pedestal and grace is held out so much and it's unconditional. It doesn't matter how awful somebody is to you. It doesn't matter if you get into the ugliest, knockdown, drag out fight with somebody who you're married to, because love and grace and peace and patience and forgiveness, these are the hallmarks of this kingdom, which means that if instead of doing the thing that the world does, which is, you'll of course we all love love and peace and grace and patience and forgiveness until somebody's a jerk and then it's on. Well, what Jesus is saying here with all of his prohibitions on hating your enemy, and in fact, proactive calls to love your enemy, is to say, you're right, it is on. And when stuff gets crazy and insane, when your marriage is about to break, when you've wronged each other, when you've broken vows, when you've hated somebody, when you've crossed lines with your words, when you've tried to destroy somebody verbally, like that's when it's on. That's when the values of the kingdom are really needed, and when they really kick on. So I know that last conversation gets us into a touchy topic. And most lives have been touched in one way or another by one or the other murder, hatred, adultery. But as we move forward on this whole fulfillment of the law thing, I just want to make sure that our emotions aren't getting in the way and that we're hearing Jesus correctly. He's taking something that is turned mean and biting, and that if you get too close to it, it nicks you up and cuts you up because it's all calcified and weird. And he's one by one, he's going through and he's scraping that stuff away. And what we're seeing underneath is something that's been there forever, but has been indecipherable, unnoticeable. It's beautiful what's hiding under there, and it's the kind of thing that you do want to get close to and that you do want to see fulfilled because the fulfillment of it are the values of this perfect, beautiful kingdom. And what we're gonna see as we continue to work through this tomorrow is that each one of these ideas builds on the one before, so we can't really go light on any of them, or the next thought doesn't make any sense. So, in light of that, tomorrow we're gonna talk about divorce, which makes sense because it comes on the heels of adultery. These things can go together. And again, this is something that is gonna strike really close to home for some of you and feel very distant for others. But what we're gonna get from Jesus as we look at that is not more of the same nasty, crusty law that hurts. We're gonna see the yuck layers get stripped away and see the beauty underneath it, which points again back to those values of the kingdom. Hopefully, this was a helpful interlude. I thought it was necessary for a couple of reasons. Whatever the case, we're back at it tomorrow. Thanks so much for being a part of the conversation. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour. Let's do it again soon.