You know, I think it was the great Canadian philosopher Brian Adams who famously once said, Ain't no use in complaining when you got a job to do. And those wise words certainly panned out for him because he used to spend his evenings down at the drive-in, and that's where he met you. Yeah. So if you think for a second that I would be mocking Brian Adams, you're absolutely wrong. I would never mock a person who had the clout and fame needed to get a cameo on a glass tiger album. But seriously, I think he's on to something here. There's some real conventional wisdom in this idea of, hey, if you signed up to do a thing, you're not going to get the thing done any faster by griping about it. You should be prepared for what the job is about and get cracking. And Jesus of Nazareth, who's giving this speech that we're looking at in Matthew chapter 5 called The Sermon on the Mount, really is intoning effectively the same thing, if a bit less colloquially. So in this short little installment here at the end of the week, I just want to set us up for where we're going with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount by acknowledging that Jesus, once again, is not describing a kingdom where you engage in a religious experience or a religious transaction and then you feel better about things, or you get free stuff, or you learn special words that you can chant, and then God has to give you the things that you want, or where you just have this emotional religious encounter, or have this intellectual transaction or ascent to an idea about God, and then the result is that you can feel better about dying someday. That is not at all what Jesus is characterizing. And once again, as we've discussed earlier this week, is it what Jesus is describing is agency? And you are going to hear me use this word again and again and again and again because it is so absolutely packed into the text and into every one of Jesus' assumptions. To follow Jesus is to be on mission, is to be an agent of the kingdom. And as we've discussed, Jesus is effectively disclosing two things right here on the front end of the whole description of what his kingdom's about. As we've also discussed, it's a terrible sales pitch, even worse than the sales pitch for my completely legitimate energy drink. One, he's saying, you're going to take a beating for this, you're going to get persecuted, you're going to be at odds with the world that up until now you've been exclusively a citizen of. And then the other thing that he says that's kind of a tough selling point is you're going to do things. You are going to participate in the kingdom. Now, as we look at the way this plays out, we realize that is a huge honor and a privilege to be trusted with a task so important, to be uh allowed to participate in his thing instead of being passive observers is it's like one of the greatest blessings of the whole equation, one of the coolest things about the kingdom. So the expectation from the get-go is that you play a role. Now, I I this outline is getting confusing because I've been like, there's two things and there's two things and there's two things, but but there would seem to be three aspects to this role that we're supposed to start to wrap our brains around here as we get into the Sermon on the Mount. One, the person who signs up for this kingdom to follow Jesus as king has a job to do in that they will actively go out and communicate the attributes of the kingdom. They will talk about the king, they will exhibit peacemaking and mercy. And in doing so, they represent the king, they represent the kingdom, they affect other people positively. And as we'll see as we move into the next passage next week, they also have this role of preserving and improving society. So one aspect of the job to do of the people who decide to sign up for the kingdom is that they just actually have things to go do. The second part of the job or the role that Jesus seems to be laying out for people who participate in the kingdom is that they exist within the values of the kingdom. And this is more, this is about a shift in priority and perspective and currency and what you value and how you think of other people and think of yourself and think of God and think of right and wrong and up and down and everything. This is more of an abiding aspect of what the person who's in the kingdom does. So once again, Jesus is making it clear that we have this three-part job to do. Part one is very active, like actually going out and doing stuff that is kingdom-ish in the world and with people. The second part that is a little more passive, that involves a transformation of the mind and the will and the values and the priorities. And then the third is really frankly entirely passive, and that is being an object of the redemptive work and the glory of God. This one gets pretty abstract and weird, but you got this theme throughout the whole Bible and especially the gospel and the letters of the New Testament, that the act of saving and redeeming people in part has to do with the intrinsic value of people who are made in the image of God, but even more so is about God's work in taking something that looks broken and irredeemable and redeeming it as something that points to the ultimate power and glory and awesomeness of the God who's behind this whole thing. I understand that can seem kind of off-putting and arrogant. And if you or I build an entire reality around our own awesomeness, it is arrogant and just obnoxious. Nobody wants to be around that because no matter how good you are, you're not that much better than other people and you're still flawed. But God is an entirely different deal. The Bible holds out a description of God as being this infinite, flawless, perfect being who never learned anything because he already knew everything and he's unchanging and doesn't need to change. He couldn't possibly be better or any more than he already is. And if that's the kind of entity you are, well, that's pretty different then. It would make sense to build everything in existence around this one unifying binding truth that is you. Again, weird and gross if you do it, makes perfect sense and must happen if you are the first cause, the maker of all things, and the God of everything that ever has been or will be. So then the third job, if you will, of the person who is a kingdom citizen is to simply sit there and get redeemed by God. So people are like, whoa, look what happened to that lady. That's unbelievable because she was like this and now she's like that. Who could do that? Glory of God. Whoa, look at that kid. That kid was an idiot. Then, well, look what happened. Look what God fixed this broken, messed up thing. That's amazing. Who could do that? Only God. So whether we're talking about the very active aspect of the job that Jesus is starting to line out for the people who are part of the kingdom, things that involve living out the kingdom values of mercy and peacemaking and much, much more than that, or whether we're talking about the slightly more passive existential part of the job, which is being in communion with Christ and his kingdom and absorbing the kingdom values and making them our own values, or whether we're talking about the entirely passive aspect of our job, which is to sit there and be redeemed by God so that the whole world, the whole cosmos will see how amazing that God is. No matter how you slice it, it is very clear and only gonna get clearer as we move forward that Jesus is putting together a kingdom, inviting people into that kingdom, and that the invitation is toward agency, not passivity. So the reason I wanted to take 10 minutes before we get into the next chunk of Matthew chapter five and kind of make our way out of the Beatitudes is because I think the next chunk makes a lot more sense if we pause and note that clearly this call to be a part of the kingdom and to do stuff and be an agent of the kingdom is already implicit and it's about to become explicit. But also, I just don't want you to be surprised by it. Remember, we talked about that concept of what you win people with is what you win people to. Whatever you convince somebody to sign up for, that's how they're going to function in that organization. And so Jesus very strategically puts on the very front end, I am inviting you to be persecuted and criticized and insulted because of me. And I'm inviting you to have a job, a responsibility, agency that, well, if his claims are to be believed, that go beyond even this life and into eternity. The implications of that are pretty big. And Jesus himself is going to stress later on in the Gospels that it's worth counting the cost and tabulating whether you are up for this. But if you do sign up for it, you were told right on the front end by the guy who is the king of the religion and for whom the religion is named exactly how this thing was going to go. It's going to be tough at times, and also you have agency and responsibility and a role to play in this thing. I, for one, think it's worth it and it's awesome. And I welcome you to think whatever you think about it and to process that in your own way. We're moving on to what all this stuff is about being the salt of the earth. There's a famous Bible phrase right there. We'll consider what that means next time around. Hey, thanks to everybody who's supporting the program on patreon.com/slash the TMBH podcast. That is such a big deal. It makes such a difference. I get up every day and I start thinking about this and I knock it out. And frankly, it is enormously motivating to know that there are people behind me like that. And frankly, it supports my family and it enables me to take the time to try to do this and do it well. So I know I say thanks a lot, but I just can't say thanks enough to everybody who does that. All right, I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. I appreciate you all. Let's do this again, sir.