Before the Avengers became all the rage here in the last whatever it's been, 10, 12 years, the Uncanny X-Men took a run as another Marvel superhero team. They took a run at capturing the hearts and minds of cinema goers everywhere, and it just never quite worked. They rebooted it, they went back in time, they messed with stuff and moved it all around. And Deadpool, as a character, has done a wonderful job of lampooning that. Maybe it's because the characters have powers that are too big. I don't know. I don't know why it didn't translate to the screen very well. But I loved these comics as a kid. And I particularly liked this motif of the X-Men being this shield that guards the realms of men from destroying each other and being destroyed by evil forces, but also being totally rejected and unappreciated by the very people that they're trying to save and protect and the very society that they're trying to preserve and take care of. Because, you know, they're weird, they're outsiders, but the X and X-Men, I think, stands for some like genetic mutation or the X-Gene or whatever. So there's something wrong with them. And there's this rivalry then between the humans, the normals like you and me, and the mutants, who are super undesirable because they're unbelievably attractive, except they can like shoot lasers out of their eyes or have purple hand swords that appear out of nowhere. I never understood really what the gripe was, but you know, people fear what they don't understand. That's what I'm told. And so there it really is a very fascinating dynamic, and it lines up really neatly with the dynamic that Jesus is talking about when he's explaining the tension that is going to exist, that must exist between citizens of his kingdom and citizens of the world kingdom. Now, he never, ever, ever, ever in any way suggests that it is the job or responsibility or even a good idea for a kingdom citizen, someone who buys into the whole Jesus thing, to go out into the world and pick a fight with the world kingdom. That friction is never supposed to antagonistically go from the Christian toward the world. There's actually a really interesting succession of ideas here in terms of how this unfolds because Jesus recruits all of these followers, they're all sitting on the hill here listening with him. And of course, the original audience is wondering is this going to be a violent movement? Because a lot of these movements have been violent. At the time that people are reading what Matthew has written here, they would have freshly remembered Pontius Pilate putting down a couple of Messiah-like startups very, very violently, because those Messiah-like startups started very, very violently. So, you know, people are going to be wondering what's going on. But if we again follow the trajectory of what Jesus says, it doesn't play out like that at all. You remember in one particular part of Jesus' travels, he's going by this Samaritan village, and I don't remember if it's the disciples or who, they go ahead and they're like, hey, Jesus is coming. Check it out. And the Samaritan village is like, yeah, no, no, I guess we'll just pass this time. Maybe, maybe next time a Messiah comes by, we'll go for it. I mean, they didn't want anything to do with a Jewish Messiah. They were Samaritans. And the Sons of Thunder, James and John, were like, I have a plan for how to let them know that you truly are the love of God in the flesh. We should summon some sort of fireball or lightning from heaven and just consume them and kill them all. Then they'd understand what true grace is about. And Jesus is like, no, we're just, no, we're not going to kill people at all. Paraphrases mine. And then, you know, you're in the garden and the arrest happens, and you know, Peter's like, I have a plan. I know exactly what we're going to do. Even though Jesus has already told him, like, I don't know how many times, hey, we're not going to fight about this. No, you will not die, Jesus. Not while I'm here to protect you. And Jesus is like, just stop, don't. But Peter never listened to Jesus on that stuff. And he whips out his sword and he goes hacking around at people's ears and he cuts one off. And Jesus is like, knock it off. And then he heals that guy's ear. And then Peter, who was so eager to murder people for Jesus one minute, like one page later, is denouncing or denying Jesus altogether. But even Peter, who really shanked that, learns his lesson and gets it right. And when he's an older man and he's writing to probably some young, irritable Christians who have seen the world kingdom be mean to them, and maybe they're thinking it's time to take up swords and be mean back, kind of like young headstrong Peter once did. Peter writes to them, Dear friends, don't be surprised at the painful trial you're suffering, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you're insulted because of the name of Christ, you're blessed, for the spirit of glory and God rests on you. If you suffer, it shouldn't be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, don't be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. Suffer because inherently you're just going to, because you are a part of this truer, realer kingdom, and it's going to cause friction that is going to come at you from the world kingdom. There's a really important dynamic going on. No, there are two really important dynamics going on here. One is that Jesus clearly never sent his followers out to be antagonistic, irritable, go out and cause problems in the world. So everybody will please notice us, notice us, look, we're a real thing too. He just, that's not the game plan. The game plan is humility, love, saying things that are true in humility and love, articulating this message of grace, being ready in season and out of season to explain this hope that people have in God and in his kingdom. That is what people are sent out with. Now, look, obviously, you don't have to be a great student of the history of the world or of church to know that not everybody is gone with that, and that a lot of people seem to follow the example of young Peter and not old Peter, and followed the example of not Jesus instead of actual Jesus. And they've gone out and picked fights with the world and then screamed persecution as soon as something goes wrong. I said a bunch of obnoxious, mean, rude, critical things in a spirit of hostility and nastiness that Jesus himself never assumed. And now people are mad at me. I'm being persecuted. That's complete nonsense. No, that person is not being persecuted. That person is receiving a completely predictable response, even from reasonable, non-persecute world type people. They're receiving the natural pushback you get when you are a jerk, when you are picky unish, when you are judgmental toward people who don't even believe in the same God or Bible that you do, for them acting like they don't even believe in the same God or Bible as you do. Of course, people who don't believe in Jesus or who don't think the Bible is from God are gonna do things and think things and say things that don't exactly line up with this. So you're just gonna have to be patient with that and nice to people anyway. All too often we go out, we do the thing where we're like, I'm gonna pick a fight with all of you people for not being Christians yet, and then they don't like it very much. And on this point, I am on the side of the non-Christians who don't like it very much. Again, uh, and I I didn't even tell you where that was. It was first Peter four, starting in verse 12 that I read, but verse 15 of that passage we just read, if you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or as any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler. I think what Peter is saying here is like if you go around being Captain Know It All and Mr. I know how everyone else ought to live and what they ought to do, and if you're a jerk about Jesus' message of love and grace, the way you're communicating Jesus' message of love and grace undermines the message of love and grace. And if you're suffering because you've been a nosy, obnoxious meddler, you're kind of getting what you have coming and you're not scoring any points on behalf of God, either in the mind of the person who's irritated with you or on behalf of the God who specifically told you not to go out and do those things. But Peter also acknowledges if you suffer for the name of Christ, like okay, it's cool. I mean Peter knew some stuff about that. He suffered for the name of Christ. He took some pretty serious whipped whippings and beatings and public shamings. And if I recall correctly, tradition holds pretty strongly that he also followed Christ in the manner of his death, suffering a torturous crucifixion, maybe even upside down, as the story goes. So when Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 11, in the addendum to the Beatitudes, blessed are you, when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you, when he says that, what he's pointing out is the first real hint of what the role, the job, the responsibility of the follower of Jesus is going to be about. The exchange here is not going to be you receive a thing from God, and then you get to have that after that. Front end, you get into this thing very quickly. Oh, there's a truer, realer thing. There's actually a God and a king of this kingdom, and I want to be a part of that. And then very, very quickly, according to what Jesus is saying, you flip from being an agent of the world kingdom, which is something that's just like the default setting of humanity. You don't really do anything to do that. It just sort of happens by existing in the context of world values. You proliferate world kingdom values. But here you're proliferating something different. To be a follower of Jesus is to be an agent of Jesus. There is no separating the two. As we discussed, there's a lot of weird things that people have done claiming to be an agent of Jesus. They've yelled at people and picked fight. No, I why do I why do I keep saying they? I've yelled at people, I've picked fights, I've been an idiot, I've said loud, brash, stupid things on the internet. I've been obnoxious and abrasive. I've hurt people I love deeply who didn't think the right things about God. And I regret every single one of those mistakes, and I regret the ones that I'm still going to make in the future. In addition to me being an idiot about that, I I've seen other people maybe also in their own small ways be idiots about that. So again, I'm not always going to get the kingdom agency thing right. Christians aren't always going to get the kingdom agency thing right, but the expectation of following Jesus and being a part of this kingdom is that you are on task for this kingdom from the word go. And when we are agents of the kingdom, we are going to deal with weird friction. And yet, Jesus, one, anticipates that that's going to be reality. He discloses, he turns over his cards, he doesn't hide it. And two, he said, It's awesome. Yeah, obviously implicit here is that it's going to hurt and not feel great and not be the most fun ever. But he doesn't just say endure it and gut it out. He says, Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So the X-Men are this team of mutants, misunderstood by the world, whose job it is to protect and save a world who rejects and dislikes them. And also kingdom citizens are, well, kind of called to be the same kind of thing. And I understand how weird that might strike the ears of someone who's outside looking in. I also understand how weird that might strike the ears of someone who's inside looking in. But either way, that seems to be the equation that we're starting to see Jesus hint at here. That'll be fleshed out further as we move along. Hey, some of you put reviews over there on your whatever, your podcast apps, your iTunes or whatever. It is fascinating to see the feedback that I get from my little data center and information. Like that's just that's gigantic. When you leave reviews of the podcast, it actually puts this thing in front of other people. It's really weird how that equation works, but I want to talk about this with more people on the internet, and you've helped me do that, and it really means a lot. And thanks for saying some nice stuff too. That's cool, also. All right, I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do it again soon.