Faithbase

Hey y'all. All right. So we are finally moving in to season two of the chosen series. Episode one opens up with a bang. Quite literally episode one of season two is called Thunder because Jesus nicknames James and John. They are the sons of Zebedee. They're actually if you remember, they are the fishing partners of Peter. And so they're now the disciples of Jesus, but Jesus names them the sons of thunder because after an interaction with a group of Samaritans, which again from our episode at the end of season one with the woman at the well, we talked about the fact that Samaritans and the Jewish people of this day and time loathed each other. And so there's this interaction between Jesus, his disciples and the Samaritans that is not very kind, good, whatever. And his disciples, James and John look at him and they say, Jesus, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and completely consume them? And I mean, you literally can kind of like see it in Jesus's eyes of like, oh good Lord, that is not at all what I want you to do. So they are called the sons of thunder. And so when I watched this, the episode does a really good job because Luke nine only gives us verses 51 to 56 of this interaction. But what the writers of the chosen have done is they have studied the context of Jesus's message throughout the gospels, the way he interacts with his disciples, his purpose, all of that to really flesh out the conversation in a way that it may have happened. It is not divinely inspired. It's not in the Bible at all. It is not word for word from the Bible. However, it helps us in 2023 to kind of understand what's happening here and what he means. And so basically it's this group of people who feel hurt, who feel marginalized, who feel angry towards a group of people who have done a lot to them. And they're like, yeah, let's fight back. That's exactly what you want us to do. We're going to, they're going to hit us. We're going to hit harder. And Jesus looks at them and it's like, not at all. Do you really think that's going to accomplish what my true purpose is? Do you think that you are better than them? Because I hate to tell you, but you're not, you are not better. I did not come for you over them. I am not team this side versus that side. I came for all. And as my disciples, your only role is to spread my love, my message. That's it. And so I was very much humbled, especially when you consider the political, um, argumentative probably more so because we argue over everything. It's not just politics. We argue over about everything right now. Um, because we can all sit behind a keyboard and think that we're really doing a good job. We're not. Um, we are called to be his disciples. Is there issues in our world today? Are there things that we can impact and change in positive ways? 100%. But sitting behind a keyboard, flashing out, retweeting tweets or commenting to friends that disagree with you, that's not a, it's not even going to change their mind, but B that's going to send a very incorrect message of who Jesus Christ is. The best thing to do is to show love. And with, if you feel called to serve, if you feel called to make an impact in any certain sort of way, socially, economically, um, go do that, but do it in love. Look at the other person, put yourself in their shoes. Why do you think they hold the views that they do? What have they gone through? Do you even know? It kind of puts us in, it puts things into perspective when we, I mean, I even laugh like, really? They're going to be like, yeah, Jesus, you want us to call down fire and like boom them. It's kind of like, Whoa, chill out boys. But we do the very same thing. We wish that Jesus would just obliterate people who oppose us or people who disagree with us. And Jesus is saying, Nope, no, I'm not going to obliterate them because they opposed you or thought differently than you. I came for all. And I just call you to love them however you can and shine my light. Don't worry. I'll take care of the rest. And can you imagine being like, Hey, there's this tension, whatever. All right. You know what, God, I'm just going to say, you know, I love you, whatever. Here, you take the hatred that I have this, this fight, this feud, this, this nasty toxic energy I'm feeling towards this Pete, these people are this person or this issue or this whatever, you take it. Whoo. I'm going to shine your light to the world. How much easier is that y'all? Just to take it out. I have to tell my kids all the time, when they don't get their way or when they're fighting each other, especially have two boys when they're fighting each other, I have to say, Does that feel good? Does it actually feel good to be angry with your brother and to fight with your brother? It doesn't. But they're so like, but my side is right. And they're just so tight, clenched around it that if they just kind of like, whoo, let it go. Jesus is gonna sort it out. He promises that he is going to make it right. Not our job. Our job is just to point people to Jesus, whether they go or not, whether they pay attention to that or not. That's not our job either. We just simply love people and allow Jesus to take that toxicity out of our own hearts. Take it so that we don't have to feel the yuck anymore. And we just get to enjoy the eternal life, the abundant, beautiful life that he offers instead. Such, such a lighter way to live.