"Good To Mix With Kids"
EPISODE 179
Build Community Around Jesus
What traditions help you build connection with others? What did people mean when they said Jesus was a “friend of sinners”? It’s our second week in a row of the Bible Geeks AV Club, as we work our way into episode two of The Chosen. We kick things off with a conversation about which of these Sabbath meals we would probably find ourselves in, then we dive into a Like the Teacher discussion based on Matthew 11:19. At the heart of this episode is the statement of Mary, “I was one way, and now I am completely different.” Any disciple of Christ could surely say the same, and we explore the way the Lord touches each of these lives differently in a segment we call Deep Thoughts. You can find The Chosen on most streaming services or for free on The Chosen app (see link in the notes below). Looking ahead, don’t miss next week’s conversation about great hymns with special guest, Michael Eldridge, of Acapeldridge.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: No one is forgotten by Jesus, the friend of outcasts and savior of sinners.
This Week's Challenge: Connect with someone over a meal.
Episode Transcription
You know, it's something about just fire and open flame, you know, good to mix with kids, right? Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 179. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. We're continuing our discussion on The Chosen, which I think went really well last week. Hopefully everyone enjoyed our summary and description and really just thoughts on that first episode of season one. Definitely a weird way to transition this show and do things a little bit differently, but like we said on that episode, I think it really fits with the kind of show that we are and the kind of things we like to talk about. Anytime you can get a little bit nerdy and talk about things that are going on in the culture and things that other people are talking about, bring it on. Yeah. Well, people might've noticed that we've gotten into this rhythm now where we do a guided study and then we have a few episodes where we do something different. And we've got another big guided study coming, which we'll announce here pretty soon. But in the meantime, these are a fun little way to dive into some different conversations we wouldn't otherwise have a chance to get into. I would not like to call them filler episodes, but I've really enjoyed some of these conversations and just thinking outside the box, you know, reading stuff together, watching things together. And so that brings us to the next installment in our AV club. - Welcome to the Bible Geeks AV club, The Chosen, season one, episode two, Shabbat. - All right, so let's do this thing and we're gonna start it off like we always do with an icebreaker question. - Okay, so not too hard and heavy here when we started off with the icebreaker. Where do you think you would have been eating in this episode? There are several different Sabbath meals. So which one would you have been enjoying? The one with Simon, the meal with Mary, the meal that Nicodemus hosted, or would you have been over there with Matthew? - I love this question because I am 100% on board with being with Matthew. Every meal that I basically have is surrounded by dogs staring at me wanting the food that I'm eating. I definitely connected with his Sabbath meal, exactly. But I think I probably would have been eating with Simon. Why? Because he has a small family gathering at the end of this episode too, but everyone is so wrapped up in what's going on and Simon's got a lot of things that he has to do. And so he rushes away and basically has to eat on the run. And that is basically a good description of my entire life is a little bit of time with family and then having to go. - I totally see it. Wow, your life got summarized well in that scene. I am not sure where I would be. I actually also really like the Sabbath scene at the beginning with that bigger family, you know, a thousand years before. But I probably would have been in that kind of family gathering you're talking about. But I really loved Mary's Sabbath. That's where I would've wanted to be. - You're supposed to love Mary's Sabbath. That was the best Sabbath. - I know, that's the heart of the episode as we'll talk about here a little bit. but that's the way I always want our gatherings in our family and our life to be, which is a place where anybody's welcome, a place where we have a sense of humor and ease, but there's still a sense of honor for God. And that's probably more of an aspiration at this point in our lives than something we've found the room to fully inhabit, but I really love that. And that's something Adrian and I talk about a lot is really embracing that kind of, and making margin in our lives for that kind of hospitality and that kind of spirit to fill our whole house and our whole lives. - Yeah, and I love that you have that one person showing up, two people showing up, and then all of a sudden unexpectedly, everyone else is showing up and oh yeah, bring it on. That margin you're talking about is pretty good. Okay, so let's get into our first segment here, our first real serious segment, which as we always do, we start with Jesus and something that he's told us or some example that we learned from him. And so let's learn to be like the teacher as we look to Matthew 11 verse 19. And we see here in this verse, Matthew 11 verse 19, Jesus has some things to say about his perception among the religious people of his day. And he says, "The son of man came eating and drinking. And they said, 'Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.'" And of course, in the context there, you will know that Jesus is comparing himself to their perception of John the Baptist, how he was out in the wilderness and ate bugs and stuff. And I think a lot of people thought John was pretty creepy, but Jesus was perceived as being very, very out there and just a friend of people who he shouldn't have been friends with. So what do we learn about ourselves when we see statements like this from Jesus? - Before we get into that, did you catch the little aside comment when somebody said, I think about Andrew, - Yeah, and your friend, the Bug Eater. - The Bug Eater. - Talking about John the Baptist. - We will call him Creepy John in a few episodes when we get to that, but yeah, no doubt. - So yeah, in this first episode, Jesus met Mary in what they called the Red Quarter in the episodes, which was an area Nicodemus said he'd never go to. And in this episode, he shows up at her feast, that Sabbath feast we were just talking about that I and Bryan also both really loved, and both are fictional interpretations of passages, I think passages like this one in Matthew 11 verse 19, it says Jesus was with sinners spending time. And throughout the gospels, Jesus is this magnet for outcasts and for people who really need to turn their story around. And he just becomes this sort of home base for this weird cast of characters that we're starting to build in the show, but that the gospel is full of. Matthew and Mary Magdalene are just two of the dozens of people in the gospels like this. And he never supports continuing in some wrong way. He's not enabling them or saying, "Yeah, you're fine," or anything like that. But he meets people where they are, and he loves them there, and they start to see that they can change, that there's a different path, that there is something worth pursuing, that they are worth turning around their lives and that they can be something different if they follow Jesus. And so I think that Jesus, of course, gives us this very challenging example. It continues. It's something we've talked about a lot in the podcast. And I always feel like I'm looking forward to being more this way, rather than that I have fully inhabited it. And it's not something I wanna just give lip service to. I really want to live more fully this way, where I'm going to where people need to hear Jesus more and where I also can be the kind of space where people that don't yet know Jesus can start to discover Him. There are times when I feel like I'm living that and times when I feel like, man, what is my next step to be there more? But it's always challenging to me. What about you? What do you see in this picture here? I saw something in the episode that I think really resonated with me, and that was how Jesus didn't seem to ask for an invitation to come over. He wasn't invited. Nobody invited Jesus. He just showed up. I love how Jesus obviously would have had to do that with these kinds of people. I don't know that they knew who Jesus was. They clearly knew he was someone special or different. I think all throughout Jesus' ministry, as he was eating with these tax collectors and sinners so often, like when we see him there with Zacchaeus, what does he do? He says, "I'm coming over." I'm going to your house this day. He did not wait for them to make the decision to open up their homes for him to come in. And I see that here in this situation with Mary. Could you imagine Mary asking Jesus to come over, not really knowing who he was, obviously and this dramatization that we see, it may have not been like that in reality. But so often with these broken people, these outcasts, would they have been asking Jesus for his time and wanting them to come over and spend time with him? I think so often Jesus just made a decision to become a part of these people's lives, whether they liked it or not, which is pretty cool that he was just getting out there and doing things that he needed to do. And maybe that's the aspirational piece of this for us. Maybe what I can take away from looking at a story like this with Jesus and His interaction with other people, these outcasts, maybe I just need to be better at not waiting for them to open up the opportunity, but for me actually just stepping in and almost inserting myself into these kinds of things, making the moment happen on my own. That's good. That's a helpful challenge. This right now is just hitting me like a gauntlet. It really is. Like, there is no reason that this can't be a bigger part of our lives than I like that. Just you don't have to be invited. You step into the space and there is a way that it can be done that Jesus, like you say, throughout the gospel stories really does where He's always moving, it feels like, to another place. He's always going to some place and the destination is, really doesn't come until the end of the the story and so he's always moving, but he's moving from Simon's house to walking through Jericho to wherever it is and everywhere he goes, he's just trying to put himself in the place where people need him, which is everywhere. And he's going around and touching lives. - Look at him, a drunkard and a glutton. I mean, yeah, people had a very different view of Jesus, but he was out there and eating and moving, like you said. And so let's move on ourselves to our next segment here on the show and that is Here's the Story. (upbeat music) ♪ Here's the story ♪ So as we did last week, we're going to do this time and as we summarize, I guess, episode two, please again, spoiler alert, if you have not watched episode two of The Chosen, season one, please go ahead and do that. But we are going to spoil some things as we run through ever so quickly, the story of this episode. - Well, we already mentioned that Sabbath dinner that happened almost a millennia before Christ with a family observing the Sabbath, the beginning part of the Sabbath. A mother explains the Sabbath as Friday night, a mother explains the Sabbath, and then a father recites some of Proverbs 31, the woman of valor passage. And I just think that it's such a wonderful traditional way for a man to honor his wife, and really, really struck me and Adrian both as we were watching that scene, the way that this happens at the beginning, and then Nicodemus does that later on, recites a part of Proverbs 31 about the woman of valor. And that's a neat tradition to have that honor brought forward every week. - And I love that this episode starts with something that would have been an accurate tradition of the Jews at this time, that they would read Proverbs 31 and the woman of valor there at the beginning of the Sabbath. So very cool that it's actually historically accurate as they do this. So I love that piece of it, but then we move on. as of course from the first episode we noted that Mary had been healed of her demons and apparently modern day as we fast forward to their Mary Magdalene is a transformed woman. And so as we fast forward to modern day there in the first century of the story, not modern day. Wow, that was confusing for a minute. Yeah, wait a second. So quote unquote modern day where Mary Magdalene is walking around And she's getting her hair done and she's getting all dolled up because she is going to host her very first Sabbath dinner and it is so cool to finally see her in a much better place Than she was at least in episode one after her demons had been Expunged by jesus and that was pretty cool. But now yousef nicodemus's student Sees her and realizes that it was the same woman from the red quarter and reports what had happened to all the fellow Pharisees Basically, there's some stories gonna be told about what Nicodemus couldn't do, but apparently somebody else did do. - Absolutely, and that takes us to a cut. Back to Matthew, our favorite, lovable, estranged tax collector, that unusual guy who has an unusual boldness in the presence of Quintus, the Roman authority. He tells Quintus that he can't trust Simon. And meanwhile, Simon and Andrew are spying on Jews fishing on the Sabbath. I love that Matthew in this little account in this scene, him and Gaius, his relationship is pretty interesting as they go back and forth. You start to get a real love and appreciation for Gaius and his ability to put up with, I think, Matthew. But yeah, then we move on and we find that Nicodemus learns the truth of what had happened to Mary and realizes that somebody else healed her because he knew he didn't do it. At the end of trying to exercise her demons, He could not accomplish that in the first episode. And now he knows that someone else did it. He goes out, he starts searching for who might have done this and he finds Mary. And they have this conversation where Mary basically tells Nicodemus that it was someone else who redeemed her, whose time for men to know had not yet come, she says. And so she doesn't know who it is. She doesn't know who healed her, which kind of gives you the sense that Nicodemus is searching. She is almost searching, but no one can really find the one who had healed Mary of her demons. - Yeah, and then the episode closes, as we noted, with four different Sabbath dinners. And Matthew is, as Bryan often does, sharing his meal with a dog. - Totally relatable. - It's kind of a sad moment. He doesn't feel like he can go home. And then Simon bails on his wife and his brother halfway through the Sabbath meal. - Totally related. - And, (laughing) but the heart and soul of the episode, as we've been saying, from my perspective, certainly, and I think you would agree, is Mary's Sabbath dinner. It's her first time hosting, she's invited a bunch of outcasts, and I think it's the heart of the episode even before Jesus shows up. It's really this charming, informal gathering, the camaraderie between the blind woman and James, the one they call the less shows up with Thaddeus. And there's all these different people that come and it's a beautiful contrast with the formality of this other dinner across town, led by prestigious Nicodemus, who is also leading a respectful, it wasn't like these are the bad guys and these are the good guys, that both really showed a sincerity of devotion and respect for God, I thought. There was certainly a lot more emphasis on form, how nice the plates were, and there's a whole conversation between Nicodemus and his wife about a tapestry and about Antiochus and all of this history, but both are shown to be honest and respectful of God. And then before Mary's dinner begins, the surprise guest appears. And once again, Jesus shows up in a doorway, which I think is interesting. He was in the doorway of the hammer, the bar, before as he walks out to see Mary, and now he's in a doorway. Maybe there's a symbol there. He is the door, as he says in John 10. - Who at my door is standing? - Who at my door is standing? And Jesus is, interestingly, the Lord of the Sabbath, but he shows up to participate just as a guest in Mary's Sabbath dinner. And it's really a cool ending to the scene, as once again, Jesus is in the background, and then he shows up. - Yeah, oh man, that last scene is so much there. And you could just see the welling pride and almost fear on Mary's face when he comes in. And she thinks like this, she knows who this is, right? And he's right there now. And all she can think to do is like, every plan I had needs to be handed over to you. Like you should be the one leading the Sabbath. and he just lets her go, lets her do her thing, which is so cool to see. I could totally imagine Jesus allowing people to serve in that way and try not to be the spotlight as much as he deserves to be. So, yeah, so maybe as we've wrapped up the conversation of the story itself of episode two, let's get into some deep thoughts. (audience applauding) - And now deep thoughts. - So we see a whole lot of really powerful pictures here. And as we start to develop the characters and start to get to know these people a lot more, I am struck, I am struck here in this second episode by Nicodemus again, because we're finally starting to see Nicodemus and his sensitivity to the truth, his thoughtfulness over what's going on. And you start to see the cracks in the facade of him being quote unquote, the teacher of teachers. He realizes that he's not all that and a bag of chips. Like he's not the guy who healed Mary of her demons. He's not the one who was able to do that. There is someone else. The dramatization and all of the real artistry here in this episode, I think goes back to an actual biblical truth that we know about Nicodemus, but don't have explicitly told to us. And when we first see Nicodemus in the gospels, in John chapter three, in verse one, we learn that Nicodemus is sneaking around and he's going to see Jesus by night. He's obviously a very prominent Jew. He is a man of the Pharisees who was a ruler, comes, he's sneaking around and he asks the question, Rabbi, so for him to even say that Jesus is the Rabbi is powerful right there, but he says, "We know that you are a teacher come from God, "or no one can do these signs you do "unless God is with him." Don't wanna spoil future episodes here on the show, but yeah, that'll become a more integral part later on in the series on The Chosen, but we do see that in the scriptures, Nicodemus is searching for something. And I think my deep thought is just, like how does Nicodemus really come to this understanding? What is it about Nicodemus that led him to sneak around to find Jesus by night? And I doubt this story of the failed exorcism and everything that happened with Mary is true, but don't you think that he would have been searching around and trying to learn who Jesus was? Don't you think he would have been like sneaking around the city and like looking for evidence and interviewing people and all the things that he was doing in this episode, don't you think Nicodemus would have absolutely been doing that kind of stuff, having seen Jesus and the miracles or even just heard about the things he had done? I think Nicodemus is being sincere. And for all of the, like you talked about, the artifice or the show or the just really polished way that the Pharisees live their lives, you have to wonder if he is just a little bit nervous about what is happening when he learns of Jesus and when he's going to find Jesus by night and all the things that he's learning about who he might be and is he the Messiah? I just love that you don't immediately come to the story in "The Chosen" here in episode two with this like distaste of the Pharisees. Like Nicodemus is a relatable character. Why is he so relatable? Because for a lot of us, he's us, right? He is us, he's the person who really wants to be doing the right thing, wants to be following everything correctly, but does he know everything? Does he know it accurately? He's sincere and I appreciate that's how you portrayed him when you were talking about the story, that he is sincere and you connect with that. I connect with that in a big, deep way, but you just have to see this seeking nature that he has and the curiosity that he has about what could be happening that he doesn't yet know about and just appreciate that. And for me, I wanna be more like that. I wanna make sure that if there's something I'm missing, what is that? And do I see the evidence? Am I looking around for it or have I just decided ahead of time like, oh, yep, this is how it is. And I just move on and never have to think about it again. Powerful example, I think for Nicodemus. I love that. That's a great deep thought. He's also really dealing with this thing that his wife is the voice of things we don't do. Like, oh yeah, there are some things that's not appropriate for a teacher of Israel. there's just this sense of let's keep things proper. And there is a bit of pretending that seems to creep in that he is like allergic to and yet like he hates it, but he keeps playing the game, but also trying to do what's right and do what's real. And so that's where the theme of Jesus, Jesus is the ultimate reality that is popping its way in. And yeah, I like what you said He's looking for something that he knows there's something to this and he wants to know the truth He hasn't come to realize for sure. He's the Messiah like you said, but he's he knows there's signs Yeah And he's just trying to be honest about the signs which not all of the Pharisees not all the rulers of the synagogue we're doing and so Jesus confounds all of us though Let's say he challenges all of us to have these breakthroughs in our understanding a hundred percent And I'm glad you're on board with me about my deep thought. What did you get here though, as you're looking at this episode? It's not a very action packed episode by any stretch of the imagination, but what did you walk away from when you saw this? - Well, and it's not very action packed and it's also, again, not really on the face of it about Jesus, which is kind of striking. Is this a show about Jesus or about other people? And what's the value of a show that focuses on the people around Jesus. It reminds me of, this is a weird reference, but there's an old show called "The West Wing" and it wasn't about the president. It was about all the people that worked for the president. And so the president would sort of pop his head in, at least early, it wasn't supposed to be about that. Well, this show is called "The Chosen" and it's really not called the Messiah, it's called "The Chosen." It's about the people that Jesus chose and his followers. And I think the way that Jesus is in the background here and makes this slow build is true to the quietly growing awareness of Christ in the gospels. It makes me think of, for instance, the secrecy motif in Mark. This is something that Mark brings up a lot. - Don't tell anybody. - The demons are commanded to be silent and he told those he healed to be silent. He told disciples to be silent. He tried to keep his location a secret. He hides truth in parables. He reveals his identity only to the disciples in those great confession moments. And so I think that is a part of what's happening here is that Jesus is slowly coming to the surface. And the only real impact in these first two episodes that we've seen from Jesus is his effect on Mary. And there's a statement that Mary makes that is just so great. she says to Nicodemus when he's asking about what happened to her, she says, "I was one way and now I am completely different." Boy, that's a short sentence, just a few words. - It sounds so much like the blind man and what the blind man said. - Oh yeah. - Oh yeah. - This one thing I know. - Yeah. - I was blind and now I see. You wanna argue with that? I know this. And you can see it in the episodes and that's really neat. the way that this actress portrays her health and her happiness shines through this episode, which is in stark contrast with that desperation and that haggard broken lifestyle we saw in episode one. For me, it was very moving to see that change and really beautifully portrayed. And I think when we read the New Testament, we read one example after another of people who were one way and now are completely different. Throughout the gospels, there's all these different people. You mentioned Zacchaeus, but we could talk about all of the disciples, Matthew, all of these different disciples who were one way and now are completely another way. Throughout the book of Acts, we read a bunch of different stories of people who are changed. And then we get to the letters where people like Paul explain how everyone in Christ has gone from death to life. Everyone was once an outsider and now we're God's special adopted children. how we used to live in uncontrolled passion and foolish, unrighteous behavior. But now we've learned Christ. Now our lives really are characterized by something different, by things like love and discipline and joy and wisdom and peace. And so bringing this back to the question I asked at the beginning of the Deep Thought, is this a show about Jesus or about other people? In screen time and in plot summaries, it's not about Jesus. If you just, when we were telling the story, we didn't mention Jesus until the end, but it's about those he affects. And yet, that's how you really get to see who Jesus is, right? That's one of the ways that we start to understand the Lord is to see what he does, what he does in the lives of people. And I think that's often in our lives and just throughout history. This is often how people are introduced to Jesus. People may not read the gospels right away, but they see us. They might even listen to our stories and we can pivot to Jesus and show this, all this good in my life, everything that I am is about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for me. The one who died for me, who rose from the dead, and now I have new life. I have mercy. I'm a new person and I have hope forever because of who Jesus is. We may not have kind of the dramatic visual change that Mary Magdalene has, or maybe we have, but I know people who have. their lives are very clearly distinct. But if you're paying attention to your own life and the effect of Jesus in it, you should be able to see what he has done, what God is doing in your life, and other people hopefully can see that also. So I was just thinking about how the fact that this show is about other people illustrating the effect of Jesus in its own way, the way that Jesus' story is best told sometimes. - And isn't that so cool? Like I think you're 100% on when you talk about how in these first few episodes, it's almost perfectly parallels and mimics what we see in Jesus' ministry, how it starts off quiet and small and secret and grows. And if you've seen more of the episodes of this show, even into season two, season three, you know that this sort of secret Jesus or quiet behind the scenes Jesus, Jesus popping in through the doors, that doesn't really continue on a whole lot. It does, obviously, Jesus gets more famous and popular and is seen by a lot more people. But here early on, it really is cool how it definitely does track with what you know about the gospels and how Jesus' ministry did begin. Just little, small, quiet, and then moving into bigger and bigger things. And yeah, it was all about people. And so I can definitely appreciate that that's what the focus of this show is. It's not really about telling us all kinds of weird things about Jesus that we never knew or Him by Himself and the things that were going on between Him and the Lord. Now, this is about Jesus' impact on people. And isn't that the most important thing, I think is the point that you're making there. - Yeah, and here's just something that's interesting between the two of us. You've, I think, seen a bunch of these episodes and I'm trying to watch them sort of as we go. - Oh, good. - So I have only seen the first two episodes. - Then I will not spoil anything else for you. (laughing) - Yeah, well, I mean, I might've guessed that Jesus is gonna become a bigger part of the story, but I definitely am looking forward to watching it. But I kinda wanna let the reveal happen as it goes and not talk too far ahead of it. - That's a cool facet of this also because I have seen more than you have. So for all of our listeners who are tracking with us, whether you're a newbie and you've never seen this show or you've seen it all the way through, yeah, we're both in the same boat in some fashion or another. So let's move on to our next and final segment here on the episode and that is our reach out question. ♪ Reach out, reach out and touch someone ♪ - So I guess you've got the reach out question for us this week, something we're gonna ask each other to send this conversation home. - Bring it home. Yeah, bring it home maybe literally for some of us here. What is a tradition that's been helpful in building your connection to your family or to others or to the Lord? Thinking about these traditions, there's the Sabbath tradition, such a powerful part of Jewish life in that time. Even some of my Jewish friends today, the Sabbath is a big deal. What is a tradition that's a big deal for you and connecting to the Lord maybe? - There are so many things, obviously little traditions, little things, but as I was watching this episode, it was hard for me not to just totally latch on to how important meals are. Meals are a big deal. They are for all of us. And Jesus ate with people. We see all of these, even back in the old law, these Sabbath meals being instructed for people to take part of. And for me, we love hosting people. We love having people over. We love feeding people. We love getting together. I think for us, just eating together and being with people around a dinner table is a huge deal. And I know a long time ago, you and Adrian, when you guys lived here, you had First Fridays, where everybody came over and just like an open invitation for folks to come over and bring food and enjoy each other's company. We took that on for a while after you guys moved, but then I think we've let those kinds of big giant gatherings happen maybe less frequently, maybe once or twice a year. But we have gotten into the habit of inviting over smaller numbers of people. And I think that's been a big revelation to me, like having smaller numbers of people over you're able to connect with them or talk to them more, focus on them more. And one of the cool things that we've been doing is making sure that when we do invite a few people over, we make sure that they're diverse people, like older people with younger people or people we know versus people we don't know and having them all come over where we can all get to know each other and find our commonalities, find our differences and stuff like that has just, has been really cool. I've enjoyed all the opportunities we've had to do that and I think that was one of the biggest things that a few years ago was missing and now it's coming back in a big way. If it weren't for our ridiculous renovation we were doing at our house right now, we'd - We'd be doing that a lot more, but I think it's even cool just to take a cue from Jesus here. Maybe we'll just start inviting ourselves over to people's houses unexpectedly. I like it. - I like it, I like it. Yeah, that was something I think we talked years ago on this podcast about a book I read called "The Common Rule" and eating with someone was a big part of, was one of the things that it recommended as just an ongoing practice. And that had an impact on me and helped me to really realize there's something throughout the Bible. Breaking bread together is a big deal. It doesn't, not just the breaking bread we do around the Lord's table, but from house to house. Just sharing our lives with each other and connecting with each other, that's a big deal. And that there's something that happens when you're eating that, for some reason, it works to create that connection in a different way. One that I was thinking about that I've brought up also before is singing. Singing together as a family. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. It's always been a big deal for me. We've often gathered as a family on like winter nights when you can have a fire going or our kids really like it when we light candles at night. There's something about just fire and open flame, you know, good with to mix with kids, right? Fire and food and singing. But we do like to just sing together. We definitely sing hymns in the car, which is something that Adrian knows is important to me because I did it with my parents and siblings, singing hymns whether we're on our way to services or we're on a road trip. So that's a big deal and some of my kids are really starting to love singing like I always have, so that's really cool. We could go into this a little bit more. there's so many things that you think of that, you know, prayer is of course a big thing. Me and Adrienne praying together has changed our marriage in really good ways over the last few years, just taking moments throughout most days and just saying, "Hey, what do you want to pray about?" And then just praying about it. But I like these two examples a lot. - I think it's so cool too, because I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes you get this sense that a tradition is negative. I mean, with however often the traditions of the Jews and the Pharisees at this time, they were called out for a lot of the things that they held up as traditions. But like God was always a God who gave traditions to his people, making sure that they ate together, making sure that they celebrated together these particularly important moments in their culture and their history. Like traditions are not a bad thing. And we still have traditions today. We still do things traditionally with each other that sure, we might be called on and commanded to do them, but even small things that we do together as a family that we've just done for a long time. And these kinds of things, I think, just really helps solidify if they're focused on glorifying and honoring God. I think they really start to solidify our community, our sense of fellowship. And I think it's neat that we get to see in this second episode how that thread of this tradition really did combine all of these people, these random disparate people into doing the same kinds of things just in different places and contexts and with different levels of polish. It really is a cool theme and it gives you a way of seeing each of these characters on an important night of the week for the Jews. And it's cool to see Jesus showing up in one of those feasts because he was a guy that was a devout Jew, of course. This is what Jesus spent his Friday evenings doing. - Where was Jesus on Friday night? - Probably at Sabbath. - He was at someone's Sabbath dinner somewhere. - Just inviting himself standing at the door. - Right. - All right, everyone. So this is, I think, a good wrap up point for episode two in our conversation of season one of The Chosen. On the next episode, we are going to maybe mix it up again and just change it up and maybe try to have somebody else on the show, little secret surprise. While we are in these sort of filler episodes, - Yeah, just you never know what we're gonna do. Maybe somebody will be standing at the door, who knows. - Who at my door is standing? - I do not know, yeah. - Yeah, we'll see, maybe our mystery guest. - We will find out. All right, so on the next episode, stay tuned for that. Thank you everyone for tuning in to the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast Player of Joyce or at BibleGeeks.fm/179. Again, as we said last week, go check out The Chosen, get caught up. If you have questions, you wanna reach out to us for feedback, if you've got some things you want us to talk about upcoming episodes, reach out on our website there as well. And until next week, may the Lord bless you and keep you alone. [MUSIC PLAYING]