Chambumo-ron Lectures & Discussion 10th May 2025 - Session 3/4

this really harsh, you know, occupation. Anyway, so the way the Jews reacted to Jesus, I said they're incredibly wellreceived and then they even wanted to make Jesus the king. So when the people saw the sign, the feeding the 5,000, which he' done, they said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." Perceiving they're about to come and take him by force to make him the king, Jesus withdrew. I think he got on a boat and went over the Galilee. So that was again the kind of impact

that he was making. And then one then after this Jesus asked his disciples who do you say who do you say I am? Peter answered you are the Messiah and Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. Why not? So why did Jesus say this to the disciples? Don't go around telling people I'm the Messiah. So often we think that's what you should be doing, but actually that Jesus said don't do that. The reason is because the messianic mission and Messiah as I said and explained was God's anointed one and also called God's son

and comes to bring blessings from God. This is just a traditional Jewish understanding of the Messiah, the role and function of the Messiah and also to establish God's kingdom on the earth and also to destroy Israel's enemies to bring about peace and justice and then to rule the whole world. That's the vision in Isaiah that all the nations of the world will come to the temple in Jerusalem and the Messiah then would be the ruler of justice. And the Romans knew what the Messiah meant. They weren't idiots. They knew, "Oh, messiahs, this is what messiahs do. Their job is to destroy Israel's enemies." Who's Israel enemy today? It's us.

So, if we come across somebody who's claiming to be or been proclaimed as the Messiah, our job then is to arrest this person and have him put to death. And that's what the Romans did to messiahs. They executed quite a few of them. I looked at some of them a bit earlier on. Anyway, so later on then Jesus goes into Jerusalem uh the uh after three years of ministry up until then been incredibly wellreceived generally speaking amongst the Jewish uh people and as he came into Jerusalem then this is what I think was a big mistake was made. They proclaimed as he came in on the on the donkey, "Hosana, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel."

So, who has the authority to decide who is the king of Israel? The Romans. They're the occupying power. They're the ones who appointed Herod the Great to become the king. They're the ones who appointed one of Herod's sons, King uh Herod Antipass. They're the ones who had the authority to appoint the high priest. So if somebody gets proclaimed by the people as the king of Israel, obviously this is a person who's leading an uprising to try and overthrow the Romans and to make Israel an independent country again where he is the king.

So Jesus then he went into Jerusalem. On the gates of Jerusalem you have policemen and you have soldiers. That's and guards. That's just the way it is. And so if you're a guard, a soldier, Roman soldier or a policeman standing outside the the gates of the of the um Jerusalem and someone enters in with a huge crowd of people being proclaimed as the king of the Jews, the king of Israel and of course you report back to your officer and it works all its way it works its way up through the the hierarchy.

Then the people in charge have to decide what are we going to do with this person who's come to try and overthrow us. What would they do in this country? Well, in days gone by, they used to arrest them. They don't do much of that these days. So, the Pharisees said to one another, "Look how the whole world has gone after him." So, the Pharisees, they're incredibly impressed. Jesus himself, as I explain about later, was basically a Pharisee and they were impressed. Whole world has gone after him. B just the Jewish people obviously. Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. It wasn't just ordinary people sometimes think it's just ordinary folk who followed Jesus believed in Jesus

but actually the gospels say that even the leaders of the Jewish people believed in him after only three years. So these are some of them. There's a Joseph for Arythea who I talked about before and Jesus's probably Jesus uncle. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. So the Sanhedrin was the highest court in Israel. the highest Jewish court. So it's equivalent to, you know, being like a high court judge in this country or in a Catholic church being a cardinal. That kind of level and stature within the Jewish community has member of the Sanhedrin. He's also a very wealthy man. As I said, he was a tin trader. There's Nicodemus who's also a member of the Sanhedrin. An incredibly significant

and powerful person within Jewish society and he was a Pharisee. There's Galile. Galile was the leader of the Pharisees. Lead. Sorry. It was Yeah. the leader of the Pharisees. And so after the death of Jesus, when some of the disciples are brought before the Sanhedrin to be, you know, judged because they were preaching about Jesus, then Gio said, you know, if he's from God, then there's no point in trying to stop him. If he's not from God, it'll collapse anyway. Just let them get on with and do what they want to do.

So he himself obviously had huge amount of respect for Jesus and the early church regards him as having become a follower of Jesus. He's a leader of the Pharisees. Another one who's mentioned in the gospels is Gyrus. He was a leader of the synagogue. His daughter was very ill and so Jesus actually, you know, healed his daughter. It's why he's mentioned there. There was someone called Joanna. She was the wife of Herod's steward chooser. So that's Herod Antipas, the one who had John executed. So the wife of his

uh steward was a very important person who was again one of the the followers of Jesus. So that's the kind of statue of people that those are just the ones that mentioned in the gospel. There probably lots of other ones as well I would imagine. So that's how Jesus went into Jerusalem and he went to preach in the temple. But then as I said the high priest was appointed by the Roman authorities. He was given that job to maintain order within Israel. So Britain, we used to have a large empire. We didn't rule directly. We would find some of the natives who we could rule through. Yeah. It's much easier for the locals to do what one of their own people was telling them to do than to have to pay any attention to these arrogant British people who are telling them what to do. The Romans ruled in the same sort of way.

So they would appoint the high priest and it was his job. I'll talk about that later. Anyway, the chief priests and elders gathered when they, you know, heard about Jesus coming into Isra Jerusalem. The chief priests and elders gathered and took counsel to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be a tumult among the people." So they realized Jesus was so popular preaching in the temple that if they went to arrest him then everybody would up there'd be a huge uprising not against Romans

but a huge uprising against them because he was so welcome and so popular and the question is then well why did the high priests and the chief priests want to do this to Jesus? Why do they want to arrest him and have him put to death? It explains it very clearly in the gospel of John. They said, this is the conversation they had, if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy our holy place, the temple and our nation. That was a real real and present danger. It actually what happened in the end.

So Kyifers said he was the high priest, it is expedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish. So they thought if we cut the head off, you know what the snake's head or any if we cut off the the leader then the whole thing will dissolve away. We don't need to worry. So they thought the best thing to do then to protect the temple, protect the nation is to arrest Jesus and have him put to death. If you were the high priest, what would you do in this kind of in this situation? What would you do? difficult one, isn't it? You know,

that is the real that's the political reality that the high priest was reading. This is how things might turn out if we're not careful. How can we prevent this disaster from coming? This is the only way we can do it. Arrest the leader of this what he would presumably think of as a terrorist organization, you know, freedom fighters or whatever trying to lead this revolution, this uprising. So something I'm not going to talk about, but anyway, the reason the problem was Kyifus and the high priest

and the chief priest, they didn't know Jesus. They didn't know who he was. They had never met him. They hadn't heard his, you know, encountered him. They just heard rumors about him. So there should have been hi. Welcome back. So oh sorry I shouldn't say that. I should just shut up. But just so nice to see you again. It's wondering where anyway. [Music] So okay. So who should have introduced Jesus to the and told the chief priests and the high priests about Jesus? Joseph. No, Joseph was already dead. John Baptist. John the Baptist. Could John the Baptist, his dad, Zachariah, was a priest. One of the chief priests. I don't know how high he was. Maybe the high priest. I don't know. I mean, the suggestions

that he was. I understand that there were different high priests every year. Uh, not every year. Kyifers was there for about 10 years. It just anyway it was it changed after the Roman occupation and the Romans want to have more and more control and so if there's a high priest who didn't cooperate with the Romans then they got fired and then the Romans would only allow someone to remain the high priest if they cooperated and their job was to be the head of the police that so the high priest had his own police force

and his job was to have his ears to the ground to be aware of any resistance that was going on to have that person arrested, tried and if necessary passed on to the Roman authorities to be uh tried again and executed. And so yeah, so John the Baptist and if John the Baptist had followed Jesus because John the Baptist obviously had connections in the in in the uh temple because his dad was probably a high priest or chief priest, then he as a as a leading disciple of he is a leading disciple of um leading disciple of Jesus

then he could have gone to the high priest said look cover kyifers this is what Jesus is like he's not trying to overthrow the Romans he's trying to solve the problem which I'll talk about later and then he could have diffused the situation but Jesus didn't have anybody who was had a high a connection to the high priest there's no one to make to be that bridge That was John's job was to be the bridge. Yeah. Well, they weren't they weren't Pharisee. They were Pharisees. They weren't in the priesthood.

So, there was a there was the priests and the Pharisees are very critical of the priests and and the way the temple was run. And there was there were different groups. I'll look at those groups in a minute. So, yeah. So even if they spoke Yeah. Anyway, so look at some of these religious groups. Okay. So Jesus then came into conflict with some religious leaders. But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would to go in.

So there's a big controversy and argument. You probably heard the expression, three Jews, fours opin four opinions. Yeah, that's all they do is they argue. Jonathan Saxs, who was the chief priest, not chief priest, he was a chief rabbi of Britain and theii and the commonwealth for many years, nearly 20 years. He said being the high being the chief rabbi is the hardest job in the world. He said, "Do you know why?" No. No idea. Because everybody thinks they're a chief rabbi. All the other rabbis think they're the chief rabbi as well

and they're always arguing and arguing and criticizing me and when he write a book they write critiques of his books and things like that. It's just the way it is. It's what they do. You can see it now in you know Israel itself. You know Netanyahar is doing what he's doing and you got half the population against him and demonstrations and the whole thing is just a huge uproar all the time. It's just the way it is. Anyway, so there's this uproar 2,000 years ago. So who are these religious groups? Well, there Sadducees. These are the ruling aristocratic priestly group

and who became collaborators of the Romans. So they were the aristocrats and they were the ones who produced the priests and the ruling class in Israel. So when the Romans invaded then the Sadducees who are the aristocratic ruling class had to decide what are we going to do? if we refuse to cooperate with the Romans, they're going to come and confiscate our houses, our property, our land, and we're going to lose our social status. So, they decided to cooperate and to collaborate with the Romans

and tried to be and they they would explain it the way that people like this explain it. We'll be the the mediators. We'll soften this harsh Roman rule and we'll try to make it work basically. So, they were collaborators. And so the priests then the high priests the chief priests they were collaborators. There's also the Pharisees they were popular democratic they are the ones who established the synagogues which is for education. They weren't involved in the temple at all. They would go there to worship

but they would establish the synagogues. They also the source of the oral Torah and all the debates and discussions. So after the destruction of the temple, all the this whole class, the Sadducees are wiped out or they lost there's no temple anymore. So there's no priests anymore. So that was the end of that particular group within Judaism. And then the Pharisees who weren't connected that way. They had the synagogues all throughout the Roman Empire and elsewhere. They're the ones who became modern Judaism. There also the Essenes. This is a breakaway priestly group near the Dead Sea.

So they didn't like the way that the the Sadducees were cooperating with the Romans. They thought there's too much corruption within the temple. So they went off and they set up their own uh community near the Dead Sea. And um so in the hope that one day they would come and you know replace the existing uh Sadducees. There's also the Zealots. These were nationalist freedom fighters against Roman rule. So from time to time they go and attack some Roman soldiers and uh yeah when you when you're dealing with the Romans there's no point in doing

that complete waste. So basically this is the way it is you know if you get occupied by a foreign power become part of somebody else's empire you have to decide how am I going to deal with it am I going to collaborate am I going to try and set myself away and not get involved am I going to go away like a hermit or am I going to become a freedom fighter everyone has to decide how are we going to deal with this kind of reality Koreans also they had to deal with this reality the Japanese occupation ation

and you're living in Korea, how do you deal with it? Do you collaborate? Do you fight against it? Do you try and ignore it? Do you immigrate refugee or something? Everyone, you know, that's life. And so, these are the different ways in which different groups responded. And so, yeah. So, what's going on? So, it's not a conflict between Jesus and the Jews. Although sometimes it looks like that when you read the New Testament, but actually it's just a conflict between Jesus who was born, lived, and died, a practicing Jew.

And all Jesus's followers were Jews. And the early church were Jews who believed in Jesus. Yeah. They were Jewish Christians or Christian. No, they're Christian Jews. They were Jews who were Christians. Believed in Jesus, believed Jesus is the Messiah. Most Jews for various reasons didn't. Conflicts in the gospel zen are a conflict between Jews. The Pharisees were liber liber liberal reforming Jews who became the leaders of Judaism after 70 AD as I said and Jesus himself was probably a Pharisee.

So there are books written about this. Jesus was basically a Pharisee. So there are lots of different Pharisees. There's two particular groups. There's Rabbi Shamai's group. This is the majority at the time of Jesus. They're very connected to Zeots. They're very hostile to the the Roman occupation. Very strict and extreme. They rejected converts and they said Gentiles can't be saved. Then there was another rabbi, Rabbi Hillel. He was a minority until Yavapna, which is a big conference after the destruction of the temple.

and he was they were more connected to the Essenes and they're more liberal and moderate and they welcomed converts and they said Gentiles could be saved as long as they followed seven laws of the code of Noah. So Jesus himself was probably a Pharisee. His teaching and practices were on the spectrum between these two rabbis. is like a sort of moderate between these two groups of rabbis and there were other groups as well but those are the ones which are most recorded. So that's why Jesus said the Pharisei the Pharisees said better to say

so I would say sometimes Jesus is recorded saying the Pharisees said this actually it' be better to say some Pharisees said that okay because there's a whole variety of different opinions but also Jesus said the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat so you must be careful to do everything they say. So Moses Jesus said he respected the teachings of the Pharisees very much and Jesus's way of teaching using parables was typical the way that the Pharisees taught and the freedom of interpretation meant

that even if Jesus had original interpretations he would not be accused of heresy because amongst the rabbis and the Pharisees there are many different views. They didn't go around accusing people of being a a heretic and have been having them put to death. It's just a big argument. Yeah. So even though Jesus's own interpretation may often be different, that would have just been a different view. And the advantage of Judaism at that time, people could come up with their own interpretations and there'd be lots of discussions

and arguments. And the people who came up with the best explanation are the ones who the most popular. And Jesus came up with some of the best explanations, which is why he became extremely popular. But it wasn't heresy. It was just a different way of interpreting these things. So the traditional Jewish understanding of the Bible is for every verse in the Torah, there's 70 possible interpretations. That's great. Problem with Christianity, there's only one correct interpretation. Whereas the Jewish way of looking at it is the 70 possible ways. Let's have a discussion. Let's have an argument. Let's see who comes up with the best explanation. That's what I'm interested in.

So the criticisms that Jesus made of the Pharisees were typical of the criticisms they made of themselves and each other. So if you read this book here instead of having to listen to me, you can read this, spend a week reading this book and you can find out the same thing that this arguments Jesus was having with other Pharisees was just typical of the kind of arguments that they had with each other. So those who are assigned the mission to protect Jesus failed to fulfill their responsibility

and thus did not succeed. Uh said it's very difficult for the pe the people that our movement regards as they are the ones who should have protected Jesus but Zachchariah and and Joseph are already dead. Um and then you know Elizabeth had taken John off into the wilderness to so he doesn't get killed. It's a very very difficult situation. The hope of finding the only begotten daughter and celebrating the marriage supper of the lamb which Jesus could no longer be anticipated. So as I said before Jesus was probably married already

and the marriage supper of the lamb is very much a Christian idea in the book of revelation. The idea of Christ marrying the church which we interpret differently obviously and I think our interpretation is better than the traditional Christian interpretation. Uh and then one of the reasons why the Christian interpretation Jesus Christ marries the church is because the relationship of God and the people of Israel in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, is often like God is like I'm Israel is my wife. It's incredibly intense relationship. It's not just parent

and child, but it's also uh that kind of covenant relationship, especially you read Hosea, for example, talks about it like that a lot. Anyway, so that's why I think that reading came in. So Jesus set out again to fulfill his mission. Due to the failure of central figures to fulfill their responsibilities, Jesus embarked on a new second spiritual foundation, began his three-year public ministry. Due to the opposition from Jewish leaders who feared Jesus and the disbelief the Jewish people, Jesus had no choice

but to walk the path of the cross. So first of all, the Jewish leaders who opposed Jesus are basically the high priests and the chief priests because they were collaborators of Roman authorities. That was their job. I um so we'll look at some again examine these statements here. So first of what was Jesus's mission? So we look at Jesus's teaching. He said repent the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sow good seed in his field. The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast. It is easier to pro to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so all Jesus is talking about here is going back to the mosaic vision of the kingdom of God in Canaan. Yeah. So entirely here is Jesus is only talking about the kingdom. the kingdom of God. This is a political vision of a peaceful and just society trying to go drawing back on the traditional Hebraic view coming from this the covenant at Sinai. The Jewish people are called to follow the Mosaic law. And by following the Mosaic law, they create a just and peaceful society, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. That's what they want to create in Canaan.

And that's what Jesus was wanting to do. as the Messiah, he came about to complete and fulfill the Mosaic vision of the kingdom of God, which of course is a political dimension. So if you're going to be taking talking about a kingdom all the time, then people are going to wonder, well, who's the king? Is it Herod? Is it the Roman emperor? Who's going to be the king in this kingdom? So Jesus always talks about the kingdom of God. So it's very much as I said as this kind of vision that was so that was Jesus's mission establishing a peaceful

and just society and bringing about world peace. That was his mission. That's how he saw it. That's how he proclaimed it. So as I said the political and social reality Jesus wanted to deal with was this. As I said before, the Romans, the Jews hated the Romans and the Romans looked down on the Jews because different religions and practices. So, how to solve and prevent a catastrophe? That's what Jesus was concerned about. How to prevent this catastrophe? So, Jesus and he had a plan. Jesus was not a spiritual leader. He wasn't like a Buddha. He had a plan. How are we going to solve the problems in our world today? You read fire's autobiography. Where does he start his mission? What was he who he went off to? He had a revelation

but then he went to study in Japan. And who did he connect with in Japan? Koreans. Are the Koreans who were leaders of the opposition to the Japanese occupation. These are the people he's connecting with when he first started. He was connecting to the Korean political leaders with the expectation of trying to create that kind of just and peaceful society in Korea you know and of course after the after the war ended and Japanese left then he started working differently but always again trying to connect with these kind of people. Anyway Jesus I mean the reason I started looking at Jesus's life in this way is after I read father's autobiography. Oh, that's interesting. Maybe f maybe Jesus was trying to do what father was trying to do. Okay, maybe I need to relook at Jesus's life

and ministry in that way. So when Jesus said, "You've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." That goes back to Exodus, the Mosaic law. So this is called the law of retaliation. So this is reciprocal justice. You know, you bump into me and I'll bump into you, then we're quits. Okay. What's How does it work with a bully? If you step on a bully's toe, what will he do? Sorry. Punch your eyes out. Okay. Is that fair? No. If you're in a playground, it's called quits. You know, you know, you bump into me. It's What's this game called? Tag, isn't it? That's it. That's just the same sort of thing.

So, it's a measure for measure rep retribution. Tick for tat. Tit for tat to the playground game. theory. So here victims receive the value of injury and compensation. So for example, you know, if you're you working in a factory and under the machinery in the 19th century or 18th century, you know, stuck your hand in the machine in the wrong place, your hand got cut off. What do you do? Well, in the past, you would just lose your job. Is that fair? So what can you do? Can you go along to say to the the manager, you know, stick your hand out, clon? No, you don't do

that either. You just sue for compensation. That is eye for an eye. So Jews never round never went around poking that each other's eyes out. But they realized if you're going to have compensation, it should be a fair compensation equivalent to if you lose your finger, you get a certain amount of money. You lose your hand, you get more. You lose your arm, you get more. Yes. So that's a fair compensation which goes all the way back to the Mosaic law. An eye for an eye should be a fair compensation. Yeah. Someone offends you, you shouldn't kill them. Yeah. Just

so the intent behind this principle is to restrict compensation to the value of the loss, not a life for an eye. in very primitive barbaric societies a life for an eye. You offend the leader and then you get thrown into prison just because you said something offensive. Yeah. To be honest, our country is getting more like that. This council mentality, cancelling people's lives because they say something which somebody feels offended by. So do not. So then Jesus said it, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. So this is Jesus is looking at the reality. You know, if a Roman soldier treated you badly and you treated him just as badly, what's a Roman soldier going to do back to you? Even more. Yeah. It comes uh what do you call it? When it gets worse and worse and worse, what's it called, Jillian? Ex. It begins ex uh escalating exalating. Escalating. Thank you. So my my vocabulary has all been lost. The surgeon must have chopped it out. Escalation. That's right. Don't want to do that. You know, you're trying to escalate your conflict with the Romans, you're dead. That's the way it is.

So, what happens if you resist an evildoer? Bully Roman soldier, the Nazis. So, let's see what happened not very long ago, 80 years, 185 years ago. This is the Ordurus Gla massacre. So during the German occupation, the Nazi occupation of France, the general principle was 50 innocent Frenchmen were to be killed for every German soldier killed. Is that an eye for an eye? No. If you kill one German soldier, then the Germans will arrest 50 people, innocent Frenchmen, and they'd all be put to death. That's not an eye for an eye. That's the act of an evildoer

and a bully. It's what goes on now, you know, relationship between Russia and Ukraine. So what to do? So the 9th of June 1944, the French resistance captured SS Dumbban Fura helmet camp and the Germans heard he was being held at Ordor Slan. So in retribution, 190 men were locked in barns, shot and burned. 247 women and 207 children were locked in a church and burned. The village at Ardor Sugalan was partially raised to the ground. So what do you do? How do you deal with a German occupation if you know

that just by killing one German soldier, especially if it's a high ranking officer, that's what's going to happen? What's a responsible thing to do? Difficult, isn't it? Very difficult. Why didn't you resist them? Well, if we had, this is what would have happened. Very difficult when you're living in this situation. That was the reality that the Jews were living in 2,000 years ago. That was the reality Jesus was trying to deal with to solve this problem. Yeah. French were lucky. You know, the Americans

and the British and people from all over the British Empire came and rescued them. There wasn't that wasn't a possible there. So that's the the town now still there as a wreck. So Jesus's political program was this. You've heard it. It was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. How does that work? So he who he's talking about here is about the Romans. So how does that work? If you retaliate, it's going to get the hurt, the anger, the resentment,

and hatred. Okay? So I don't want to ask anybody to volunteer to come up here and get slapped on their right cheek. But since if anyone strikes you in the right cheek, turn the other also. So which your right cheeks a minute. Okay. So strike someone on the right cheek. Then what would I which arm would I use? Which is the power? What's the strong arm? Yes. Okay. Now to strike somebody on their left cheek with your right arm. What do you do when you when you do it like this? You're treating that person with complete contempt. That's it. Even if people don't do it literally. I'm I'm very good at this

because I'm British. You're treating someone with complete contempt. If you do it if you're you know if if you're a wife, you want to slap your husband cuz he's you do it that way because it's an equal. Yes. You do it this way. It's with contempt. So you've annoyed a German soldier and the German soldier is annoyed with this Jew and treats this Jew with contempt. So he takes out his hand which has got this thick heavy leather glove with all the bit of metal things and goes bang and you know you get knocked over onto the ground. What do you do? What do you do? Okay.

So one possibility is you retaliate you know you go and you know because you obviously it happens to you you feel hurt and you can get angry and you can get resentful and you get hatred and you can fight the person back or we could think well I can't fight him back because he's got all this armor on and a big sword. Okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to find out I'm going to follow him find out where he lives and if he comes out one night by himself I'm going to stab him and kill him. Is

that going to solve the problem? No. Okay. Another possibility you can think, oh, this Roman soldier, he's so powerful. I should make sure I bow to power. I should become subservient, servish, obsequious, fing. Oh, Roman soldier, I'm so sorry I hurt you. I'm so sorry I bumped into you. You know, please forgive me. You know, can I is anything I can do for you? You know what I mean? Oh, subservient to power. This person is more powerful than me. Therefore, I have to treat them in this kind of way. A fawning kind of way. Ah, this most important person's come in. Oh, let's clap this person. Yeah. Even if you don't respect them on the inside,

but you realize that's what I'm going to do. Again, that's one way which people can respect and react. So Jesus said, "If anyone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also." So what's that mean? It means you've been knocked over by this brute and instead of getting angry and resentful, no, that's not going to solve the problem. That's just going to make it worse. If you start fawning and behaving in an obstuous kind of way, is that Roman soldier going to behave treat you with more respect or less respect? Less respect. Does

that solve the problem? No. So neither of those two that which are the normal things that people do solve the problem. Jesus said stand up and turn the other cheek. So if you turn the other cheek, come on Julian, then I have to if you got that cheek turned and I strike you with my right hand, I have to strike you like this. which means I have to treat you as an equal. Does a Roman soldier want to treat this Jew as an equal? No. So, it's very difficult. What's a Roman soldier going to do? First of all, he's going to think this man has got guts. I struck him

and knocked him over flat. And he stood up to take it again, but this time he just turned the other cheek. I couldn't do that. You know what I mean? I'm not going to treat it as an equal. So either I have to treat him as an equal, which humiliates me, or I just walk away. So that's what Jesus was saying. You got to win the respect of the Roman soldier. If you behave in an angry, resentful way and try to kill them or fight back, you're going to be dead. Okay? It's not going to solve anything. If you just behave treating this person with obstacuously

and you know in a surviile slavish kind of way, oh can I be your slave? Can I polish your shoes? You know all this sort of thing. That's not going to solve the problem either. The relationship's going to may still be as bad. You have to win this person's respect and they have to you have to treat them with respect. Stand up with dignity. And I remember been looking for this story for years. I read the Gulog Archipelago when I was an MFTt and everybody was, you know, was complaining, oh, rubbish food, sleeping, you know, in sleeping bags, all squashed up on this bedroom on top of each other.

And I thought, man, I'm on holiday compared to what was going on in the gulag. I'm on holiday. Anyways, one of the stories I read there Solsson is recounting what was going on as one bunch, you know, some Soviet, you know, communist police went to arrest somebody and they knocked him on the on the onto the ground when they broke into his home and he stood up and they knocked him over again. He stood up, knocked him over again, stood up, knocked him over again and eventually they just walked out. they had respect for this person

because he wouldn't get angry and fight back against them which is easy way to solve a problem. They could just kill him and he wouldn't you know behave as a subservient kind of way but he just took it with dignity and that's what Jesus is saying stand up with dignity. I wish I could find that story include it in my lectures. So another thing next Jesus said and if anyone forces you to go one mile go also the second mile. You have heard it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So who is Jesus talking about here? It's not an abstract teaching. He's talking here about the Roman occupation. If a Roman soldier came along, you know, carrying his heavy, you know, rucks sack, he could demand any Jew he bumped into, you know, man, I guess, to carry that rucks sack for a mile. So supposing, you know, you just been sent out of the out of your house just to pop down to the bakery to buy some bread for breakfast

and suddenly you bump into this Roman soldier. He says, "Right, you have to carry my luggage for a mile. Are you happy or not happy? It's a bit of an inconvenience. Sorry. It's a bit of an inconvenience. An inconvenience. You're carrying this heavy and think, "Oh my god, when I get home, my wife's going to say, "Where you been all this day?" You know, "Why is the breakfast so late?" etc., etc. Anyway, so you're walking along there carrying this luggage, feeling angry, resentful. It's so inconvenient,

so annoying that I have to carry this heavy luggage. I will probably have to go and see an osteopath or chiropractor afterwards. It's 50 kg, not there. kilograms in those days, 100 pounds. And um you know, you can imagine them walking along with a sick with a bad face, angry face, and counting out every step. And when you'd done your 1,300 and something steps, you'd put the luggage on the ground and walk home. So if you did, if you behaved like that, would the Roman soldier have respected you more or less? Just normal? He would have expected someone who has to carry my luggage to carry it unwillingly

and that's I would expect him to react in that way. So that's exactly how I would react if I was in situation. I wouldn't be doing it happily. So Jesus said go also the second mile. So instead of saying okay now I've done my mile say to the Roman soldier actually you know I got a bit of time on my hands I'll carry it for another mile interesting but then the important point here is you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So how are you going to love this Roman soldier who's carrying your luggage? No, you're carrying his luggage. How are you going to love this person? Jesus didn't say you have to like the person. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them. You have to care about them. And so if you love this Roman soldier who's asked you to carry your luggage, you can say, "Where have you come from? You just got off the train or off the donkey or whatever. Where did you come from?" You know, have you been here long? Who's your commanding officer? You know, where do you

uh have you got a family at home? You know, take an interest into this person. you know are you happy to come to this country just start asking this person questions about their life take an interest care about this person means you ask and you're interested in their life and asking questions about all sorts of things and the Roman soldier would have thought my god nobody's ever taken this much interest in me before ever this person is really cares about me he's interested in me and you know and

then he wants to carry my luggage for an extra a mile and getting into this kind of conversation with this Roman soldier, the Roman soldier would have realized actually Jews are incredibly good people and the way this Roman soldier would have looked at this Jew would have been completely transformed and changed. These are really good people. Actually, I would like to I wish I had a friend like this other than somebody who just go and get drunk with me or get into a fight with me. I wish I had a friend who took this much interest in my life

and who cared this much about me. So his relationship with this person would have been transformed, who realized Jews aren't the way that people say they are. Actually, they're really good people. And they're like a it's like a counselor, like a psychiatrist. Jews invented psychiatry. And um you know, then the end of the two miles, Jesus said, "Love your enemies. Take an interest in them. Care about them. see if you can solve their any psychological or other kind of problems they might be having. How do you get on with your commanding officer? You know, okay, he treats you like this or maybe you should this is how you should try

and deal with your commanding officer if he treats you so badly or something and then pray for those who persecute you. So at the end of the two miles, Jesus would have said, "Would you like me to pray for you?" And can what do you think the Roman soldier would say? Yes, please bless me. Pray for me. And then he would have prayed for this Roman soldier and bless this Roman soldier and the Roman soldier would have said why don't we meet up in Starbucks next week. I want a friend like you. That make sense?

And this is the way to break the to change the relationship between the Romans and the Jews. That was Jesus's political project and plan. And that's why I think that story I read out earlier about Jose about that Josephus wrote about Pilate and the you know the the um icons not icons images. I think that was that those people were putting into practice what Jesus taught. Yeah. Be willing to not to react. You know it's like turn like you know turning the other cheek actually giving them your throat. It's even worse.

But you know what I mean. I think there were people there who are trying to put into practice what Jesus was teaching to solve this problem and I think Jesus the one who was the author and and the leader of all these kind of things as Josephus indicated when the next sentence after that story he said Jesus was the uh there anyway that's my reading of it and I think it's really profound and beautiful that's the way to solve it these kind of problems very practical and you might wonder well did Jesus make all this up no All Jesus was doing, he was applying the Mosaic law in his own time. Jesus was a Jew, a follower of Moses, trying to put into practice what Moses himself taught. Goodness, time's going

so fast. So Moses said, "Do not hate your brother in your heart. Reprove or reason with your neighbor frankly so you will not bear sin because of him. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Okay. So supposing somebody hurts you. How might how do you feel? They say something that hurts you or offends you. How do you feel? Upset. And you can actually feel upset and you can feel this hurt for year months and years and generations. This resentment. Yeah. It's destructive of people's lives

and families and communities. So Moses said, "Do not hate your brother in your heart." In other words, do not feel resentment. Reprove or tell you know your neighbor frankly so you will not bear sin because of him. So it means if someone hurts you, say that hurt. So when you say that, you're just being open, honest, and transparent. That hurt. And then you're putting it back in that person's court. That person might not even realize they hurt you. They might not even realize that what they said offended you. They just carry on

and wonder why is this person feel so bad towards me? I have no idea. Okay. So the first thing is frankly honestly just tell the person actually what you said hurt because of this this and this. And then the person who said it if they're a decent person they say oh I had no idea. I didn't realize I'm so sorry. And then you forgive each other and you make it up. Yeah. That's what Moses taught. See, but if you don't do that, you will reprove your brothers frankly. So you will not bear sin because of him. In other words, you're the one who got resentment, not

that person. That person just carry on oblivious, has got no idea made you feel resentful. Or you Yeah. So you're the one that's becoming sinful and full of resentment and full of hatred and might later on want to get your revenge back. Yeah. And say there's something. Yeah. So you become the sinner, not that person. You're bearing the sin. So do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone. That doesn't solve the problem among your people, but love your neighbor as you love yourself. But it's also the idea here. Not just if you feel offended,

but if you see somebody mistreating somebody else, what should you do? You should think, "Oh, okay. That was wrong. That was unfair. That was unjust. I saw it happen. What should I do?" Then think about, "Okay, how can I let that person know that what they said was wrong and unfair and unjust and they should go and apologize and make it up?" If you don't do that, if you see an injustice taking place, you don't get involved and try to solve that problem in an intelligent and sensible way, you yourself become a sinner

because you it's a sin of omission. You didn't get involved and do something which you ought to do. You just let that crime go uncommented upon. So people sometimes wonder, well, why did I write that uh statement about Sunshal? That's my responsibility. Not to do that would be irresponsible and I'd be sinning. It's up to him how he plays back. Okay. So that's any questions about this. Oh, I forgot to say any questions ask them anytime. And secondly, I don't expect you to believe everything I'm saying or to agree with everything I'm saying. If you do agree will believe everything I'm saying. I'll be really shocked. I'm just here to just open stuff up

so you can think about all these things and come to your own conclusions. Okay. So let's see what's next. Uh okay. So I look at I'll come back to this now. Yeah. Okay. Because of the failures of the central figures the only begotten daughter was not born. I'll come to that. Jesus could not hold the marriage supper of the lamb. Originally Jesus was supposed to meet the only begotten daughter become true parents through the holy marriage. If the central figures fulfill their responsibilities and only begotten daughter would have been born on top of

that foundation the failure of the central figure and the Jewish people to fulfill their responsibilities prevented the birth of the only begotten daughter and the ideal of true parent from being realized. Well, as I said before, I don't believe in only begotten sons or only begotten daughters because that's contrary to the teachings of Judaism and um contrary teachings of Islam and God doesn't beget. But anyway, at the same time, I think there were women born alive at the time of Jesus who could have been Jesus's bride.

And I think basically from the historical record, as I understand it, Jesus actually did get married to Mary Magdalene and probably had a family. And if you want to find out more about this, just go and read the Dan Brown's book because it's Anyway, and this is uh oops wrong way. So this is a Jewish marriage. Typical Jewish marriage at the same time at the time of Jesus. This is how Jews understand marriage. Jewish marriage is a union sanctified by God. Goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 2.

So marriage san of union sanctified by God. Marital obligations therefore are not merely personal but have implications for universal harmony. So there's a vision here that through marriage and through the conjugate love this actually makes peace and harmony within a family within a community within a society and within the world. The existence of God as a silent partner in Jewish marriage endows relationship with sanctity and solemn commitment. So we talk about four position foundation God man husband wife children God that's what Jews believe God is present in the marriage

because the marriage is a place where God's love is present and manifested and that's why marriage then becomes something very sanctified a solemn commitment so when a person gets married you're married the son of God when you get married you're married a daughter of God you're marrying God's prince and God's prince princess. So that's why within Judaism you should always treat husband and wife uh equals that's why in the ten commandments it says you should honor your father and your mother. Not just honor your father, honor your father

and your mother. Right from page one in the Bible is the equality of masculinity and femininity because God is an God created man is image and likeness male and female. Ten command, you know, they they're equal and ten commandments. And there's a huge amount of respect for women in the Hebrew Bible. And Judaism views marriage as the basis of human companionship and the cornerstone of Jewish community, as the venue for fulfillment of the biblical commandment to be fruitful and multiply. And during the wedding, the couple received seven blessings from God.

So, did Jesus get married? I think so. Did you receive God's blessing on his marriage? I think so. Was that the model of the marriage supper of the lamb? Yes, I would say yes. Um, unfortunately because of what happened, Jesus was killed. Um, things didn't work out the way in which they could have done and they should have done. Okay. So, we'll move on. Do I have a break now? Anybody here want a break? Cup of tea, cup of coffee, or do you want me to carry on talking for another hour? We need a break. Yeah. We're just sitting here listening.