Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] What's up? You guys just landed from North Dakota after giving a reboot there. It was amazing, though. I wish God wouldn't call me to places like North Dakota in February.
[00:00:08] He's like, chris, I'm calling you to North Dakota. What? North Shore, Oahu, Turtle Mountain, Indian Reservation. I'm like, what? Turtle Bay Hilton?
[00:00:18] But honestly, dude, the greatest joy is getting to preach the gospel wherever the heck. I am going to the Cayman Islands to preach next week. And a friend was like, what are you most excited about in that trip to the Cayman Islands? Honest response.
[00:00:31] The thing by far I'm most excited about is to preach the gospel in the Cayman Islands. It's such a joy, man. Because paradise on earth is nothing without putting our souls to paradise in heaven. Amen. But that's not the point of this video right now. Look, some people think that Jesus was anti rules and regulations.
[00:00:48] Like, he hated the Pharisees, right? But he dined with prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners. So what does that mean? The practical application, they would say, well, you know, I'm a good guy. And, like, he's cool with what I want to do. I mean, look, maybe not fully cool with it, but he's kind of cool because the rules, they're kind of arbitrary, aren't they? Right? Like. Like the moral laws in the Bible. And so many young people bring this attitude toward faith. The older ones do, too. You think you're, like, exempt from the rules after you reach the age of 50, and maybe you're dating somebody and you're a widower and, you know, we can slip up, and God's cool that I'm generally a good guy, you know, as if his rules are arbitrary in the same way that, you know, my rules for my kids. Like, hey, I don't want you to drink too much Coca Cola, right? I mean, it's not that bad for you. And you know what? If Dad's being cool, they'll be like, dad, can I just kind of. Come on, please. Can I have another Diet Coke and be like, all right, just go ahead. Just crack open the can of Coke. And young people go off to college and are like, you know, God, I can go to mass on Sunday, and, gosh, can I just sleep with my girlfriend? And God's like, you know what? You're.
[00:01:56] You're a good guy. Just crack open that can of Coke and sleep with your girlfriend. And it's all good.
[00:02:02] Because, again, he couldn't stand Phariseeism, and he dined with prostitutes. And as we know, he Never challenged them. Okay, let's look at the actual Jesus. All right? Because the actual Jesus pointed to and actually reinforced the moral law laws of the Bible. He did away with the requirements of Jewish ceremonial law. Like, you no longer have to get circumcised. You no longer have to wear phylacteries and do all this stuff that they had to do.
[00:02:31] But the heart of it all, guys, was clinging to almighty God.
[00:02:36] And that still remains in the moral laws, which are not arbitrary. God taught us his moral laws to save us.
[00:02:45] Look, he pointed out the ways that we can ruin our lives in the same way that a loving father who's walking across a lake with his kids would point out, hey, there's a hole in the ice, because you might fall in and ruin yourself. We don't break the rules, the laws of God. It's kind of like the laws of gravity. If you want to play games and not obey the laws of gravity, they're actually going to end up breaking you. So let's look at the actual Jesus and what he said about the moral requirements of the Gospel. And we hear this. Catholics hear this in this Sunday's readings all around the world. One of the cool things about being Catholic is that we're reading the same thing throughout churches all around the world. Matthew 5. Here's the real Jesus, who's actually not cool with you doing whatever the heck you want. Jesus said to his disciples, and there's requirements of following him, right?
[00:03:30] Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've come not to abolish, but to fulfill.
[00:03:36] Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter of the law will pass away.
[00:03:46] So again, he was talking about the moral law, the ritual laws he did away with. He justifies us. We don't justify ourselves by following ritualistic laws.
[00:03:55] But not only did he say the moral laws remain, he actually raised the bar on those guys. And here's where things get really uncomfortable.
[00:04:06] You have heard it said, you shall not kill. I say to you, whoever calls his brother a fool will be liable to fiery Gehenna. What?
[00:04:16] What?
[00:04:17] So he's basically saying, you know, you've heard, you shall not kill, but I'm telling you in your heart, don't kill someone with your anger, and you're lashing out at them.
[00:04:26] You've heard you shall not commit adultery. I say to you, whoever even looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery with her in his Heart.
[00:04:34] Whoa, guys. He didn't challenge Phariseeism because he hated rules. What he hated was legalism. What is legalism? Legalism is rules based in, number one, self righteousness.
[00:04:47] That you're justifying yourself, right? That you're controlling the process of your own redemption. There's legalism.
[00:04:54] It's rules based in control of other people, which is the worst of religion, really. Like, if I can control these rules and make you follow them, then it becomes about me enacting my own power upon you. Okay, but Jesus didn't come to do away with rules, but legalism.
[00:05:11] So if the rules aren't about legalism and Jesus is still preaching them and actually raising the bar, what are they about then, Lord? What's the difference? Isn't it just worse than it was before the Pharisees, now that we have you raising the bar on us? No, no, guys.
[00:05:26] It's the same external expressions with obeying so many of these moral laws as it's always been, but the motive is entirely changed in the new Covenant. And can I give you one word that shows you how it's changed? Love.
[00:05:39] And if you think that, well, because God is love, and we now know this so clearly in the New Testament, because he's love, that negates all the requirements of obeying the moral law.
[00:05:51] Okay, if you think that I'm glad I said that out loud so you could hear how stupid it sounds, if you think that you've maybe never actually had a relationship with another human being, because if you fall in love with somebody and they're in love with you, that doesn't decrease the moral requirements.
[00:06:09] Just like Jesus, it raises the bar. It raises the moral requirements. It makes them more intense. You see, if God just gave us more rules in the new covenant or just change the rules and give us a different rule book to follow, then we'd have the simplicity of just saying like, okay, Lord, I checked the boxes. I followed the rules. Can we call it a day? Can we call it even? We're good, right?
[00:06:32] I mean, you talk about another version of Pharisees. I've had this conversation with multiple older guys who have told me, chris, dude, look, I was an altar server from when I was 8 to 16, and me and God are even. We're squared up. That's good. We're good to go. I mean, I checked some religious boxes. How crazy. We're actually using our religion sometimes as a buffer between our hearts and almighty gods.
[00:06:50] No, no, if he just gave us some rules, it might not be fun, but it would be as simple as checking boxes, knowing I'm in control of this whole process. I followed a couple rules. He threw us a massive, massive curveball. You know what he did? He literally died for us and gave us his life.
[00:07:09] What that means is, yeah, you better follow some rules. But he wants way more than that, guys.
[00:07:16] He wants your heart. He wants your life.
[00:07:19] He doesn't want you to obey merely a moral code. He doesn't call us to behaviorism, but the word he used when calling us to conversion was metanoia. Change your mind, change your thinking. Take on the mind of Christ, take on the heart of God. And you can see this play out in so many of his interactions. I love this. His encounter with the rich young man. Oh, man, this is beautiful. The rich young man trying to justify himself and saying, I've done it. I was the author, server, right? He said, I've obeyed the commandments, Lord, since I was a boy.
[00:07:48] As if to say, isn't that enough? And then Jesus threw him a curveball.
[00:07:52] Scripture says, I love thinking of this. He looked at him with love.
[00:07:57] He looked at him with love.
[00:08:00] And he invited him to give his whole life to him and to come and follow him.
[00:08:04] And guys, the rich young man walked away sad. But I'll tell you what, as lovers who don't walk away sad, no love, real love, the love that God's offering us and that look of love, asking for our look of love back, giving us his heart, asking for our hearts in return.
[00:08:22] See, the gift of love is actually free. You can't earn it by your works of righteousness. It's free. However, here's the curve ball with love. It's free, but it costs you literally everything.
[00:08:34] That's what love does. But as lovers know, it is totally worth the price tag.
[00:08:39] So the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament is not that there are no longer rules, it's that there's no longer legalism ruling the day, but the gift of life. God giving us his life, asking for ours in return. The difference is that the Old Testament, the rules, the laws, were a child learning to obey his father and be a disciple of the law in that way. But the New Testament and the laws and the requirements of the New Testament, it's a man wildly in love giving his heart back to the love that loved him first.
[00:09:12] And that requires even more than following a couple rules and regulations. It requires, frankly, a new heart. Guys, Jesus is looking at you.
[00:09:19] No matter what moral thing you're struggling with, no matter where you are, Even if you're a mess, even if it's really hard to live up to the requirements, it's impossible, actually, without the grace of God. It really is.
[00:09:29] No matter where you find yourself, he's looking at you with love. And it starts here, not with you saying, lord, I give you my perfect behaviorism, but Lord, I give you my life.
[00:09:42] I'm going to end with this. This is a psalm of David, Psalm 19. It's so beautiful, man.
[00:09:48] And he's meditating on the law of the Lord. And this is before. Before what Jesus revealed about how all this, the context revealed really from the beginning, was that God was leading us to this love affair with him.
[00:09:59] The law of the Lord is perfect. Reviving the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. Here's the cool thing, man, the simple who can't figure it out when he just says, you know what? I'm going to trust your logic, Lord, more than my own.
[00:10:14] I'm going to trust that you can fulfill me more than I can fulfill myself.
[00:10:18] It makes wise the simple.
[00:10:21] Because by doing the right thing, not by figuring it out, but by obeying and doing, you actually gain wisdom. And as St. Thomas Aquinas said, sin darkens the intellect. We've all experienced this. You've been there in the ditch of sin, and you know you sin makes you stupid. It just does.
[00:10:34] So it makes wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing in the heart. He didn't give us these rules to limit us, but to set us free.
[00:10:43] You want to meet free people? Meet people who are leading a moral and good life.
[00:10:48] The command of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure and clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true, righteous altogether, more to be desired than gold.
[00:11:01] Because if you have all the gold in the world and you're living in a moral ditch, who cares? There's misery in that ditch, man. Momentary pleasure, but that's it.
[00:11:11] Finer than gold, sweeter than honey and drippings from the honeycomb. Which, by the way, if you were a kid living 2,000 years ago in Jesus time, or David's time, you know how they you take, teach you the law. The law. They teach you the Torah. Sorry, my New Jersey was coming out. They teach you the law.
[00:11:24] I grew up in Jersey, by the way.
[00:11:26] They would literally take the Torah and they'd write it on these tablets. The kids would write in these tablets and they would cover it in honey. And as the kid memorized things. Their teacher would let them lick honey from the comb. So. So is the sweetness of God and the liberation we arrive at when we follow his law. But in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, we're to follow it by falling in love. Jesus, give us a new heart and help us to fall in love with you. I love you guys. Thanks for diving into the word of God with me.
