Badlands Media - The Choice: Beyond Mountains (S2E8)

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

In the Season 2 finale of The Choice, Ghost and Ashe in America unpack one of the most pivotal moments in the Gospel narrative as the story moves toward the Sermon on the Mount. The episode introduces Judas and explores a fictionalized backstory that examines how ambition, moral compromise, and the temptations of worldly success can shape a man’s path. Through sharp analysis of the show’s storytelling choices, Ghost and Ashe discuss how Judas’s early decisions reveal the tension between pursuing power in the world and following the call of the Messiah. Meanwhile, the disciples struggle with division, insecurity, and doubt as they prepare for one of the most important teachings of Jesus’ ministry. Against this backdrop of chaos and uncertainty, Jesus works with Matthew to craft the Sermon on the Mount, framing it as a revolutionary manifesto that challenges the moral assumptions of the world. The hosts break down the symbolism behind “salt of the earth,” the deeper meaning of the Beatitudes, and the contrast between the kingdom of God and the systems of power represented by religious leaders and political scheming. The result is a powerful discussion about humility, righteousness, and what it truly means to follow Christ.

of the badlands explain those badlands that's a hell of a name good morning everyone and welcome to the choice today we have season two episode eight it's the season finale of season two Gus can you believe we've done two full seasons of the show already I have not I have not it's good to see ash and apologize for the extreme close-up everyone I'm having some camera issues so I got to use my laptop camera today but um so it's kind of a weird setup but anyway. Yeah, and I, um, we were just talking behind behind the scenes. I totally missed yesterday when we were doing part two of Tucker being the Jews that you shaved your face. I don't know how I missed that, but I guess I was just so into the content totally. I'm Margie. I've decided

that it's Margie's fault. It is probably Margie's fault. It's the beard. I've already said it's the beard of peace. The beard of peace is I can't have a beard of peace. We're not at peace. So, um, yeah, as soon as the, as soon as the beard is restored, as soon as, as soon as pieces restored. The beard will come back. Yes, the beard of piece. All right. Well, President Trump, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, you've got to get it done, man.

We need the beard of peace yet. Ed Renfro in the, I don't have it pulled up, but in the Gart, Cocoa Beach chat, posted a meme of Madam Margie, the moistureless, going door to door, like the Grim Reaper in that meme, you know, and it's her face on Grim Reaper. And it's J.Triot. and it's you. And then it's Josh Reed. I guess Josh Reed also shaved his face.

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I love that ad. Yeah, it's a great ad. You got to love Tiny Bright. And St. Patrick's Day is coming up. So get your green soft disclosure. Get your regular soft disclosure as well. And if you haven't tried the lotion, you should absolutely try the lotion. It's making me younger.

Definitely making my hands look younger. And I've started using it on my face. And I think it's making my face look younger. Also, Jesus, I got new glasses. I did not notice, but now that you point them out, I can't not notice. So great looking glasses. So I went to the eye doctor on Monday and found out that I was legally blind with my glasses on. He was like, you can't be driving.

And I'm like, it's fine. I never drive anyway. But. Legally blind with your glasses on. Yeah. Yeah. So you had me do like the, you know, what line can you read thing on the eye chart with my glasses on? I didn't read any of them.

Couldn't read any of them with the glasses on. Yeah. Man, so I see if you have glasses on, like if you have your glasses off, I'm going to be like, you are like actually probably blind. Legit blind. Yeah, but I thought I was doing all right. Like I thought I was seeing things fine. And like, oh, maybe my prescription is a, you know, a little off. And I should probably go in and have been like five years since I went to the eye doctor.

The doctor's like, they're not legally okay to operate a motor. vehicle. Oh, crap. So now I can see everything, I can see clearly now. Wow. It's gone. Congratulations. Thank you.

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All right. Do you have, are you going to, I know that we have, for the audience, we have some technical difficulties going on behind the scenes. Not ghost in me, like technical difficulties from a platform standpoint. Are you able? Okay, so you are able to pull them in. Yeah. My question. Yeah, I think so.

All right. So this week, Judas enters the chat. Yeah. And I love, we're going to, so we're going to start, I think, with the opening scene. He is, uh, Judas is learning scamming is my take. He's learning how to be a scammer, right? Yep. Is that, is that your read on it as well?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's learning, learning the, the ways of the world, the ways of the ways of, underhanded business practices, right? Yeah, so the majority of this show is showrunner invention. There are some citations to events in Scripture, and we'll break down where those are. But they've given a backstory to how Jesus recruits Judas. This is a story we don't get in the Bible. There is no origin story, no calling story of Judas.

He's listed in the lists of disciples. In three of the four Gospels, he is always on the list. In all three, there is the caveat, he became a traitor when he's listed. So they really want you to know that this is the guy, this is the traitor. But he has no origin story in scripture. And so kind of like a zealot, Simon the zealid, right? We talked about that with him. He doesn't have a calling story.

And the showrunners have given him one. Same thing happens here with Judas. And I think this opening scene where they are negotiating to buy a piece of land, and we'll talk more about the specifics of what they're doing after we play the clip. But there is some important kind of backstory from a biblical standpoint when they talk about the tribes. So let's play this opening scene. I say we play it through to the intro, the chosen intro. the chosen intro that plays.

We are going to say goodbye to YouTube. So if you're over on YouTube, hit the like button and then come join us in Rumble or X or Pilled. You can find us at Badlands Media on all three. We definitely appreciate you, you guys over there. And make sure before you leave over on YouTube that you hit the like button,

make sure you're following the channel because we are trying to grow that audience over there. All right. We're going to say goodbye to YouTube. and goodbye YouTube. All right. And so, okay, so we're going to play this opening scene, and then we'll talk about it. Okay.

40 talents. And you can keep the Western Ridge for whatever it is you love so much about it. It's a beautiful view of the sunrise. You can't eat a sunrise. Believe me, I know. What is your lineage? We are here to talk Price, not family history. This is about my family.

Your tribe. Simeon? These acres have been under the tribe of Ruben for 40 generations. I'm not about to surrender it to the little brother. We can talk ancient birth order all you want, but it won't put a meal on your family's table. 55 talents. Forty-five. We'll send a team of servants to help you move.

What is it that you want from this land? All rocks, barely anything grows here. That's right. But things that do grow, what happens to them? What happens to them? All that grow? Eventually. They die.

We're here to cut tombs into these rocks for the middle class. All the way out here. Only the wealthy can afford tombs close to the cities. And more and more of the middle class are dying, deep in tax debt. Left with no money for a proper burial, these families are surrendering their beloved to pauper's graves. We're here to provide an affordable solution. Even if it's far away, it's better than a pit entwined with other disintegrating bones. What's to stop me and my sons from carding the tombs?

Why haven't you? Do you have the tools? The expertise? Capital for hiring laborers and dozens of stone cutters? Fifty talents. Forty-seven. Final offer. Forty-nine. Suppose you find copper and lead when you do...

I said 47. You can contact. Like me tomorrow when you change your mind. Wait, he has a point. The land could be worth more if there's something underneath like he says. Copper or salt. He's not wrong. Our business has a reputation of doing things the right way. Be willing to part with a few more talents on the off chance

there is something valuable under all this rock. This is all the promised land, no matter how it looks to you. Forty-nine. What had 10 years wages, Cushan. Let's draw up the covenants. What's wrong? That word, covenant, I was thinking about the promise made to Libra. And all the other promises.

And you can talk to your rabbi about that. For now, let us close the covenants and toast a fair deal for everyone. Scaminal scammers. You're muted. Yes, they are scammers, I guess. is probably the best way to describe it. Yeah, I think so. The next time we see them, they're at a tavern celebrating the deal that they just made.

And it's crazy to start with our business has a reputation of doing things the right way. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, they even have a whole backstory of what, because they explain later when they're at the pub that they already know that there's salt on the property. so they're planning on opening a salt line. You're spoiling it. Yeah. Yeah, I think we should play that.

Just that scene with the two of them arguing, because Judas is showing some moral, you know, some sense of conscience. But I want to focus on the choices here that the showrunners made. So they have this land owner from the tribe of Rubin, and they have at least Judas's buddy. We don't really get any, he later calls him an order.

Are you there? All right, Ash is frozen for me, but the stream is still going. Can the chat hear me? Ash, if you're, if you can hear me, I think you may have, like, frozen out. You might need to back out and come back in. Although, if you do that, the stream might close down because of all the technical issues we're having. Hmm. All right, everyone in the chat says they can hear me, but Ash is frozen.

So, hopefully the stream keeps going, but I'm going to go ahead. wait a second I can't even bring in the oh god yeah so like it's kind of a back long story but stream yard logged all of us out of the account so only a few of us actually have access

to be able to control the screen um so I can't really do anything um all right well let me just text hash and see if oh her internet just crash uh oh

all right guys Well, hold on one second. Just stand by. I wish I could fill the air here. Let's see if, see what I can do. Not much, unfortunately. Can't even play an ad. Hmm. Yeah, everyone's saying that I'm good.

Okay. Well, just stand by, guys. I'm going to see if we can get this thing back up and run. We're just waiting for Ash to come back. And in the meantime, I'll see if I can actually get. into stream yard. Are you there? Oh, here she is.

She's back. The whole thing went down. Huh. Crazy. Okay. So I just jump right back where it was. I don't know where we lost. I'll start over.

Yeah. We were talking about, we were talking about Judas and his friend. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're talking about tribes. Right. So there's no,

there's no biblical citation for Judas's tribe. The showrunners have chosen to align him with Simeon, the tribe of Simeon. And this landowner is from the tribe of Rubin. And I think that that was an intentional choice. So I'm just going to go through kind of the story and the scriptures. I'm not going to read all the scriptures, but I'll mark them down for anybody that wants to write them down. So in Genesis 37, Joseph's brothers plot to kill him because they resent their father's favoritism. Rubin, the eldest brother, objects to killing Joseph.

He convinces the others to throw Joseph into a pit instead. His secret plan is to return later and rescue Joseph from Genesis 37, verse 21 to 22. When Ruben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him, shed no blood, cast him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him. Then Rubin leaves for a little while. Simeon leads the sale to sell Joseph. Judah proposes selling Joseph instead of killing him. The brothers sell Joseph to Ishmaelite traders heading to Egypt, later Jewish tradition, and many biblical commentators identify Simeon as the leading conspirator in the sale. When Rubin returns, he's devastated because of his plan to save Joseph failed.

Genesis 3730, The boy is gone and I, where shall I go? Joseph later targets Simeon when the brothers come to Egypt during the famine in Genesis 42. Joseph recognizes them, but they do not recognize him. Joseph imprisons Simeon and sends the others back for Benjamin. Joseph holding Simeon appears that Joseph holding Simeon is that he holds him responsible for the earlier betrayal. In terms of the tribal destinies, the tribe of Rubin lost leadership because Rubin later slept with Jacob's concubine Bilha. That's in Genesis 35. Jacob's later blessing says upon Rubin says, unstable is water.

You shall not excel. That's Genesis 49.4. tribe of simian is remembered for violence, especially in the massacre at Shechem with Levi. Genesis 34, I think that's when Dinah is raped, if I'm not mistaken. Somebody fact checked me on that. I know Babbage or somebody can fact check me on that. They are, Jacob's blessing upon Simeon and Levi. Simeon Leiby are brothers. Instruments of violence are their swords. That's Genesis 49.5.

the tribe of Simeon eventually becomes absorbed into Judah geographically, biblically speaking, the only hint that we have about Judas's lineage places him in Judah. It is Judas Eucharius Echariot likely means man of Kariot in Judea. So it's probably that he is from Judah, but it's not explicitly told to us. And of course, if Simeon is absorbed into Judah later on, then that is, it's scripturally consistent, even though it's a bit of a showrunner invention. So they've chosen to align Judas with the tribe of Simeon, known as kind of violent scammer tribe. And I think that was purposeful. Interesting, interesting.

Yeah. And like the friend, whose name I should probably figure out, you know, he's a well, I think he's a well done character. He's a well-written character. Primarily because I think what he represents

versus how he appears on screen. Like he doesn't quite, he doesn't quite, like the character doesn't quite lean into all the tropes that you're really used to when you see this arc, this archetype of like the scammer, um, uh,

archetype he's um you know he's like uh charming charming like well-spoken um and all for all intents and like he seems like he presents himself well and like he's able to um he doesn't quite come off on screen even because you know sometimes these characters the way characters are written on screen is that uh the other characters might be charmed by them but the audience isn't like the audience kind of sees through them that they're kind of like scammers that doesn't quite resonate with this character like this character doesn't quite come off as like full of malice the way that I think a typical archetypical scam scammer personality would come off um and there's also moments where he's talking to uh to judas where you know he you can tell he

actually to some extent likes judas and he's not just like totally trying to screw like you know the most ruthless, like totally possessed by ruthless greed, if that makes sense. Which I think is an interesting presentation of the character because this is how, like, it's how easy it is like backsliding to sin, I think. And like people, you know, the stories that we tell ourselves and the stories that we, that we, that we tell ourselves when we look in the mirror and, you know, justify things we're doing. it's easy to present it would be easy to present this character as like evil like when you look at him you're like oh this guy's evil this guy's evil this guy's evil yeah the things that he is ultimately doing the net the net effects of like the negotiations on screen are certainly sin and certainly underhanded um but other than that it's like he doesn't necessarily come off as like evil on screen like the same way that some of these the Pharisee characters do yeah and I think I think that's purposeful and I think it's important

that they have sort of aligned him with the tribe of Simeon, but then bring him into the context of Jesus and the disciples. So kind of Judah, right, line of Judah through which the righteous covering of Messiah, blood of Messiah comes. And there's tension there. We see with Judas, especially in the next scene that we'll play the tavern scene, or the first of two tavern scenes, we see that he has a moral dilemma.

They've chosen to give him a moral dilemma about this salt. mine thing, showing that he does have kind of a conscience, right? And he wants, he's, he's focused on, at least in his rhetoric, focused on honoring God. And again, this is the character, because none of this is scriptural. It's all showrunner invention. But I like it. I like that they chose to make, we all, Judas is the name Judas is synonymous with betrayal, right? But how did he get to that point? Was he always just scammie scammerson trying to, you know, find an angle? Or was he bought in? Because I've always kind of thought about it as they all wanted the warrior Messiah to come

liberate them from Rome. And it became, you know, over and over, like more and more clear that that wasn't what Jesus was doing. He wasn't here as a warrior. He was telling them to turn the other cheek and, you know, take the hits. And the hits are keep, the hits keep on. coming and we're just supposed to take them. And my kind of impression of Judas is that he got to the point, he wasn't a true believer, but he wanted to be.

He wanted, and this is again, you know, world according to Ash, understanding according to Ash, wanted to be, but got to a point where he betrayed. Now, he could argue that he was, that was always going to be the outcome. I think that's also true. But having a human struggle and human tension of how he gets to that point, because he, he, he, appears to be all in at the end of this episode. And very interesting to me how they've, they've chosen to,

to present him. Bravest asks, did Judas really control the purse? Yes, in John 12, four through six, John notes he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag, he used it to help himself to what was put into it. He was the keeper of it. He was the keeper of the money bag according to the Gospels, gospel of John.

So yes. So, yeah, and it's interesting they call him a thief because that's kind of like what he's, him and this guy are doing to this landowner in the beginning, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to the tavern scene with the two of these guys. I think we'll do this and then we'll come back around to the disciples.

We have one short scene with the Pharisees that I think we should play also, but we can play that later in the show. Okay. So we want to go through the Judas stuff first and then circle back around. Yeah, I also have no control over stream yard, so I need you to add it to the screen. Yeah, sorry. I will pass that alone. It was perfection.

You played your part so well. My look of annoyance was the best I've ever given. Sophocles, Eurypides, Escalis, they would kill for our acting skills. Certainly it was a kind of tragedy. For him, for us, a trial. And all tragedies have winners and losers. He was the one who brought the potential minerals. Yes.

And then you acknowledge the possibility of salt and not giving anything away. I conceded the value. And we came off looking like good guys. We bought a salt mine for the price of a country plot. Did you see his tears? That's common. People have emotional ties. See, so it's like he, the friend is,

like the concern that he even is concerned about looking like good guys coming off as good guys right it would be easy to write this character off like to write the character as who cares like who cares if they liked us or not like we got what we wanted but it's like it's almost like there's a small moral dilemma like he doesn't really have a moral dilemma he's trying to convince judas that what they did is fine and like this isn't a big deal it's just business don't be emotional it's just the business don't be emotional and it's like this guy probably looks in the mirror and tells himself that he's the good guy he's like i'm a good person Like, I'm not a bad person. This is just business. This is just good negotiation. This is just, you know, the art of a deal, right? Can you rationalize terrible behavior with a good story? Yes, people do it all the time, especially leaders in business and industry. Exactly.

And so I think that gives like a nuance to the character that I think it almost makes him endearing. Like there's an endearing element to him, even though he's not like a, like, he's not a good person. And he's not like a, so he's not likable in that sense. there is like this very endearing like human quality to him where he is uh kind of concerned with what he thinks of himself and what others think of him to some extent like like what others think of him is probably way more important than what he actually thinks of himself but um yeah there's it's a very superficial uh quality that i think is probably very very common um no matter what time period you're talking about for the land and then what do we grow calluses on our eyes

They lighten up. We just made the best sale of our lives. Did make a tidy profit on land. He didn't know it would ever be valuable. You'll never have to work another day in his life. You know, when I brought you on as my apprentice, they neglected to tell me that you did not have a sense of humor. I do have a sense of humor. You were about to become a very wealthy man.

Once our miners find the salt were called they live like kings. Kings of what? There's only one true king in heaven. And everyone else? Even Caesar. He's enjoying illusions of power and wealth. That's true. Sooner or later, we all become dust.

There's that sense of humor. I'm not oblivious, okay? I know that's right. But we have so few opportunities to get ahead in this opportunity. It was a calculated deception. And it didn't... It didn't feel good. We used what God gave us,

and now we'll have greater choices. better lives, more devotion. Pause it. Finish your drink. This is the definition of using the name of the Lord to build your own kingdom. Oh, we use what God obviously wanted this to happen for us. It's, I mean, he gave us the, he gave us the ability to scam that guy. So, you know, obviously that's what God wanted.

People do this all the time. Church people do this all the time. World leaders do this all the time. We spent almost three hours yesterday talking. about how that same sort of calculated deception is used to justify war and other atrocities. And that is taking the Lord's name in vain. Oh, God gave me the ability to scam, so he must want me to. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. And the general, like, parameters of this deal they've just done is kind of a tale as old as time. It's a real estate deal that, where one side, knows something about the land that the other side doesn't know. And so one side is getting exploited here. One side is getting the raw end of the deal because if both sides had known what the value of the land,

then the guy would have gotten way more money for his land than he did. Yeah, and just to be clear, if God was in this deal that they did, they would have disclosed to the man that there was a salt mine and they would have given him a portion of the proceeds. Because it was his, And it was his land. And, you know, the guy from the tribe of Reuben in the opening scene, he talks about the covenant and the promise to Abraham.

And he says Abraham, but the promise was to Abram. Same guy, different name because of the part of where they are in the story. I'm not trying to argue that they're two different people. But the point about the covenant is really important because the covenant does involve the land, right? Biblically speaking, the covenant involves the land. Now, these two guys are scamming about that land. So they're not just scamming tribe of Rubin guy. They're scamming God, essentially.

And that never works out well. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. And when the guy asked what they plan to do with the land, they lie about it. They say, we're going to carve out tombs for the middle class so that they have a place to bury their dead. But the truth is that they're going to carve out salt monster. and start a mining operation, probably on behalf of some mining cartel. Yeah.

Yeah, and they know, right? Yeah. They know what they're doing. Calculated deception, Judith. And when he said, like the other guy says, when I brought you on, they didn't tell me. So it kind of implies that, like, he works for like a network. Like, he's not like a one-man show. Like, he works for some, for other people.

And then, and when the other guy says, why can't my sons and I just do the, like, do the tombs ourselves? He's like, well, can you? And he lists off this like all the things that are required, all the resources that are going to be required in doing that. And frankly, a lot of those resources would probably have overlap with like mining. So he's probably not, you know, that's, he's probably speaking from some position of knowledge there. But it suggests that there's like that there's an operation behind him that that's going to come in, come in and do all this. He's basically just the broker, brokering, like the land deal on the front end. but yeah.

He also has kind of this caricature of industry. His later on when they're in the, I think they're in the same tavern and they're taught these guys help negotiate the land for the sermon on the mount with the disciples. It reminded, I wrote in my notes if that whole exchange about product placement, we'll play it in a second so people know what we're talking about. But that whole exchange reminds me of Hollywood and kind of like,

how can we maximize revenue on every, you know, event before an audience that we're doing like product placement and, you know, access to maybe a special event behind the scenes, all that kind of stuff. He's got, he's got kind of a, a profit focused,

industry focused caricature in this guy. And that I wonder, too, And the cartel and whoever, because it's not just like the product placement thing reminds me of Hollywood. This reminds me of mining cartel, you know, going into places like Africa and telling them that you're giving them a good deal while raping their land. And, you know, they get they get screwed in the end. All of those things. He's kind of representative of that, this character.

And Judas is kind of, you know, the tension for Judas is follow the way of the world or follow the Messiah. And I think that's what the showrunners are doing. I don't have, not entirely sure, but that's kind of how I read it. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Man was formed from Earth and eventually returns to it. The time in between, there has to be more to life than that. He's an orphan and a poet. I told you not to call me that.

Hey, okay, I'm sorry. It's been a long week. Let's take some time off to rest. What I need is a life. I could be proud of. Don't you want to do something that will really matter? See, so like when they say he's an orphan and a poet, like the immediate implication to me, like he says, when they brought you to me, this makes me think that he probably grew up in

some system. He grew up like, you know, an orphan, like on the streets or like in an orphanage. And then he gets brought into like this life of dishonesty, like this life of, is it a cartel? is it some sort of like network of thieves that then you graduate into a higher level of you know like the white collar crime where you're going around and negotiating bad deals and exploiting landowners um that's kind of what i thought when when they revealed that he's an orphan is that he was brought in to kind of let this syndicate that this guy works for and that's and um you know that's that's the the backstory yeah that will be remembered throughout history

It's your ambition. I really do. And I see potential in you. I see it every day. Here's in advance. Let's take weeks off. Rest, go for walks, do something new. Really? Why not? You're the one that said there's more to life than making money. Thank you. I don't know what to say. Finish your drink. So see, there's a perfect example. Like what that guy just did for him in that moment, was generous, right? He's like, take some time off. Here's an advance.

Here's a bunch of money that you didn't earn. Like, here's a bunch of money. Like, this isn't money that you've already earned. This is money that I'm advancing to you. This is an employer-employee relationship that it appears to some extent, you know, mentor, mentee. And he's like, take some time off. Here's some money. Go live your life.

Enjoy yourself. And Judas is kind of like overtaken with gratitude. He's like, oh, wow, thank you so much. I don't know what to say. This is how the devil operates. because we think of the devil as being like this evil thing that's going to twist your arm and be like, you're going to work for me, you're my slave because if you don't, I'm going to do X, Y, Z to you, you know, in this kind of coercive, exploitative relationship.

That's not how the devil works. The devil doesn't twist your arm and force you to do something against your will. He incentivizes you to do something and to the extent that you want to do it. And then you're like infatuated with it and you're trusting of it. and you're like, oh, wow, this thing really cares about me. This guy really cares about me. He's giving me a bag of money and telling me to go take some time off and go, you know, enjoy myself.

Like, what a nice guy. He must really like me. He must be like family to me. Like, but at the end of the day, what he really represents, he's a nice guy. And he's speaking nicely and he's being generous and he's being, you know, he's being merciful, so to speak, with his time. Gracious or rather. but at the end of the day what he's trying to do is he's trying to convince Judas to stick around and keep doing this with him and not like depart.

Yeah, it's very seductive and there's almost, and it can be, it can be a manipulation of lots of different types of emotion, but all kind of pointing towards rationalization for sin often under the guise of, you know, good things. Nobody can rationalize for you better than you can rationalize for yourself. And what it appears, that kind of exchange that you just described, right? Oh, he's a nice guy. He's doing nice things for me. Like, he really cares about me, all those kinds of things. That's like almost a lust. That it's a bit of sin that turns into an iniquity that turns into a worldview.

And as we discussed yesterday, I think there's a lot of that going on. Yeah, it's also like kind of an old trope in how these organizations, organized syndicates, crime syndicates, like, seduce people into joining them, where it's, like, on the very front end of it, there's a lot of, hey, your life can be better. Hey, like, look how hard your life is. If you come work for us, it's easy money. Like, how much money we're going to give you. Look, look how nice our life is. It's how comfortable we live. Like, you know, and then once you do, once you get deep enough, you realize that, like, what y'all are doing is actually extremely evil, but it's too late. It's like you've already gone too deep into it and you're kind of caught up in it, right? So this is kind of the, yeah, so third of four scenes that will play between Judas and his buddy here. This one, you see Judas and do we get the guy's name? No, but I will grab it. I also thought it was notable at the end of the last scene. The guy said, finish your drink.

Like drink up. Get more drunk. Yeah, get more drunk. I'll make more sense if you get more drunk. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so here we have, so we're going to skip over a lot of the disciple scenes. We'll play.

In the second part of the show, we'll get into a couple very pointed ones. But what we saw, Lizzie Boston, spirits, right? Alcohol is called spirits. Finish your spirits is that. That's a great point, Lizzie. When the disciples here that we see are here talking to the landowner. where they want to rent the land to have the sermon on the mouth. That's what Jesus has told them to do.

It's go find a place for us to have the sermon on the mount. They go and they're trying to negotiate with this landowner. And he's like, you know, I, oh, is that whose sister you were talking about, Bravest? He says, you know, I agreed to listen to you, but no thanks. And then Judas and his buddy weigh in here. Yeah, and the guy's name apparently. is uh so i just had it it's hadad that's his name and we can set aside some of our men to assist her goat herds and shepherds keeping the animals corralled on the other side of the mountain

my goat her told me about your plans but i don't like preachers i don't care for crowds you're not even offering to pay for the use of my space we have no significant money to offer we may be able to secure a loan may we have some people in our group or skilled at negotiation Why don't you bring them? Do you know of any neighboring pastor similar to you? Someone we could talk to. Look, I only came here because she said you'd pay for my drink if I heard you out, and I have. What about product association?

What? If this man is as important as they say, and the sermon is as significant as they are predicting... I just don't care about any vagabond teacher. This is the man who's healed many, yes? the one we've heard about. Yes. Think of all the pilgrims that see him as more than a teacher.

How many did you say? Hundreds, perhaps thousands? Multitudes. Thousands of people having life-changing experiences on your land. They could see miracles. What happens when those pilgrims go to market for supplies?

I mean, all those travelers, well, they associate your products with the feelings they have on the day. Coming from all over. your products. Your milk, your cheese, your wool, huh? Your name will be the only name they can trust. Multitudes.

Fine. But if I find one piece of trash left behind are super damages. You have our word. We'll leave it better than we found it. Good. I can't believe it. I just get the land. I think we just got the land.

I got it. How can we ever think? See, boy, I have not led you. So there's this like interesting thing that happens right there because it is almost like in that moment that's just like a love of the game. Yeah. Situation for them. Like they're not doing it to to get in with like Jesus's followers at that point. They're not doing it for any person.

Obviously they're not getting anything out of it. It's like they just happen to see this thing happening in front of them. They can like they're eavesdropping. They can tell these guys suck it negotiating. Even the other guy makes the comment. comment like why didn't you bring the other ones you're actually good at negotiating. And then so they step in and they kind of you know help help them with their negotiation and then immediately turn around and walk out like they don't they don't even stick around to be like hey like you know maybe how about a little something for we get a cut yeah where's our cut yeah yeah love of the game is a is a great way to describe that but also whatever guys that Hada that he said the name is heart I think I think it's Hada D-A-D-D-D-D- Yeah. He's trying to reel Judas back in to love the game.

Right? So there's that aspect of it. But let's play the rest of us. To ruin, life is a negotiation. You're right. You're right. Opportunities are everywhere staring us in the face. And the only difference between us and most people is that we have the tools to take advantage.

I'm learning. And I'm telling you, I don't want to be in business forever. I just want to make enough money to make my own choices. I'm like you. I believe there is more to life than deals and titles. And that right there, that's the story that everyone tells himself. That's the story that like every single one of my friends says. Like their goal is basically to, well, I'm taking this job that sucks that I hate

because if I work it for X number of years, I can retire early and get out of the rat race. Like that's the goal, right? It is. but also rationalizing very dishonorable things. Right. So I don't necessarily think that anything in that deal that they just made the product placement deal with the landowner was dishonorable. But the salt mine thing definitely was. And the coming actions of Judas are definitely dishonorable.

But it's that rationalization. Oh, it's just business. It's not emotional. I'm not exploiting you. I'm just a better negotiator than you are. right those kinds of things Jesus says Jesus is different

Jesus' way is not you know whoever is the best it's it's not you know eat or be eaten right it's very it's very much serve wash their feet take care of the widows take care of the poor do these guys are moving

towards exploitation survival of the fittest. We are better negotiators. We come off as good guys, even though we plotted this thing out as an intentional deception from the beginning versus actually doing the right thing. And Jesus, what he says throughout scripture and throughout this show is that he's looking at the heart. And the reason you'll know them by their fruit is because out of the mouth, the heart speaks. And your actions are louder than your words. words even. Your heart is everything to God. It's why it's why he cares. It's why he engages with you because he wants your heart. He wants you to recognize him. He wants you to recognize him and to be his.

And that is, as we, you know, have talked about with the, the Tuckabee specials, that that is how, that's why it seems so insane to, to turn the other cheek, to, um, to, um, to recognize that the service, the things that we consider honor, that the world leaders, you know, look down on us as absolute retards because we care about things like the heart. We care about doing the right thing. Whereas the world leaders are more like Haddad. Is that right? Yes. Did I get that name right?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a block on that guy's name for some reason. But yeah, it is, it is. is it's sort of coming, you know, like becoming clear to me as we're watching. This is like the fourth time. I've watched this this week. It's coming clear.

That's what they're doing, the showrunners, is showing this tension between following the world and following Jesus and, you know, ultimately up to and including betraying the most high God to follow the world. That's the tension we're setting up here. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, like having been in business and worked and worked in, you know, in, you know, in, you know, in. and seen the different styles of doing business. There's a lot to be said, like having worked for people who are honorable and have like a really good way of doing it where they figure out in the middle of a contract negotiation that

there was something missing that the other side didn't know about. And it's like you can either go and tell the other side and bring up the terms and the negotiation changes and to your detriment or you could bury it and you'll make more money. And the people that I found consistently that do the right thing in those situations, or like you're in the middle of work on a project and you discover that there is something that wasn't priced right. And it's not your fault. It's the guy who works for you for you's fault. He's about to lose $40,000 because of that.

Go into that guy and saying, hey, look, you missed it. It's your fault. I'm going to split it with you. I'm going to split the 20K. I'll eat 20K. But you owe me a favor now. Yeah. I've watched someone do that consistently, like save that guy's ass, save the guy who was going to lose $40,000 because he missed something in his price estimation.

And then build a whole book of friendship and trust because he helped people out of a pinch. And then now a whole rolodex of people who will go to bat for him. After 20 years doing business that way. Yeah, because he does business the right way. And it's like if you do business that way, yeah, like today you're eating 20K and it wasn't your fault. But 20 years from now when you have a roll-a-dicts of people who are willing, who you can literally pick up the phone and be like, hey, I'm in a tight spot. Can you help me out? Oh, of course. Yeah. Like you? Yeah, of course. I'm going to help you out. If everybody operated from that perspective, like you wouldn't have businessmen like Haddad, you know. We'd be back at handshake deals. Yeah. You wouldn't you wouldn't need the contract law and the torts law and all of these different domains of law that are meant to protect people from from malice. when in fact the malicious people just see three steps ahead and define new ways that we then need more laws for. President Trump's book, Art of the Deal, I think is a good example of what you're saying.

Because he talks about, you know, his deals, his real estate deals back in the 80s were, you know, they're long games. It's a decade plan that you're kind of seeing him negotiate each piece in part for. and kind of the key, one of the consistent threads in that book, and it's consistent with the negotiation training that I received at the audit firm that I worked for, is that the best deal is the one in which both people win. And that is a mindset. When you go into a dealmaking to ensure that, you know, it's honorable, that you understand everybody's expected out.

comes and desires for the deal. And so you then engage with that in mind, seeing how can we make everybody happy at the end of this deal? That is the honorable way to do this thing. It's unfortunately very rare to have that be a consistent view. It's more consistent with this Haddad guy. And, you know, always everybody has an angle, always looking for the edge,

always looking to get the best for yourself. And at the expense of whoever, it doesn't matter because you can rationalize it by saying, well, I was just a better negotiator. Yep. Yep. That's exactly right. You know, it would be really interesting. What's that? See this preacher in person. I've been hating about him. I'm really glad to hear you say that.

I want to see him too. It's settled. All right. So then they make clear that they want to go see them in person. So let's just finish off this. We get a very quick cameo here. I don't go play it. But we get a very quick. I love that. back we get a very quick cameo of Gaius and Atticus showing up to the thing and we had like I said before a very quick cameo of the fairer's even bigger than I thought I had a feeling

you had a feeling I want to see him I wanted to find a place we can hear him I'll come and find you I won't be long see if we can find one of his followers one of the men we met let them know we can help them they clearly need it They look like they're with him. Excuse me, son. May I have a very brief word? This is amazing. Oh, excuse me.

Do you know where I should stand to hear him? To hear the teacher from Nazareth? Nazareth. He performs miracles. They are saying he could be the one. We are not going to miss a word. You could do a lot worse than to follow us. It's kind, thank you.

Today is one of those days when it's definitely better to be blind and not dead. I'm sorry If we're moving to hear the teacher Why are you turning off the path The others follow We're just going to say hello To some old friends before the show Not a show, Bonapie

It was a show at Zebedee's house That's a now G4 The whole episode for Judas Why are you turning off the path That everyone else is following, right? Yeah, a great point I totally missed that I saw this as he's

caught between like follow the crowd or who are these guys they seem to know something. Now they're saying it was a show at, you know, they have more. These two, this, you know, cripple guy and blind lady, they know something.

They know more. I can't remember if there was any other scenes with Judas. There is, he meets them here in a side. Oh. Yeah, he meets the guy. Yeah, here. Come on over. Well, we just wanted to say shalom. We'll go find a good spot. Please. Stick around.

Hey, Simon. This is the man who got us the mountain, the pastor. Convinced the landowner, it was worth his while. Yeah, good work. I'm Simon. Judas. Welcome, Judas. I'm sure you're going to love this sermon.

Oh, I wouldn't miss it. All right, so. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You go ahead. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't about to say anything. I was just killing the dead air.

take it away. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, that's so, so Judas becomes much more relevant in, you know, the story. I mean, he's relevant to the story. But in, in the plot in season three, we'll see a lot more from him. But that's our, our intro to him. I want to shift and talk, I think as a bit of a pallet cleanser, if you can find the Pharisee part of that. We'll play, we'll play that real quick. because I think that is a great just.

Yeah, I was actually going to suggest the exact same. I just pulled it up. So I have it right here. I pause on it for a second because we're talking about Judas. This is going to, this is so bad. You know, forgive me in advance, father. Talking about Jews, talking about Judas. If, you know, Judas's God was money, obviously, gold and silver.

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All right. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you to Jessica for the appropriate ad on the run sheet in the Judas episode. That's it. That it's your whole story? Everything we know for certain established as fact by eyewitnesses in accordance with the law. I know we can't prove it's the same person, but the pattern's too striking to ignore.

It doesn't need to be the same person. That's what's wonderful. I will have Shimon dragged for this. To be fair, it was the secretary who called the charges Manusia, not Shimon himself. Secretaries don't put words in their rabbi's mouth. It's the other way around. Minusha. my congregation and students will fall in the mouth when they hear this make a written record of your conversation she was one of the things i love about the scene and this is the only scene we really get from them in this in this interview but um yani and schmuel have been kind of you know trying their hand at politics right so yani has been teaching schmuel how the world works the looks on both of their faces in this scene shows that they are both in over their heads.

And they realize here, I think, they realize here that in their pursuit of, I think, you know, Yanni is pursuing power. Shmuel, I think, is still trying to do the right thing. I don't think that he's power hungry. I think that he's, you know, he really, he really believes that, that the, you know, the, he really believes the framing of the law that he's been taught and raised it. And so, you know, and, you know, we'll, we'll follow his journey as well through season three. But you can sort of tell on their faces here that this Shemai guy is, he's playing, he's, he's playing on a different level.

And it just, I think this is so, this is so real in terms of thinking that you haven't figured out, thinking that you have, you know, you've got some sense of power because you have information. and then see immediately this guy takes their testimony, right, takes their story, their evidence, and twists it for something that very quickly gets out of their hands and you can kind of see that on their faces. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. And that's a really good point. It's far cry from like Yousef. Like, Shmuel seemed way more political than Yusuf. Yanni seemed way more political. than Shmuel. But both of them seem like they're way out of their depth here with this guy. And you're right. Like Shemuel, I think for the most part, his heart is in the right place.

It's just, again, like his whole moral compasses calibrated on the wrong calibration. It's all like out of alignment with what the one universal truth God. Yeah, but you kind of just described it. I didn't even, I didn't even put it this way, but the way you just described it makes so much sense. You have Yusuf, so Yusuf and Shmuel are both students of Nicodemus, right? And love the law, focus on the law, love God ostensibly. Yusuf has that childlike faith. We see it over and over again in him.

Shmuel wants power and authority. He's initial, where we first find him is in challenging Nicodemus. Then he goes on and he finds a guy that's even more focused on power and authority. Then they go on and find this guy. It's a progression. The showrunners are showing us here because, again, all this stuff with the Pharisees and all of these negotiations and everything are invention. But they're showing us the progression. How do you get from the earnest, educated love of God to being in a room with this guy, getting ready to pervert all of it for political gay?

right it's going to be in my next sermon I'm going to be oh my students are going to eat this up we saw some of that remember with John the Baptist my followers are going to love this that is the wrong orientation yeah there's definitely like a Mr. Smith goes to Washington thing

happening here where it's like Shmuel is like the populist guy coming that thinks he's going to actually like change the world right I'm going to do the right thing and now he sees this is what like a swamp creature looks like and how the swamp creature operates and how the swamp

creature would just take take this new little creature that's wandered into the to the swamp schmuel and just kind of pluck him right off and and use him for his own his own designs and i love that choice by the showrunners because as christians you know i mean i've i've known jesus since i was a child i've always kind of had this black and white view of the pharisees right well they were obviously bad because they rejected Jesus and plotted against him and all of these things. But it makes way more sense that this was a very flawed human thing and trusting in your own understanding and that there may have even been some sense of earnest pursuit for holy things, but missing the point, right?

When Jesus is at one point, I forget which episode, you know, you're going to miss it. Don't miss it. Don't, the kingdom is at hand, don't miss it. And they're missing it because it's not what they thought it was going to be. It doesn't look like the way that they, like what they were expecting. There's a spectrum. And I think we see that from Yusuf to Schmuel to Yanni to this guy and the other, you know, the, the, um, um, um, what was the other guy's name?

Shemai and Shimon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

There's, there's, there's, there's politics at play here. There's, there's, there's, there's, using the law, which is the most sacred and holy thing that they have at this point, because they don't have the other things that they need, the sacred and holy things that they once had. The law is where they get their authority and they're kind of worshipping it, but they're not worshiping it to worship God. They're worshiping it to build their own kingdom and build their own power. And you see that come to life in the political aspects of how, you know, alleged violations of God's law, which we're told makes these guys fall to their knees and rip their clothes, right? Like if, if somebody, if somebody offends God or offends the law, blasphemes God, they will fall to their knees and rip their clothes.

Also, they'll plot to use it for their own personal game. Yeah. And because ultimately the people aren't violating God's law. They're violating their law. They're violating their system. their instrument of power. And so that's why I think they actually get very offended over it.

And, you know, the thing that I would think about as we watch the rest of the scene is, and that I think about a lot is this is what President Trump is dealing with when he goes into Washington. Is when you think about if every person in Washington operates the way this guy operates, which is, oh, yeah, like, I'm going to do this thing. Like, you'll hear Shamel be like, yeah, but we're doing this because it's the right thing. Like, this is, I'm not here to, you know, to help. one political faction or the other i'm here because the right thing to do is to stop this false uh this false messiah right and he's like oh yeah yeah like of course but but yeah so i feel like president

trump really understands that he understands like in order for me to get this thing done i have to get this faction or this person to buy into it for this reason and they're going to run around and say this say the thing you know to get the sound bite on television but this is what i really want them do because when I'm done with them, I'm going to be using this other guy to advance. And when you paint the whole picture, it's one little person doing one little thing for himself. But in the grand scheme, hopefully, you get to the golden age at the end of it. Yeah, I think so. We'll see.

Word and file it with the clerk of the special counsel for false prophecies of the archive. It must be signed and dated by a ranking levite. Do you understand my instructions? but why all the exactitude? Because when this Jesus of Nazareth amasses enough followers and enough detractors, it will get Rome's attention. And then everyone will know. Know what, Rabbi?

That Shimon was well aware of these offenses and dismissed them. His obsession with reforming God's immutable law will be exposed for the negligent, lazy, dangerous abomination it is. Not just Shimon. We opened a case with the Sanhedron and Nicodemus dismissed it as immaterial. Nicodemus. I've long suspected the lamps were going dim in that house if you get to my meaning. Well, I don't know about that.

Spread the word. Tell every scribe, Pharisee, Sadducee, Essen, priest, teacher, and Levite you know. Why, rabbi? First, the facts. Self-identifies using a divine title from the Prophet Daniel. Son of man. Claims authority to forgive sins. Violate Shabbat on multiple occasions.

And commands others to do so. It's with tax collectors and sinners. Degenerate. Now, the speculation. Speak it out they don't have all day. One of John the baptizer's students is among his followers and there are rumors of a second. Delicious. You'll never be pasted by that freak again. In Copernum, there were women of ill repute seen at table with him at the tax collector's house.

You're telling me, women are among his followers? You asked for speculation. Keep going. He consorts with Gentiles, specifically the Ethiopian woman who knew his name and his origin. The last is very vague and small. Nothing. He's so. small when it comes to fidelity to God's law. The praetor of Copernum, ordered Jesus detained.

When I spoke with his office, they made mention of the fourth. So he just spent time telling them how they're plotting. We're going to say anything right now. Eventually, Jesus is going to have enough followers and enough detractors. And then all of these religious leaders, we're going to have them entrapped. They're going to have to stand on their record of this thing. We're going to document the record. We're going to get it in, you know, get it all into the official immutable.

record and and then they're going to have to stand on it. They're going to have to, you know, stand by what they did. And then he makes the case makes the point, nothing is too small. Tell me all your speculation. Every sin you think they've done. Every bad thing that you think they've done, there's nothing small when it comes to God's immutable law. This isn't about God's law. You've already admitted that this is about opposing your political opponents. But see, they're taking the name of the most high God and twisting it to build your own kingdom. over and over and over again.

It's small when it comes to fidelity to God's law. The praetor of Copernum ordered Jesus detained. When I spoke with his office, they made mention of the fourth philosophy. The zealots? It was just a passing comment. He must be out of his mind. That's all we have. You must make these confirmed facts and inferences made known far and wide,

but never mention that Shimon or Nicodemus dismissed the case. The gullible masses would defer to their supposed wisdom. But then when we reveal data, documentation showing that Shimon had early warning and did nothing. The house of his wretched grandfather Hillel will fall and the house of Shemai will rise. Rabbi Shemai respectfully, we didn't come here today seeking to influence which schools of thought. We came looking for someone who would care that a false prophet is deceiving our people. If that was your intent, you have succeeded. Everything you shared with me will make an appearance

at my next Shabbat sermon. See, so he's like, rest assured, like, your mission is accomplished. You've accomplished the very small thing that you're trying to accomplish. But in the eyes of that guy, Shmuel and Yanni are the small, they're the small little thing in this guy's grand design. But in their mind, this guy was a small little thing in their grand design, their grand design being to take down Jesus. This guy's grand design being to take down whatever, Shimon.

so interesting it's just like it's like playing against one another yeah and it's so so that specific exchange when especially when he said his what did he say his despicable grandfather or something referring to the school the the origin of the school of thought he'llel I think he said is just hellel I think it's his despicable grandfather so it reminds me of the the Protestant reformation and it's kind of the same problem when you think about it. It is using using the things of God, the words of God, the name of God to build your own kingdom. And then when new, when when people start thinking they know Jesus, right? When people start thinking they can have a relationship with Jesus with God. They can have a

relationship with God without you religious leader. Well, that's a threat. And that's when the plotting and the scheming comes. And the plotting and the scheming takes on religious, you know, imagery and words, rhetoric takes on the appearance of religious idea, but it is the same sin. So it's interesting to me that we have this problem in

taking the showrunner speculation about how things went down as probably true. And I think it's close, right? Humans don't change. There's nothing new under the sun. Humans plot and scheme. And we see patterns. We see history repeat and rhyme.

And so I think it's probably close, I think they got close with this kind of path that they took. But seeing that Jesus was a threat to the religious leader's power of the day, check, when he was walking the earth, check. When the Catholic Church was at its height, the challenges to it were in the name of Jesus. Now you can argue that both of those were trying to use the name of Jesus to build their own kingdom, but it is the same position. being presented here, right? That Jesus is the great equalizer. He makes everybody equal.

He takes away your hierarchy, takes away your power where you have elevated yourself over other people in the name of God. It takes that away. So we see that. The Protestant Reformation, I think we also see it today,

Ghost. And, you know, we've done six hours. We're probably going to do nine total on the Chukabee thing. And it's the same problem. And we're now told, And this is what's one of the most frustrating things for me is, well, you know, it's, it's important not to, well, we can't talk about religion. Well, wait a second.

You're, you're using religion as the premise for why we have to go do all these real IRL things. And then when I ask religious questions, well, as we just talk about, well, it's a geopolitical issue. We can't, we can't really bring religion into it. Well, the religious, you want to use the religious messaging, the prophecies, pervert the scriptures in my, opinion to justify your wars and your deception and your death and destruction and all of the things that you're using the name of God to justify. But when people start talking about Jesus and what would Jesus do? Would Jesus be in on this? Where would Jesus line up on the current conflict that we're talking about? When we do that and we're we're told it's a threat to their power. It's a threat to it. It's

the same dynamic over and over and over again that people want to claim that they are righteous and they are doing what they're doing because God. And over and over and over again, we see that their, their, um, their actions don't match their stated intent or incentives. Agreed. Agreed. All right. Um, so should we go to the, uh, disciples?

Is that, is that what I want to do for the rest, if you're cool with it is, um, just focus on the scenes between Jesus and Matthew. and I'll kind of set it up. There's two main scenes. I wrote in the notes. I said, play this scene. I will cry because it's true.

I will. I also wonder, Jesus talks about the Punic Wars at some point, so I thought maybe you'd want to opine on that a little bit. But I'll set up before we get into the first scene between Jesus and Matthew, the disciples are a mess. So we see a bunch of examples in this. You've got Andrew who's still super angsty over John the Baptist,

and he's very worried that, the same is going to happen to Jesus. You see Mary and Reima and Mary is, it is stressed out that she's going to accidentally fall away, right? She's, I can't, I have to read more scripture. I have to hide these things. I can't let this happen again. She says,

the boys are all fighting and yelling at each other. Everything you've shared with me will make an appearance of my next Shabbat sermon. I'm going to take this out. The, the, the, um, Mary and Tamar are talking. She's kind of getting to know her. And it's less important for Tamar to read and to learn the scripture.

She knew Jesus was the son of God before she asked him to heal her friend. Right. So she doesn't have those same anxieties. And Mother Mary says, you know, maybe it'll be good for you to be around the other ladies because they seem kind of angsty about the fact that they're women and they are behind. So we see this chaos happening in the camp among the disciples. All of them in different pairings are just an absolute mess. And then we find Jesus and Matthew working on the sermon on the Mount. And we get, there's, there's, you know, kind of two very long scenes here.

And we'll pause them as we go through them. But I think this kind of summarizes his ministry, the point, and also where we are. in the plot of the show. Matthew, look. Mary finished the notices. They're leaving to spread the word. I hope they can find the way to work together. What do you mean?

They can't seem to agree on a single thing lately. Myself included sometimes. Oh, I've noticed. In some ways, it's to be expected. But not desired, surely. No, no. But it's what's bound to happen when you start something that's

open to all, truly, all people. Zealots, even tax collectors, people who have been through tough times, people both hesitant and skeptical, as well as bold and confident, people hungry to learn, as well as those learned and knowledgeable. You pause it.

Let's get back to work. So that part where he talks about that he's building something that's open to every, one, right? Zellets and tax collectors and Gentiles, even. Oh, M.G. Gentiles. He's making the case for his kingdom, right? And we know that that's what he ultimately brings about. We also know that that's what's originally foretold through you. All the families of the earth would be blessed. This is prophecy being fulfilled at this moment, that this is happening. And he points to, you know, this is, it's, it's, they're a mess and they're they're a mess because we've brought together all these. Everybody has it. We have so many different factions, so many different sets of belief. And we've made the kingdom accessible to all of them.

So of course it's going to be messy. Of course they're going to fight. Of course they're going to disagree. And that's okay. I mean, I think it's actually kind of the design. I think it's why we are the way that we are. I think trying to keep us pacified, keeping people, if your goal is to avoid conflict, if your goal is to keep the harmony, no matter how much apostasy is in it, no matter how heretical

it is, no matter how you're being led, like think about Judas, being led towards industry versus being led toward Jesus. That's the tension that we see with Judas in this. And that's the point. the point is that we're not going to all agree, certainly not when we're saying, well, my reading of this scripture is better than your reading of the scripture. And you obviously are wrong about that. I mean, you believe Jesuit stuff. So like, you're wrong. I'm right. That's making yourself the main character of the story. And Jesus in this scene is saying straight up, I said, all these people

are different, with all these different factions, all these different backgrounds of people, different classes, right? Even text collective. are among us. And we saw that with the Pharisees. Oh my gosh, there's tax collectors and sinners. There's women. Are you kidding me? Right? These are the things that were most offensive to the religious people of the day. Not sin, but the things that were offensive to their power, right? The things that Jesus made, he made the kingdom accessible to everyone. And we see that that creates messy conflict. We should not, in my opinion, I know everybody's shocked that this is my opinion, but we should

not be conflict avoidant when we're talking about the things that matter, whether it's politics, whether it's religion, tattooed and teacher in the chat says religion is political and politics is religion. I think that's correct. But we should not, we should highly frictional. We are here at Badlands. That's our brand. We're highly frictional.

But we are highly frictional because we care about truth. We want to get to truth. I don't care what club you're in. I'm not going to join your club, right? I'm not in it to join your club. I'm in this because I want the truth and I want justice and I want, you know, reconciliation and I want all sorts of things. But that principle that we bring together, all these different people,

all these different backgrounds, tribes, tongues, you know, ethnicities, all of the things. Jesus made a way for every single one, meaning you don't get to elevate yourself above anyone else and say that you're better or more worthy or more justified or more chosen for the kingdom of heaven because Jesus made it accessible to everyone. Yeah, agreed, agreed. Let's watch for the rest of the scene. How many sections are we up to?

19. He's a little incomplete, huh? There is something about 20 that is more symmetrical. It's always short than to 18. Brevity is usually preferred. Which sections stand out to you the most? Do not be anxious about your life, of course. Are there any sections that concern you?

Give me your honest opinion. I know I don't have to say that, but... The whole truth. You know I won't be offended? It's... Oh... ...very striking. striking, but if I do the math in terms of good news and bad, it seems like there's not a lot of good news.

Anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery. Doesn't that make everyone an adult? If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. Wouldn't that lead to an entire population of people walking around with only one eye? Oh, and this one. If anyone were to sue you and take your tunic, it would. Let him have your cloak as well. Trees that bear bad fruit being cut down and torn into the fire. The gate is narrow and hard that leads to life. Departs from me, I never knew you? Do you realize how heavily laden your sermon is with these kinds of ominous pronouncements?

I haven't even named half of them. It's a manifesto, Matthew. I'm not here to be sentimental and soothing. I'm here to start a revolution. Well, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That isn't exactly... I said revolution, not revolt. I'm talking about a radical shift.

Did you think I was just going to come here and say, Hey, everyone, just keep doing what you've been doing for the last thousand years since it's been going so great. Also, there's the beginning and the end. What about the beginning? That thing about the beginning is more logistical. Right now, your opening line is, you are the salt of the earth. I'm worried, particularly if it is windy, or if the crowd is larger than, then we expect that people near the back will hear saltier.

And it will immediately call to mind a negative connotation. The Punic Wars? Yes. When Rome destroyed Cartage, they sowed the city with salt to make it bedon and to curse anyone who would rebuild upon it. I share your concern about the opening line, but for different reasons. I think the sermon needs some sort of introduction, an invitation into what as you...

I do love how Jesus points out. You know, did you think I was going to show up and congratulate everyone for everything they've been doing? They've, you know, just keep in what you're doing, guys. Don't change anything. Again, just very, very relatable to the current moment. But watching the scene that we just watched with the Pharisees, that's certainly where they're at. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

You know, we're figuring it out. We've got it figured out. We've got these two schools of thought and they're battling each other and scheming and all of the deception and all of the things. the actual glory of God doesn't really enter the chat at all. It's more, you know, what is this law that God gave us for his glory. How can we use it for our own power? See that a lot, even up to today. And he came to break it.

I love this scene. I love this dynamic. This is invention, of course. There is no biblical record of Jesus workshopping his speech with Matthew. and that kind of goes against, you know, what we would expect, I think. But I love the way that they did this because it kind of gets into rationale. And Matthew's reaction is, I think, honest for how they would react, right? How his disciples would react to these ideas that Jesus is presenting in the Sermon on the Mount.

Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5 through 7 if folks want to read it. It's those three chapters of the book of Matthew and the Bible. So folks can check it out. Yeah, and I think it's something to be said about if his own followers who have become pretty familiar with him and what he does and his ways, if they're taking a, this taken aback by this particular sermon, I think they're trying to demonstrate to, again, people who are more layman with the content that like this is something new.

This is something new. It's something radical. and if the disciples are struggling this much with it, imagine how everybody else is going to engage with it. You have rightly pointed out will be a complex and at times challenging set of teachings. What does you where the salt of the earth even mean? I'm not good at metaphor.

Salt preserves meat from corruption. It slows its decay. I want my followers to be a people who hold back the evil of the world. Salt also enhances the flavor of things. I want my followers to renew the world and be part of its redemption. Salt can also be mixed with honey and rubbed on the skin for maladies. I want my people to participate in the healing of the world, not its destruction.

Then why not just say that? Come on, Matthew, allow me a little poetry, huh? Not everyone is like you. Some people like a little flavor. Read the songs of David or Solomon. I'm not going nearly as far with metaphor, Solomon. I'm reading him next. Good luck. He's probably...

I told you. These things will make sense to some, but not to others. I don't want passive followers. Those who are truly committed will peer deeply into it, looking for truth. But I do agree with you. We shouldn't begin with salt. You make a valid point. Good work.

You could flip it with the next image. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. I could. Or whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. That one's inviting. Master, may I ask why you keep coming down to look at the camp?

They've all gone, haven't they? I'm going to need time. We have measures in place for crowd. So he's sent, so he keeps going over and overlooking the camp. He sees them in the first instance arguing. But, you know, Mary's finished the writing of the flyers. They're all going to go out. They go out.

So it comes back. He looks, they're all gone. Where have they gone? He sent them out to gather the people to him, right? Metaphorically. And actually, I think in this instance, sends them out to gather the people. And then, you know, we see that at the end as the people start walking up. But the next scene between these two guys where, uh,

He does the beatitudes is the part where I can't make it through. Yeah, yeah. Before we get to that, I see Babbage mentioned it in the chat, but I was going to say some brilliant writing here from the showrunners because you get that image, the salt of the earth image that Jesus is using, which I think now, now is just become like that's just a saying now, right, that people understand when he said he's salt of the earth i think everyone most people understand that people are saying are he's a good compliment right right compliment yeah yeah so but then we

also have salt the earth means district total destruction right yeah yeah which is why which is which is which is why it's funny like matthew points that out from the punic wars um like to salt the earth is like a uh you know that's that's that's invokes this image of being defeated being conquered like the like carfid was by Rome and then having your field sewn up with salt so that you can't grow crops anymore and that you you're basically your empire's over right your civilization's over um it's interesting though that at the beginning of the episode we learn well we learn later but at the beginning of episode they're buying us they're buying land for the salt right so it's like judas and uh and in hodd are exploiting the salt like they're

exploiting the salt in the land and it's like the and then Jesus is sitting here saying that people are salt that people are the salt of the earth and so it's like there's a there's the analogy of course being is that judas and people of his mind of his cloth um are exploiting people like ultimately they're exploiting people so there's a you know and they did exploit that that guy from the tribe of reuben to get the salt mine yep and and who else who knows who else they exploit along the way and setting up their mining operations than selling the salt and it's like just one exploitation after the next that's kind of like um you know the way of the world yeah yeah i mean it's it's interesting right the this salt as a metaphor and in actual because if you have you know i have um jordan's conscious strength electrolyte salt right if i get really dehydrated if i don't have enough salt in my body and i get really dehydrated, I can die. Also, if I have too much, right? So there's like a sweet spot kind of thing. And the, you know, finding is just kind of in my head, like staying in the center of God's will because you can, you know, go too little or too much. This comes back to like

the lukewarm thing that Jesus talks about too, right? Like, spit the lukewarm out of him out. You're not cold. You're not hot. You're just kind of meh. And that, you know, without, without salt. Salt efficient, maybe? I don't know. Yeah, it's Bamabitch says, like a lot of things, salt can be good or bad,

just like people. I think that metaphor is purpose. And he, purposeful. And he calls us to be salt and light to the world. And, but,

but not to exploit the salt and light of the world. Not to amass all of the salt and light of the world for yourself, but to actually be it. And be it inconsistent. consistent with his will, which, as he says in that exchange with Matthew, I'm calling for a revolution, not a revolt. I'm not calling for you to be violent. I'm calling for you to have a radical transformation of the heart where you are my hands and feet. You're my body out in the

world. You're doing these. I'm teaching you these ways. I'm teaching you to be honorable, to be moral, to be of service, right? I'm teaching you to be the good in the world. and when I'm gone, you're going to be that for me. And that even up to today is still being perverted. Yeah, yeah. Well, and it makes me think about, again, like, what did Judas and Haddad represent ultimately? I think they represent the talents of men, right?

Like the talents of humans, because they have this natural talent that you see really put in your face here with the negotiation that goes that almost didn't happen that that goes awry and then just sitting there and like as they're enjoying themselves are like oh like for fun we're going to help this negotiation happen we're going to convince this landowner to let these people use his land for free they're not he's not being compensated for it because we're going to see the value um the value ad that comes from doing this uh i think there's a lot to be said about um that whole system because is what they're doing ultimately, if you kind of zoom out and you kind of take away all the morality from it from the situation, what they're doing is they're setting up a real estate deal where salt is going to be extracted from the earth.

Jesus has explained in his moment with Matthew right there how valuable salt is. Salt is a valuable commodity for a number of reasons because it can be used to preserve food. It can enhance the taste of food. There's a number of other things you can do with it. there's medical purposes, etc. So extracting that commodity from the ground is actually can be seen as like, that's a service. That's something you are enhancing value. You are using God's gifts that he's given the earth to improve people's lives, right?

Now, we're seeing an example of how exploitation can occur in a negotiation from that first deal. but the thing that's happening, the net effect of like the deal is that salt is being extracted from the earth is that God's gifts are being tapped into and are being used just like in the garden, right? In accordance with I think how God expects us to use the bounty that he's put into the earth.

And so what I'm getting at is that when men's hearts are aligned with evil, with like themselves, with greed, right? It doesn't even necessarily have to be necessarily like malice. Like the Haddad character in Judas, you know, maybe they're going to pay their miners all fair wages, right? Maybe they're going to set up this business that ends up giving lots of jobs and ends up being a good economic endeavor, whatever. It could also be like a slave mind where slavery is used, right? It could also be something where people are exploited even further, right, with the wrong intent.

But looking at like taking away from this episode and just looking at maybe a more topical example of, you know, what's happened in the past 12 months, when somebody like President Trump and Steve Wickoff and these negotiators who have a lot of experience in putting together complex deals, when they're willing to negotiate these deals as an act of service for the country, right, and correct some of the wrongs that have occurred in the past, that's a, that, you know, if, when their hearts are in alignment with with God and with doing the right thing, it's like they're actually performing a service, right? They're performing a service for all of us because these are negotiating talents, negotiating skills that would only be found in the private sector at the highest levels, right? And corporations like the Trump company, like the Trump corporation. However, President Trump has now recruited these talented individuals to come do this on behalf of the American people. to me, I see the correlation between what we're seeing in this episode and what we're seeing in real life.

Because when talented businessmen like Haddad and Judas, when their hearts are out of alignment with God, they exploit the earth. And when their hearts are in alignment with God potentially, they can use those talents to put together deals that benefit God's creation. that, you know, connect communities, connect civilizations, have economic entanglement, which disincentivizes kinetic war and misunderstanding and that sort of thing in conflict. So while there are people who would look at like what their skill set is and kind of dismiss it and be like, well, you know, the Bible talks about a man should, you know, the fruit of your own labor and not taking the fruit of another man's labor. Well, there's different forms of labor and having talented men like Judas. And Haddad, working for righteousness and doing it with their heart and the right alignment

could actually be a net positive for humanity. Like we see them do in that moment where they just do it for the love of the game, right? They're not doing that for personal advancement for personal gain. So I think that's, you know, that is something that we should be pushing for, like, as a culture. We should be elevating this moral bar that I think has fallen so much where, everything has just become about, you know, the art of the deal and like one up in the next person and this, this idea of a zero sum equation where you have the haves and the have knots. And I think the golden age is more about returning to this idea of abundance, where with

enough abundance, we don't have to be so ruthless. Yeah. I think I think that's a great point. There's one aspect of salt that we haven't talked about. I think, and I don't claim to fully understand this. But I think that it's important. So we think about the Passover in, you know, Jewish tradition. The Jews were in captivity in or the Hebrews were in captivity. In Pharaoh's time, right, Moses is sent to, they have the plagues and all of that. We all know that story.

And then the blood of the, the blood of the lamb is what marked the doorposts, right? And then the Jews celebrate Passover to this day. And in the Passover Seder, there is salt. It's an element of it. And I think it's relevant because, you know, we're talking about the blood of the lamb. Passover is about the blood of the lamb. Blood of the lamb is what causes the spirit to pass over you, right? God doesn't see your sin because you're covered by the blood of the lamb.

And that takes us back into captivity in Egypt. in the Seder, which the tradition of the Seder starts from Exodus, Exodus 12, 8 is where to talk about the salt part, well, not the salt, but the bitter herbs part specifically. The Passover Seder and how it's done today was sort of evolved over time similar to other Jewish tradition, you know, after all of the things that happened to them. But in the Seder dinner, there is, you take a vegetable and you dip it into salt water before you eat the bitter herbs as commanded in Exodus 128. The salt there is meant to traditionally represents, symbolically represents the tiers of the Israelites and slavery in Egypt, sometimes also the Red Sea. It's meant to represent the Red Sea, right? they escaped through the salt water. But I just, I think that's, I think that's interesting because Jesus did,

scripturally, make it a very pointed part of his speech or his, his manifesto, as the showrunners chose to describe it here, a map as he says here in the scene that the salt was important. And I wonder, is it about the tears? Is that, you know, part of it. And is, and is, and what is that? I don't know. I don't know the answer, but I think it's important to mention because it is a part of that tradition and specifically a tradition that has to do with the blood of the land. That is, that is interesting.

So yeah, let's let's play this part. Bye bye. The opening? Yes. This is it? A map. What? Directions where people should look to find me.

Okay. Give me a moment. I'm ready, have I? Blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure and heart, for they shall see God. They shall be called sons. Most of it are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom. Blessed are you. When others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. For your reward will be great in heaven.

Yes. How is it the map? If someone wants to find me, those are the groups. they should look for. And then you are the salt of the earth. All right. You talk.

So yeah, the beatitudes. Yes. Matthew 5, 3 through 12. I'll put that in the chat. Yeah. And arguably one of the most important cornerstones, I think, of Christian doctrine, right?

Is got to found in those ideas. Yeah. And I like it. I like the framing of it being a map. That that's where you'll, that's where you'll, you'll find, you'll find him. I think it's true.

The imagery shown of where he found his disciples at, you know, as he's relaying those principles. Let's look at it real quick. Blessed are the poor in spirit For theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are those who mourn For they will be comforted Blessed are the meek

For they will inherit the earth Blessed are those who hunger and thirst For righteousness For they will be filled Blessed are the merciful For they will be shown mercy Blessed are the pure in heart For they will see God

Blessed are the peacemakers For they will be called the children of God blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you you are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

It's heavy. It's still heavy. Like they're going to get Jesus and Matthew as their workshop in this thing in the show. Or Mathis is like, it's too heavy. We need something to start out. It's still, it's still heavy. It's beautiful. Still heavy.

Yeah. Yeah. And then I like the, I like that you read that because we got that last part about the saltiness. If salt loses its saltiness, then how is it so salt? and can it be can it regain its saltiness and the fact that it doesn't necessarily speak to regaining its saltiness is kind of just implying that you just have to maintain you have to maintain your saltiness you cannot don't lose your saltiness i think that's the that's actually the highly frictional yeah that's the takeaway that i'm taking salty everyone everybody needs to maintain their saltiness be as salty as you possibly can because there's no replenishing your saltiness once you lose it. Don't let them take away your smile and don't let them take away your saltiness. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's, it's beautiful. And it is, gosh, it's really convicting. Yeah. Especially,

you know, because I mean, you and I have taken a lot of crap for the positions that we've held, call it all sorts of names, have quite a, quite a bit of division. And specifically for asking what would Jesus do and asking who do you say that I am, right? For focusing on that question and trying to point people towards Jesus.

We've been called all kinds of names and stuff. And it's fine. I mean, I resolved a long time ago that my reward is in heaven. So it's fine. But reading that, right? Like you kind of shore up, you get your resolve in place. you kind of put the, you know, the, the, the armor on and you deal with it. But that, that breaks me every time.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Especially when you, when you hear the part about the blessed are the peacemakers, because I think that that is, I'm pretty sure Trump has posted that. I'm pretty sure Trump has posted that exact, that exact line. So, yeah, it's like the blessed are the peacemakers, if they will be called the sons of God. I think that is ultimately the goal of it all.

That's the goal of the golden age is more so than anything else, than more so than making everybody rich, getting everyone prosperity is establishing a real lasting peace where people don't have to live in fear of certain things. It doesn't mean fear is gone, but I'm saying that from this the geopolitical strife of it all, of

impending war, impending doom, impending destruction, which I think has driven a lot of the threat of conflict has driven a lot conflict, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I think it makes sense. I'm just looking really quickly.

I don't think we don't have any boosts. With the Rumble Rand, thank you so much. First appearance of Judas, he's receiving silver for a plot of land for the claimed use of graves for the rich. Judas's silver will end up in a plot of land used for the graves of the poor. Excellent catch. Great, great insight, Babbage, thank you. We appreciate you guys so much. Everybody that shows up this weekend is kind of doing this journey with us.

It's great. I love it. I appreciate you as well, Ghost. And next week, we will have our season two recap show. And then the following week, we will get into season three of The Chosen here on The Choice. So please do us a favor and hit the like button. Also, if you are so inclined, join us at Gart in April. April 9th through the 12th will be in Nashville.

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