Badlands Media - The Choice: Season 2 Recap

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Ashe in America and Ghost return for a full Season 2 recap of The Choice, reflecting on the major themes, character arcs, and spiritual lessons that unfolded throughout the season. The conversation walks through how the story expanded the lives of the disciples, explored their personal struggles, and illustrated the growing tension between following Jesus and remaining tied to the expectations of the world. Throughout the recap, Ashe and Ghost discuss the development of key figures such as Matthew, Simon Peter, and the other disciples as they wrestle with doubt, fear, pride, and faith. The hosts reflect on how the show portrays Jesus calling ordinary people into extraordinary purpose while also highlighting the sacrifices required to truly follow Him. Moments of humor, humility, and personal transformation are examined as the group considers how each character responds differently to the same invitation. The discussion also looks at how the season builds toward the Sermon on the Mount and the deeper meaning behind Jesus’ teachings about humility, righteousness, and the nature of the kingdom of heaven. Ashe and Ghost emphasize how the show frames discipleship not as comfort or prestige but as a path that requires surrender, faith, and a willingness to change.

of the badlands explain those badlands that's a hell of a name good morning everyone and welcome to the choice this is our season two recap episode and be fun how are you doing i'm good how are you today yeah i'm doing all right had a busy morning but happy to be here this this show is like a calm respite you and i have done quite a bit of content together the past three weeks yeah i enjoy it yeah i I have enjoyed it. And it's been obviously very timely, like funny how the Huckabee thing worked out with like starting it. And then the Iran war starting and then whatever.

Yeah. The world will never know the garbage we took for doing that three-part series. Yeah. But one thing I did meant to say yesterday before we started the show is I wanted to kind of explain. I don't think I've ever really laid this out. But I was kind of texting with you about that this morning when you sent me that clip. but I think it's important to point out that the past three years, the content that I've produced for Badlands and otherwise has really been,

like, who is my target audience? I think it's important to find what that is. My target audience has always been Christian Zionists, always. Like, that is what got me into the whole Israel thing. That's what made me realize how important. Target audience or object of reporting. Target audience and the people I'm trying to. trying to reach, like the people I'm trying to, like, like, the way I've, the way I've curated

the information, the way I've tried to lay it out, uh, without, you know, without being too intense with it, without going too hard in the paint. Um, because I understand that when you do that, uh, people like, shut off and, you know, like, people don't watch Nick Fuentes. They don't watch Jake Shields. Like, I don't do content for the Gryper's, like for that crowd, right? Right. It's like the people who are already aware that Israel is a threat, uh, like a hostile threat. to the U.S., and that's how I view it, I don't see any reason to, like, further awaken them, right? Now, if they draw, like, I think there's people do watch, like, I know some of those people do watch my stuff and draw information from it and get value out of it, and that's great.

And I hope that that is the case. But I really do see, like, the importance of at least just relaying the information to people who I don't think have gotten the truth. And it's so important to realize that, that we've been lied to about so much. And I lose my patience with Christian Zinus all the time. And I probably say things I shouldn't say. And I apologize for that. But that has always been my target audience.

And I've had so many people at the guards come up to me and say that and say that, like they were raised in dispensationalist households. They were raised to worship Israel. And now they have a deeper understanding of what it is. And again, it's not about like cultivating. a hatred or cultivating a contempt, it's about solving a problem. That's the way I see it. And the only way to solve the problem is to recognize the problem, identify the problem, call out the problem, understand the problem, and then work towards a solution. Yeah, I appreciate that. And you know, you said the people that

already know that Israel is a threat to the U.S. I think you're referring to the secular government of Israel, right? The nation of the decision-making. The decision-making of the secular government of Israel, but I also think the stories, the stories of Israel are massive weapons in the information war. And it is, you know, it's, it's, it's, it goes to core belief for a lot of people. So it is a sort of visceral, emotional response when someone like you comes with, you know, argument based. in scripture about why what we're being told we need to do and support and, you know, kind of, I'm thinking, I just keep, my head keeps going back to Huckabee talking about moral

debt, right? Like that, that to me, first of all, it's so offensive when I hear it to suggest that we have a moral debt to anyone other than God and that the answer to that moral debt is anything other than Jesus, that it's, you're, you're speaking something other than Christianity than the way if that's your position. But there's, but people are so deceived on this. And a lot of it comes from not knowing your Bible, not reading your Bible, kind of, you know, having the Bible stories, right, where the first kind of thing that made me lose my mind on this was the Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz interview. And it was Ted Cruz talking about being the number one supporter of his Israel. Today he's out talking about not saying Christ is king because that's offensive to Jews.

But to be the number one senator for Israel, but to cite his Sunday school lessons from when he was a child as to why. That to me was just that it stuck. Like have you not read the Bible since you were a child? Is that really where you draw your theology from your Sunday school classes and whatever? I mean, how old is that guy? Sunday school classes were probably in the 60s, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. true so so that but and it's it's it's i think really important to have these conversations but to stand as an authority for our nation you know top senator or ambassador um to to the nation of israel and to have such a mixed up theology um what i think is you know a cultish deceptive

theology is a problem and i feel like we can't stay silent about it as christians we can't stay silent about having the name of the most high God weaponized against us and used as justification for very ungodly things. And that's things like death and deception and destruction. And you will know them by their fruit, Jesus said. So it is an important conversation. We're going to keep having it. But I have to say. Yeah. I mean, like me personally, like the thing that kind of draws me to this subject matter is the fact that I think it's one of the most perverse and wicked forms of like deception and trickery when you are, because I do think that like Christian Zionists, like that whole community is the most targeted group for like sciops. Like I think that they are

that they that most of the political sciops, geopolitical siops that we see, especially from like Fox News and like the Republican establishment are geared toward that. audience that that base i think trump recognized that very early on i think he immediately knew that i think that's one of the reasons mike pince was his vice president the first term is that he understood that that was like the core base of the um christian evangelicals i should say were like the core base of the conservative movement um and i also think that's why the devil sees that group as such a critical group to deceive and mislead and pull away from the truth and pull away from the truth and pull from the teachings of Jesus and then lead them into this different interpretation of that

that manifests as warfare, manifests as bloodlust and manifests as actual hatred where it's like, we hate these people, we need to kill them all, whether you're talking about the Gazans or you're talking about the Muslims or just whatever, like whatever that is. But you see that all over the place. And Tucker even mentioned that to Huckabee toward the end. Huckabee kind of acted like he didn't know what he's talking about like he's like do you see like the yeah the hate movement online toward like the muslims that's like re recultivating from you know 25 years ago and hookby's like yeah i don't really know what you're talking about it's like it's there yeah well you know you what the you do not see because you do not wish to see what was that from some movie or

tv show or something but i think i think that's what it is um i just want to we read this yesterday but I'm going to read it again. Colossians chapter 2, verse 8, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. And that's, you know, anything is acceptable to Lucifer. Anything is acceptable but Jesus. Whatever you're worshipping is fine, as long as you're not worshipping God through the blood of Jesus. He's fine with it. And that's what, that's the fight. If we're talking about a spiritual war and a lot of people that are advocating for real warfare,

talk about spiritual warfare, right? As a justification to engage in real warfare. Yes, that's so true. But if we're talking about spiritual warfare, then you have to understand the players, who are the players in the spiritual warfare? And, you know, it's a battle of good and evil. There are forces for good and there are forces for evil. And there are tactics of good and there are tactics.

of evil and the tactics of evil the fruit of evil is deception death and destruction so if our fruit looks like that we need to pause hang on a second um are we actually standing in the center of god's will you know following the guidance of the holy spirit and um you know doing doing the work of of the lord any anyone telling me to um be careful how i talk about jesus because it might offend jews that's a problem for me because Jesus was the most offensive to Jews and he still is the most offensive to Jews and Jesus never sinned

I was thinking about this this morning Jesus never sinned right we know like that's that's a feature of Jesus he was on the earth and never sinned he did go into the temple and flip the money changer tables and chase them all with a whip and that was not a sin

because Jesus didn't sin so yeah I actually played that scene from The Chosen on my geopolitic show last week. I actually play that. I was like, I think it's so important. I think it's so important because, like, this subject is now, this subject matter is now becoming a topic of discussion.

But I'm noticing that the conversations online about Jesus are not actually about Jesus. Like that is, like, to the point that you always make, that you always bring it, you're so good at always bringing it back to Jesus. The conversations about Jesus are never actually about Jesus. It's always about like the subject matters that orbit Jesus, but it's never actually something else. Exactly, exactly. And like the evangelical discussions when it comes to geopolitics and like conflict in the Middle East always revolves around the enemy and like what the enemy is and why they are so bad and why they are so bad and why they are. so sinful and why they're so wrong and why they're such a threat and all those reasons are the

reasons they must be destroyed. It's like the Amalek storyline, right? I mean, that's, and that's literally what Bibi Netanyahu uses is the analogy to discuss it. But it's never about Jesus. Like it's never, it never comes back to Jesus. But that's always the mantra that is used to like, as the rallying cry to bring everybody into the tent. Yeah. I mean, if he's, yeah, I mean, if he's to discuss it. Yeah, if you think about, this is probably going to get me in trouble. I just have stopped. I have stopped caring about getting in trouble with certain people.

If you think about African American, right, or Asian American, Latin, well, Latin Americans different, latinx American. Latins. I love saying Latins. But that kind of hyphenation. type of thing. Why are we doing that to Christianity, right? Christian Zionists or, you know, Christian scientist or like it's a dilution and a watering down and there is no. So I feel like when you talk to Christian Zionists, you get yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus, but, right? That's kind of the vibe

that I experience is of course Jesus is. Of course, Jesus is. important, but you're really missing how important Israel is, right? You're really missing that it's actually all about Israel. You're really missing that God is going to curse you if you don't have the right position towards Israel. Well, that makes Jesus a liar. And anything that makes God a liar can't be right in my view. And any of you could say, oh, you're just a simple, stupid Christian, and you just believe in myths and fairy tales. I mean, I guess if that's how you want to characterize me, but the word of God is true and it has been proven true throughout time. It stands out apart from ancient,

all the entire body of ancient manuscripts because of how it cross-references each other over, you know, the many authors and multiple centuries, it cross-references each other profoundly. The ways you wouldn't think in what we're told about that culture would be possible, ancient culture, a credible ancient manuscript, and yet we do. But it's not even that.

I mean, there's whole bodies of content on the internet about that, about the truth of the Bible and why we can trust the Bible. Check out Wesley Huff. He does great work on that. But for me, the spirit of God is moving. And you can, if you're in the word and, you know, in a strong prayer life and seeking God, you see Him everywhere. I do.

And so to me, you can call me, you know, silly and beholden to myths and fairy tales, but, you know, okay, I'll choose, I'll choose it every single day because it's a, it's the ability to see. I feel like, I feel like with the Holy Spirit, I have the ability to see in a way that being in this world without the Holy Spirit terrifies me, losing that sight, the idea of it, of losing the discernment of the Holy Spirit terrifies me. And I my heartbreaks for people that are trying to navigate this world, this

incredible, everything is a deception, right? I mean, they lie to us about everything. We say that all the time. It's true. Everything in this world is a deception. The ability to have Kara in the chat says eyes to see and ears to hear. That that comes from the Holy Spirit and it's a cheat code. Right? I mean, it is, it is a, you're leveling up and able to

see things in a way that is I don't know if we're in a spiritual war. I think it's the spiritual weapon that you need. Yeah. Yeah. It's so true. And I will say that one person that did actually, I think, do a good job of bringing the conversation back to Jesus regularly is Charlie Kirk.

I think that he did do a good job of doing that. And I have gained, you know, I think he was the subject of a lot of ridicule and criticism from me personally when he was a lot of. live because I kind of associated him with the Christian Zionist movement. He was kind of like the personification of it in many ways. He was obviously a huge advocate for Israel. My two biggest problems with him were one, he didn't seem to be willing to criticize Israel. I've now absorbed more content from him posthumously and seeing that he was kind of making that pivot toward the end of his life. And the other thing was just that he seemed kind of, he felt kind of manufactured. Like he felt like

it was like there was like establishment characters, institutions that were kind of trying to push him into the like the center of the stage. And that, that just, whenever I see that, that just makes me uncomfortable. Like when, when there's something that feels forced. But I saw a video recently of him in Jerusalem where they were getting a private tour. They're underground. I forget the name of the road. It's the road that was used by the Jews.

and there was this and the guy who was like filming was like this is so amazing and we're walking down the road that you know Jesus probably walked down and Charlie was like oh it gets even better and they turn around and they're like this stone

right here there's a stone and they're like this is this like the preaching stone like people will get up and preach and like this is like Jesus did stand on the stone and preach and you know it was like a whole like a sacred sacred site this is a place that they said in the video is not open to the public and the guy who was given the tour was like the only reason y'all are in here is because charlie and this guy who was filming him literally said he goes charlie you should get up on the stone get up on the stone

and charlie and and i was like like my heart sank when the guy said it because the guy was the guy was like groveling like it was so gross he was groveling at charlie's feet he was talking about how great charlie was how charlie was like this really important figure and charlie refused he goes i refuse because i was asked to do the same thing last time i came here he goes i refuse and i was like man that right there like that makes me respect Charlie because there are a lot of people who would have done it who would have got up on the stone and um Even just for the photo up of it exactly exactly and it's it's like like he I could see it on charlie's face he was almost offended that the guy said that he was like how could you even suggest I just told you like I just told you the stone is where Jesus like we know Jesus stood on the stone and preached and and you told me that I should get up there for a photo op because like I'm a like and the guy was like oh you're like the great leader like you're the great like whatever like you're you're bringing Jesus back and it's like dude that is the problem that's the problem there that is why Christianity I think is failing like or like the the the influence it has over the younger generations that's why it's failing is because the people who are like the prevent. of it, the stewards of it, the people who are running institutions like Turning Point USA,

they're grovelers and they're stealing, like you always say, they're stealing God's glory. They're like, Charlie, get on the stone, Charlie's like, so we can elevate you above everybody and we can worship you as this divine being. Lead to great fundraising, which is now what they're doing with his memory, which sickens me to no end and disgusts me. And it's just like that whole thing. I just look at all of that. I'm just like, I look at like the same way I look at the billionaire televangelist, the same way I look at, you know, all that stuff. I'm like, it's so gross and it's so perverse.

And it's almost more evil, in my opinion, than like the satanic people in Hollywood who like dress up like red devils and like are very cartoonish about it because these people are actually trying to influence Christians, whereas the other group, I don't think have any Christians in their audience, right? Yeah. So I never heard that story. about the rock. It's just a video I came across

on X recently. Yeah, but you said when you heard it, your heart sank. When I heard you tell it, you could probably see it on my face. My immediate reaction was horror. The idea that they would put it.

That's the spirit. That's the reaction of the spirit. And it sounds like Charlie had the same reaction to being asked. I thought he was going to do it. Like when the guy suggested, I was like, my heart sank because I was like he's going to do it.

And then he didn't do it. And I was like, that a boy charlie like yes yeah i was um just looking because you were you were talking about the uh you know the the satanists that do the the red devil thing and um uh reminded me of matthew 715 beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves and jude four talks about this as well certain persons have crept in a notice marked long for condemnation, but they turn the grace of our Lord into a license for immorality and they deny our

our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. We're seeing that everywhere, and we're told not to talk about it. So it's offensive. If you stop talking about Jesus, just stop talking about Jesus. I mean, we can talk about harmony and unity and we can, we can just, let's just build common ground on all this stuff we agree upon. Ghost, let's just, you know, you guys, you guys that are talking about Jesus, you're, you know, you're taking it too far.

Just calm down, right? Just, just calm down. and let's just talk about the stuff that we all agree upon. Just set Jesus aside because he's offensive to these other people. No, actually, that's exactly what Jesus told me you guys were going to say. Right? That's exactly what. Who do you say that I am is the question.

So we can't set that question aside because it's offensive. It's the entire point. And we're every single day told to set that question aside. Just come on. It's too offensive. You don't want to, you know, I know that you love Jesus, but some people are using Christ as king as a gotcha. And it's really offensive to Jews.

And as Ted Cruz said, if you're saying Christ is king, what you really mean is screw you, Jew. That's what Ted Cruz said. Yes, he did say that. What? Yep. And I get it. Like the Jake Shields and the Groyper's, well, you know,

there was a moment post October 7th that was like, like Christ as king was on everything and everybody was like, oh my gosh, I'll tell you what. Jesus is going to deal with the people using his name for their own personal gain, whether they're doing it for Israel or they're doing it for Palestine or ultimately, as is the answer for everyone. They're doing it for themselves. That is what happens, right? That is what happens is that the original sin is that you want to be like God.

You try to elevate yourself to the level of God. And we should be able, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we should be able to see that wherever it happens. But in certain contexts, it gets minimized and downplayed and, you know, hushed so that people don't talk about it too much. And that's why, you know, I mean, like I said at the top of this, folks will probably never understand what all of the backlash that we get for insisting on Jesus. But we're going to keep doing it. And it's never about our glory or building, you know, it's about the truth. The truth matters and it matters more than ever because we're having our core beliefs, the formative core beliefs, the most closely held, most impassioned beliefs used as a justification to do things that are very much against those beliefs.

And if we don't say anything about it, we become complicit in it. And that's, you know, that feels like moral debt. It feels like moral debt to God, right? And as I said yesterday, our only moral debt is to God and it was paid in full by Jesus on the cross at Calvary. Yeah. And, you know, like ultimately, I think that is why Charlie Kirk was killed was, we don't need to debate like who the suspects were. It's because he was very effective at bringing the conversation back to Jesus. The only time I think he really got sanctimonious and, you know, kind of made me grown was when he was talking about Israel.

Like that was really the only time. But whenever he would talk about Jesus, he was very good at it. He was very comfortable in his own skin doing it. And I don't think he got preachy about it. I think he was always very, like, those are his moments, his best moments of humility was when he was talking about Jesus. And I think that he was, it seems like we're learning that he was getting pushed to a point where it was like he had to choose. between Jesus and everything else. Like Jesus and these political agendas

that the people around him wanted. And he kept going back to Jesus and that was a problem. That was creating a problem. And that, you know, that is, that's kind of the interesting bridge between the people that are

like these dispensationalist empire building. Like when I say Israel's a threat, what I mean are the imperialists, the people who want to build an empire. People who are looking to be. build an empire in the Middle East, using God as like the justification for doing it. There's a bridge between those people and this and the in the cartoonish people in Hollywood who like, like, you know, like, purportedly eat babies and like have like red devil horns and all that stuff, right? Like there's a bridge between those two people and the bridge is they're

offended by Christ. They're offended by Jesus. That's the, that's the bridge between that, between them. And they, to the extent that they want to censor Jesus out of culture, they want to basically erase him from culture. And then when you talk about the Abrahamic house that, you know, that speaks to that. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it beautiful, ghost? They're just showing us the way to do this, man.

The Emirates have the way to do this down, which is, you know, we get all the people of the book together. We bring them into a single place and we just get them to agree on what they can agree upon. and we set aside everything else that they can't agree upon. And it's such a beautiful thing. According to the U.S. ambassador to the nation of Israel who proclaims to be a follower of Jesus, it's fine to set aside Jesus because that's what has to be set aside. For the Abrahamic family house to work, for it to be beautiful,

for it to be a beautiful collaboration of religious peoples of the book, you have to set aside Jesus. And they do. And it's not beautiful. It's when I first wrote about this, it was when it was still being built. It wasn't open yet and it's open now. But my article was entitled The Tragic Apostasy of Tolerance because it is the most offensive thing to me for the religious leaders. I said in that article, you have, you know, the senior imams in different sects of Islam.

You have the senior rabbis in the different sects of Judaism. you have the Pope and his collaborators all in on this thing. They're all bought in to the tragic apostasy of tolerance. And it is tolerance for the denial. Certain persons have crept in unnoticed. They have turned the grace of our Lord into a license for immorality. And they deny our master and Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what we're seeing profoundly.

Some of the oldest churches in Richmond here, hundreds of years old in downtown Richmond, have enormous rainbow flags, like the transgender flag on the front of the church now, and they have for years. I see for immorality. The sexual immorality is really profound.

I was telling you before we started the show, I was reading, I read the book of Hosea last night, and I would encourage everyone to go read it. It is not terribly long. It's like 13, I think 13 chapters. And they're real short, but it is this kind of condensed telling of Israel as God's wife

and kind of a metaphor that God uses repeatedly that I find to be really when we're talking about things like the Abraham Accords and making deals and what to do in the region geopolitically the Bible is not silent

on that as it pertains to Israel the Bible has a lot to say God has a lot to say about what Israel's geopolitics should look like right like he is not silent on this. And he uses the metaphor of Israel, the nation of Israel as his wife. And he talks about her daughters being these other cities, you know, Sodom and Samaria. And we've talked about this in Ezekiel 16. But in Hosea, you kind of see it. And you see this, this love that God has for this

nation that he has chosen. You also see that the nation is doing everything it can to run away from her husband, everything it can to not be faithful, everything it can to violate the command of and everything in Deuteronomy 28, we talked about this on the Tuckabee stuff. Deuteronomy 28 is the blessings and the curses. It's if you keep my commandments, which I mean, basically needs to rely on me and obey me, right? God is saying, obey me and rely on me. I want you to rely on me for your prosperity and your protection and all of these things. And she can't, she doesn't.

She keeps running after other nations and he positions her as a whore. Right? she is she is running after all of these other husband all of these other men except you know joining to her husband and you see like you know so i read this this book and there's like novels and stuff about it right uh redeeming love is a really famous one and it uh you know positions how well Israel is so unfaithful but god loves her anyway and that's true but there's also gospel message in the book, right? It's like in the book of Josea, not like the novels, but in the book of Jose, it talks about, you know, on the third day, shall be redeemed, right? Like there's, there's

Jesus in this Old Testament prophecy book, but it gets twisted and turn to mean what like the Christian Zionists tell us today. Well, there's literally nothing Israel can do to have God turn his back on her. Well, that's not true. Like he got God straight up says like I've withdrawn myself from you. You know, I've turn my face from you. Not forever. There is redemption, but there's only redemption through Jesus. That is the path that he's made for this people to be reconciled and they don't get to be reconciled while they're denying him. That's my understanding. Yeah. I mean, logically, that makes sense to me. Like, there's a linear logic there that makes sense before you even get to the spiritual aspect of it. Just from a logical, rational viewpoint,

which I do think that, you know, logic and reason being the foundation of Western civilization along with Christianity, those are like inextricably linked. Those are two, like, Jesus is the truth and everything he said and taught is just logical and reasonable, right?

And it's really simple that what separates us from sin, from God is sin, right? Like that's true from the garden when they disobeyed and ate the fruit to, now. That's the consistent thing is that God created us. He wants a relationship with us, but we're, and he wants us to want a relationship with him, which is the whole free will aspect. And our sin is what separates us from that. And so, because he wants us so much, he provided a way in the

Old Testament, you know, in the times before Jesus, there's a whole bunch of rules. And you can argue with those rules. You can say, I don't like those rules, right? Like the homosexuality thing is, is one of them. Like, that's the, you know, that's a hard line for some people. Well, God, you know, God doesn't love gay people. Yeah, he does, actually. But, you know, like, the sexual immorality is throughout scripture. It is a distinct. And I think it probably has to do with, like, the passions and the lusts that are a part of that. But it is, like, it's end stage. When you look at God is about to destroy a place, or withdraw his presence or do something else dramatic,

some sort of dramatic intervention, there is always sexual immorality present, right? Yes, correct. And so you can disagree with those rules, but you're not God. So you don't get to rewrite them and you don't get to decide that God is wrong about his rules. That's kind of the point,

is that when we do that, when we decide, well, God didn't really mean it like that. And I, you know, I think that he's wrong on this count. And surely he didn't, he couldn't account for 2026 when he wrote Leviticus, right so you know god must be got i'm sure god is like you know come around on some of these things when you do that you're making yourself god you're engaging in the exact same sin that caused the fall in the first place and that you will not surely you will not die right god just knows that if you do the thing then you're going to be like him it's the same sin over and over again he provided a way

very strict rigid rule set for how to be reconciled how to have that sin come to atone for that sin so that you can be reconciled to God. This is the whole point of all of it is God. It's a one story, my opinion, my belief. It is one story start to finish in God as the main character. And everybody else that tries to make themselves the main character of the story ends up being the bad guy. Right?

Absolutely. That's how it goes. And so when you consider that in the story of God's relationship with the Jews, this husband, wife, there's also a father-son kind of thing happening too. and God is the core of all relationships. So he can be in all of these relationships and he can use these metaphors. And they all work because he invented relationship, right?

But he has this way and the way is covering the sin through blood sacrifice. Then we have Jesus, which is covering the sin through blood sacrifice. And that's the point. So you can't get to restoration from beginning to end. I don't see. And somebody correct me if you think that I'm. wrong on this, but I don't see how you get to reconciliation with God without blood sacrifice. And in the, you know, post-resurrection, it's got to be the blood sacrifice of Jesus.

You don't get to go do the red heifers anymore, right? You know, the spotless lamb and all of the things in the rule set, when Jesus was on the cross, he said it is finished. What was he talking about? what was he talking about when he said it is finished? Well, he was talking about the sin separation. What separates God's creation from him, humans from him, is sin. And it was a kind of annual thing. Remember, this is, and I don't mean this any sort of blasphemy way,

but I think it's a example that might help. Remember Trump and the HBCU is the historical black colleges and universities? And they had to come back every year. and ask for funding. And then he created this path where their funding is locked in and, you know, they're, they don't have to come back every year. It's kind of like that. I mean, they still have to come back.

It's not exactly like that. And it's probably blasphemous. And I apologize. I'm not trying to be blasphemous. But this kind of, you have to, you know, come back and beg for forgiveness every year and do all these things and do them perfectly. Remember in the shepherd when he brings his lamb and his lamb's got spots on it and the Pharisees are all offended by it. Like, this is for holy men. How dare you bring me this spotted animal kind of thing?

You don't have to go through those humiliation rituals anymore because Jesus paid all of it. He, he, he, he, he, he, it is finished. The sin separating us from God is finished. But you have to, you have to accept that. You have to believe. Who do you say that I am? If you believe with your, believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved. You can't just confess with your mouth. You have to believe in your heart. You have to believe in your You have to have a circumcision of the heart, a changed heart. And everybody keeps trying to put more conditions on it. That's kind of what we're living through right now is everybody's got this.

Well, yeah, yeah, Jesus, but. Yeah, yeah, Jesus, but, you know, we have to consider the geopolitics of this. Are you saying that we should just abandon Israel? Are you saying that we shouldn't do this or we should do that? Well, I'm just saying that we need to recognize Jesus for who he is. And we need to stop equivocating. and we need to stop elevating creation to be at the level of the most high god. Well said.

Well said. I think that probably gives a good transition to, you know, like the season two recap. Yeah. So much happened. Before we do that, let's read a couple ads because we haven't done any. Of course. So first of, we're going to talk here, our buddy Jordan. in, Maha yourself, a supplement that don't suck from conscious strength.

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to start i mean it didn't make sense is the uh the first episode thunder um And, you know, the powerful theme from that is kind of what we were just talking about. It made me think of it. You know, Jesus kind of teaching this lesson to his followers about hatred, like collective blame, like feeding into your bias, like the bias that is naturally cultivated in cultures, especially in places like the middle. East where you have lots of different people living side by side and brushing up against one another. And the fact that Jesus in the story uses deception to teach this lesson because he doesn't tell them why they're sewing the field.

They think they're doing it for some noble cause. Like the field is going to feed the travelers or, you know, their people or whatever. Like he thinks they think the field is going to feed the false. and then the field ends up being belonging to a Samaritan. Do they think he perceived them or do you think that he just didn't correct their assumptions? I think that's probably a better way to put it. Deception is probably the wrong word to use, but they definitely, you're spot on with that. They're like, we're so important.

He chose us to do this because we're so important. And important, just before we get deeper into this, at the end of season one, he meets the Samaritan woman and they're getting ready to head into Samaria, right? In the beginning of season two, they're in Samaria and we see, you know, we're going to talk about this, but there's a whole, we cover a lot of ground. There's a, there's a long arc in season two. But so it was going back through and prepping for this recap episode, looking at where we've come in this episode, it was like, holy cow, that was like the field.

The field is a big, is a big one. think it's a huge um there's just so much packed in there i think we did two and a half hours with jemma cost on the field episode um but that's yeah that was this episode or that was the season rather it's crazy long yeah yeah yeah and um yeah i think uh and again like i think huberous i think that's that's the word we were using when we were when we were talking about that it's just hubris and ego and i think when we did the first few episodes we were talking about like the the death of ego and the need to kill your ego in order to really have that relationship with God. And that's, I think when he gives John and James and Big James the title, Sons of Thunder,

it's like a tongue and cheek naming, because moniker, because, you know, they're red blood, like they're hot blooded, right? They're quick to want to go fight. They're quick to want to go tackle the perceived threat head on, right? Like that's the most effective way to end the threat, to address the threat, is to attack it head on and just fight it, right? And Jesus teaches them that that's actually not the way to diffuse the threat. The best way to diffuse the threat is with compassion and understanding, right?

the understanding is so important. Like they're, you know, when they finish with the field and then the, I forget the Samaritan guy's name. I have it right here. His name is. Melleck? Mellech, yes, correct. Yeah. He comes up and they have, you know, James and John kind of have this, like, almost like you said, like they feel like they've been deceived.

But I don't think they were deceived. I think they put a whole bunch of assumptions. And I think that's a big part of the story, right? Because when they all expected their warrior king, they still do. There's a lot of talk about Machiak right now, right? A lot of videos going on. Oh, my lot of things talking about Machiak. It's my understanding that the IDF wears patches on their uniforms with

machiak. And they're waiting for their warrior king. They're waiting for their Messiah to come and liberate them from oppression. But they really need to be liberated from sin. And that's what Jesus came and did and said and stood on and stood for was the heart, right? Repeatedly. When is what about Rome? What about Rome?

Rome is taxing us, right? Nicodemus, our people aren't, what was it? He said in the Nicodemus episode, our people aren't struggling from snake bites. They're not being oppressed by snake bites. They're being oppressed by Rome. And Jesus is like, no, they're being oppressed by sin. actually. Yes. They're being pressed by sin. Yes. And that's still the case. That hasn't changed. But they're still waiting for their warrior king today. And even and then they certainly were. So they have all these assumptions of how it's going to go. And we see that play out in these characters, right? Simon, oh, we we need to, you know, set a schedule and set things ahead. Thomas. Well, I can definitely help him with the counting and the measures and all the things. They're planning a revolution. And that comes up in the end of this season when, uh, Jesus says, you know, a revolution.

And Matthew says something to the effect of, you know, turning the other cheek and loving your enemies doesn't really sound like a revolution. And Jesus says, I said revolution, not revolt. And that revolution, it goes to the heart. Jesus speaks to the heart. He's looking for a heart conversion. He's looking for a circumcision of the heart, which is the proof that you are, you know, that you are his, that you have accepted the gift that he's given you.

and they can't get their heads around it. It, you know, and this continues throughout this whole series because it is the human condition. That's the one thing that, you know, I talk about like the false binary, the Luciferian false binary of worship Israel or hate Israel. Either way, you're not focused on God. That's that that's the condition we're in. We're always, we're always, there's a, forget who I've said this verse. it's an idiom at this point, but there's a God-sized hole in everybody's heart, and they're trying to shove a whole bunch of other stuff in it, you know,

like whether it's addiction or it's, you know, some sort of power, you know, craze or whatever it is. You're, there's a thousand distractions from the one thing that matters. That's so true. And that's, I feel like that's a lesson that I just recall hearing, you know, Tucker talking about Sunday school, like that was a lesson that I, I recall hearing over and over and over again as a kid was the hole in your heart that you're trying to fill is God. And stuffing all this other stuff in there is only going to make the hole bigger and it make you feel more empty.

Yeah. And Kara says in the chat, I think this is such a great point. Loving your enemies is for the sake of your own soul. It might not change them, but it changes your heart. You will see their brokenness and have compassion. Christlike. Yes, and you have to guard your own heart because it's very easy to get, even with the ideas of righteousness, right? Well, they're insulting Jesus.

They're denying Jesus. So I need to rage about it. Hang on a second. What would Jesus do? And we have to be very, you know, we have to be very careful in guarding our hearts because it is very easy to get wrapped up in self-righteousness and think that you have all the answers. So you go out and you start doing like what Moses did. And I say, oh, you rebels, we're going to give you water.

Jesus is like, we're going to do what now? God. So, yeah, I mean, I think that it is that it's a very individual journey. Right. It's the point. Jesus says, I, you know, I'm here for the heart, the circumcision of the heart. That's a very individualized thing. You can't collectively change your heart.

the heart of a nation can change but only when the hearts of its people change the very individualized thing and there is so much when i hear people say like i remember um when the tina peters uh sentencing came down and that the judge was just you know beyond the pale in that and i remember seeing on x some people say things to the effect of i hope those jurors end up in that in whatever, right? And my immediate response to that. No, you don't. You don't want that.

You don't, that's your heart. You're now speaking out of your heart. You're now showing the condition of your heart. And everybody needs to be guarding their heart, especially in this information war landscape, where it's quite obvious that everything is a lie. Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Man, and so I guess that that kind of,

So that was episode one. Episode two, we then, I saw you. We then are introduced to, because we're introduced to the rest of the, the rest of the apostles in this season. Because we only met roughly half of them in the first season. So we now are introduced to the first one, which is Nathaniel. And of course, the episode happens. High point of this season for me, this episode.

Yeah. I think it's such a good episode and obviously personal connection to the architecture. But when he, the episode opens up with him running his construction project and the building collapses. And he's, he's disgraced and he's, you know, he'll never work again. And his career is over. And he then goes to the tree and, and, you know, basically pours out his heart to God, lights the plans, the blueprints on fire. and then Jesus later when he meets him speaks to that moment and says I was there with you at the tree and that was the moment like immediately Nathaniel knew that like this is that this is the Messiah right it was a demonstration of the omnipotence of Jesus and very very powerful moment very very powerful moment and yeah so I'll kick it to you for commentary on that. Yeah, I'm just looking back at the show plan for that episode.

Jesus saw him under the fig tree is in John 1, Nathaniel specifically. In Jewish tradition, sitting under a fig tree often meant peaceful study of the Torah or quiet contemplation. It symbolized the hope for the coming Messiah and a time of prosperity, a reference to the Torah study or prayer, prompting Nathaniel's profound confession of faith. He was that it's so gutting to watch that scene where he's like, you know, How can you hide your face from me? Don't hide your face from me. Like I've tried to do, I've tried to glorify you.

I've tried to give you the glory in my life. I've done that. In reality, we see him in the beginning of the episode and he's quite arrogant, right? He's got, he's kind of put on his own, put on his own airs and he gets incredibly humbled. And it takes that because I think he did, right? Like he is kind of the, an exemplar, right, of holy man, right?

Of being a follower of Jesus. He was doing things, at least the way we're told the story and certainly the way we're told the story in the chosen fictional retelling of the biblical story. He was, you know, trying to be righteous,

right? Seeking righteousness, falling short because we all do. But he has to be humbled because we all do. And that's one of the things that I think is, you know, it says in the Bible that, like many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we call in your name? Didn't we feed the poor in your name? Didn't we do these things?

And Jesus will say, depart from me, I never knew you. Because it's not just confessing with your mouth. You have to have the circumcision of the heart. You have to believe it with your heart. And I think, and I don't know that this is true for everybody. How could I know such a thing? But I do believe that you have to be humbled. You have to come to that place of realizing who you are without him and what you're capable of, the evil you're capable of, the sin that you're capable of, the temptations that you run after and those things, you have to become humbled by it in the eyes of God, in the sight of God.

Before God, you have to be humbled and beg to be reconciled. And I know we've argued about this in the chat. Some people say, oh, no, no, you don't really have to have that kind of humility. You're saved regardless. And there's a lot of different belief systems out there. But I think because I believe that the entire point of, you know, this level of the video game is the glory of God. I think it's probably the point of all the levels of the video game. But certainly in this one, the cheat.

code the up down, up down left right is do all things for the glory of God. And then you're going to have an easier time through it. I think you have to realize, like, why do we do that? Why do we do all things for the glory of God? Because he's God. Because he's the alpha and the omega, the beginning of the end, because he can be a fire in the sky or speak to you through a burning bush or take the ocean and part it and you'll walk across on dry land. God is unfathomable to, you. God is unfathomable to us and our tiny little puty human brains, but he gives us the ability to know him. And you can't take that for granted. I mean, I think we all do. We all take for granted that, you know, certainly Christians that we are called in love by God. We take it for granted. But you can't, I don't think, get there unless you have that humbling experience, unless you come in humility.

And that's kind of what I think we were seeing, right? He was. acting and working and and professing with his mouth, holiness, Nathaniel. But he was also arrogant and, you know, wrapped in pride and my way or the highway kind of stuff and not looking at, remember the guy he was talking to was like something to be effective, like you need to bring people along with you, right? Like it can't just be your way.

Like you need to consult all these different people and all these things. And he was like, no. Like I'm the guy and we're going to do it this way. And then he's humbled. by that. I think that that picture is very important. And again, this episode was a high point for me because it's just, it's gutting to see that, to come to that place of humility. And I think if you haven't had that moment with God, right, if you haven't had that naked before God moment, I mean, I would encourage it because I wonder, I wonder how there can be reconciliation without that.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I think that these backstories that are assigned to some of the apostles, not everyone gets a backstory, but they do provide, most of them provide this moment where they're kind of almost like an existential moment, where they're like removed from the routine of their path, the path that they've chosen for themselves. And then that pushes them into following, you know, basically getting. giving up all their possessions and giving up their life and following Jesus, which, you know,

especially for a guy like Nathaniel, who was a career oriented guy, would he have otherwise done that? Like if his building hadn't fallen down, would he have otherwise chosen to follow this street preacher and go live in the woods and eat, you know, eat bugs basically, like,

like John the Baptizer was doing. You know, but having that moment of humility and then. I think no. I think the answer to that is no, because he and Philip were friends. He and Philip were friends. And Philip did that and Nathaniel didn't.

Yeah. Because he had, that's a really, really good point. That's a really good point. And yeah, and it's because he had the ego. It's because he had the ego.

And it was the death of his ego that then I think opened his heart to that moment. The other thing is to your point, um, we talked about this a little bit with, I talked about this a little bit with Matt yesterday. I'm breaking history. But like the dispensationalist, uh,

position of like the imminent end of the world. right, that we are living through the book of revelations, which maybe we are. But like the idea that the end is not just near, but the end is now. Like the end is happening right now. So repent and say the words and give yourself to Christ or else. We all call at every service, right? Yes, yes. And I've always had a problem with that message even before like I really understood this stuff and the politics of it.

it and the deception and like you know it is real and all that stuff because I always felt that it was like fear based it was like you're trying to scare somebody into doing something as opposed to them doing it because they because it's the right thing could do right it's like the analogy I used on breaking history yesterday was it's like kids deciding to be on their best behavior on Christmas Eve because Santa Claus is coming the next day it's like are you doing it because your heart is in the right place and you and you're actually a good kid or are you doing it because there's a bouncy on the other side of tomorrow and you want, you're an opportunist and you want the reward as promised to you tomorrow, right?

And for the evangelist, it's a shortcut, right? Yeah. You don't, you. Yeah, exactly. If you can whip everybody up with fear, then you don't have to feed the widows and take care of the orphans and go out into the dirty places and serve the dirty people. You can just, you know, preach, preach. Scare the hell out of them.

Yeah, preach scary messages from the pulpit. And, you know, you're doing the great commission, I guess, is what they, I listen, you all know them by their fruit. I think if there is one thing that has been made very clear to me since COVID, and it was really, I was starting kind of to be uncomfortable in the spaces before COVID. but in COVID, it really solidified to me that the Western Christian Church, institutional church, right? I'm not talking about the body of Christ because I think that the body of Christ is on fire. I think that the Holy Spirit is moving in profound ways right now. But I think there is a contrast between the way we see the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ moving in the world, moving in, you know, the dirty communities, feeding the dirty people,

versus the brick and mortar building with the Sunday concert. There is a difference. And the brick and mortar building with the Sunday concert largely closed during COVID. And that was such a moment for me to watch the time when the people, broadly, Christian people are not. Right. The people in community desperately needed the church. They needed the church to be the hands and feet, to be the body of Christ. more than ever and they closed their doors to protect their tax status and to comply with

Caesar essentially and that was that was a moment for me where I sort of got a little radicalized for Jesus and against taking his name in vain which is what I think the you know whether we're talking about you know using his name as justification for war or using his name as justification for war or using his name as justification for inaction and hiding, you know, in caves and folds and crevices. I think if you're using his name for anything other than giving him glory, you're taking his name in vain. That's that, and that really crystallized for me in the COVID era, and it has continued to kind of form my belief as I look at the world, you know?

I'm not saying, like, I'm, you know, super, super great Christian. I'm literally the worst. You guys hear me all week long and I, you know, I say all the things. And I often have to go and apologize and ask God's forgiveness for some of the things. But the one thing that I will not compromise on is it's all about the glory of God. Who do you say that I am? Is the question that matters. It is the only question that matters for eternity.

And time is short, I believe. And maybe that's, you know, formative dispensationalist, you know, programming that I have. Maybe time isn't short, right? There's some people that believe that. People that believe that we're living beyond the times defined in the Bible. But yeah, I believe time is short. I think that we see the ripples all over the place. We see the impact of sin.

We see the wages of sin. We see the wages of taking the Lord's name in vain. We see the wages of using religion to, you know, bomb Iran, engage in all manner of not, you know, not godly conduct. And I think that that's what Jesus told us we were going to see in the end of days, wars and rumors of wars and these things have to happen. If you do you know, those who persevere to the end will be saved. If the time wasn't cut short, even the elect would be deceived.

That one hits me a lot because, you know, the people who taught me who God is, who Jesus is, many of them are deceived by this, you know, this deception that is, that elevates a nation to the level of God, which is the one thing. I mean, he won't tolerate a lot of things, but that's a pretty consistent one that he won't tolerate is sharing his glory with anyone else. Yeah, yeah. And that's, and that was the other thing that the other point I made on the show yesterday was the claim to know when the end was coming. Like when even Jesus said, I don't know. Like only my father knows.

I don't even know. With all the wisdom and the omnipotence that Jesus demonstrates, even he says, I don't know. Like, only he knows when the time will come. And I think that when people insist that they know because they see the signs and they equate it to their interpretation of the cryptic writings in the Bible, they are assuming divine knowledge. They're assuming divine authority.

And they're really stealing the glory of God because they're trying. It's almost like the way I always see it when I see people like do it online is like they're trying to impress upon the other people around them that they know what they're talking about. So therefore, they should listen to what they're saying. And even if their heart, if they think their heart is in the right place that they're trying to convert these people to Jesus, what they're doing is they're trying to convey to others that they know what God's plan is. And they are, therefore are God. They're stealing his glory. And so that like, again, it's kind of like the fear thing, like using fear to drive people to Jesus or claiming to,

be God by claiming his, you know, his divine wisdom. These are all forms of sin, I think. And you're using sin to drive people to Jesus. Are you actually doing it the right way? Like, is that actually what he said you should do? No. No. And he's God and God can't coexist with sin. So you're kind of, you know, in a rough spot out of the gate on that theory. Right. So episode three is another great one. It's the one where Jesus is doing all the healing and the disciples are all fighting about, you know, they're kind of distracted by a bunch of things. Big James is like, oh, couldn't we have started this tomorrow? Like I'm tired. My feet hurt. Who's going to make food and all of the arguments. Simon and Matthew go at it about him being a tax collector, right? And, you know,

everybody's kind of they're defining they're trying to define a pecking order it seems like um and then jesus comes in at the end and he's a he's exhausted he's in you know in his his hands are in pain his feet he's walking his mother runs to him and you see like oh okay they're totally all focused on themselves and focused on the wrong things again because humans and that is it's sick And this is the thing that, you know, a lot of people don't want to hear. Israel is kind of all of us. If you read the Old Testament and it's kind of like how you can read Adam and Eve as all of us, right? We all would have made the same choice because we all have the same flesh and nature.

Israel is all of us in the sense that we can come into through the blood of Jesus. We can come into relationship with God. but we'll also run back after our sin, right? We'll continue. We'll see the promise. We'll be in it. We'll fully and totally believe it. But you can just take your eyes off for a second.

And then all of a sudden you're chasing after your sin again. And that's the story of Israel in the Old Testament. And I think that that is that, you know, when we talk about God, I've chosen you. He's chosen them to be the example of what happens when you live. in his in his when you how happens when you keep his commandments and when you don't and um i think that that's an example that should resonate with all of us which is another reason why i think that you know the false binary of worshiping israel or hating israel is a complete distraction from why israel actually matters which is to show us who we are and we are in the context of god and with god

and without god um yeah so well so interesting dynamics in this episode uh and i forgot to mention it's notable that in the first episode of the of the season, where do we find Jesus helping people, right? Like he's off on his own away from the apostles and he's helping a guy fix his cart, right? And the guy's like, oh man, you're really good at this. You should open a shop. And he's like, huh, a shop.

And then Fatima runs in and she's like, I have more people to introduce you to. And the guy's like, I mean, if you're not careful, she's introduced you to every single person in this town. And he's like, I hope she does. Right? And it's like episode one, isn't it? yeah that's the first scene that's the first scene where we see jesus in the whole season so it's like

like the other guys like the uh uh thunder right the sons of thunder they're sitting there glorifying himself in the field like man he picked us because we're like obviously we're the smartest and they're the strongest and like we're the best and then it cuts to jesus and it's like oh he's working like he's helping uh he's off on his own um and and then again you see the fruits of his labor because you see Fatima come running in and she's spreading the word, right, because she has witnessed, because she's had good works to her. And now she's like passing it along. So now we pivot to the to the third episode, which there's a word for it. I think somebody in the chat had said it when we were doing the show. There's like a literary, it's a literary device. But the,

the plot isn't advanced in this episode, but there's character development. Right. It's like they're basically sitting around the fire for most of it talking. Jesus is actually. Jesus is absent throughout the entire episode until the very end. He's not there. So his absence leads to them basically falling into sin and getting at each other's throats. The only person, I think, who really stands up and acts like Jesus, so to speak, is Philip, right? He's the one who's like, he's like putting his arm around Matthew and he's like trying to teach Matthew. And he's even speaking like Jesus, right? He even sounds like him. He's using parables. And he's the guy who actually, among all of them, has spent the least amount of

of time with Jesus, right? But he spent so much time with John that it's like Jesus has, it's like through osmosis, he understands the mission the most, right? Which is what Jesus said. You'll be one of my my best followers because you are like a veteran. And then of course, just like in the first episode, we see Jesus working. While they're all sitting around the fire talking and while they're talking, they basically end up like at each other's throats and falling into sin. Jesus comes walking on screen and he is physically exhausted because he's actually been working all day. And basically collapses, right? And I think that is a humbling moment for all of them because they all realize like they're all

falling to shame and they're like, wow, like how shameful we behaved while he was working. We were complaining about taking three hour shifts, right? So. Yeah. And this is the episode where we get the verse that kind of, you know, under underscores the next several episodes. Psalm 139, verse 8. If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in my translation, it says, make my bed in hell. But if I make my bed in the depths, I think is what they say in the episode. You are there. And we, that is, so Matthew asks Philip, we want to, you know, me and Raymond and Mary want to learn some scripture, right? We're trying to catch up with all you guys that got to go to school, right? And Matthew had said earlier to Philip, I think, or maybe it was in this episode how he was taken out of Torah school because he was so smart at maths.

And so he was corrupted. Yeah. Yeah. And so they're trying to catch up. And that's the verse that Philip gives is if I make my, if I send up to heaven, you are there. if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. And that is, you know, we don't get the sense that Philip talked to Jesus

about what verse to give to Matthew, right? But it comes up in, I think it's, is it the next episode? Are you talking about them? Two episodes later, it comes up when Mary runs away. Yes. Spirit, that episode's spirit.

But the next episode after this one is the perfect opportunity, season two, episode four. and this is where we meet Simon the Zealot. Yes. One of my favorite characters is the way he's written. And yes, we get a great backstory.

We get a connection to scripture through the Bethesda pool, right? That moment, which is, again, one of the high points of the season. And again, there's this moment of humility and death of ego in a different way from Nathaniel, where Nathaniel has this thing he's dedicated his life to, this career in architecture that is taken from him against his will because of things that happen that are essentially beyond his control, the building collapses, which

probably wasn't even his fault. And yet it's going to be blamed on him because he's the Jew, right um and then we have simon who is i it appears this is his first mission this first his first uh order to kill um and he's supposed to go kill this roman politician and he is thwarted in that at the last minute by jesus who appears heals his brother he sees his brother walking and as he had already said earlier or he had written when he was, I guess, 15 in a letter when he left to go join the Assassin's Guild. When you walk, I will know the Messiah has come. His brother pulls a letter out 25 years later, reads it to him.

And then later that day, I guess it is. That day. Yeah. Yeah. He sees him walking. And he was about to pull the knife out and stab the guy, which would have led to him being killed by. But by Atticus, right? as Atticus was standing,

Atticus was standing there planning to kill him. And he doesn't, he walks away. And then, and we get kind of this great moment where Atticus is like, that's where it really sparks, I think, his curiosity.

Like, why would this zealot abandon his mission? Did he know that it was me? And then he stumbles onto this revelation that, uh, um, what's his name? Um,

Jesse was walking. And by the way, he's the only person. in the entire show who seems to be like in all like all struck by the guy by the fact that a paralytic after however maybe a 30 whatever 30 40 years is walking like nobody else seems all struck by this except for for atticus who's the only one who observes that and is like well this paralytic is now walking he's been laying by this pool for years and now he's walking around like holy crap like how did that happen um so i think like that like that's a really great moment um but yeah well uh very, very powerful episode. It really was. And, you know, mostly fabrication. We don't have any backstory of Simon the zealot or, and Jesse is, you know,

a lot of that, a lot of that in this season, actually. There's a lot of artistic license in this season because they're putting in backstory. They're kind of like giving you, they're giving you, um, context that isn't necessarily there in scripture. Yeah, agreed. And I, I don't, you know, as we talk about a lot on the show, I don't take exception. with really any of it.

The one area where I take exception is when they invent things that change a character's experience, a real character. So John the Baptist witnessing miracles, for example, where he, you know, in the episode Spirit, Jesus casts out the demons from that man and John the Baptist sees it and jumps up and down in excitement and that didn't happen. And that changes John the Baptist's experience with Jesus. so I take exception with that. But I don't, you know, take exception with the, the backstories that they're giving.

And because I think it, you know, I think it enhances. I don't think it detracts from. But I think it enhances. The man by the Bethesda pool who was, who was healed is a real biblical story. It is, well, for processing and I will tell you where it is. and John and John's sign is that right? All right, my notes are discombobulated on this episode. So Ghost and I, we would change up how we do them, right?

Episode by episode, we kind of sometimes we go chronologically, sometimes we go by themes, sometimes we focus on one specific aspect, which makes my notes harder to navigate. John 5 is where the healing. the Bethesda pool. But the guy's name isn't McJessie. We don't have that and we don't have the he has any relation to Simon the zealot. We don't have any of that backstory. The backstory on these two is 17 minutes long

in the beginning of the episode where you watch, you know, Jesse fall out of the tree and then his brother is born and then his brother loves him and, you know, makes him feel included and all of the things up to where he leaves to join the zealots and all of that. 17 minutes long. And it's you know, it's an invention,

but it's a good one. It's very enriching though. Like I do think that all of their decision making and the writers, the artistic license they take, it does enrich the episode because when you get to the point where he heals Jesse, it's like that's what chokes you up is because you saw the 17 minute,

you saw the whole character arc basically in one episode, right? And so that's what I think delivers that punch in that moment is that backstory, which again, as you said, is not from scripture, but I think does enrich the story on screen. So from there we go to, so Simon the Zealot, it's a two-part,

he has a two-part episode, right? Because that's part A, right? Part B is the next episode, the fifth episode in the season, Spirit. And so Spirit, but two big storylines there are Simon the Zealot meeting Jesus, right? And then John the Baptizer. Like we, we get to see John the baptizer engage with Jesus for the first time.

And that conversation between them is, is fascinating. It's very telling. There's some, I know you definitely, you take exception with some of the things that, that are said there. But there's this really great dynamic that I think is happening where John, like you said, John is kind of bringing the glory onto himself. Yeah, which I never, I never even thought about that before seeing, seeing this. And I've watched this episode before, right?

But watching it in this context where you and I are kind of analyzing it and everything, looking at it there. I never noticed that before. But it is that, you know, like some of that is scriptural of his words and his kind of elevation of himself. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, he's telling Jesus. how his plan is to go, like, publicly shame King Herod, who's about to marry, what is it, his brother's widow.

And he's like, this is incest, this is lust. Like, I'm going to go, I'm going to go wag my finger at him. And my followers will love it. It'll be, it'll inspire other people to stand up and call out sin. And, you know, I made the commentary that, that's, that I've been there. It's like that there is this, like, I think it's relatable because there are, moments where you think that doing something like that

is how you inspire other people to do it, but is it? I don't know. But you can see on Jesus' face as he's listening to him, he like sees the humanity in John and he's just like, man, you're human. Like this is what you do. Like, because you're human. And it's like, it's like

his heart is breaking while he like he has compassion for John in that moment even though he clearly like John is, I think, falling into sin a little bit like you said um but picking his eye off the ball taking his eye off the ball right i think his heart's in the right place but it's but it's misguided it's misguided he's got the same thing like when are we when are we going to when are we when are we going to overthrow rome right when are we yeah when are we going to get

mosheek summoned right like when are we going to rebuild the third temple and summon but and summon the messiah which is like what these imperialists and in uh in israel is trying to do now Yeah, we'll destroy this, this temple and rebuild it in three days. We're living in crazy times, man. But so we talked about during the show, and I think it's worth repeating. You just mentioned kind of the hubris, right? My followers are going to love this. You know, some people are saying, I'm Elijah, right?

And those kinds of things that he's saying. This is also the episode where we see the contrast of the two Johns. So there's a there's a there's a there's both johns are kind of in the storyline with Jesus that John that John um the beloved disciple is angry right he's like why are why are we in the woods why aren't we you know getting on with things why is there you know why is it going this way but john the baptist is focused this was kind of it was um convicting to me he's focused on the government and corruption in the government and I feel like Jesus is like, yeah, I mean, it's government.

It's always going to be corrupt. Right. But it's like, well, we can fix it, right? We just vote in the right people. Then we can fix it. If we just put in the right blockchain system to have an immutable ledger, then we can fix this human problem. No, actually.

That's kind of the point. But the question that really kind of, you know, in my head, and it's still in my head is, why didn't John the Baptist follow Jesus while he was here? Why wasn't he with him? Why wasn't? And I go back to the Nicodemus and the conversation we had about Nicodemus about them missing their time of visitation. You know, like the, that he came, Jesus came to God's chosen people.

He is the, he is the redemption. He is the Messiah that couldn't see it because they had a totally different idea of what it was going to be. like they misinterpreted what the prophecies said and they couldn't come back from that, right? A lot of that going on today. There's a lot. There's a lot of that going on today. But you have the two Johns and they're both precious to Jesus. They're both very important to Jesus.

One of them is sitting at his feet the entire time he's here. And one of them is off chasing the government. And, you know, arguably that had to happen. the way it happened, right? And, and, you know, it's a, there is a, it's built upon. The events that happened to John the Baptist are built upon and prophesied, I believe. But it is a question from like the human standpoint. Arguably, John the Baptist knew who he was before anybody else and in a much more intimate, deep way, because they were raised in this, right? His, their, their cousins, when you know they, they were told the story over and over again as children.

about how he leapt in her womb. When Mary came up with Jesus in her womb, John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth's womb, like these are things that would have been formative for them. So they knew. And yet when Jesus came, John the Baptist was off chasing government. That's just,

it just messes with my head, you know? Yeah, there were a lot. I remember when we did this episode, for those who haven't seen it, I suggest you go watch it that we made a lot of these connections. There's a lot of these like pairings between the characters, right? That I didn't even really appreciate any of that before we started talking about it. And then it's there,

there are these pairings between the characters, these contrasts between the characters, right? You know, Thomas and Matthews another one where it's where there, there's so many similarities, but then there's like a very stark difference that that separates them. to your point, the two Johns, one of them is following Jesus and one of them is off doing his own thing. Yeah, that's fascinating. And the other thing I didn't mention with the previous episode is this guy, Manitian, who's the leader of this Assassin's Guild,

we get this moment during that 17-minute backstory of like political machination, kind of like this Machiavellian plot to murder this guy, Petronius. And in doing so, the Romans would wrongfully blame Caiaphas, the leader of the Sanhedron. And that would cause a wedge between, you know, Tyvis would be arrested potentially. And that would cause division between Rome and the Sanhedron, who the assassination, Assassin's Guild saw as traders basically, that they had betrayed the people and they were a problem. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. I mean, that's what you're describing, right? Plots of deception schemes of men. We can do, we, people scheme in the name of righteousness all the time.

Right. Oh, yeah. Well, we have to go do this war. Yeah. Right. Right. It's a righteous one. It's totally, doing it for totally righteous reasons.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly right. Okay. So the other big theme from this episode, this episode five, Spirit, is Simon, meeting Jesus, right? And we get kind of this great, again, like artistic license, but another exorcism. And that was one of the things that really struck me the first time I watched the show is that I didn't really appreciate before seeing the show how much, how many examples of like exorcism are actually

in the Bible because I went back and checked and like read it. And there is actually a fair amount, more so than I originally thought at least. And so I think. thought that the showrunners did a great job of like reintroducing that over and over again this concept of like demonic possession and an exorcism which i think most people associate with like hollywood movies right in the modern age but it's it is it does have a biblical foundation um and so simon who's in the woods without um again like just like with nathaniel he has lost his career he's given his life to this thing this organization and he's you because he failed to fulfill his mission, he can't go home, and he probably will be hunted down and killed.

And so he's trying to figure out what he's going to do next. He comes across a demon. He thinks about killing it, a demon-possessed man, rather. He thinks about killing the man, but then realizes that if you have moments of being lucid, it's better in you than somebody else. God bless you, leaves him, continues to track him, leads him to the camp, right? And then the demon-possessed man and Mary have an exchange. he attacks and as he attacks Simon Z saves them the demon turns on Simon and then Jesus steps in and saves Simon

really a great plot like plot plot line I think that whole the whole way that that was written I think was great very well done and then that leads to Simon and Jesus speaking by the water Simon I think it's Jesus actually throws his his sacred dagger into the water and again observing all of this like the whole the whole thing is Atticus who is a fictional character

but I think a very well written character personifies Rome personifies he's a CIA basically right and he again is like struck with curiosity he's like why wait so the first Bezellate doesn't kill doesn't kill now he is throwing his sacred dagger into the water and it's and it's upon speaking to this guy who's claiming to be the Messiah

of the Jews who's supposed to be a warlord according to their scripture or their ideas rather so he's getting more and more invested personally in the story. This isn't even like a professional endeavor anymore. This is like he has personal investment Atticus which again I think is a great

plot device. Yeah I feel like there's both right. I feel like he's I think we talked about this at the time that we did the episode. I think he is concerned about the impact of this preacher and his followers and his ability like when he's talking to jesse and he's deceiving jesse atticus is about you know i'm like you i totally believe like you it's just incredible you know to see all these miracles and things i think he is concerned about rome and he's

he's acting in the interest of rome but i also think you're right that his spirit is um being peaked by this right like he is he's he's now he's got it's more than just rome I want to just comment. Bamabitch says in the Bible, John from prison, John the Baptist, sent a message asking Jesus if he was the one. Matthew 11, maybe he didn't know. So we'll get to that in, I think it's in the next season that that message actually does come from prison. It's one of the scenes in the show. So we'll talk about it then.

But I think he, I think he knew Jesus was the Messiah. I think like everyone else, he misunderstood what that meant. he was when he said are you the one or are we waiting for someone else i think he's like are you the one that's going to liberate us from the suppression of rome are you our warrior king where is our warrior king where is the king coming that is going to slaughter and we're going to rise up and we're going to get all of the promises all of the blessings and all of the things and we're going to be the thing that you said that we are without saying who he is yeah that can't happen And how, like, relatable is that to the current, the current moment politically.

The same orientation. Everyone is saying that about Trump, right? About, like, are you, are you the guy that you said you were? Are you the guy that's going to slaughter the deep state and liberate us from this oppression? And, you know, not to equate Trump to Jesus, but the, but I think the point you made earlier, rings resonates with me, which is, are we being oppressed by snakebikes? Or are we being oppressed by sin? And like maybe the solution here is for everybody to reorient themselves to God,

rather than go out and slaughter a bunch of human beings that are ostensibly oppressing people. But if everybody just was able to have the strength and the wisdom and the speech, of God in them, maybe we could overthrow them ourselves and we wouldn't need, you know, somebody to come in a savior to come and save us. Second Chronicles 714, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. So yes, to your point, that is the answer.

And in the United States of America, you know, one of the things that I'm, the reason I'm such a Trump supporter is because of, I mean, a lot of reasons. I've talked about all of them on the air, but go back to the January 20th, 2017 inauguration speech. What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. That is a self-governance condition. And it's not enough to hand the power to the people.

The people have to take it and stand in it and wield that power. And that's kind of where I feel like we're stuck in this. And it's kind of, again, not to, we're not creating. We're not quitting Trump to. Yeah, of course. And anyway, we're, you know, showing the glimmers and the examples of how these lessons and conditions show up again. Here in America, everybody is still waiting to be freaking saved.

Well, when are we going to get real elections? When are they going to fix elections for us? Well, when are we going to fix elections? When are we going to reclaim the power? When are we going to be a self-governed people? There's so much, you know, G-Money uses the term domestication. And it is just so apt to it's a very it's a very accurate description I think yeah of like what's happened to the human spirit in the modern age and what I started to embrace

being called feral yeah and by the way biblical biblical analogy is the most common um like like like form like a little like piece of literature that's been written any work of fiction using the comparisons to the Bible and the stories in the Bible is the most common form of literary analysis ever. So it's not it's not at all unprecedented to do that in this instance. But anyway, so let's, that takes us to kind of the tail end of the fifth episode spirit. We didn't talk about the Mary. And this actually, during when we were doing it, took us two episodes to get there. Yes, and that's what I was getting to.

At the very tail end of the fifth episode, we see Mary, because of her engagement with the demon-possessed man, like leaves, like wanders off, right? And then that leads us into the sixth episode. Unlawful, where Mary has now fallen back into her own way. She's calling herself Willif. She has found a gambling din. And I think is it Jericho, the city she's in?

I think there in Jericho. Jericho according to the way the story is told here. Yeah. So they're in Jericho. Jesus, Matthew, volunteers to go look for her. And Jesus says, great, Simon, why don't you go with him? And everyone's like, isn't that a terrible idea? They hate each other.

Jesus is like, no, like, go do it. And Jesus, who we don't have any indication even knows that Philip gave Matthew that verse to memorize, tells him that math, that verse Philip gave you to memorize, you're going to need it because she's in the depths. There is an Easter video. It's like one of those church videos that they put together, you know, for the different holidays. If you're cool with it, I'd like to play it.

Yeah, please. It incorporates the scene, but I think it kind of summarizes our experience with this episode. Truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water in the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. God loves the world in this way. He gave his only son. That whoever believes in him shall not perish. But have eternal life.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned. Oh shame. You redeemed me and I just threw it away. That's not much of it. redemption can be lost in a day, is it? I didn't even come back on my own to come get me. I just can't have to it. Well, that's true.

I just want your heart. I am rejected by others. So good. That's good. Very well done. It gets me every time. I've played that compilation. I play it usually at Easter on whatever show I'm doing that happens to fall on the Easter weekend. And it gets me every time. time because it's it's what where mary is in that i believe is where you have to come to you have to be

not that you have to know him and then run away and all that whole thing was imaginative but i think one of the great things about this show is that through these characters were shown what their humanity might have looked like and we don't get a ton of the human right we get glimmers of it. We get the macro lesson and we get the threads, but we don't get these kind of intimate portraits that they show us in The Chosen. But, you know, it's

the way that they, you know, like, if you think about like the way that Simon feels about Matthew in the beginning, he's better, right? He's better than Matthew. He's not as much of a sinner as Matthew. He wasn't a tax collector. I mean, yeah, it was a gambler.

And he had a bunch of debt. Matthew's a traitor. Matthew's a traitor. That's a traitor. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing, too, just going back to our Israel conversation. If there's no redemption for Israel, there's no redemption for any of us. And that's that that is, that is in as much as you have any, you know, focus on Israel from a spiritual standpoint, not a geopolitical standpoint, separate. And as much as you have any focus on Israel from a spiritual standpoint, that's the message. that you should take is that the the harlot who runs after all the other lovers and commits

you know all acts of immorality up to and including sacrificing her children god's children sacrificing them to foreign idols um if there's no redemption for her there's no redemption for any of us and god has redemption for all of us through the blood of jesus and only through the blood of Jesus. And I would also add, if you are of the mindset that you are in the pro-Israel camp and you view like Iran, let's just use that as an example as like the devil and like Islam is like a satanic cult, same thing for them, right? Like they also get to get to be redeemed if they choose to be. So that should always be, I think, how our heart is oriented. when we engage in geopolitics, and that's kind of what's opened up my mind to all of this.

And again, I've gone back to this analogy so many times of the past couple days. General Quast, when he got up and said, I think it was in Dallas, we did the geopolitics panel, and John opened it up, kind of like the tongue-in-cheap comment saying, geopolitics is boring, which is, of course, like a gut punch to me. I was like, well, that's like my thing. but he's not wrong. I agree with him. He's not wrong that like that's how most people view it.

And then General Quas jumped up and said, you know, make geopolitics, yes. But the analogy he used was geopolitics is like the playground where the children convene. And I've thought about that so much over the past few years, especially like having young kids that are growing up. And I take him to the playground. And like my oldest daughter is like has never. ever met a stranger. Like she will walk up when she was a baby, she'd walk up to other families at the beach and like sit in the mom's lap and start playing up the toys. Like she walks, she literally

walks up to like any kid. She's six. She'll walk up to like a 12 year. She's going to be awesome. She'll walk up to a 12 year and say, do you want to be friends? Like she's like that like that kind of personality. My second daughter is way more of an introvert. But um, watching kids on a playground like play like organize themselves, right? And like there is something very natural about it because there is like that childlike wonder that we that we haven't even discussed throughout the seat this discussion here but is ever present in this season um and one of you know one of the characters that i think has that more so than maybe the others uh obviously there's matthew who has like the the autistic element that kind of gives him that almost like in like you know it's like he's a

infantile and simon speaks to that in this episode where he says he's like this guy would get lost like How does this guy not get run over by car? I think one of them said, have you never been run over by cart? You know, like, how do you even make it through your day? Like, you're such a child, like, wandering through the big city. But Simon Z, I think he's the one who really has, there's something about him. He even says he's like 39. I think he's probably the oldest of all of them.

But he has this, like, childlike quality, like the way the character plays him, the way the actor plays him. He has this, like, youthful exuberance to him that I think is very, very, very, very well, it comes across very, very authentic on screen. And so, and that's one of the reasons that I think like Jesus calls on him and, and he is immediately, like he obeys. Like, the second Jesus is like, okay, I need you. He gets on his knees. He's like, okay, I'm in. Like, there's something about like that was a call back to the third episode in the first season. Jesus loves little children. Like he was doing it more so than the others were. And then in this episode when

Simon and Matthew wake up in the straw and they're like talking about making breakfast and then they start talking about Mary and Simon asked Matthew how he described Mary to the to the Pharisees that he

was asking them about and then Simon and he realizes that Simon has like an infatuation with Mary but it's like a very innocent thing. It's like it's you know he's like a child and you and in that moment you start to see Matthew's heart turn because of like the childlike wonder which Simon lose like he very he strays the furthest I think of all of them from that because

he tries to be the leader he tries to be in charge he tries to be like he tries to be the big brother right so he's like I can't I can't be the kid I have to be the adult in the room I have to be the one planning and protecting everybody so I can't have childlike wonder but in those moments. I think Eden brings him back to that. I think Matthew actually surprisingly like again, very, very well written by the show. The showrunners invent all this stuff. But I think it enriches some of these core ideas that Jesus talks about in scripture. And it's important like we, I mean, we talk about this a lot on the show, but it's not the show is not a replacement for scripture. It's not a replacement for reading the Bible. And it's why we try when we go through

episode by episode to point out where there's scriptural grounding and where it's invention. It's a big part of what we're doing with this show is showing. But the goal, I think mine and yours, is for people to read their Bibles and to get into the word and understand it. It's a profoundly amazing story from beginning to end. And it will change your life. Yeah. It's a tool.

Just like Bible study, like if you go to a weekly Bible study, the Bible study isn't meant to replace the Bible. Right. Yeah. Your relationship, your relationship with God. Yeah. It's an instrument to get you closer to the Bible. Yeah. It's a good closer to the story in Scripture. So. And it is a great. It is a great show. We're, you know, doing this show with you about this show that Dallas Jenkins and, and his team made has been an incredible blessing to me. So we've, we're going to try and end right at the hour. We'll send you guys over to John's show. And then we have our first Gart live stream happening at 2 o'clock. Eastern time. So if you don't have your GART virtual tickets, make sure that you get your GART virtual tickets. The link to the live stream should be coming out in 10 minutes. So buy them right now so that you can join us in an hour and 10 minutes on that live stream. Those are a lot of fun. So we'll be doing that. Badlandsmedia.tv slash events, April 9th through the 12th. It's going to be an absolute blast. And I'll play our soft disclosure ad on the way out.

And I, right, soft disclosure ad. Go ahead. And I believe the ticket price goes up on the 15th, I'm not mistaken. Yes. It will go up on Sunday. So you want to buy them right now. You want to buy them right now. Right now.

So you get the live stream and you get the locked in the best pricing that they're going to be. That's for the virtual tickets. If you can join us in person, you should. Because it's a blast. We're going to have so much fun. We're all very excited about it. Two episodes left. We have the episode where Jesus gets arrested.

And for me, this was, it was great to see the dynamic. but I think the best moment of it for me, two moments. One was Andrew. So Andrew is, and I talked when we did the episode about how I felt like he was overacting, and I stand by it. I think he did overact it a little bit. But that fear, right? He's anxious about John, the Baptist, who's been arrested.

They've learned that he's arrested. He's anxious about that. So he's trapped in fear. And this is going to happen to Jesus, too. it's going to happen to Jesus too and Jesus sends them out on a boat ostensibly knowing that he's going to be arrested and they're going to watch and not be able to do anything about it right um James and John are supposed to go out as well but they don't they you know they engage in a you you want a contest Jesus says when they come back to his teaching so the the Andrew dynamic of being trapped in fear in that way not trusting right Jesus told you to go out in the water and you're going to watch him get arrested And the point of it is for you to trust that when he says, I'll be back, keep planning, right? That he means it. They don't.

They spin all the way out. They attack each other. They run after, you know, two of them go after Andrew and Philip go after him in. I don't even know what city it is, that they're outside. I think it's, is it Copernium? Maybe. Because he goes to speak with Quintus. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think this is in Copernium. So, yeah. Yeah. So that was good. Then the second moment for me is the one where at the very end, James says, teach us to pray. And that's kind of the thing is all of these things that we, what do we see Jesus doing?

And he comes up in the loves the little children episode quite a bit, right? He's working. He's building. He's working. Helping like in the episode, the first episode where he's mending the wheel. He's doing that. he's healing, he's preaching, serving, or he's praying. And if we're supposed to be his hands and feet and we're supposed to be like Jesus,

and what would Jesus do, those are the things that we're supposed to be looking to. And those little kids, when they're like following him around because they're curious, they're like, oh, this, and then he's like really nice to them. So they're like, all right, this guy's really nice. And maybe he'll give us some food if we go, go play with him. He's like, all right, well, if you're going to hang out, like, you're going to work. Like, do you do this, you do that. And he's giving him orders.

and they're just doing it. They're just like, okay. And then they have no idea what it is they're making probably. It's fun and they want to do it. Yeah. They want to keep going back. And they just do it, right? They're not asking a million questions like, why do I have to do this?

What is it that we're making? Like, when is this going to be over? Like none of that. It's just like, okay, yes, sir. Like, I'm going to do this. And that's what Jesus is like, man, I really hope my next followers are like y'all. But of course they won't be because they're adults and they're full. of anxiety and

knowledge of the world, right? We've all, we've all bitten the apple and we know what the world is and that's why we can't be like them. So this episode, reckoning, is it the seventh episode? Yeah. Probably one of my favorite,

I mean, probably my favorite episode in the season because it is like the, it's like the Game of Thrones episode, right? It's the episode where you get, you get the great personalities on screen together. that would be Quintus, Atticus, and Jesus on screen together, the ones who are very witty. You get the great wit. And of course, this is like, there's a big buildup to this moment because of, like, everything we've seen with Rome, the anxiety about Rome, the followers believing that this is a rebellion against Rome.

Now here comes Rome to arrest Jesus. Oh, no, this is like the moment. Like, maybe this is, the Messiah is going to fail. Maybe he's not even the Messiah. Yeah. But really what ends up being the takeaway from this exchange, which is fantastic. Like the whole scene is just awesome. Is that Quintus is like, I like you, Jesus.

I actually really like you. Don't make me kill you. Please, because I like you so much. Which is like, again, such a well-written, well-written scene. But like the Romans are like, oh, this is cute. Like, wait, when you found him, he had women with him. It was women and a bunch of, and just a couple of unarmed, like, well, like two of them had little daggers, but yeah. Okay.

So this guy is like not a threat at all. No, he's just some crazy guy in the woods preaching. Okay. So this guy really. And that we, our understanding from like records is that that is how Rome viewed Jesus. Like they didn't view him as anything. And we see this later, even beyond where the show has breached at this point. But in the scriptures with Barabbas and pilot, like that is the truth.

is like Rome did not view him as a threat. They were like, this guy is preaching peace. Like, who cares, right? And paying your taxes. Render him. Pay your taxes, follow the law, be a dutiful citizen. I was like, oh, this guy's great. This guy's, okay, whatever.

Yeah, the people who viewed him as a threat were the Jews, were the Jewish elite were the ones you viewed him as a threat. Because he was a threat to their power. And that's what it comes down to is the power, the law of the Lord had been taken and turned into a cudgel used against the people instead of a thing that is made to liberate them. And that's the, we didn't really talk about the moment, but when Peter eats the wheat, right, after they leave those, that small synagogue. and Jesus heals the guy with the hand and then they're walking away and Simon is so excited. He's not thinking and he eats the wheat and Jesus says God made Sabbath for man, not man for Sabbath. And the lesson there is that the law is for our good.

And it is, you know, it's perfect and beautiful and for our good, but it had been perverted. It had been co-opted and used as a mechanism to elevate certain people into positions of power and wield that beautiful. gift as a cudgel over the people and Jesus came to break that and he did. Two quick rumble rants real quick. Carabies. By the way, before you do the rumble rants, I just want to comment on that. That scene with Simon is one of like the examples of his childlike wonder because he is in that like that moment where he's like dancing around like, did you see how cool that was? Did you see what he just did?

It's like and then that's when he grabs the wheat and then he's like, oh, whoops, I broke the rules. And it's almost like you can see it on Jesus' face. He's like happy at how Simon is acting. He's like, Simon, this is how I want you always. You should always be like this and not like the want to be, you know, whatever it is you do when you get a little out of sorts, right? Yeah, agreed. Yeah, and we'll just talk. We'll end talking about the final episode with Judas.

But Carrabee says, great conversation. Thank you so much for the Rumble Rant. One with Kat's $100 Rumble Rant. I've been saving all of the season two, the choice shows for a massive binge watch and reflection session. We'll need plenty of tissues back. I just want to thank both of you for sharing this with us. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Wow. Very generous. Yeah. Yeah, appreciate you so much. And Babbage three and. And Carabee. Thank you so much.

Yeah, you guys are amazing. Thank you so much for the support. And Babbage three says another great show. Babbage three said at the beginning, and I meant to tell you this and then kind of lost track of it and forgot about it. But she said that she thinks that. that your beard is a rug and she doesn't trust it. And I am really hoping that's not true because I want.

Rug beard. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I always waffle back and forth with my beers in this phase because it looks kind of grimy. Because my, my beard is very blonde. So I actually have way more hair in my face right now that it looks. Like it looks like I don't have a lot, but I actually have a lot. It's going to come in so nice.

And you've got the beard brush and the beard oil and put in there. Are you oiling? It's a grimy look. Are you oiling regularly? You need to be oiling. I did put some oil on it this morning, but I'm a little nervous about starting that because then that's the commitment. That's when like once I start oiling it, then it's going to stay. And I don't know if I'm ready to make that commitment yet.

So it's, I haven't had this discussion with my wife yet. I need to maybe discuss with her. All right. So we covered the Judas episode in great detail last week. So I don't think we need to belabor it. We're also out of time. But any final thoughts on that. I'm excited.

We get to the sermon on the mount in the beginning of season three, which we'll do next week. Yeah. Yeah, the thing about him that I was kind of thinking about earlier was I made the point that when this backstory we get on these guys He's one of the people who kind of does get a backstory because we get the Hamad character, right? Who is an interesting dynamic character I'm sorry, a Dodd I think is his name is his name. I think it's a Haddad His business partner But what's interesting is that these other guys have

Like this moment of crisis like existential crisis, right? Simon and Andrew are about to, like, have their boat taken away and because of their tax issue, you know, Simon, the zealot, you know, with his brother, Nathaniel with the collapsing building. You don't get that with Judas. Judas doesn't get the existential crisis. All we get is a yearning for fulfillment, right? He has that hole in his heart and he wants to fill it with stuff. He wants to fill it with a successful business career, money, right? And then he sees these guys doing something that's interesting and he in his first exposure to them is the sermon on the mount with that we're going to see in the next episode uh and he sees thousands of people

listening to this guy speak oh my gosh this guy's important whatever these people are doing is really important and i want to be a part of it because i need fulfillment in my life and that i think is such a like interesting way to present judas like his backstory because i don't think he's like he has any malice or ill intent at this point But the fact that like his start his launching off point is not the death of ego. He doesn't have the ego death the other guys do. So he's keeping his ego and you see that throughout the relationship between him and Jesus in the show. Is that like the ego is there.

He never had the ego death moment. That is a notable, a notable thing that I just realized as we were talking earlier. Yeah. And I think that Judas, the parable of the sower comes in. And so that's where, you know, the sower throws the seed on rocky path, on fertile soil and all the things. It's Matthew 13. That's your guys' homework for this week is to read that. And I would also encourage you to read the book of Josea, as we talked about at the beginning of the show.

We're going to get out of here. We're going to raid you guys over to The Daily Herald, which I had a lot of fun doing the past couple of days. It was good to do a show, a solo show. Again, I haven't done that in a long time. It was a little rusty. Kind of get back in the groove of it. But it was a lot of fun. We appreciate you guys.

You guys are the best. And please hit the like button wherever you're watching. It's the first time we didn't take the show down off of YouTube. And I think that video we played might be okay. It's not like a, you know, massive copyright thing. I don't think. But maybe. Background music might save us because I think that they use like AI of sound and stuff.

So thank you to the ranchers. Yeah. Thank you so much. Cats and Babbage. Thank you to frequency apps. Frequency apps.com promo code freedom. And thank you, Ash. Yeah, thank you.

And we'll be back next week. Same time, same channel for season three, start of season three. Everybody have a fantastic day. And we'll see you soon. In the outro, there we go. Thank you so much for joining us. And don't forget to hit the thumbs up on this video. And a special thank you to all of our advertising partners.

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