Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Jesus Won’t Let You Live in a Bubble | The Gospels | Luke 9:46–62

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Why is it so easy to divide the world into “us” and “them”? Why do we assume people unlike us must be the problem? And what does Jesus do with the rivalries and tribes we build our identities around? In today’s episode, Keith shares how Luke 9:46–62 shows that loyalty to Jesus breaks down our bubbles and teaches us to love the very people we’re tempted to demonize. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Luke 9:46–62

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. If you want to understand what is happening in our country and to some extent the American Church, it helps to understand what happened in 1954 in Robbers Cave, a state park in Oklahoma. An academic psychologist named Mazur Sharif conducted a social experiment designed to discover how competition affects the way groups of people interact with each other. So here's what he did.

He took two identical groups of fifth grade boys to the state park, but neither group knew the other was there. So by themselves, each group hung out and played games. Then he told them that there was another group of boys their age at the state park, and he asked them if they wanted to compete against that other group. Each group of boys came up with their own names. One called themselves the Eagles, and the other called themselves the rattlers. It sounds just like fifth grade boys, doesn't it? The psychologist disguised themselves as camp counselors, and they kept score between the, teams, but they kind of artificially rigged it so that the score was always close.

It kind of kept the pressure on the boys. And how do fifth grade boys respond? Well, like you would expect. They started calling each other names. They would have raids at night where they got into the other person's camp and tried to make a mess. They threw rocks at each other. They accused each other of cheating. The Eagles stole the Rattler's flag and they burned it.

And so the rattlers stole the pants of one of the Eagles' leaders. They painted them orange and then flew the pants up. as their new flag. One of the things the psychologists noticed is that the team started to make up stories about the bad things the other teams did, even though they hadn't really done them. Like the Eagles noticed that their pool was colder, and they said the Rattlers had filled it with ice. And the Rattlers found trash at their campsite, and they blamed the Eagles for it. Now, the Rattlers conveniently forgot that they were the ones who'd left the trash there. Neither team let the truth get in the way of the rivalry. The counselors ended the experiment early

because they feared that the boys were going to start fighting. So here are two groups of boys. They shared a lot in common, and they probably should have been friends. Instead, they became enemies who accused and maligned each other. Two groups of boys that were very similar, but quickly turned their world into a battle between us and them. But those were fifth grade boys, right? I mean, surely adults can do better. We don't make unnecessary enemies, do we?

We don't create narratives that make us look better and others look worse. We don't take on a win at any cost attitude. Or maybe we've all become like fifth grade boys. Maybe we have a whole country of eagles and rattlers. And maybe we've divided ourselves in tribes. Maybe we've made everything about us versus them. Did Jesus talk about this problem? Does he talk about the tribalism that is tearing apart churches, families, and our country?

And does he have anything to say about us versus them that frames so much of modern life? Yes. It turns out that that's a major theme of the Bible. Jesus went to the cross to reconcile us to God, but also to each other. We pick up in Luke chapter 9, verse 51. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Now, if you'd been one of Jesus' earlier followers, you would have known why Jesus was going to Jerusalem. He was going there, in your mind, to overthrow Rome.

God's king was going to overthrow the Roman king. Jews had been oppressed for centuries, and they were tired of it. They longed for the Messiah, God's king to come and deliver them from their enemies. So James and John, two of his disciples, are so sure that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to set up a political kingdom, that they ask if they can sit on his right and left when he enters into that kingdom. They thought Jesus was getting ready to open a can on the Romans, and when the dust had settled, they wanted to make sure they had seats of honor and power. they wanted to defeat them and then enjoy the spoils of war.

Going to Jerusalem, well, that meant something different to Jesus. Jesus had said in the Gospel of Luke, in any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day, for surely no prophet can die outside of Jerusalem. See, to Jesus, Jerusalem meant certain death. And on the way to Jerusalem, he runs into opposition. So we're back in Luke 9. And he sent messengers on a head who went into a simeer. Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the people there did not welcome him because he was

headed for Jerusalem. The Samaritans are opposed to Jesus and to the Jewish disciples. This is tribalism. It's dividing the world into us versus them. Verse 54. When the disciples, James and John, saw this. They asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? It seems a little weird to me that you would ask the prince of peace if he wanted to napalm an entire village. but somehow it made total sense to James and John. They thought, Jesus, we're headed to victory in Jerusalem, we're going to overthrow Rome, so we might as well start destroying our enemies now. Jesus and his disciples had very different visions of his mission. His disciples sound a lot like fifth grade boys. Luke 9, verse 55, but Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples

went to another village. It's easy to call for God's judgment against people you don't know. And how many Samaritans did James and John know? It's safe to say not many, maybe none. Jews didn't mix with Samaritans. The Samaritans were half Jew and half Gentile. They lived in their own village. They worshipped in their own temple. They had their own scriptures. For Jews, Samaritans were the worst kind of them, because unlike the pagan Gentiles who were ignorant of Jewish laws, Samaritans should have known better. See, Jews believe that Samaritans had corrupted what was true and good about Judaism. That explains why when the disciples found Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at a well, they were appalled. What was he doing? Doesn't he know that Jews don't talk to Samaritans?

It also explains why the Jewish people were so offended by Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan. In their opinion, there were no good Samaritans. Since Jews didn't mix with Samaritans, they didn't really know any Samaritans. They lived in a cultural and ideological bubble. again, it's easy to demonize people you don't know. Do you have true friendships with people who are really different than you? Have you talked to them about the differences and why they think the way they do? Do you know that you can find good people and your them? Or do you live in a bubble where you mostly interact with people who think like you,

look like you, act like you, have your same values, have your same voting record? Maybe you live in a neighborhood bubble or an online bubble? I mean, in our divided world, it's easier and easier to live like the Jews and Samaritans in a cultural, ideological, and political bubble. There's a story I love from the 1972 election. That election was a blowout by any measure. The Republican Richard Nixon had won over 60% of the vote against George McGovern, who was the Democratic nominee. Nixon won 49 states. McGovern won only Massachusetts.

A woman named Pauline Kale, she was a film. critic for the New Yorker, and she was shocked by the election results. It didn't turn out any way like she expected. She said that she only knew one person personally who had voted for Richard Nixon. Why was she so surprised? Because she lived in a bubble, surrounded by people who thought like her. Do we live in that kind of bubble? As long as you live in a bubble, you're less likely to know people who think, act, believe, and vote differently than you do. So here's the problem. How do you trust people you don't know. And the answer is obvious. We don't trust them. We're like fifth grade boys who create narratives to explain how people different than us are bad people. The disciples didn't know any Samaritans,

but they knew a lot about Samaritan. And they didn't have any Samaritan friends. They didn't shop at the same markets or attend the same weddings, bar mitzvahs, Passover celebrations. So where did they get their information about Samaritans? Well, the more we live in a bubble with other people, the more we depend on words of others to tell us what they are like. Jesus won't let you stay in your bubble. He will bring you face to face with your them, the people you think of as your political and ideological and cultural enemies, who nonetheless are also his followers, are also loved by Jesus, made in the image of God. See, Jesus has the audacity to tell you that you have more in common with them who follow Jesus than with those who look like you, act like you, vote like you, in other words, people in your tribe

inside your own bubble who don't follow him. I mean, consider just two of Jesus of 12 disciples. You have Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector. Simon's nickname the Zealot signaled that he was part of the Jewish nationalist group that championed violent rebellion against Rome. Matthew's designation as the tax collector tells us that he was a Roman sympathizer. A tax collector. A tax collectors collaborated with Rome. They sold out their Jewish kinsmen for personal gain. Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector, well, they belong to different ideological tribes. This was a classic case of us versus them. But when they responded to Jesus' call and began following him, they joined a community that prioritized what they shared in Jesus over their political, ideological,

and cultural differences. It's not that following Jesus led them to agree on every issue. There aren't even necessarily Christian positions on all the hot topics of their day or of our day. But loyalty to Jesus trumped their loyalty to every other movement. In the end, Jesus changed both Matthew and Simon. Christians have been called a band of natural enemies brought together by the love of Jesus. Living in ideological bubbles allows us to believe the worst about those who belong to a different tribe. But when we build relationships with those same people, we see that they're like us. They're Life is more complex than the media portray them. The Trump supporter living next door volunteers at the homeless shelter. The progressive down the street brings you a meal when you're

sick. Both love their families. Both care about their communities. So let's go back to James and John. They got a lot of things wrong. They were wrong about the Samaritans. Their request for fiery judgment on the Samaritans earned a rebuke from Jesus. To their surprise, the Samaritans responded in faith to Jesus. They became followers of Jesus after his resurrection. Eventually, James and John became friends with the Samaritans who they once wanted to destroy. But James and John were also wrong about Jesus' ultimate goal. Jesus wasn't going to Jerusalem to defeat the Romans, but to die for them. Jesus went to Jerusalem to die for his enemies, like you and me. James and John were wrong about discipleship. Jesus' followers don't call down judgment on them. No.

we lay our lives down for them, just as Jesus laid down his life for us when we were his enemies. Who are the them that Jesus is calling you to love the way he loves you? Father, I pray that you would open our heart, that we might be able to share the love of Christ with all people, that we would build friendships with people who are really different than us. I pray, Father, that you would give us a love for people that you have for us so that there would be know them for us, but they're all people that you love and that you care about and therefore we extend grace and mercy to. So in Jesus' name we pray, amen.