Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 361 | Why Phil Hunts on Sunday and the Unusual Creatures at Jase's New House

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Jase’s neighbors inform him he has some interesting pests to deal with at his new house in Tennessee. Al finds a letter he wrote to his great-grandmother when he was six years old, and it includes a special anecdote about Jase. Al talks about the downside of having extremely young parents, and that reminds Jase of the time Miss Kay thought his compound fracture was a sprain. And Phil and Al explain why doing work on the Sabbath is OK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So I had a pretty interesting day yesterday. You know, we did, we do these podcasts. And then yesterday after the podcast, we finished our show, our little treasure hunting show, the filming of it. So we'll see where that goes. I'll keep you posted on that. But Jelp was in town, so Jep and Jessica ate supper with us last night.

Then they stopped by and had a visit with us. I took him fishing. He caught two huge crappie out of Willie's Pond. What was on the menu? Actually, my lovely wife fixed up roast in gravy, potatoes and carrots in the roast, big pot of rice, spectacular. Because I had never eaten all day. It was one of the few days that I never had stopped and eaten since a chicken biscuit in the morning.

It's a good thing I brought that chicken biscuit to tie Joe. So, Dad, I had the best, Jay cooked, the best boo-dan I've ever had. I've had some, a lot of good boo-dan, but he found someone he went to Venice last week, fishing. He was actually cooking that because I had to borrow some hooks. He left me some, so I was familiar with that. Willie's copy of gotten so big that I had to get a bigger hook because you have to lift them over his bridge and the hooks would straighten. I mean, these are two to two and a half pound crop. You told the story before, you had, you had straightened one out, didn't know it.

You know, I had the old Jalls moment. I told Jop. He's like, where are you going? I said, I think we need some bigger hooks. So anyway, so this morning, so I didn't get to see my wife much. We didn't get to talk. And so this morning, she comes up, and she's like, well, you were so busy because I was so tired. I don't even remember going to bed last night.

I just basically collapsed after all that. And so she said, I have a story for you. I said, okay. And so she said, now how did she say that? Here's how it said. Because you know we have this new place in Tennessee. We were in Austin, but we've made a move here. We got a place.

We fixed to be grandparents. It's a long story. But we've acquired a little farm in Tennessee. But she came in, and, you know, the older we get, the less we can hear as well. And I thought she came in and said, hey, I got a story for you. I said, oh, go for it. And here's what I thought she said. She said, I met our neighbors on intimacy.

And I said, there's a website called intimacy. And she said. Well, there's a town called intercourse. We cover that yesterday. She said, I'm not even finishing this story. And so as she was walking away, she said, I met our neighbors in Tennessee. And she just left. I mean, I never heard this story.

So I got intimacy. I thought, because I was thinking, what in the world are you doing on a website called intimacy? I mean, do we have a problem? I mean, it immediately escalated. in my mind. But being the good wife that she is, on the way down here, there's a train coming outside your door. You want to sing that song?

Long black train. So she called me on the way down here, and she was laughing right off the bat. I was like, oh, I thought you were mad at me because I misheard. She's like, that was ridiculous. She said, so can I finish my story now? yeah, I finished the story. She said, so I met the neighbors, and you're not going to believe what they told me.

And I said, what? She said, welcome to the neighborhood. And actually, you know, we're on top of this hill. They're kind of to the right somewhere, but you can't see them. I mean, I'm completely secluded. But she said, there's a lot of wildlife, as you can tell. I mean, there's deer in the yard. She said, but we have confirmed the sighting of a black panther.

On this mountain. Here we go. So we just wanted you to know that. For those of you listening, Phil just have one of the greatest eye rolls that I've ever seen. This Black Panther thing has been a fan. Si was right all along. That was my first thought. So Saia was right all along.

They said they came out of their back door one day and the Black Panther was on their deck and jumped 10 feet into a tree. that was the story oh boy but missy said as she talked she also said that there were also two cougars so we got two cougars in a black panther that I'm going to have to negotiate

so what do you think fell she's in the she's one of these high strong women who were into who are into Phil be careful various be careful about the plank in the eye

The conspiracy theorists go along hand in hand with the siding of cougars and panthers on the North American. You know that since you... On the back porch. The last podcast, you actually told about an undetermined critter that died in the walls of your bathroom. It could have been a baby panther. I didn't check it to see, but I don't think we had a black panther up under there. But you did have some blow five. So, Jay's, so that was your story?

Well, I just thought I'd share that way. I think that's pretty interesting. And the intimacy part is funny. So we were cleaning out of a storage unit. And cleaning out of storage units are always interesting because there's stuff in there that you forgot you put in there. And so it's kind of, I guess, it's almost like what you do, Jays. But you find these little treasures, you know, that you didn't even know you had. Your stuff, but you forgot about it.

So I saw this letter and it was in a baggie. So it got my attention. And it's from me. Do you know who Mrs. W.T. Careway is? Do you know who that's nanny? So that's mom's grandmother. We call her nanny. Oh, and you wrote her a letter?

I wrote her a letter. Where did you find this? It was in my storage unit. Oh. And so I guess mom gave it to me. And she went to the other side 40 years ago. Well, you got the gene. You know, Kay is a, let's face it, she's a hoarder.

I mean, when they come out with this, she's not a hoarder. You don't sift through her stuff looking for old letters. You will be there the rest of your life. She's a hoarder. But Al, I've noticed that you, maybe this is turning to an intervention, you have picked up that side of the gene pool.

You have hoarding tendencies. I consider myself more of a historian than a hoarder. But because I was clean, the difference that me and mom is, you just heard me say I was cleaning out a story. Do you have the contents of the letter? I do. I'm going to share that.

So what are, I want to mention first is this is from Junction City, Arkansas, June 25th, 1971. That's when I sent this letter. So that means I was six years old, and it costs eight cents, by the way, in 1971 to send this letter. And so inside, so here's my handwriting. I wanted to show you that from six years old. Apparently, I had a few mistakes in there. I had to fix. So here's what I said. Dear Nanny, I love you. How are you doing? I have been going to vacation. Bible school for five days. See, I was going to the little church there in Jocelyn City.

I like to go to it. Now, here's the point I wanted to make on the podcast. I said this at six. Jace at this time was two, about to be three. No, you actually weren't even two yet because you were born in 69. And I was in my 30s. Yeah. I just started speaking in complete sentences.

You actually were in your 20s, right? Probably maybe 20s. So here's what I said. Here's what I told my great grandmother in 1971 at six years old. Jason is mean as ever. You said that. You weren't two years old, and I'm reporting this. Well, you got to remember, though, at two.

What is your defense for a charge like that? I mean, well, you got to remember, most people wait to they have these money. At two, I'd already killed my first squirrel. I had camped out under the house. I remember that night. I had already. Two years old. You remember that night he got another house down?

Well, they make a big deal, but I was lost, you know, at two. It was three o'clock in the morning. We heard the moaning, and I said, and it wasn't an animal. I said, what is that? No, yeah. We looked upon the house with a flashlight, and Jace was huddled up under the house at three o'clock in the morning. With the dog. I'm camping here.

The more I dive into y'all's family background, I'm like, like, how did all four kids survive. Well, no, that is a question. But when you said, y'all, you're part of this family, too, there, hot ride. Yeah, you're half. Don't try to subconsciously distance yourself. We were raised and they were in the letter, Prudgeon, so normal that would seem strange. We are the epitome of normalcy.

Well, I should. People look and they say, what in the world? I should have had, I should have waited a minute. You're normalist. I should have waited and read this letter where mom was on here because mom has always said that jace was a problem from birth. And this backs that up. Jason is as mean as ever. But I say, because I'm an encourager, that's the way brothers are.

So I acknowledge that, you know, you got to deal with your little brother. How are your cats doing? Our dogs are doing fine. I love you so much that I could die. That was my closing statement, which I don't know what that meant. Love Allen. I'm kind of disturbing, Al, that you already use. using death references.

I love you so much that I could die. I mean, that's a, that's a, that's a pretty interesting letter. He was one written to? To my nanny. Yeah, her grandmother. I was my, Kay's grandmother.

Yeah, it was my great grandma. She's the one that I spent a lot of time with when I was a kid. She's the one that basically raised your mama. Right. Because the other people, the mama and the dad of Ms. Kay, they worked at the store every day.

So she was raised by her grandmother. Nanny's husband is the one that started Carraway's grocery, I guess. Yeah. And so, Mom talks about in her speech, it's really interesting because when she talks about the hard times that she and Dad went through, it was the memory of what her grandmother, nanny, told her that one of these days you'll have to fight for your marriage. You know, when Mom does her speech, that's what she always says.

And in that time, she said, I finally realized what she meant, that I would have to fight for my marriage. And she did. Yeah. And she won, because we're all still here. But I thought that was interesting. That, Jay's, that was my finding. That was my treasure hunt.

Yeah, well, if you're a hoarder, you tend to stumble up on things. Jay, sure, your brother there, your older brother, was the epitome of what a young boy should be like. But when it came to you, he's found you to be lacking. Well, you got to remember. And I was saying it at six. You got to remember. And here I am still grappling with Jay's and dealing with it. them on a daily basis.

They're your past goes all the way back to when you were two. Since we're being blind here, these are the things that happen when the parents are away. It's ever man for himself. I figured that out at two. Most people have that epiphany at 14. I look back on a noun, I'll tell both of you I'm embarrassed for my former behavior. I'm embarrassed, but I can't change it. I just can't be for a beginner.

But you know what? us sitting here doing this podcast for the last two years shows you the power of grace because we were rocky on the front end but here we are all these years later almost 50 years later and we're having a Bible study and with hundreds of thousands of people in America I mean you tell me there's not a guy well there we could there was only one direction from where we started up it was up or over right what's interesting is yeah that this would have been pretty much at the heart of the hardest times because Willie was born the next year. He was born in 72.

So mom would have been just about getting pregnant with Willie. To God, the only time I remember being real mean as a kid was when Willie had the unfortunate incident of breaking his leg and he was in a body cast for a few months. Remember that? He was just in one place. And boy, because when that happened, I remember, I remember thinking, I'm glad he's better, but I'm fixed to make up for all the misery

because he just was laying there. He couldn't, I mean, you just come by and thump him on the head. I made him a way to move around by getting one of his little wagons, and he could take both hands, and he could flit around on the floor. That's right. You know what he was like. By the way, how did he break his leg? He fell off a slide.

Yeah. It was at the daycare place. Oh, after school. Look, there's, what's weird is, because you know, you have memory problems. the order you get. But I remember being at the top of that and looking down and seeing all the tree roots. And here I'm a little kid, four or five years old,

thinking, this is dangerous. You literally were sliding down on the tree reeds. Yeah. And of course, it's what, I don't know what year that was. I remember when we got the call, you say, your son has just broken his leg. I said, what? And off the house of how?

He fell off the slide. I probably pushed him. That's insane. I mean, we were all up there trying to just beat each other to the punts to slide down on a bunch of tree roots. Yep. But he's in a full body cast or waist down. Yeah, it was. It started at his chest right here.

Because I just remember after a few weeks went by. Well, it was on the backside. He had an opening. Well, yeah. But trust me, the smell started to linger at a man being on the floor with not the greatest of supervision. and just become an odor that's indescrib. When he was wearing diapers, let's take a break. I don't know that he was potty trainer or not, but he was wearing diapers,

and I had to change a lot of those diapers, because as you said, we were kind of on our own. Jase, did you volunteer along with your brother to change the diaper? He never changed one. I said, hey, look, I gave him some encouragement. I said, I hope you make it. So dad, it picks up this little creeper. And the cast started at his chest

And on one leg, the bad leg It went all the way to his ankle And on the good leg, it went to his knee So he was literally He was between two and three I thought he was older now I feel bad now for being mean Because I can relate it to where we were living

We were living in that trailer up at Jake's trailer park Which was right around 704 What's so weird is I remember the visual images of that Because you were only two years older So I mean you were like Five Yeah Yeah. It was an interesting summer.

And now we're all three old men. Yeah. But it was like he was a... You all don't like to be called young books. You guys got elevated from young bucks to old men right now. But he stayed there so long. He stayed there so long he was like a talking piece of furniture. Because no matter where you went or what you did, he was just laying in the same spot.

He wore it a long time. It was just months. Right in front of the TV, which they had the TV on, but it was just snow. And he... which may answer a lot of problems. I wonder if that was, I just thought about it, just hit me. You know, he's had a lot of knee problems. I wonder if that's the same leg.

That's what it is. Because, you know, that leg busted, that femur busted so bad. They had to go in and, like, put it together with screws and stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he had a big rod in it. That's why that knee is so bad. He's had to have it fixed twice. Yeah, he's separate from that.

Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder, I got knee problems, and I had a club foot when I was born. You remember me with the club foot? Yep. Both your feet were like, both your feet were like this. Yeah. Instead of like this, you standing there.

Yeah. You were like that. Yeah, this one, right one's clubbed. Your leg in the womb, it is just, you did both your feet. So they just put a reverse cast on, but when that healed up, it never was right. This right leg has been a problem. Not enough forks in the tree. Well, the biggest problem, the biggest problem is, mom is seven.

Dad is 19. So literally, teenagers birth and raised me, which is amazing I'm still here. And when they went to pull me out, I don't know if they do it this way now, they couldn't get me out of there. So they put the forcips on my head and literally just manhandle me out of the womb. You were scarred up on me. Oh, my head was all lumpy. Nobody taught.

Look, when my son was born, Reed, and I looked at him, I thought, huh. Because he had, I mean. That's what a redneck says. Yeah. It wasn't my precious child. Well, he had a cone head because they had used the forcives. And so Missy was like, what do you think? I said, well, he's literally a cone head, but we're going to love him anyway.

That's what I said. Because I didn't know the head sculptor of a newborn baby. Is that plow? Yeah, I thought, well, boy, this is going to get a lot of jokes in high school. And I was thinking, is that where they got the idea about the cone heads? And I mean, my mom was just racing. I thought, we have a cone head because it was drastic. So when they're pulling me out, one of the forcups slips off and hits me in the eye.

And so when I was born, my eyes didn't open because I had this one that was damaged. So mom, being 17 years old, she assumed after about five days of my eyes didn't open that I was like a kitten. or a dog where your eyes don't know nine days yeah nine days for your eyes over so that she she that's what she came to in her mind nobody i guess realized that i had actually been damaged you know from birth so i just thought it was interesting that that that's what happened that theme carried out through the rest of our lives because you know when i broke both of my bones and my left arm on about day three of that still at the house phil got back from his trail and i was like he pulled in the yard and I ran down there and I was like,

Hey, Dad, look at my sprained arm. Phil said, both bones are broken. You need to go to the ER right now. How long has this been going on? I was like, days. He's like, that bound to hurt. I was like, well, it hurt for the first couple days, but it actually feels better. I said, get him to the hospital.

She said, you go away? I said, right now. They took me up there, and the first thing they had to do was re-break it. It was already transatlose growth together. Yeah. So that was searing. pain. I'm not a bone surgeon, but I looked at that.

She always sprained his arm. Look, I said, I looked at it. I said, it's broken in two places. Go up and get him to the hospital. I remember the doctor interrogating K because they were like, why did you wait so long to bring this in? She's like, well, I thought it was sprained. He was like, the bones are protruding under his skin.

I remember I did it. I'm the one that did it because we were playing football. We were watching a football game. We were at the house. And so back in those days, we liked to, whatever we were watching, then we implemented it. So we were doing a goal line defense at the couch. Remember, Jay? I remember you never have gotten the story right.

I was actually running for the touchdown and you threw a pillow. And swept your legs. It was a leg sweep. Yeah, and the pillow caught my feet. And I did about two flips and fell on my arm. And he broke both. So I'm like, he's hurt. You know, so I went down to tell mom and granny are watching Dallas.

It's back when Dallas was a big thing. All they were about is who shot Jay-Haw? So I said, I think Jay's is hurt up here. And they said, well, wait until the show's over. And then we'll come up. Three days later. Three days later. That's pretty rough.

Mom used to tell that story, which she got bit by a cotton mouth water mackus. and her, and Paul was looked at it and said, now she'll be all right and her legs start swollen up and it's, yeah, she'll be fine and Granny's like, I think she's going to be, I think she's sick. Mom's vomiting. Probably the leg is like five times the size of its original size. She literally had been bitten by a cotton mouth in the yard.

And she said there are red streaks running up her leg and Paul and Grady said, James Roberts said, you better take her to the hospital now. And mom always said that he said, well, let me finish my show and I'll run her up there. People are going to hear this. You got to laugh about it. It was our way. I mean, through the years we've changed and now we will take people. We've all mellowed now, ladies and gentlemen.

But I've been normal now. I just look at that's why we're so tough because, you know, we just like, Jay said we kind of learned early to fend for yourself. They all might have to look out for you. That is. Oh, that's really. All right. Memory Lane.

So back to Matthew chapter 12 is where we're out in our text today. This is one of my favorite chapters because it addresses this ritualistic versus relationship. Yeah. What is it going to be? Are you, it was the Sabbath made for man you put it that way in John? for the Sabbath. You would think that Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. You would think nobody would mind, Jace, no matter what day it was, for you to walk through the wheat fields

and pick a few kernels and eat them, you would think that wouldn't be an issue. Well, why kind of mind makes that an issue? Because they have a law that said, and God made the law, that he wanted you to rest at a certain time. There's a time to read.

Work six days and rest one. Which means you did a lot of work. So the, but the legalistic part of it comes, in is what does rest mean? Because Jay's told a story a few podcast ago about even to this day, not pushing the button on an elevator. On modern day, they have

the elevators that stop on every floor without the button being pushed. And right beside it, if you're not a believer, you can ride that elevator. Of course, I thought this is the ride to hell. I mean, because if you're not a believer, you can

ride here and push the button. whatever button you want to. Well, right. It just seems so weird. But that's where you get into. Let's take a break. That's what you get into, though, Dad. So while one will be picking grain and eating a bite, another is pushing a button.

So when does it stop? You just lay there and never lift your hand to eat. I mean, I don't know. If you get into the legalistic aspect of what is rest versus what is work, but to jesus point you know the whole idea was god made the law to protect people and so they would understand that you know you need to rest yeah you need a day of rest just don't look like a wild man beating the air every day 24-7 there's a lot of movers and shakers it'd be good for them but yeah but even god rested on the seventh day which is where this idea came from which there's something to be

said about that because I'm look it seems like our culture the problem is they're resting with a lot of people for six days and working one that's true I mean there's places around here that can't even find anybody to work yeah but we got a global supply chain problem because nobody wants to work it's yeah exactly exactly but it's a weird taking the sabbath to extreme I mean we're in Matthew 12 It's just we got to deal with it. Well, and again, I think back to what led into this, the last podcast, when y'all closed out that those three verses, come to me who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest,

take my yoke upon you. I mean, Jesus is basically telling them, look, if you'll trust in me, you won't have to worry about stuff like they're fixing to get into because I'm going to take all that. You know, it's not going to be on you to have to be perfect and have to do everything right. I'm the one.

Put the burden on me. So I think he sets that up for what's about to happen because the first thing they do when they see it is they say, look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. They're basically pointing to them

and saying, you're breaking the law. That's right. It sounds like modern day America and what we do to the Constitution of the United States. Yeah. I mean, these cases keep going up

before the Supreme Court because people are pointing fingers saying and they right in some cases and wrong in other words but they argue about the law it's a continual massive group of individual lawyers lawkeepers lawbreakers

I mean you know passing legislation this and that Supreme Court you're like man has been what's the word wrestling wrestling wrestling with the law for ever since they've been on planet earth. Yeah, and you're right.

And I'd say to your point, a modern example of this, you know, during the pandemic, you've had all these mandates that's made by a president or government. They're not law. They're not law. They're just a mandate. Just somebody says, hey, I say you got to do that. So then the whole thing becomes a back and forth between those who are willing to do it, not willing to do it, telling on people that are, you know, telling you on an airplane.

I mean, if you fly now, you realize it's just a constant stress. They go to great lengths to make sure how they view a certain statute is implemented. But it's an age-old struggle, men and law, in my opinion, which is a great thing, when you finally get here about the grace of God instead of his laws, it's a sigh of relief. Right. I mean, he's not counting men sins against them, not when you break it. Well, these guys here, they were, I mean, I love what Jesus says here.

He says, you, he uses the whole David story to kind of, because these guys were obsessed with the temple worship and what went on in the temple. And he told the story about when David ate their bread in the temple. I love this in verse 6, though. This is the, this is the stinger here. He said, but I say to you that something great. than the temple is here. So they're looking at the rules, and they're worshipping these rules.

They're worshipping the temple of God. And Jesus is like, I don't understand what just arrived. All this was pointing to me. It's pointing to the kingdom that I brought, and you're focusing on everything but what that's pointing to. That's a powerful verse. Yeah, and it leads to that verse 8 where he said, for the son of man, which the last podcast, you know, I picked up those verses that

referenced that. Well, here's another one. He's like, the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. So he was making a point. It's not so much what you do because I know the heart, I understand freedom, and I'm the creator of this, which we know by John when he said it's not about the Sabbath being made for man, or a man made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. And he wrote the law and gave it to Moses. But you just realized, too, what authority he is interjecting here.

Woo. Saying, hey, I am the Sabbath. Well, that's what made these guys so mad. I mean, he's basically claiming lordship. And I think at the end of the day, they were comfortable with their law. They were comfortable with their religion because they could have their own autonomy and still be in charge of their own way. And Jesus comes on the scene and he says, no, he said, I'm the Lord of all that and I'm the only way. That was his offense was, that's what made him angry was that he was, the status, he was,

it was wrecking their entire system. And they made them very uncomfortable, obviously. So when they ratchet this up, starting to don't eat the grain, they're breaking the law. and then the next thing they say you're breaking the law man with a shriveled hand was there looking for a reason to accuse Jesus so they're just searching to try to get is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

Now we've gone from is it lawful to eat some wheat when you walk through it on the Sabbath? What about hitting somebody's disease? You would think they would cut the dude a little slack. I mean the man's got a shriveled hand you'd think they'd say who whew he'd You fixed that? You see, yeah, on the Sabbath, and they're making an issue of you can't do that on the Sabbath.

It's what legalism does, Al. Well, and this one was more of a setup. This was an ambush. Oh, yeah. Because they saw this guy, and they asked the question just to try. This is when they start testing him then. Yeah. Of course, then he comes back and says, if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,

will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable was a man than a sheep? Therefore, is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Yeah. He puts it right back on them. You'd think it wouldn't be an issue, but the more I hear about Facebook and the things that come up with, I've never turned on to the, clicked on to the Facebook,

but I just hear people talking about what they heard on the Facebook. So if you just look at it logically, you say, are all these things still going on right before us, and we just don't miss it? We miss it? or you say this legalistic attitude, it's still everywhere, Al. Oh, yeah. Well, and of course, the modern thing is to what a lot of modern people have done is turn

Sunday into the Sabbath. They call that the Sabbath, and then there's certain things you can do. I remember I was playing golf one day on a Sunday afternoon, and some guy came up and he was like, why are you playing golf on Sunday? I said, what's the only day I could play this week? They've asked me. You know, it was like you couldn't do it because it was the, you know, like you're breaking the Sabbath. I was like, if I asked me, said, how's the hours are going?

I said, pretty good. It's Sunday morning. And I said, I'm fresh out of the duck blind. And they said, do you hunted ducks on Sunday? I said, yeah, now I'm here meeting with the brothers. I said, good to see y'all. And they're like, well, I don't know about that you have a few hunting ducks on the Sabbath. It's like in some states, they close it for Christmas because they think it's sacrilegious.

Right. First of all, we don't even, that's not even the day. somebody's made that day up and why not have a tradition with family and celebrate Jesus in his creation as you prepare the meal and oh no we've made this the Sabbath which is a modern of what these guys do and let's take him over the break well i put a i put a summation i just did this based on this chapter but comparing the Pharisees with jesus i mean he made some references here that You just need to make sure you're on the right side of things. Because, you know, the first thing he referenced, or the most disturbing thing, not the first.

But he says that they condemn the innocent. He said that in verse 7. If you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the innocent. You never want to be going around trying to enforce law, modern day or in their day, that is condemning people that are innocent. innocent. You don't know people's hearts. You can't base, you know, they saw some heads being picked in a field, and they immediately brought condemnation. Well, when you think of the opposite,

what did Jesus eventually do? He completely restored. He makes people innocent. I've never thought that you might work that in to, they passed a law that said, you can now, if you're a woman, kill your child if you don't want him. Just kill him. Abort him. Well, it sounds like to me you just passed an edict that condemning and killing your own offspring, you're good to go because it's the law. Exactly. A woman has the right to kill her child if she wants to. Not against the law.

Yeah, what happened in this case was way more in us. They're doing the same thing these Pharisees are doing. Exactly. Think about the irony of the Pharisees contrast to Jesus here. Jesus is coming to heal people and restore people. And then verse 14 says the Pharisees went out when they saw him doing this. They conspired against him as to how they might destroy him. So he's building and he's healing.

And they're like, oh, we have to, we have to destroy. Which I think is a hallmark of kind of a pharisaical mindset is, are you a divisive person trying to destroy what's going on good in the kingdom? And if you are, you probably need to check yourself because that's what they do. That's what Pharisees do. They destroy things. They don't build anything. Yeah, you made a point, Zach, in a lesson one time.

I never forgotten about how much more difficult it is to build something than to come in and destroy it. You can wipe it out quick, and you gave an illustration about your boys. One of them made a massive Lego village, spent all day building it, and the other one came in, destroyed it in about 10 minutes. But that stuck with me because I thought that's what the evil one does. He comes to kill and destroy it. And look, that's easy.

It's hard to bill. That's right. Well, that's where I was getting this. You know, they were condemning the innocent 12-7. You know, when he gets to nine, it says going on from that place, he found a man with a shriveled hand. And looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. They asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Well, here we go.

First, we're picking heads in the field and eating. But now it's like, well, is it lawful to heal? So then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. so he stretched out and it was completely restored just as sound as the other which by the way

you're looking for a miracle that's a miracle a shrivelled hand to perfect hand so what was the response to the Pharisees well they went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus now you just think about that

when your narrative is to a point if you help a man who had a shriveled hand and you ate some grain on Sunday on Saturday morning, we're going to kill you. And they didn't think that it was anything wrong. He's going to kill the man who can make another man's hand perfectly new. That's not a guy I'd be looking to kill. We see this all the time.

How many people do we know personally that we've seen doing the work of the kingdom? They're actively acting like Jesus. And then other people, religious people, come after them and try to destroy them. I mean, it's almost like you have to, I mean, it's like you have to expect. it. If you're doing kingdom work and you're serving people, then all I've got to say is get ready. Somebody's coming to take you out. I always say

the worst arrows acts is the one in the back. Exactly. So I want to make these analogies. So you get this one, condemn the innocent, Jesus, what's he doing? He's completely restoring people, which is the opposite. Two, he referenced this house of God in 12-4

because the Pharisee mind makes the actual house holy. And eventually Jesus, we know what he did. He made people holy who became the house of God. You know, how many references about, you know, Hebrews 3 and 4 is a good one. The consecrated bread was an issue in chapter 12 and verse 4. And we know in John, Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. You know, it's not about the actual cracker. It's about what that represents.

And that goes back to the reference about hungering and thirsting after righteousness also. Then the reference we've already said about it was they said he was doing it unlawful. And Jesus was like, I'm Lord of the Sabbath. It's not necessarily what, it's who.

And he knows the heart. And then this lost sheep comes up in 12 and 11 and 12. And you think, immediately you think, well, it is about the lost sheep, because we have that story in Luke 15, but we know that really it's about the shepherd. I mean, because a sheep couldn't be rescued without the shepherd with the one going up,

but we tend to make it about that lost sheep, you know, because that, he referenced that. He's like, he said that if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, this is verse 11, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man, than a sheep. Therefore, it is lawful to do good. I mean, he said that before he healed him. And he was making them be hypocritical, because, like, as long as it's somebody else's sheep,

you really wouldn't care. But you know what was really true about them? Let's take our last break. Is that they really did value the sheep more than the man. Oh. They really did think the sheep was more valuable. And not your sheep, but theirs. Yeah.

You don't care about yours. No. Or they don't care about the guy with their shriveled hand. He was just a guy that was a prop to try to test. The fact he was healed, instead of saying, well, that was pretty cool. Instead, they said, let's kill him. And so the last thing I want to say, the contrast of the Pharisees was it led to a plot to kill Jesus. And verse 15 says, aware of this.

He was aware of the plot. And I'm only making this point to make a greater point, which is right before he, died on the cross, the first thing he said when he was up on that cross was forgive them for they know not what they do. I mean, here they are despite all these accusations and trying to trap him and now trying to kill him, him being aware of that still offered forgiveness to his death. I mean, those are the contrast in the Pharisee mind and the mind of Jesus, which is the polar opposite.

I want to mention one other thing, Jay, is that we... We skipped this verse, but I think it's very cogent to what we're talking about. In verse 7, he said, if you had known what these words mean, the idea that something greater than temple is coming, I desire mercy not sacrifice. Now, that's interesting because that's the second time he's quoted, Josea 6,6. He said it the first time when Matthew was called, and they said, they asked the disciples, they said, why is your rabbi? Why does he eat with these tax clusters?

and sinners. He said, well, it's not the healthy that need a doctor. It's the sick. And then he quotes Jose 6-6. I desire mercy not sacrifice. He does it here again in the same context, meaning that to our point, he is greater. And so they were like, but he is there to help other people find him. That's what they were missing. I mean, the biggest problem with these legalist Pharisees, and same thing today, if they miss it, is that when you miss Jesus, you miss people and his love for people. And we mentioned this whenever Jesus was tempted by Satan that I had never really thought about before that that last temptation up on top of that high mountain, Satan was going after his love for people and trying to him to basically say, if you make a deal with me, then we'll rule together.

And Jesus said, no, you know, worship the Lord you God and serve him. But what the motivation was is that he loved people so much. That's why he came here to die. Which to your point, Jay's, a plot to kill him meant nothing to a guy who came to die anyway. I mean, this was, he knew this was going to happen. I mean, this was just too early, you know. It's embarrassing that religious people would do this. But then when you look at our culture today, there's still religious people doing the very same thing.

It comes back down to that, you know, I made this illustration before, which I think is a good one. There's a lot of religious people that view Christianity through a magnifying glass. They're always, or a microscope, they're always trying to pick out what they don't like or what they don't agree with. And that becomes the whole narrative in their existence and they're identifying with religion. It's like they're taking a course trying to get all the answers right, figure everything out. Forget about other people and the movement and spreading Jesus. It's about what happens right here and we want to try to do everything right. And instead, you know, God offers you a mirror,

and the reflection that you eventually should see is Jesus. When you look in the mirror, you want to be looking not only to yourself, but you want to become an image of being Christ life. Christ in us. Because ultimately that is the prize, is to be conformed into the image of Jesus. That's the prize. And I think about all of this,

all these guys worshipping and obsessive over the law, and all the rules and the regulations. And when Jesus, when he says, he summed the whole thing up in two ways, love God and love your neighbor. And sum it all up, because that's the point of it all. And they missed the summation of all of it.

And instead, they focused only on their particulars of the law. They didn't get the big pitch. They didn't get the whole thing of what was the sum, what was the totality? What was he trying to do here? He said, love God, love me, and then love each other. That's it. My question is, what are legalistic-minded people?

Because I remember when I had an epiphany, just reading on my own, and I look around and say, well, there are some people in here that are acting like Pharisees. But I got it from reading this. Right. But what do they do about, what does a legalistic person think when they read what we just read? I think what they think, Jase, is that they don't think. Because if you get, like, to be legalistic and to be a Pharisee,

you have to be extremely angry. And you get, you just get, you stay stirred up and you're so angry about how somebody else has fallen short or they don't have it right. You're pointing fingers and you just get in that mindset. You don't even have room to hear this. Even when he says in verse 7, if you had known, like what I'll just mention, what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. I mean, even with him telling them, he's like, I'm telling you what this means.

means, and they still didn't know it. They're blind to it. And I just think that the Lord, you know, does blind certain people. I think you look in, like, Pharaoh, you know, he hardened Pharaoh's heart because Pharaoh was so belligerent against, you know, the obvious miracles that God was performing. God's like, man, if you want, if that's the way you're going to roll, I'll strengthen your resolve against me then. That's fine.

If you're going to reject Revelation, which is kind of what he's getting up to here in the very next part of the chapter. is when they blasphying the Holy Spirit. It's like there's nothing these guys. There's nothing you can do, nothing you can say, nothing that can be, no miracle that can perform. Ultimately, these guys are rejectors of truth. So I don't think they even see it.

Well, I tell you what the biggest problem is that they don't, legalistic mindset, their approach to the scripture is, I'm going to go there and find a passage that backs up the way I think or the way that I've been taught. And so that's their approach to scripture. That's why you get into some of these crazy thoughts because they'll go in, instead of reading the whole context like we're doing, instead of a book of the Bible and what it meant then and there and what it means now,

if you go in and try to cherry pick verses out to back up your ideas, that's what these guys did. They did that with the law. They just went in and cherry-picked what they want. They ate a little grain on the Sabbath. They healed a man with a shriveled hands right after that, and then that didn't work. Pharisees went out and plighted out.

They're going to kill Jesus. then you get to when Jesus drives out of demon all the people were astonished could this be the son of David but when the Pharisees heard this they said it's only by B elzebub the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons which just think of the you try to kill him and you accuse him of being demon possessed but what I that means you run out of arguments we only have a couple minutes but look there are still people on the earth today who are acknowledging the Sabbath and that are going by this rule system that Jesus seems to be bringing in contrast. So what would y'all say today when people say, well, you have to keep the Sabbath and make it holy today? I would say the Sabbath is a great

idea. The reason why God made it a law is that people should take a day of rest, but some sort of legal you have to do this or you aren't right with God is not biblical. And I think this proves that idea. And the Sabbath is not Sunday. Sunday's a day. It's traditionally that we meet. It's the first day of the We, but we could meet any day. I mean, Sunday's been great, but it's not a Sabbath. We're not bound to the days. You remember Paul said it clearly. Some people have one day over another.

You know, some people honor this day and not that day talking about holiday. So you just can't make this law. You have to look at it and say, Jesus was letting us know he is the answer. When you watch a man from Monday through Saturday, that's who he really is. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. I agree.

I guess I'll close with. this statement, I think about Hebrews 12. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Jay's, I love the mirror versus microscope thought process. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. And we're reading about people that were actually physically alive and able to look at him and they couldn't see him. They saw everything else. And so we don't want to be that person, you know. Let's fix their eyes on him and what he's done for us. All right. We'll try to do better next time. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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