Curt Harlow [00:00:00]:
Hello my friends and welcome to a special Palm Sunday version of the Bible Study podcast where we take the passages that are being taught in the 10 Bayside campuses and we kind of take a deeper dive. We might say we look at the flip side for you old school podcasters, of course we joined by the incredible Jason Dixon. Jason, you. You work at two different campuses.
Jason Dixon [00:00:25]:
I do. I get to at least. At least Blessed Adventure and Blue Oaks.
Curt Harlow [00:00:30]:
So give me exhausted just knowing that man. Very.
Jason Dixon [00:00:33]:
I just woke up so I'm I'm good.
Curt Harlow [00:00:35]:
Good to have you here, Pastor. And of course we have the frontal lobe of Thrive College. As always. Dena Davidson the the pride of Biola is probably another way that we could say it's amazing. One of the better stories.
Dena Davidson [00:00:48]:
They don't have any other people they're proud of. I am the only T shirt a
Curt Harlow [00:00:51]:
lot of people are proud of, but none more than you. It's their we're going to talk about I love Let me tell you what I don't like about studying Easter passages. Do you not like going straight to it is finished. I do not like going straight to the stone got rolled away. I do not like he has risen. He has risen indeed. Without context contemplation. And there's no better place to do it than in the Gospels where we get the story of Palm Sunday, where we get the story of Jesus triumphal entry, which biblically is more accurate way to call it and just a little context then I'll let you jump in, Dena, before you read and add any extra context thoughts.
Curt Harlow [00:01:37]:
But to understand this, we have to understand there's two holidays that every Jewish adult male 13 and above are three holidays. I mean that they're required to come to Jerusalem, but only one was actually enforced during the time of Jesus and that was Passover. Passover is a very, very big deal. Jesus has spent most of his time in Galilee. This is the northern region above the Sea of Galilee. Now if you've never gone to Israel when it's safe, I highly recommend you do. Because you have to understand. The most earth changing figure that has ever lived spent his time in a room in an area about as big as this room.
Curt Harlow [00:02:23]:
And even at one point his brothers come to him and they say, listen, if you're going to run for Messiah, this is don't do it in Capernaum. Go. Go to Jerusalem like all the other wacko Messiah wannabes do and go, go to Jerusalem. Jesus, in other words, was notorious for not going to Jerusalem. We know that he showed up. We know he obeyed the law. But I would say it's very easy to confer from all the passages that Jesus went to Jerusalem in secret during his ministry without drawing attention to himself.
Jason Dixon [00:02:56]:
A very interesting campaign strategy.
Curt Harlow [00:02:58]:
Yes.
Jason Dixon [00:02:59]:
If you're running for Messiah.
Curt Harlow [00:03:00]:
And then he flips the script and makes the most viral entrance. So he goes to, he. He's on his way. And several things happen. He's on his way. Lazarus gets sick. He stops, waits some more. Lazarus dies.
Curt Harlow [00:03:20]:
There's this whole hubbub. Of course it would be where he raises Lazarus from the grave. So already this huge crowd has fallen going, jesus going to Passover this year. Jesus is finally gone. Jesus finally gone. And people are just, this is, well, I'm going too far. Dena. I'm leaving for Dena, because she's prided by Allah.
Jason Dixon [00:03:42]:
You have to.
Curt Harlow [00:03:43]:
So. So he's already this huge crowds farm. Then Lazarus, a resurrection happens. This thing is going nuts. He stops at the edge of Jerusalem and he looks over the city. And I wish for every single person to get this idea, to actually have this experience where you're sitting on the mountains that sound surround Jerusalem and looking down on the city. You're going from these tiny little villages to this incredible temple in the time of King Herod. And he weeps over the city of Jerusalem because they have no peace, because most of them are not even going to realize that the Messiah has come that day.
Curt Harlow [00:04:23]:
And then he gives the fateful instructions. So the big point of context here is Jesus is coming in hot. Jesus is. And it's very contrast from what he's done the other passovers in his life. Jesus wants this to be a spectacle. He wants the teaching that he's going to do. There's a lot of teaching in Matthew chapter 21 after he comes in. All that teaching is critical to his and the record we get of this week that starts with this big crowd falling and then Lazarus getting raised from the grave, then stopping and weeping over Jerusalem very publicly.
Curt Harlow [00:05:05]:
What we get, that teaching that we get in that week is as powerful as the Sermon on the Mount and definitely the book end to that discourse that Jesus has with us. In the middle of that is Palm Sunday. It's Palm Sunday and all of its prophetic richness, all of its meaning, all of its confusion, this is a confusing passage in some ways. So being that this is the high holiday for Christians, the resurrection, let us immerse ourselves in the story and figure out what the Bible is actually trying to tell us. Dena, what would you add to that, context wise?
Dena Davidson [00:05:42]:
I Think the only thing I would add is particularly that we're going to read it from the book of the Gospel of Matthew. And Matthew, as opposed to Luke, is particularly concerned with answering for the Jewish people the question of who is Jesus? This is the central question. Is Jesus the Messiah? Is Jesus the Messiah? Is Jesus the Messiah? And the story we're about to read is part of Matthew's case building that in fact, Jesus is the long awaited, the long promised Messiah. And so we pick up in chapter 21, verse 1. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives, and then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you.
Dena Davidson [00:06:47]:
Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, who hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
Curt Harlow [00:07:28]:
Okay, Jason.
Jason Dixon [00:07:30]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:07:30]:
First impressions. Let's. This is one of the harder passages to study from the point of view of the Bible study podcast, where we want to get the hermeneutics exactly right here, use the right tools and get the exegesis exactly right because it is so steeped in the pattern and religious heritage of the church. So you're sitting in your study Bible person, Bible headed guy.
Jason Dixon [00:07:57]:
Yes.
Curt Harlow [00:07:58]:
What is your first impression or what is your approach to getting the original meaning from this passage?
Jason Dixon [00:08:06]:
So I think for me, because we're all driven by our own experiences and context. And I remember growing up in a church on this day, Palm Sunday. You see the kids come in and beautiful and they have their wonderful outfits on and everything's just so amazing. It's such a great morning and everything you seem, it's so joyful. It Seems like that's exactly what it is. And then you dig a little bit deeper into this, and you read that word hosanna. And again, you think of little kids with smiles and taking pictures of them with their fun saver cameras that. You know, all that kind of fun stuff.
Jason Dixon [00:08:41]:
But you find out what that means, and it's like, no, save us. Deliver us. It is literally now, it is a cry for help. It is a plea. There is nothing. The only happiness is if we are actually getting saved, because it is.
Curt Harlow [00:08:57]:
Didn't start as a musical piece.
Jason Dixon [00:08:58]:
No, not at all. They weren't all dressed in their plaid and all the beautiful stuff. Not at all. And so I think that piece right there just. It really shifts how you read this whole passage. And when you think of Palm Sunday, because you might go to your church this coming Sunday, and you walk in and that's. This is what you see. But reading this, and you're like, it was a little different.
Jason Dixon [00:09:22]:
Especially, like you say, written to the Jewish people. It's a little different.
Curt Harlow [00:09:26]:
And. And that's why it's so confusing to us, because we think that they're shouting, yay.
Dena Davidson [00:09:32]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:09:33]:
But they're not. They're shouting revolution. Yes, they're shouting revolution. So what is interesting about this passage is they're shouting revolution. They're shouting, save us. And then a few chapters later, they're shouting, crucify that guy. Crucify. Crucify.
Curt Harlow [00:09:57]:
This seems like a big contradiction. Why do they shout save us, Jesus one chapter and crucify him another chapter? Dena?
Dena Davidson [00:10:06]:
Yeah. Well, I want to say it might actually have been different people, right? Like, there were enough people in Jerusalem that it could have been two different crowds. So I think there could be a fickleness of the crowd's point here. And then there also could be. Which crowd are you in? You know, are you in the crowd of those that understood Jesus's revelation of himself that he was the Messiah? Are you in the crowd? That's like joining the crowd. That's like, okay, today we're for Jesus, but, you know, tomorrow we're not. Or are you in the crowd of just. No, I'm against Jesus.
Dena Davidson [00:10:36]:
Always have been against Jesus. I think there's different crowds in Jerusalem. I don't know the character of this crowd. I know that some of them were faithful. Some of them were the ones actually closest to Jesus who'd been following his journey. And they. Their story is the most interesting to me because they're sitting at the place, like, right before their greatest disappointment in life. Right.
Dena Davidson [00:10:59]:
They think this is the beginning of everything they've been waiting for for hundreds of years. They think that the three years of following Jesus and going hungry and being mocked and having their family persecuted, they think all of that's about to pay off. And they're saying save us as an agonizing cry, but also a really hopeful one because they think salvation is near. Right. And they actually. They don't know what's in store for them a week from now.
Curt Harlow [00:11:25]:
It's such a good Bible study answer because the text does not tell us why. So it very likely could be that this crowd that is shouting, crucify him. Crucify him. Was a crowd that had been coerced, hired, or rallied by Jesus enemies, and that this crowd is hiding somewhere. It could very well be that this crowd expected one thing, didn't get it from Jesus, and now they're upset with them. Whichever one that you do and many others, you could, you know, don't lock yourself in. Let the passage say only what the passage is saying. What's very clear with the passage saying is Jesus is arriving in the posture of a victor.
Curt Harlow [00:12:11]:
So he is. Why? Why a donkey? Donkey's full. When the Romans would conquer a city, they would lay siege to the city. When the city surrendered, the general who led that siege would come in on a war horse. If you go to the Coliseum in Rome and you look at the triumphal arch of Titus, there is the general coming into Jerusalem on a war horse. Jesus is not coming in on a warhorse. He's coming in on as opposite of a war horse as possible.
Dena Davidson [00:12:46]:
Exactly.
Curt Harlow [00:12:47]:
He's saying he's doing this. He's doing the form of it. Yeah, but he's. He's prophesying to them. And also he's fulfilling Zechariah 9. 9. Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Shout, daughter Jerusalem.
Curt Harlow [00:12:59]:
See your king comes to you righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey. A cult, a full of a donkey.
Dena Davidson [00:13:07]:
So it's like. It's not even the donkey. It's like the little child of a donkey.
Curt Harlow [00:13:11]:
It's a baby donkey.
Jason Dixon [00:13:12]:
Yes.
Dena Davidson [00:13:13]:
Crazy.
Curt Harlow [00:13:13]:
He's a grown man on a baby donkey.
Dena Davidson [00:13:15]:
So. So already Jesus is being subversive, everyone.
Curt Harlow [00:13:19]:
Very subversive. Great word.
Dena Davidson [00:13:20]:
Everyone wants him to be subversive to the Roman rulers, and he is subverting them, but he's also being incredibly subversive to the Jewish people. Right. Because they want him. They'd love for him to come in on a horse. Right. And show the Romans that he's about to take back their city and their temple and. And throw off the chains that they're bound with. And Jesus is already saying it's not going to be the way you think.
Curt Harlow [00:13:46]:
He's throwing off chains, but not the ones that they want.
Dena Davidson [00:13:48]:
Exactly.
Curt Harlow [00:13:49]:
So. So, you know, it's very easy to see that with a crowd. Why are the enemies of Jesus, the religious leaders, so threatened by Jesus? Well, part of it is, is he's telling everyone that they're not teaching correctly. And then he's teaching correctly. They're. That's the ego part of it. Then. Now he's got a big, big crowd.
Curt Harlow [00:14:15]:
Now the crowd is coming to Jerusalem. So it's one thing to have a big, big crowd. Like in. In the other confrontations, it says some religious leaders went out to Capernaum to see what's going on. Now this crowd's coming in. So before we start going, I wouldn't have crucified Jesus. And d, this is like, you know, this is civil war time. This is on the edge of civil war.
Curt Harlow [00:14:41]:
And not only does Jesus come in on an animal into through the city gates, the people get it because they lay down palm branches, which is what they would have done if the Roman leader was coming in to conquer the city. The palm branches were, surrender, yeah, this is yours. Surrender, surrender, surrender. So they're all sitting in their room, gone. All right, guys, we got an insurrection, and we got to do something about this insurrection.
Dena Davidson [00:15:13]:
And I think. I think it was Wesley that shared in sermon prep. I had never heard this before, that palm branches, it was like the nation of Israel's flag. So it was their. Their symbol. Like it would have been on their coin. So when they're waving their palm branches in the air, they're. They're basically like waving their national flag, saying, this is our moment.
Dena Davidson [00:15:32]:
We are going to receive salvation.
Jason Dixon [00:15:35]:
And Curt, like you were, you don't realize something until it's on your doorstep and the power behind it. And I quick story. I remember for us, when I was in Georgia, I didn't realize how bad pine beetles were until all of a sudden seven of the trees in my yard were getting devoured. And you have to have them cut down or they're going to fall on your house. Pine beetles, they're destructive.
Dena Davidson [00:15:57]:
I'm imagining like the mummy. Those dark beetles, probably people exactly what it is.
Curt Harlow [00:16:04]:
Episodes of the Bible podcast. This is the first time that the triumphal entry in is related to pine. Beals and pine beetles have been brought together. In one illustration, once it's on your doorstep.
Jason Dixon [00:16:15]:
You realize the gravity of it. And like you said, they were always going out, going out and now it's come to them. And so it changed things up.
Curt Harlow [00:16:21]:
Yeah, 100% changed things up. And then what happens next is only recurring in the John version. But I think it's very interesting. In the John version it says first of all verse 16. At first the disciples did not understand all this, which I love. It's a little bit of truth telling in the Bible. There's a little bit to not understand there. Then it says verse 20.
Curt Harlow [00:16:48]:
Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethesdia in Galilee, that's way north of the Sea of Galilee, with a request, sir. They said, we would like to see Jesus. Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. So you have this little interesting paragraph where Jesus finally comes to Jerusalem. Crowd explodes. Hosanna, Save us, save us.
Curt Harlow [00:17:22]:
We surrender our flag to you. And then you get this image. You got to look at the image because you know it's not. He is risen. He is risen, is this grown 33 year old man on a little baby donkey. On a baby donkey. And he's coming. And then of course, right after this he is one of the times he goes into the temple, knocks the the money changers over.
Curt Harlow [00:17:47]:
There's parables that are deep and profound
Dena Davidson [00:17:51]:
and provocatory again, again, subversive because they thought he was, they were going to overthrow Rome. And his first act in Matthew is to go overthrow the temple.
Curt Harlow [00:17:59]:
To the temple.
Dena Davidson [00:18:00]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:18:00]:
Yes, very good.
Dena Davidson [00:18:02]:
Jesus is very clear on what he's doing. And everyone's like, I'm not following.
Jason Dixon [00:18:05]:
And they're like, how are you gonna overthrow Rome on a baby donkey over there?
Dena Davidson [00:18:09]:
Explain this to me. No kidding. The disciples did not understand, right?
Curt Harlow [00:18:13]:
They're like, if you say to yourself on Palm Sunday, my true enemies are not who I think they are. You're starting to get close to the subversiveness of Jesus. And then in the middle of it, some Greeks. Now let's make this assumption, I think it's a good one that these Greeks were God fearers. In other words, they're non Jewish people that have accepted the Bible as their holy scriptures.
Dena Davidson [00:18:40]:
Monotheist.
Curt Harlow [00:18:41]:
And, and they have, they're on team Jesus Messiah, I think, or at least they're considering it. Why in the world, either of you answer, why in the world did we have this group of Greeks come and ask for a meeting with Jesus can we get on Jesus, we know he's busy with the temple whipping and all of the, the parable telling in between the parables and the temple whipping is. Is there any way. And then this is just so beautiful to the office, this Bible. They come to Philip. Who's the best one? Philip. Philip will hear us Greeks. Some of these guys be like, you're Greeks.
Curt Harlow [00:19:19]:
We could smell you, your olive oil from a mile away. We're not going to talk to you. Philip goes to Andrew. Andrew and Philip in turn go together. We're afraid to ask Jesus after the whippings, right. If he'll take a meeting from the Greeks. But something about these Greeks, they go, yeah, we'll try to set it up. What in the world's going on here?
Dena Davidson [00:19:39]:
I have no memory of this story, so I have no idea. I can't speak to it. What's going on, Curt, Tell me this is a.
Jason Dixon [00:19:46]:
What is going on here? I have no.
Dena Davidson [00:19:48]:
I feel like you did a great lead in. But I, I have, I'm excited to find out myself.
Curt Harlow [00:19:53]:
Okay, so my well studied answer is. I don't know what I'm asking here and read it.
Dena Davidson [00:20:00]:
Hold on.
Curt Harlow [00:20:00]:
You have already given the answer.
Dena Davidson [00:20:01]:
I think good for me.
Curt Harlow [00:20:03]:
You've already given the answer. Earlier in this week we see that there is different responses to Jesus. So you have a group that goes, the revolution's on. Let's. We haven't even heard one word of Jesus intention. Way before he gets here, he's off in Beth Age and we're going, yeah, the revelation's on. Oh, he stopped at. Where's Lazarus live in Bethany.
Curt Harlow [00:20:30]:
Bethany. Oh, he's to Bethany. Bethage to Bethany.
Jason Dixon [00:20:33]:
It's on getting closer.
Curt Harlow [00:20:34]:
Someone raised from the grave. This is, this is the Romans last day. So the, of the, the group that gets excited quickly in there, this is the short sighted group. Then you have the group that spreads hope. So it says here in verse 17 of the John version. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. So there's a certain group of them to see the resurrection and all of a sudden it's elevated out of politics for them.
Jason Dixon [00:21:08]:
It's a game changer.
Dena Davidson [00:21:09]:
Wow.
Curt Harlow [00:21:09]:
This is something different, you know, I wonder if much of the crowd is at that point thinking, did that really happen? What really happened there? These guys are like, you guys know, he raised the guy from the dead.
Jason Dixon [00:21:21]:
Four days dead.
Curt Harlow [00:21:22]:
Yes, they're a little dead. They're not worrying about you. Know, you got to think of these people. They went out, cut the palm branches, gathered the palm branches, you know, where's he showing up? Oh, he's coming into this gate. These guys are like, no, no, no, we're just going to tell everyone. And then of course you have the ones that plotted. They sit around going, this is too much. Crowds on our doorsteps.
Curt Harlow [00:21:43]:
Too much.
Dena Davidson [00:21:44]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:21:44]:
And in the midst of the plotters and the short sighted ones and the hope spreading ones, there's the curious ones.
Jason Dixon [00:21:54]:
They just want to ask what's going on. Yeah, they want to get to Jesus and just ask some questions maybe.
Curt Harlow [00:22:00]:
I think the ones that spread the hope are a pretty good place to be. I would hope I was in that group. I was hope that I would step over the current drama in my world and see the prophetic delivery of God. Little skeptical. I'd have made it into that group. I probably would be in the short sighted ones.
Dena Davidson [00:22:30]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:22:30]:
I probably get all fired up about the injustice of that moment. I don't think I'm a plotter. Too chicken for that. The group I want to be in, I want to be in the Greeks. I want to go, I want to be the question asker. I want to be. You know, of all of the stories that we're going to read this next week, I love the story of Thomas. Okay, John, you saw it.
Curt Harlow [00:23:01]:
Peter, you saw it, John a little bit more credible than Peter. But both of you saw it. Both the gals are more credible than the two of you. But I can't believe that as a man. So my position is unless he touches my. Lets me touch, unless he lets me touch his wounds, not going to believe. And for that he gets the nickname Doubting Thomas. I'm on a personal crusade to change his nickname from Doubting Thomas to Thomas, who started with a really rough background but in the end had the most reasonable question, Thomas.
Jason Dixon [00:23:35]:
And he gets to touch Jesus.
Curt Harlow [00:23:37]:
It happens. The resurrection. And Jesus doesn't rebuke him for the question. Jesus. Yes, yes. It's to be curious, to be, you know, what kind of God says ask and I'll answer. Seek and you'll find.
Dena Davidson [00:23:54]:
Yeah.
Curt Harlow [00:23:55]:
So to me, this is a. The point you made earlier, Dena, I think is the main point. The same Jesus, multiple reactions. And two of them are very curious, some elevated and some ask questions.
Jason Dixon [00:24:14]:
And I think we're living in a moment of a lot of question askers. And I think we're living in a moment where maybe a lot of people can relate to Thomas and they're At a place where, like, I think I believe in this. I want to believe in this, but can you show me?
Dena Davidson [00:24:30]:
Yeah.
Jason Dixon [00:24:30]:
And so I think, Thomas, maybe we should rebrand Thomas. I think that's a great thing to go after.
Curt Harlow [00:24:35]:
Thomas, my nickname might be a little too long.
Dena Davidson [00:24:38]:
I need to shorten it. Yeah. Thomas's doubt led to the greatest clear confession of Jesus's identity. Right. So if. If the whole point of the Gospels, the Gospels are written, that we may know who Jesus is. Right. And have life in his name.
Dena Davidson [00:24:53]:
So that's the whole point of the Gospels. And. And Thomas doubts. He doubts and he doubts. But then once he gets the proof, he says, my Lord and my God. It's the clearest expression of one of the disciples, understand, of anyone in all of the Gospels.
Curt Harlow [00:25:09]:
A Jewish boy.
Dena Davidson [00:25:10]:
A Jewish boy saying, my Lord, the one to whom all my allegiance belongs, not Rome, not some Jewish authority, but you. You are the one to whom all my allegiance belongs. And my God, like, this is. This is crazy that a Jewish boy said that. Because that means that he understood what we still struggle to understand, right? That Jesus was fully God and fully man. The trinitarian concept. He got all of that by putting his fingers in Jesus's wounds. And it was his doubt that led to the right questions, that led to ultimate, the clear confession of faith.
Dena Davidson [00:25:46]:
So, yes, he deserves a rebranding.
Jason Dixon [00:25:48]:
He should. And that's what we want. We. We want to ask questions that lead to revelation.
Curt Harlow [00:25:54]:
Yes.
Jason Dixon [00:25:54]:
And he legitimately received the ultimate revelation by being curious.
Curt Harlow [00:25:59]:
And then you fast forward to the great and powerful heresy of the early church, which was Gnosticism, which was the Greek ification of the faith, that Jesus did not come to earth bodily. He didn't raise from the grave bodily. Because to the Greeks, this was. This was a hard gospel to preach to Greeks because they felt the body was corruptible and inferior and horrible, which you can understand, because bodies, that's what happens to them as they age. And. And yet the Gospel proclaims, he touched him. He touched him and Jesus ate. And the same thing that Jesus is.
Curt Harlow [00:26:40]:
And then Luke, of course, says, he rose from the grave bodily. So in all three ways, you see the Holy Spirit knowing what we would face in the early church. And in this way, Thomas's doubt is a critical weapon to keeping the church orthodox.
Dena Davidson [00:26:55]:
Amen.
Jason Dixon [00:26:56]:
Absolutely.
Dena Davidson [00:26:56]:
So true. And if you think, okay, guys, get back to Palm Sunday, and this is all about Paul, Palm Sunday. Because the question of Palm Sunday is what the crowd was asking. Who is this?
Curt Harlow [00:27:08]:
Yes.
Dena Davidson [00:27:08]:
Who is this? I mean, it's yay for the celebration. It's yay for them having a moment where they recognize that Jesus is in some sense, though they didn't get what sense, but in some sense the Savior. It's yes to all that, but fundamentally it's a stirring in the crowd of a question, of a curious question. Who is this? And I don't know if it's okay for us to switch to application. Curt, are we at two minutes?
Curt Harlow [00:27:35]:
We're two minutes ahead of application, Dena? Yeah, absolutely. We could switch to application.
Dena Davidson [00:27:40]:
I mean, that's the question on your way to Easter is not what kind of dye are we going to use to color the eggs? You know, are we going markers or are we going to do the dye? It's not what am I going to wear to church on Sunday? It is, who is this? Have I really given Jesus the proper authority in my life, the proper understanding? And if that is settled for you, then what are the people around you asking and can you be part of helping them answer that question of who is this?
Curt Harlow [00:28:14]:
Yeah, it's a great thing. Okay, I had my application of thought to that and then we'll let Jason have the final word. Being that this is the first time you and I have been on together.
Jason Dixon [00:28:22]:
This is. This is monumental.
Curt Harlow [00:28:24]:
I've done that on purpose. I don't like being on film with you. You're a handsome man. Definitely degrades my online presence to be seen next to you. Okay, so who is this is the most beautiful and profound way to look at Easter. Go into your Easter. Who is this? Who is this? I'd also say unsanitize your Easter. So there are some Christians go, I don't like Easter egg hunts.
Curt Harlow [00:28:50]:
And I don't, you know, don't be that person. A little boy showing up, a four year old boy showing up to church with a little suit coat and a bow tie is awesome.
Jason Dixon [00:29:03]:
They're there.
Curt Harlow [00:29:04]:
Awesome. It is awesome. You know, pastel colors and the newness of spring and all that hope. Yes, that's all good. But please, for the sake of being authentic to the Bible, understand that not only was the torture and crucifixion of Christ, which is, this is all leading to. Not only was that horrific, absolutely horrific, as bad as you can think it was. So was the resurrection. The resurrection was not, you know, sunshine and puppy tales.
Curt Harlow [00:29:41]:
So I saw someone making fun of someone else on Instagram and they were making fun of them because they were making little treats for their Easter celebration. What they're doing is they were cutting donuts at the 3/4 point, putting them on a maple bar, and then taking donut holes like it was the stone.
Dena Davidson [00:29:59]:
Oh.
Curt Harlow [00:30:01]:
And so the donut was the cray. Crave it. No, don't, don't do that. So, Curt, you know, I thought Easter morning was all the hope. Okay, I want you to imagine this. You go to a funeral. It's open casket funeral. You pay your respects to the deceased.
Curt Harlow [00:30:22]:
You see them laying in the casket, and then three days later you get up and you got to run some errands. You're walking down the sidewalk and that dead person is walking down the street wild. You would not look at that dead person to go, he is risen. And your buddy go, he is risen indeed. No, you would scream like a little girl. You would run the opposite direction and you would pray that that day you were wearing adult diapers.
Jason Dixon [00:30:52]:
Absolutely.
Curt Harlow [00:30:53]:
It would be the hardest thing for you to comprehend the fact that the. This is the degree that the apostles believe Jesus. They stayed. They stayed. First of all, they stayed in Jerusalem in the first place. Even when they had totally forgotten he was going to raise. And then when they saw him, they stayed. They should have been so freaked out, but they stayed.
Curt Harlow [00:31:15]:
And this is again why Thomas is such a genius of this story. It's not turquoise and pink and light green. It is earth shaking. Who is this? And then back to your point, Dena. Every Jewish man started the day by reciting this hero. Israel, the Lord your God is one in a sea of polytheism, in a sea of it. They were the only monotheistic truth. And this was the tide they fought against.
Curt Harlow [00:31:58]:
This is the current they fought against. Everywhere they went, this is why they were disposed. Everywhere they went. This is why the Romans occupied them. This is why they were seen as weird and strange. And then for him to realize, oh, this is the God that I've been proclaiming is the one God right before me right now. The only thing that can create a conversion like that is a resurrection like Jesus. So desanitizing your thoughts just a little bit and see the real thing.
Jason Dixon [00:32:30]:
Yeah. When I think about this, when we were talking about not without passion, and when you think of the word passion, we hear passion week. And a lot of times passion, you think of maybe someone at a sporting event, the Seahawks, possibly winning the super bowl, something very passionate. But nothing put this, yes, nothing put this into perspective more than the life of my mother in law. So you find out what the original meeting meaning of the word passion comes suffering to suffer. And my mother in law. When she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer. It was the third time she had it.
Curt Harlow [00:33:06]:
She.
Jason Dixon [00:33:06]:
She lived for eight years on chemo with stage four cancer. It was unbelievable woman. So joyful. But I understood what her relationship with Jesus meant with this answer that she would give to this question. People would ask her like, you know, how is your day? And she would literally say in the middle of chemo, in the middle of in and out of hospitals and just body torn up, she would say every day that God gives me is a day that I get to share the love of Jesus with whoever he puts in my way. She is saying this faith is worth suffering for. Not today was hard or I wish I didn't have to do this. No, it is worth suffering for not just my relationship with Jesus, but others.
Jason Dixon [00:33:55]:
Finding Jesus, that understanding, that's what passion is. And so my question to myself, any of us would be, does your faith look like a faith that is one that is worth suffering for? Because that's what that word passion.
Curt Harlow [00:34:09]:
He's literally an example of these that John tells about in his version. That were the crowd that continued to spread the word. They rose above all the chaos, all the occasion. They continue to spread the word. Well, our prayer really is for you to have the best Easter of your life to do that man. I take a little moment to ask the question, who is this Jesus? Desanitize it all. Don't let your only experience with the passages be on Sunday morning. And yeah, maybe you just see God rising you above a few things as you do that.
Curt Harlow [00:34:48]:
I do want to encourage you bring someone to church. This is one of those times when people will say yes to coming to church. Don't underestimate that. Last year we did like an intro to Bayside one month after Easter services and we had about 150 people show up, of which 75. Their very first experience at church was on Easter Sunday morning. The gospel works. The gospel works. When we work the gospel.
Curt Harlow [00:35:16]:
So go out there and do that thing. Also spread the word about the Bible study podcast. We have tens and tens of you watching this now. There's quite a few. Thanks to Brie, our wonderful Brie. Brie. Welcome back. We gotta.
Curt Harlow [00:35:33]:
Yeah. Bree's back from Egypt.
Jason Dixon [00:35:34]:
Let's go.
Curt Harlow [00:35:35]:
We are so glad she's back. We are so glad.
Dena Davidson [00:35:39]:
Such a calm time to go the
Jason Dixon [00:35:41]:
triumphal entry back into Northern California.
Curt Harlow [00:35:44]:
Our producer made the triumphal entry back.
Dena Davidson [00:35:47]:
We put down palm leaves, everything, you know, we.
Curt Harlow [00:35:50]:
We had capable substitutes, Bri. But we're just bad is next week, the special episode?
Jason Dixon [00:35:57]:
I think it's just gonna be YouTube for Easter.
Dena Davidson [00:35:59]:
Don't we have the Thrive College episode that we shot? She's just coming back from you.
Jason Dixon [00:36:06]:
We are making plans next week right now.
Dena Davidson [00:36:08]:
This is how it goes.
Curt Harlow [00:36:09]:
So special. It's secret what we're doing.
Dena Davidson [00:36:12]:
Definitely tune in next week, though, because you're going to be pleasantly surprised. As are we, apparently.
Jason Dixon [00:36:16]:
Yes.
Dena Davidson [00:36:17]:
As to what is happening.
Curt Harlow [00:36:19]:
Anyway, we really do appreciate you watching this because we like people that want to study the Bible. So join us next week and we'll keep studying the Bible on the Bible study podcast.