Session 17 - Module 3 - Do Not Judge - The Messianic Torah - Classroom

Okay, we are turning our attention now to really the final Jesus is bringing it in for a landing in terms of the main body, which is this exposition of a greater way of doing right by God and others. The greatest way of doing right by God is to trust God with your entire existence and not let your imagination be ruled or become a slave to wealth, which will make you an anxious mess. He pivots right at the end with seek first God's reign and rule and doing right by Him, which also we know from the case studies involves doing right by others, which is immediately where he pivots. So in this section, Matthew has brought together five independent little sayings. And what's interesting is that a number of these, some of them are unique to Matthew, like the holy pearls and pig dogs thing, but ask and seek and knock, the golden rule, do not judge. These are all found also in the gospel of Luke, but in different locations. So they've been brought together, these five units in this little bundle, and they have a certain shape to them. So we have two more parables. The first one about the eyes, the speck in the eye and the log in the eye, which reminds us of the parable about the eyes. And what was that about? It was about generosity and projecting light out to others in terms of generosity, which then I think will inform, could inform how we think about how generosity features into how we think about other people when we can see their flaws. So that's interesting. And the two things that should not mix, God and mammon, and then holy pearls and pig dogs, we'll talk about that. Then it begins with do not judge, with the meaning, at least I think, of do not condemn. So it has this interesting shape where it begins with a prohibition, don't do this, and it ends with a prohibition, don't do this. And in between is just this little bundle, which is all about how to make and how not

to make value judgments when we're relating to other people. That's what this first little bit's about. Then we get the wonderfully beautiful and ambiguous ask, seek, knock paragraph. What is it about? And then you get the golden rule. So this is another example of now five sayings that have been brought together with kind of key words linking them, and you just got to hold it, and just kind of look at each one and then look at them next to each other. And it's a good example of meditation literature style, where the essential ideas are all implicit and indirect, and you have to work for it. You can get them individually, but you got to work for it. So shall we? Should we put in a little work in this session and the next? What I want to do is just read the first little bundle, which is the first three units, which is don't judge, the speck in the eye, and then the holy pearls and pig dogs. And so we can probe each one of them, and then also meditate on how they work together, because I think that they do. So Matthew 7, verse 1, do not judge so that you will not be judged. Because with the judgment that you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure that you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck in the eye of your brother, but you don't perceive the beam in your eye? Or how can you say to your brother, hmm, allow me to take out that speck from your eye. And look, the beam is in your eye. Hypocrite. First take the beam out from your eye. Then you can see clearly the speck in the eye of your brother. Do not give what is holy to dogs. And don't throw your pearls in front of pigs, so they don't trample them with their feet. And turning around, they will tear you apart.

My head hurts. Yeah. My head hurts a lot. I have so many questions. Great. What are some of them? I'm curious about what feels like a redundancy to me on section B, A, B over there. It's almost like he's repeating the same exact phrase twice and maybe at first I just want to get your thought structure. You're saying in verses three and four here? Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Yeah, three and four. Like what's going on over there and is there some distinction between these two lines here that we should be paying attention to? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's great. Let's meditate. So the first statement is you see. You see this but you don't perceive that. Two different words, see and perceive? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. See is very general and perceive is more about locking on to and then noticing something being brought into your focus. So the point is that so nothing external is happening. It's all about internal, the workings of the mind of you do notice this but you don't perceive that. And then maybe what makes that funny is the thing that you see is very small and then the thing you don't lock on to is the most obvious huge thing. But then, oh, well, it's in somebody else's eye. And if you have something in your eye, it kind of makes, it's a wonderful image because you think you would be able to see it. But in another sense, if it's in your eye, it's the thing that you're looking through. So you look, you are looking, I don't know. You can't see something when it's stuck in your eye. I mean, maybe you can kind of see your visions blurred. But when it's that close, it's a huge. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a speck. It's a log. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So it's all about perception. Then, verse four, then, right, is then when you take that perception and you begin to relate to the other person, right, because now you're speaking. So then you say to your brother, hey, I see this thing.

Can I do something about that? And but look, you have this thing with yourself that you are ignoring. So perception and then what? Yeah. Action. Something like that. Thank you. So let's just notice what just happened was this is the stuff of reading the Bible. Just super close attentiveness, which is all about questions. And as we were have talked about many times, you know, the questions you ask will shape the reality that you see yourself in. And so those were great questions. Thank you. I have like two or three more questions, but maybe I'll let other people ask theirs first and hopefully there will be overlap. There probably will be. Probably. Is this humor? Is Jesus being witty and humorous so that people might have laughed when he said that? Yeah. Yeah. A beam or log. It's a ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. This is this is this is funny, which then actually kind of makes sense because the thing right before it is pretty intense. And the thing right after it is both ambiguous and and intense. Yes. Yeah. A twinkle twinkle in his eye. Notice just real quick, because this is important as a qualifier for what comes above. The parable doesn't end with you walking away. It ends with you first dealing with the beam so that you can see clearly. But notice it doesn't end with taking it out. You taking it out because what it ended right at first was let me take it out. No, no, no. First deal with your own thing. Then you can see and you think it would end with so you can take out and he doesn't leave it there. But if you are seeing clearly, it doesn't mean you can be of service to your family member, but not probably in the way you first thought. I was just so fascinating.

Yeah, I was just thinking, if you actually try to do that, literally, you would hurt someone if you have a really bad vision and you try to do something with their eyes. So you need to see clearly to actually help someone. That's right. Yeah, that's good. Probably poke their eye out. With your beam. Yeah, but it leaves open who will be the one to take it out. And he doesn't end it with, now you're the qualified one to take it out. But you are seeing better. And then he leaves it dot, dot, dot. So that's interesting. So let's hold that. When you mentioned it goes from perception to action. I went back to the case study about murder and anger. And how we regard another human being from the inside. It can get externalized in insults and murder. But then if you manage to take out the beam from your eye, then you can see the other properly, face to face, fellow image bearers. I was thinking about that. That's great. No, thank you. I think you're spot on. Notice that this is the only other time the word brother, sibling comes up. And then in that case study is then the speck in the eye, and then the murder and anger and name calling. So we're back to... Because, yeah, why didn't you say, why do you say to a person? So there is... It seems like there's an intentional link between the log and the speck in the eye and the murder and the anger. So thank you. Maybe you didn't know that that's what your mind was doing, but that's what your mind was doing.

Yeah. I was referring to that. I was looking at measure. With the measure that you measure, it will be measured. And an insult, it's murder. So all these measures here and the beam and the speck. So it's like you find things that if you look at them from a perspective, you think, ah, you know, this is not so bad. That's really bad. Like we do that all the time. Yeah, that's right. We find ourselves doing that all the time. I don't steal. I don't kill. So I'm a good person. And here Jesus is saying, well, the measure that I'm... My justice is so different. And it's really challenging. Yes. Okay. So let's... Thank you for turning our attention. So let's think about verse one and two now. So we have this very clear, broad, comprehensive prohibition. Do not... Krino is the Greek word. Krino. Is that where we get criminal? No, that can't be it. That's different from Latin.

It is the noun formed from Krino's crisis, from crisis, which at its core means about making a decision, evaluating, making an evaluation of the thing in front of you, and then a conclusion. So it's neutral. It's about discerning more or deciding. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this is so interesting, you guys. Let's just... The word Krino, like our word... Like the word meromnao, is a lot less charged with negative or positive meaning than our word judge. Maybe, actually, English provides us a great example. The noun judgment in English, I think, is weighted negatively without having to say anything. Judgment, judge. But we have this other alternative, just, or justice. And then we're like, yeah, down for that. Down judgment now. So the words are weighted negative and positive. And there in Hebrew and in Greek, there's just one word. And it just, it's the act of looking at something, evaluating it as good or bad, and then acting accordingly. And so it's the most general word for discerning between good and bad. So it's just, here's other examples, and you just kind of build the portrait. In the book of Acts, when Peter and John are standing in front of the temple leaders for having healed that guy,

and they're saying, don't announce the name of Jesus anymore. And he says, well, you know, whether it's good in the eyes of God to listen to you or listen to God, I don't know. You crino. You decide. So there it's not like. You judge me, he's not saying judge me, he's saying you decide. You can make a decision based on what is not between good and bad, but between one good and an even greater good. So for example, when James makes his decision that non-Israelites don't have to be circumcised, it's not his decision, it's us and the Holy Spirit's decision, then he says, it is my crisis that we shouldn't trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles. It's a judgment call. However, kureno can also be used to describe not just the discernment, but the pronouncement, promising someone to be good or bad or to have done good or bad. And there's both, kureno can be used for that, and then a compound word. So John chapter 8, this is the woman caught in adultery. And after, you know, he says, let the one who is without sin throw the first stone, and they all go away. And then straightening up, Jesus said to her, woman, where are they? Does no one kata kureno? Kata meaning against, so it's an intensify, kata kureno, which means, clearly means condemn. But then he says, well, then neither do I kureno you. So kata kureno and kureno are more overlapping in meaning. Kureno can sometimes mean condemn, or you can clearly make the root mean condemn and nothing else by putting kata on the kata kureno. So kureno can mean condemn, and then you can avoid the ambiguity by putting kata kureno on there. So an ultimate kureno, it belongs to God. And all the biblical passages about God as a judge, you know, I have a bunch here.

So just real quick, so because of that nuance, in Greek, you can play with the possible nuances of meaning, and Romans 2 gives us a great example where he says, therefore, you have no excuse. This is where Paul is getting in the face of his hypothetical Jewish conversation partner who's standing over against non-Israelites because they don't have the Torah. And he says, listen, Israel, come now. We really think we're morally superior here after reading the Hebrew Bible and looking in the mirror. You have no excuse, you who kurenos, for in the thing which you kureno, another, you kata kureno yourself, for you who kureno practice the same things. We know that the krisis, just from kureno, of God falls on those who practice such things. Do you think, oh man, that when you kureno on those who do these things, you will escape the krisis of God? So he's using all the meanings together. So one of the things that strikes me in the way that I've heard this misinterpreted in the past is I think it's important to say who Jesus is addressing. In other words, it doesn't seem to me as though what he's saying is careful how you treat people because God is going to judge you based on, he's talking more about interpersonal relationships. Is that correct? Okay. I think that's an important. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the question is, so do not kureno. So let's start there. So it can mean don't, it could literally mean never make a moral evaluation ever, which we know he doesn't like nothing else. It all falls apart. Even the parable about the eye falls apart because he says, take it out so that you can

see clearly like that all is about value judgments. So it seems like he's playing with the ambiguity of kureno in the sense of don't take it upon yourself to think that you are in a position to offer the final evaluation on someone. And if you think that you are qualified just now that you're creating a culture that will come back on you. So it could be that this is a interpersonal dynamic. It could also be that all of these passives are implying that if you want, God will hold you to the standard. that you are holding other people, so you probably just shouldn't do that. In other words, I mean, not to say that God's judgment is hypothetical, but it is a warning. He's trying to like raise the stakes. And so the question is, is that actually like even if I follow Jesus and I say I'm sorry every day for judging people, but I still do it, is will God in the end like, are you with me? And then all of a sudden I'm terrified. And I think, especially after the last paragraph, that Jesus wants us to squirm, but he doesn't want us to like shake in our boots. It has a similar tone to like, unless your righteousness far surpasses the Pharisees. It's, maybe it's meant to make us squirm a little bit to evaluate. Because really the whole first six verses seems like Jesus wants to raise our understanding

that we're not very self-aware. Yes, that's great. That's right. Yes, yeah. Yeah, so thank you. That's a great way. So let's use that lens then. So we are constantly judging and measuring our environment, the decisions that other people are making. And so he wants to hold in front of us that we are really poor evaluators of others and also of ourselves. And that's implied here, but it's the main theme then of the next thing. So it's a good example of how all of the questions that he's forcing you to kind of ask then become the main theme of the next unit. And it gets you to think like, ooh, if I'm going to be measured by the measure that I use for others, how would I want to be measured? And then all of a sudden we're asking for the golden rule, which is the crowning statement of this whole little sequence here, the reciprocity. Oh, because also that human reciprocity, do to others what you want them to do to you, is almost like the positive way of saying this is the negative way of saying it. Yeah. So good, man. That's meditation literature right there.

Yeah, it's great. Could I now ask about what is that last part over there? Pig dogs and... Okay. No. Yeah, okay. Also it's the second do not, so it's actually coming to us. It's just glaring, waiting for us to figure out. It's a riddle. No one's asking the obvious question, so I was like, yeah, it is time. Great. It's a riddle. It's a riddle. I think the part that I struggle with even more than anything else over here, which I mean, I struggle with the whole thing, but this one, like Jesus is talking about not making like uncharitable value judgments on other people, and then now he's like, okay, well, don't take your pearls and throw it out to pig dogs. That's right, that's right. Yeah, so. Yep. Okay, so let's first, it's a little parable. It's a little riddle. So let's just go within the little movie screen. It's a very short little film.

Let's just go into the world. So you've got a farmer, and there's a pen full of pigs, and then you got, oh, okay, and dogs for the most part are not associated with pets. There's a relevant story in Matthew where the word dog appears, and it's not the same word as this one. It's the word used in the discussion with the Canaanite woman is little dog. It's like lap dog. This is a cunarion. It's wild dogs, wild dogs. I mean, they're not, they're wild. Think hyena or jackal, coyote, like that's what we're imagining here. Is it a metaphor for Gentiles in the Bible? The answer is sometimes, but you have holy foods. If I'm Jewish and I think about sacred foods, is this a category that I have? Totally, all these annual feasts, the Passover lamb, it's very, very sacred. The Passover lamb is actually a great example because it's a lamb that's for the one night, no leftovers. If there's any leftover, if everyone's had their fill and there's still some leftover, you burn it on the fire because it's for that one night set apart and holy.

So sacred food. foods dedicated for priests. This is a really important, it's just an assumed category. So you have these special foods that are charged with the unique holiness of God. And then the one thing you would never do is give it to a creature whose entire diet is like dead, rotting creatures, which is what dogs are associated with, scavengers. So he's taking two things that are the most opposite you could imagine when it comes to food. Sacred food, eaten food, comes from God, is for God, and for us. And then food that is dead and associated with death. So these are two, like you would say, stock ways of talking about the holy and the profane. Yeah, Exodus 22, 31, you all Israelites are holy to me. Therefore, don't eat any flesh that has been torn to pieces in the field. So if you come across a rotting carcass and you're like, well, the elk's only, it was just like hours ago. This whole thigh is perfect. And here it's actually not roadkill. It's like it got eaten by a lion or something like that. Give it to the dogs. So it's dead, impure food. So these are already like binaries. Okay. So you take that, and speaking of literary symmetry, then he goes to this little movie about the pigs and pearls. We'll talk about that in a second. But then the pigs trample the pearls. But then this last line comes around, turning around, they will tear you apart. Who's the they? I guess it could be the pigs, if it's like a wild boar. Wild boars are, I mean, super, super dangerous. Or is it the case that the dogs are the subject? In other words, the literary symmetry tells you that the pigs are in the middle, but the dogs have been split apart. Because wild dogs are more likely to tear you apart than your average farm pig. But anyhow. Is pig something that's pretty obvious that it's unclean and something no one would have anything to do with? Not no one, but Israelites. Yeah. The assumption is pigs, because they're non-kosher. So yeah, like for sure. It's the other animal that's associated with impurity in the Jewish imagination. Pig dogs. But notice that the contrast is about pearls. So something that's really precious. So now he's using not something sacred in terms of the realm of the holy, but he's using something valuable of like economic, really rare and precious. Something rare and valuable. So what's the meaning of our contrast? Holiness is associated with life. Dogs are associated with death and impurity. Pearls are associated with value and rarity, preciousness. Pigs are associated with impurity and also the nations. Because the kosher diet is one of

the most unique things about Israel's history and culture. So dogs don't care about holy. Pigs don't have a moral framework or an economic framework to care about what is precious. So the point is, is that dogs and pigs are not in a position to evaluate and to discern what is good and what is holy. And not only that, but if you try and engage pigs with pearls and they realize you're not giving them little corn bits, they'll get mad at you. And they'll trample the pearls, that is disregard them. And then you could actually start a conflict. Okay, so before we go to the symbolism of dogs and pigs, let's just look back up. So don't make moral evaluations. Oh, well actually, don't condemn other people because you think you're in a position to offer the final declaration of hope. about them. That's not your position. Just the opposite. Whatever you're doing to others will come back on you, and you probably won't like it if you get measured without measure, so there's that. But yet, there will be scenarios where you can see something, and you make an evaluation, and you're like, oh, that's an actual spec, and that's not good for them. Well, okay. You actually probably are seeing something, because remember at the end, take it out so you can see even more clearly, but then you've got this thing with yourself that you're ignorant about, so deal with that. And then remember, the two eyes draw us back to the generous eye and the stingy eye, and it takes a huge generosity of spirit to take the instinct to correct another and then turn that back on ourselves and say, it's like habit formation again. What if every time I thought of evaluating another person, I used the opportunity as a mirror before I look back out again? But then, what if there are situations where I make an evaluation, and I have self-evaluated, and I am working on actively the issues in my own character that might lead me to exaggerate the same character flaw in another person, but it's still there in the other person. I'm not making it up. I might be, but let's say you're not. Then it's this next step of how do you go about initiating that conversation? Well, one thing you should do is evaluate whether or not the other person is in a position to even value the thing that I might have to offer. It could just start a conflict, in which case that would be counterproductive for them and for yourself, so it's probably best not to do it. This thing, this wisdom that you want to offer just may not be where they're at. They won't find it valuable. They don't have a framework. They don't care. It's probably best not to. We're almost to speak

to a fool according to his folly, but then other times, just don't. It's not worth it. It's a way to be generous to them, to say this won't go well, so another time. I'm trying to paint what is, for me, compelling as to what I think it means, but I'm not addressing it. It feels like the sting of the images, so I want to go there in a moment, but does that flow of thought ... I don't think I'm making that up. It seems like that's the flow of thought, but the question is why say it this way, which is a great question, but does that sound like a coherent reading of what's going on here? It's such an odd ... Suddenly, he goes to the pigs and the dogs, but then he starts with assessment, judgment, discernment, and he sees a negative discernment in your brother, but on the other hand, don't all be gushy and see a positive discernment on a stranger. There's a discernment that has to be very careful with the negatives and with the positives. Is that it? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, because the measure that you measure others will be measured back to you. The assumption is there will be times when you actually do need to make a call. Don't condemn, thinking you can offer the final call, but sometimes you do need to make a call, and that call should first invite you to self-evaluate, and then to evaluate the situation in front of you, and is this going to even be perceived as valuable, or will this generate more conflict and burn any bridges that might be open in the future? Probably better just to not speak. It's a funky way to us to say it, but I think that's what he means. Okay, so dogs and pigs, real quick. So I'll just kind of put the pieces of the puzzle out in front of you, and not try and assemble it too neatly. So dogs are associated with scavenging, with death, right on through. So Sam, or not Samson, Goliath. He calls David a little dog. In Psalms, dogs are associated with lions and bears and the sword. They're impure. They're associated with impurity because they scavenge. So they eat dead bodies. They lick up blood. They're just nasty in the imagination.

They eat their own vomit. Dogs and pigs are associated as impure creatures. OK, so that's one thing. The word dog is used in Second Temple literature, even by the apostles, as a term of contempt. And maybe contempt, there's contempt and there's contempt. In trying to describe someone whose habits have so shaped them that their behavior patterns are more animal-like because they're just driven by the appetites. And so dog is an insult or a way to describe that. So that's one thing. Pearls, so and then you have holy foods. Then you have pearls. And there is, I've assembled a few examples where pearls are a metaphor for Torah wisdom in the Babylonian Talmud and in rabbinic discussion. And there are traditions in rabbinic literature about how the teachings of the Torah are like pearls that need to be cared for and not shared with people. And not shared with people when it's not the right time and place. Or even that not with non-Israelites in the case of the Babylonian Talmud. So this leads us to dogs. So we have all those association of dogs. And it is the case that in Second Temple literature, dogs becomes a synonym or a term of contempt for non-Israelites. So I have a bunch of examples in the notes. And that's a thing. It just is a thing. So the question is, is Jesus making that association here? His audience is primarily Israelite.

Does Jesus ever want his followers to make judgment calls on whether or not to share the wisdom or the good news of the kingdom? Well, he did tell his disciples, when you go into a town and if you can see that they're not going to listen, you should leave and shake the dust off. Meaning an act of prophetic judgment. Now this is Israelites. This is, you do that for Israelites. And then there is the story of the Canaanite woman. So shall we just quick visit this story? This is Matthew 15. And what's interesting is in Matthew 15, this is right after a story where the Pharisees and scribes come and say, why don't you wash and purify your hands before you eat? Which isn't any of the commands in the Torah. It is something the priests were to do. And the Pharisees believed that if all Israel took on the lifestyle of the priests, then the age to come would come among us. So they developed all these traditions about purifying your hands before eating. And Jesus lays into them because he's like, yeah, you came up with this tradition, but then you, with your traditions, you violate the Ten Commandments in other ways. Hypocrites. So right after that discussion, then we're told that he went beyond the borders of Israel. And this is unique. This is one of the only times that he does this. And a woman comes from that region and Matthew calls her a Canaanite woman. In Mark, his source, she's called a woman from Syria and Phoenicia. But Matthew shifts it to Canaanite, which is surely on purpose. Because what's the name of the, what's the name of the male character in the scene? Joshua. Yeshua.

And a Canaanite, Canaanite woman. So you're like, oh, has Joshua ever encountered a Canaanite woman before? Oh yeah, there is that story about Joshua sending the spies into Rahab's house. And that whole thing is about who's really in and who's really out. So that's interesting. Why does Matthew change the name to Canaanite? And then what's fascinating is this Canaanite woman recognizes Jesus as the son of David, which is part of his Israelite heritage. And she's asking for mercy from the Israelite royal heir. Is that Abigail? Oh, well, is it like Abigail? Oh, yes, actually, yeah. The Canaanite woman is hyperlinked to many, many female hero figures in the Hebrew Bible. That's a whole other. But yeah, in that case, she prevents David from violently killing idiot Nabal. But that's a rabbit hole. So he doesn't answer her, right? And that's very strange, because every other time that someone comes to him and says, have mercy, he answers. And he doesn't. And the disciples are like, send her away. And then he answers and says what he said before. I wasn't sent to the Samaritans. Don't go outside of Judea. I'm right here at this moment in the mission, the lost sheep of Israel.

And she doesn't take no for an answer. And she says, Lord, help me. And then he tells this little parable. Listen, if you are eating dinner and there's hungry children at the table, you feed your children. And this is where he uses that word, kunarion, little lapdog. And then she counters. Well, you know, the lapdog gets some crumbs. And then Jesus is like, yeah, yeah. I can work with this person. Your trust is great. And then she's healed. This is so great. So the healing power of the son of David is for the lost sheep of Israel first. Now, by the end of Matthew, it's gonna go out, go to the nations. So for Jesus, it's about, and Paul, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. He makes this woman, he probes her. He probes, like, what is she really after? Is it a test? It sure feels like it. It sure feels like it. And then there's this parable about the dog, which doesn't seem like it's inherently negative, but it does seem it is. Jesus is putting the non-Israelites in the slot of the dogs.

But then the moment that she counters, he's like, exactly. So if he really was anti-Gentile, he would have just walked away. But he discerned that there was some, something needed to happen to draw this woman's initiative to the surface. And then, this is so cool, he leaves and he goes along the sea again and he begins healing a whole bunch of people. And who are these people? When they're healed, they honor the God of Israel. Now, if they're Israelites, that's an unnecessary thing to say. They would just be, they honored God. So who are these people? Well, Matthew's been tracking where he is in relation to the lake. And he's over in this like Northeastern side by the Decapolis. And then he looks at these crowds and he feeds them. But this is the second feeding. This is the 4,000. And then how many loaves are left when they're all done are seven, seven baskets. And how many loaves were left after the first 12? So I think what Matthew wants to show us is that scribes and Pharisees who are obsessed with their traditions about purity, but then you have this Canaanite woman

whose bold faith not only unleashes healing from the house of David for her son, but then for all these other non-Israelites. So are you saying the first feeding was for the Israelites and the second feeding was for the Gentiles? Yeah, and then the 12 baskets for the Israelite crowd and then the seven. baskets for the non-Israelite crowd. But the point is that it's the Canaanite woman's faith that unleashes the healing power of David's house for the nations. So whatever Jesus is about, he doesn't have a dim view of non-Israelites, but he is establishing this priority that his main mission was for Israel, always with the wider focus of, bless you, Abraham, so that you can be a blessing to the nations. I don't want to lead down to another rabbit hole, but this feels so much like Joseph, who fed his tribe, symbolically, and then the nations. That's right, yeah. Yes, totally. And because Pharaoh saw Joseph as a blessing, he treated him accordingly and blessing to the nations. And then the Pharaoh in Moses' day sees the blessed ones as a threat, and then he brings a curse down on himself and his people. So who really is the dog? It's sort of like as if Matthew is playing with our perceptions only to invert them, which all that to say is how that should make us wary of how to understand Jesus using these, what feel like, what for us would be like racial slurs, would be our categories. And I guess it's just important to notice that when this comes up elsewhere in the gospel, you're using an image that typically is loaded one way, but then the story itself flips it. But it still makes me, I still squirm. And I'll be sitting along with this teaching with you all for a long time, wishing he would have said it differently, but yeah. Yeah. I just noticed that a page before is the parable of the peril, and it's about like seeking and like selling everything you have to have it. So it's kind of what she did. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. She sold out to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And speaks volumes of Jesus' discernment. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. About who are you supposed to condemn, judge, give, not give advice. That's right. She was asking for it. She was actually seeking. Seeking. So, you know, if that person is seeking and you are aware of that, well, there you go. That's great. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe just to close,

we just looked at three little sayings, how they relate to each other, but then how they relate to what feel like intentionally hyperlinked texts within Matthew. And then you're now reading them all in light of each other. And that's how, this is how it works. Like it's all, this is all meant to be engaged with this way. And you end up with so much more than what you did if you had just looked at any of these on the round. So that's just the first three. What follows then is ask, seek, knock, and the golden rule. And those add even more flavor then to the, to the first three. But for the moment, let us take a break.