JOHN112 - Addressing My Ongoing Rapster Feud With Rapster Snoop Dogg After Yesterday's Math Incident

John 2:1-11

Matthew 12 Episode

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Music by Jeff Foote

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Well, rats. We've got a bit of a kerfuffle on our hands over here at the Bible Podcast program that you're listening to right now. Yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to go and look up some cheap wine at Walmart.com. I did not prepare that in advance. I just picked the first one that I found that was unbelievably cheap, and it happened to have a funny name, and it happened to be associated with Snoop Dogg. And I I may have made some critical remarks of a wine that cheap, which is foolish of me. I don't what do I know about wine, right? Well, it turns out I did the math wrong and I sold Snoop Dogg short on the value of his wine. I made it sound like that 150 gallons of Snoop Dogg designer Walmart wine was only worth 800 bucks. But I was horrified to discover when I listened to the episode for myself that I had shortchanged Snoop Dogg and his Walmart wine by a full order of magnitude. I forgot to do the last the last math on it. Snoop Dog's wine is worth literally almost $8,000. 150 gallons of that's like 8,000 bucks. And I was criticizing it. I'm ashamed. And I feel like now I'm in, you know, one of those rapper beefs. You've heard about these where the rapsters they start to disagree with each other, they have a kerfuffle, a dust up, if you will, and then they start rapping about each other angrily in songs. They have swears and everything. And then the youngsters pick a side, they pick which rapster they like better. And I'm just I'm just mortified that now I'm going to be in some sort of rap battle feud with Snoop Dogg because I shortchanged the value of his wine by an order of magnitude. So I'd like to apologize to Snoop Dogg, Walmart, Wine, Math, and all of you for the is I've have I got egg on my face. The point stands, however, that cheap wine for 150 gallons today, that's gonna go for about eight grand. 150 gallons of super fancy gold label wine that you can get on fancywine.com, that's still gonna go for about a quarter of a million bucks. And that's what we were talking about yesterday. Is how would this water to wine miracle have hit the people who were in the original audience? Well, way number one that it would have hit the people is that now that you know the numbers, you and I, you would think you understand what the thinking is here. You use the super expensive wine, you buy a limited quantity of that, because it costs a quarter of a million bucks. You you use that, you know, right at the beginning, and everybody's like, oh, this is so good, it's so impressive. And then as soon as they're all liquored up and they're not thinking straight, then you bring out the garbage wine. Now, I am not saying that Snoop Dogg's designer Walmart $10 per bottle wine is like I took that back. I apologize. But picture some other cheap wine, not like Snoop Dogg's wine, that is bad. You break that out after the fact, and everybody they're not gonna know the difference because everybody's wedding hammered. So, thing number one that the original audience would have made of this wedding water to wine thing before they ever figured out the miraculous side of it is just that. It's for those who had the simolier senses, attuned uh taste buds that are all dialed in to know that they got the really good wine at the end, they were gonna be dazzled and say, What in the world? This guy's just crazy rich. This is immaculate. What are we even doing here? For the host of the wedding, that part of the original audience, they're gonna be like, dude that I don't even know, just did me a quarter of a million dollars solid discreetly, and then didn't even say anything about it or gloat. Uh thanks, man. Nice wedding gift. So you got the financial side, you got the social side that's associated with the money. I think running the actual numbers and getting the actual, like now that we have the actual numbers, not my butchered math from yesterday. I think what we did there gives us a good sense of just how big a deal this would have been financially. And you know, money kind of talks a little bit. It tells a story about what people value and what people are doing, what their priorities are. So we got that. But then the wedding wraps up, everybody sobers up, everybody's done celebrating, word kind of spreads about what's going on there, and people have time to really sit and think, like you and I have, about this miracle, this sign. And they get to thinking, well, what does that mean? And they hear a little bit more about Jesus, they think a little bit more about the fact that the wine breaks the laws not just of space, but also of time. They think about the purification element of this. You know, maybe maybe it took a long time for this to occur to them, but eventually they think about what is overtly written down here, the big theological metaphor. Everyone brings out the choice wine first, and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best until now. That is a theologically loaded statement. It's subtle, it's artful, but it's also right there and uh obvious. There's been all this great theology stuff that God has done with the people of Israel, the people who would have been attending this wedding over the millennia. He parted a sea to save his people. He turned a river into blood to make a point. He delivered them on so many accounts, miraculously striking down armies that were poised to destroy them. He delivered them from bondage on more than one occasion. He directed artfully the entire unfolding of history to accomplish his purposes with these people. Amazing stuff is happened, amazing characters have come and gone. But now this miracle is making the claim, subtly at first, but the longer people thought about it more overtly, that God is saving the best till last. Instead of just dazzling everybody on the front end, and then you know, I can't really match that. I'm kind of a one-hit wonder. God, by sending his son, by taking on flesh, is saving the best for last. And, as promised, yesterday, I wrote down with this pen that I bought and this TMBH Matthew notebook that I still have sitting around. I wrote down some examples of that that I like from around the New Testament that kind of illustrate the theme of Jesus being the good wine that comes last because God is saving the best for last. Matthew 12, 38. This is such a cool passage. I'd love to just go and do all of this again. Maybe Jeff can link to relevant episodes that we've done in the past on some of these if he has time. But Matthew 12, 38 through 41, Jesus is engaged with the religious leaders, and there's kind of a terse exchange. It goes like this. Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you. And at this point, if you're reading through Matthew, you know they're they're being idiots, they're trying to trick him and bait him, and um, so Jesus is going to respond negatively. Jesus answered, A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except for the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here. So much cool stuff going on. Jesus, as is so often the case with his own words and with what the gospel authors write about him, he is pointing to great stuff, like really sensational wine, to stretch the metaphor. Story wine from earlier in the Bible, amazing things happened. There was a huge fish that swallowed a reluctant prophet and barfed him right back up. He's like, No, you're not running away, you're going right to where God said to go. I mean, it's just it demonstrates how even when God's own people don't want to do what God has providentially ordained will be the unfolding of history. God will just make it happen. He won't be mocked, his will will not be thwarted. And so, what does Jonah do? I think the original audience would have caught this reference. He went and preached the exact minimum, lousiest repentance message you could possibly preach in Nineveh. Go look it up. It's only four chapters long. You can power through Jonah in a hurry. And you tell me if you think the stuff that he preached, his message of repentance was any good. It wasn't. It was low effort, it was mopey, it was pathetic. And yet, somehow the Nineveh's the wicked Assyrians repented. And Jesus is like, Yeah, you remember Jonah's stupid lousy thing that he did? Well, now someone greater than him is here. Wow. Better wine than what God did there? Dang. You guys remember Solomon? Yeah. Well, now one greater than Solomon is here. Whoa, now okay. Hold on, this is quite the one-two punch from Jesus. To say that Jonah was pretty great wine, but now Jesus is here, and that's even better wine, again, sticking to the metaphor of John 2, is the kind of thing that I think a lot of people in the original audience would be like, yeah, okay, yeah, Jonah was pretty cool. I mean, it's only 12 chapters into Matthew here. Jesus, you seem pretty cool too. We'll see where it goes. But whoa, hold on. Like Solomon? Better than Solomon? That's the height of our wealth. The Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon because she wanted to marvel at the splendor of what Israel was back in the day. I mean, if the golden age, it's not David, the golden age of Israel's history is Solomon. What's Jesus saying? Yeah, that was pretty good wine. All those riches, all that stuff. But God is saving the best for last, and the best is here with you right now. So yeah, picture all the riches. Picture God's presence with his people, physically demonstrated at the moment that Solomon dedicated the temple. God physically showed up. Well, that was an intangible. I mean, it was God. You can look at him and talk to him. Now God is here in the flesh, dwelling among us. Jesus is better wine than Jonah. Jesus is better wine than Solomon. Oh my goodness, it's 11 minutes. I've just got all this other stuff that I want to do. I can only really break down one passage a day. I get too excited about it, and then we don't get as far as we want to get. Whatever. We're just going to do a couple more. And if it's a little bit long, then it was a little bit long. Okay, here's one in John 4. I'm not going to give you all of this because we're about to cover it in, you know, like nine years when we get there as we work our way through John. But there's a story coming up in John 4 of the Samaritan woman, the woman at the well. She's talking about how this well is from Jacob. And Jesus indicates to her that one greater than Jacob is here. Like Jacob gave you water that'll work for a while, but you're thirsty again. But I give water that'll make it so you never thirst again. Jesus is greater than Jacob. Jacob is a pretty big deal from the Old Testament. Pretty big deal. You can go read the Old Testament and see if I'm right. That's pretty good wine, if you will, served on the front end of the story of God's redemptive plan with his people. But here's Jesus humbly sitting at this well with a Samaritan saying, in so many words, better wine is here right now, sitting in front of you. John chapter 5, again, I won't take a long time because we're going to be there in, you know, whenever we get there. Right at the end of this chapter, I've read it to you before. You get the stuff about Moses. Jesus says, But don't think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you don't believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say? Jesus is greater than Moses. Who is greater metaphorical wine served on the front end of the banquet that is the metaphorical relationship between God and his people than Moses? Come on. He's the guy out of bondage and slave. The law came through Moses. Yeah, but Moses was pointing to Jesus. Jesus is better wine served after Moses. How about that? Matthew 17, it's the transfiguration scene. I'm not even going to turn over there. Elijah and Moses show up at the transfiguration and in doing so affirm Jesus is, he's glorified. It's not Moses and Elijah who have the glory of deity upon them. It's Jesus who is so. And Elijah knows what's up. He's there. He gets it. Jesus is greater than Elijah. Abraham, John 8, again, we will get to this very soon. So I will not linger on it long, but I'll read it to you quick. John 8, 53 through 58, it goes like this. Are you greater than our father Abraham? The people who were mad at Jesus asked. He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are? Jesus replied, If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. But my father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I'd be a liar, like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad. You're not yet fifty years old, the Jews said to him. And you've seen Abraham? I tell you the truth, Jesus answered. Before Abraham was born, I am. At this they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. Why'd they pick up rocks? Why'd they get rocks? Why'd those super mad religious leaders of the Jewish people, why'd they pick up rocks to kill him? Come on, you're good at stories. Because they knew he just claimed deity. They knew he claimed superiority to Abraham, oneness with God the Father, and deity. They're like, that's that's blasphemy. That's a violation of the Second Commandment. We don't take kindly to that kind of stuff around here. We do crazy stuff when people say and do things like that. That's why they did it, because Jesus is saying in so many words that God the Father is testifying about him that he is the best wine that's served at the end. That great stuff was served at the beginning. Abraham, very, very impressive. Jesus seems very high on Abraham here, but this is the good stuff. I don't have time to read you the business from Matthew 22, where we get the same stuff about David, or oh man, that's such a cool payoff, though. I just don't have time. It's not gonna happen. Okay, do this homework. Ooh, we don't do homework very often. This is gonna be fun. Revelation 22, 16. Compare and contrast that with Isaiah 11, 10. We're talking about the root and the shoot of Jesse, how Jesus is the payoff of all the stuff that was said about the line of David. The line of David. David wasn't the point, it's who would come out of that line. Who is Jesus? It's amazing. Who's better than David? David is some pretty good wine served on the front end of this banquet that is the relationship between God and his people. And yet, Jesus is best. Here's the final thing I'm gonna say about that. John 3 30. John the Baptist says about Jesus. Remember, John the Baptist is the religious celebrity of the day. He's the big name. Everybody's excited about him. And he makes it clear to everybody in verse 30, John 3.30. He, Jesus, must become greater. I, John the Baptist, must become less. Yeah, there's a lot of amazing stuff that God has done throughout the Bible. The Old Testament is delightful. That's why you and I go there and read from it and study it so much. But no matter how much it looks like about the coolest stories in the history of all time, no matter how much you see the great wine there of the thin spots between God and the eternal and people and the temporal, I mean, it is great. No matter how great it might seem, though, this is better wine. This is the absolute best that has been saved for right here. And once you have eyes to see it, once the original audience had time to think about it, it's pretty hard to miss that very important metaphor. And John the evangelist is going to flesh out that metaphor the further along we get into his gospel. Apologies again to Snoop Dogg and everyone who was offended. And I hope, you know, maybe in some way the mistake that I made with yesterday's math can, you know, maybe cause some people to buy some Snoop Dogg wine and support him. I obviously want his life to be okay. This episode is not brought to you by Snoop Dogg Walmart wine, but I just want everything to work out right and in a way that is equitable. And I hope we can put this to rest without any further rap feud or rap battles. All right, grace and peace to everybody. I'm Matt, this is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.