Ben Wilson

And then Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions. Okay, so Jesus has this demand that you must be willing to sacrifice everything to be his follower.

And then Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. And thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions. Okay, so Jesus has this demand that you must be willing to sacrifice everything to be his follower.

I think this is most memorably expressed in the following passage, quote, And there went great multitudes with Jesus, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Okay, wow, what a teaching.

I think this is most memorably expressed in the following passage, quote, And there went great multitudes with Jesus, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Okay, wow, what a teaching.

You know, obviously he doesn't literally want you to just like hate these people for no reason, but he's saying, compared to the power of my teachings and what I'm offering you, these people have to be nothing to you.

You know, obviously he doesn't literally want you to just like hate these people for no reason, but he's saying, compared to the power of my teachings and what I'm offering you, these people have to be nothing to you.

You have to be willing to set aside even your own wife, your mother, your father, your children, your brothers and sisters, everything to come and follow me if you want to be my disciple. Okay, so I think that is one thing that is missing from those who want to portray Jesus as a peace-loving hippie is his radicalism. In another passage, he says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

You have to be willing to set aside even your own wife, your mother, your father, your children, your brothers and sisters, everything to come and follow me if you want to be my disciple. Okay, so I think that is one thing that is missing from those who want to portray Jesus as a peace-loving hippie is his radicalism. In another passage, he says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. And again, we're kind of used to this stuff, so much so that it might strike us as unremarkable. But imagine Caesar or Napoleon saying this. I am the way and the truth and the life. You have to hate everyone else in your life and come and follow me. I think you would recognize it.

No one comes to the Father except through me. And again, we're kind of used to this stuff, so much so that it might strike us as unremarkable. But imagine Caesar or Napoleon saying this. I am the way and the truth and the life. You have to hate everyone else in your life and come and follow me. I think you would recognize it.

for like the radical message that is i am the way come follow me and um and so yes it's radical i don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing though like he believes what he's saying so much that he's willing to ask this of people demand it of them and so i think if you want to start a movement that's going to be successful You know, don't try and be Jesus if you're not Jesus.

for like the radical message that is i am the way come follow me and um and so yes it's radical i don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing though like he believes what he's saying so much that he's willing to ask this of people demand it of them and so i think if you want to start a movement that's going to be successful You know, don't try and be Jesus if you're not Jesus.

That's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that maybe you don't have to demand that much of a sacrifice that Jesus did, but you have to be willing to believe in what you're telling people so much that you are willing to demand sacrifices of them. And what you offer has to be so compelling that people are willing to make those types of sacrifices.

That's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that maybe you don't have to demand that much of a sacrifice that Jesus did, but you have to be willing to believe in what you're telling people so much that you are willing to demand sacrifices of them. And what you offer has to be so compelling that people are willing to make those types of sacrifices.

Well, Jesus is getting big enough now that he begins to attract the attention and the jealousy and disapproval of the Pharisees. I think this is competitive jealousy more than anything. They are both concerned about his unorthodox teaching and threatened by his popularity. It's interesting that there are relatively few examples of him arguing with the Sadducees.

Well, Jesus is getting big enough now that he begins to attract the attention and the jealousy and disapproval of the Pharisees. I think this is competitive jealousy more than anything. They are both concerned about his unorthodox teaching and threatened by his popularity. It's interesting that there are relatively few examples of him arguing with the Sadducees.

Again, remember the Sadducees are kind of the upper and upper middle class. These are the people who want to justify the rule of Herod and his dynasty who want to say like, actually, things are going pretty good. We're getting wealthy. There's a lot of trade. We have a temple like stuff is good. But the Pharisees are more like Jesus. They say the Messiah is coming. We need to be better.

Again, remember the Sadducees are kind of the upper and upper middle class. These are the people who want to justify the rule of Herod and his dynasty who want to say like, actually, things are going pretty good. We're getting wealthy. There's a lot of trade. We have a temple like stuff is good. But the Pharisees are more like Jesus. They say the Messiah is coming. We need to be better.

We need to be strictly obedient to all these commandments that we've received through the Mosaic law. And there's actually a lot of evidence that. Jesus kind of came from the Pharisee community. Some people may have actually considered him a Pharisee.

We need to be strictly obedient to all these commandments that we've received through the Mosaic law. And there's actually a lot of evidence that. Jesus kind of came from the Pharisee community. Some people may have actually considered him a Pharisee.