Cwic Clips- Family Snitch & The Lower Law

In the time of Jesus, it seems that Judah was a very oppressive society built on an overwhelming number of rules. Societies can become ideologically possessed to the point that such orthodoxy replaces the bonds of family. We saw this from both sides of this in force from both sides of the political spectrum in the 20th century.

here he's referring again to sheep and a

wolves but he's saying that the

disciples are actually sheep and they're

being thrown out into the world into the

world of wolves the world is full of

wolves and so he's giving this imagery

that is contrary to the image of a wolf

in sheep's clothing

and he follows up with that in verse 17

by saying but beware of men for they

will deliver you up to the council's and

they will scourge you in their

synagogues why why would this happen so

this gives us another idea of the state

of things in Judah and what is happening

they are in a position of it with a an

intense high-level ideological

possession that is driven by rules very

demanding specific rules that are added

on top of the law of Moses and it's

done all in the name of God right and so

this power which we can easily see being

centralized in Jerusalem is easily

executed throughout the land of Judah

and throughout those that would be

followers or that are tied to the temple

at Jerusalem that it can easily be

actually this power is easily executed

through these demanding specific

tasks and laws and rules that everybody

has to follow and this is what Jesus is

coming in saying he's saying you are all

slaves to this as you have been focused

on the lower law it has gotten worse and

worse to the point where you are simply

products of this lower law and you are

slaves to it and I am bringing you

freedom from this and I am bringing you

a higher law and a higher level of

thinking a higher level of living a

higher level of hoping and a higher

level of knowledge that

we'll help you escape out of these

things but those that have the power

here are the wolves and so they're not

gonna like that message right they don't

they want to hang on to the power that

they have here and Jesus is becoming a

bigger and bigger threat very early on

to that power structure that they have

which is based on what they are saying

is a religious godlike way of life so

that's hard to get out of right I mean

if that's if that's the belief that this

is I'm doing what's right to all these

tasks everything that I'm doing I must

do because I'm perfecting myself and I'm

doing what is obedient that's a

hard thing to change a very hard thing

to change but that's what Jesus is

attempting to do here and then Jesus

gives us a further idea of the dynamics

the power structure and of the fabric of

society in Judah this is what he says in

verse 21 and the blood and the brother

shall deliver up the brother to death

and the father the child this is the

family snitch and the father the child

and the children shall rise up against

their parents and cause them to be put

to death how does this happen what kind

of a society does this happen in the

only place that this happens at this

level of what he's saying is in an

ideallyideologically possessed

society and that can happen in our day

we saw this especially in the twentieth

century throughout Europe and Asia where

you have on the right you had Nazi

Germany and to lesser degrees and in in

Italy and in Spain where you had

right-wing authoritarian regimes

and how do they gain power and make sure

that their ideology is followed well

it's kind of like what you basically do

is you show how bad and evil anyone

outside of your ideology is and you make

it worth even to a family member even to

a child or a father or anyone else you

threaten them with horrendous

consequences and you teach them and

indoctrinate them that anybody that

follows outside of this falls outside of

this ideology is worthy of death or

extreme punishment and once you've

gotten that into society once you have

inserted this into an ideological

position in the hearts and minds of men

and women and children especially then

you have a society of fear because you

don't know who's gonna say something to

you and who's going to snitch on you and

that's what's happening here in

Jerusalem and Judah is that hey if you

following something that Jesus is saying

if you're following him maybe even those

that may have even followed him at first

would have been tortured or would have

been shamed out of their villages or

would have been killed

would have been stoned to death or who

knows what else and that might have been

a real big issue for Jesus's crowds

being able to grow larger and larger and

larger certainly this is what they did

to Christ and so to think that it

didn't happen to many others before that

I think would be a little naive and so

he's saying that what will happen

and he's forewarning them of course he's

gonna push forward with his message

anyway but he's for warning them that

children and parents and brothers and

sisters and others will turn on their

own and a say

and in a society of fear that's easy to

do and in a society of ideological

possession that is easy to do you have

the Nazis where you know if you started

thinking saying something that was

against Hitler or against the regime

then you had a great fear of being

turned on and that could happen by

anyone because what would they do with a

Hitler Youth and others they would take

the children they would go to the

children who have not had life

experience yet and they would teach them

that their parents were evil and then

they would have them turn on them if

they saw them do anything and they

became spies to their parents the same

thing happened on the left so if you go

to Lenin and a lot of people said I

didn't have with Lenin it did happen

very fiercely with Lenin it especially

happened with Stalin later on it

happened with Mao in China it happened

with Pol Pot it happened with Castro

right where if you would if you were not

on board with things if you're not on

board with things then you're in trouble

and even your closest relatives

might turn on you and snitch on you so

that's what Judah is about at this time