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0:20 Welcome back. 0:21 All week this week and all week next week, we will be going through Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, and pulling out biblical themes and narratives. 0:28 Yesterday we watched a Zeus refuse to let a man blame the gods for his own sin. 0:32 And today we're going to jump five books ahead in the Odyssey. 0:35 And so the setting is on a beach. 0:37 There is a princess there and a naked, half-drowned stranger. 0:42 But as we move forward, I want you to key in on who runs towards this man and who runs away from him. 0:48 So the main protagonist of the Odyssey is a character we're all very familiar with, Odysseus. 0:53 In this scene in particular, he has just survived a shipwreck. 0:57 He's been floating in the water for two days. 0:58 He's had no food or clean water. 1:01 He has lost all of his clothes and his raft got torn apart by Poseidon in a rage. 1:05 Odysseus crawls up onto the beach on the island of the Phacians and uh passes out under a bush, right? 1:13 So the following morning, the king's daughter, a young woman named Gnosache, or Nasache, or Nasica, right? 1:20 So there's a lot of ways to say it. 1:21 Like I told you, we're going to be looking at multiple different pronunciations here. 1:23 So we'll just go with Nasache, comes down to that same beach with her maids to wash laundry. 1:29 And so they're having a you know normal go of it until the beaten and broken naked Odysseus comes stumbling out of the bushes. 1:36 So Homer actually compares Odysseus to a starving lion prowling for meat. 1:40 That's what he looks like at this moment. 1:42 And all the princess's maids take off running because of the sight of him. 1:46 They're terrified. 1:47 But Nausuke stands her ground. 1:49 So here's what she says to her maids after they all fled. 1:53 Strangers and foreigners in distress are under Jove's, that's Zeus's, protection, and will take what they can get and be thankful. 2:01 So, girls, give the poor fellow something to eat and drink, and wash him in the stream at some place that is sheltered from the wind. 2:10 So let's key in on what she's doing here. 2:12 She's showing compassion backed by conviction for someone that she doesn't even know. 2:18 I mean, for all she knows, the snaken man is a criminal, a madman. 2:22 I mean, this man could very well be dangerous to her and her maids, but she believes there's a moral law that's bigger than her own comfort and safety in the moment. 2:31 And this belief moves her to action, right? 2:34 So the maids come back, they clean Odysseus up, they give him clothes, they give him food, and then the princess personally walks Odysseus towards her father's palace and vouches for him at court. 2:44 Again, he's a total stranger to her, but she selflessly does him the service, does him this service really, in order to help him. 2:52 Now let's actually go to Matthew twenty-five. 2:55 So this is toward the latter end of the chapter, and we see Jesus describing his final judgment. 3:00 And he says this starting in verse thirty-four. 3:03 Then the king will say to those on his right, Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you and from the foundation of the world. 3:11 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. 3:22 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 3:29 And when did you then when did we see you as stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 3:35 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? 3:38 And the king will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me. 3:48 So this should be very familiar to you, but this doesn't really sound like the nakedness being described here is metaphorical or spiritual. 3:56 Jesus is describing a literal physical, uncomfortable nakedness, and that's where this test happens. 4:03 And then we see Joe say essentially the same thing in Job 31, starting in verse 19 If I've seen anyone perish for lack of clothing or the needy without covering, if his body has not blessed me, and if he is not warmed with the fleece of my sheep, if I have raised my hand against the fatherless because I saw my help in the 4:21 gate, then let my shoulder blade fall from my socket, and let my arm be broken from its socket. 4:27 So essentially Job is saying that if he ever fails to clothe a freezing man, that it should be counted as sin against him. 4:35 And here's the hard question for you guys today. 4:38 Are you the person that runs away from the person in need or the one that moves towards them? 4:45 Because I think all of us, including myself, have we've just got to be honest. 4:48 The culture has pretty much trained us to run away, right? 4:51 We see a guy that lets, you know, looks super wrecked, right? 4:54 You know, maybe he's a drug addict that lives on your street, or maybe it's the misbehaving kid at church who just recently lost their father, or maybe there's a coworker of yours that you don't really like all that much, but they're going through a divorce, a really tough time. 5:07 Whatever the scenario, and whatever the kind of person, every one of our instincts tends to say, hey, look, not my problem. 5:14 This guy could be dangerous. 5:16 Hey, this could just be a scam. 5:18 You know, ultimately, this might just cost me something. 5:21 And look, I would agree with most of those things, but a princess did that to serve her pagan God. 5:28 So what about the God that you say that you serve? 5:32 You follow a God, you follow Yahweh that did more than just stand his ground for the sake of a busted-up guy. 5:39 God left heaven to put on flesh and became like us when we were still enemies of him, right? 5:47 In the form of Jesus. 5:48 And he did it so that we could have a pathway of righteousness back to the Father, back to Himself. 5:54 And I don't know what this looks like for you, but we should look for opportunities to serve others. 5:59 It's going to look differently for everybody. 6:01 You know, may look like telling someone you'll pray for them and then actually doing it. 6:05 You know, it could look like giving someone a meal or a warm coat, it could look like giving someone a ride, it could look like a conversation that you don't cut short because you're tired of it. 6:13 And really, men, whatever you do, you need to do something concrete to serve other image bearers of God.