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0:20 So for the last two weeks, we've been finding the biblical themes and ethics from Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. 0:26 Yesterday there were tears and a reunion between a father and a son. 0:30 And to, I mean, to be honest, today's going to be a little bit uglier. 0:33 So there's going to be a rich man that throws furniture at a beggar. 0:37 And I want you to ponder a question that I'm sure you haven't been asked enough. 0:42 Who are you when you think no one is watching? 0:45 So here we are, we're in Ithaca. 0:47 Odysseus is back, but he's disguised as a beggar. 0:50 So he walks back into his own house and begins working the room as a beggar would. 0:55 So he's going from suitor to suitor, asking for scraps of food, and many of them just kind of toss something at him, mainly out of pity and to get him to go away. 1:02 Then he reaches Antonus, the ringleader of the suitors. 1:06 He says this, Sir, give me something. 1:09 You are not surely the poorest man here. 1:12 And then Antinus's answer is to grab a footstool and hurl it at Odysseus, striking him square in the shoulder. 1:20 But Odysseus, still in character as a beggar, doesn't even flinch. 1:24 Homer actually says he stood firm as a rock. 1:28 But it's not Odysseus' reaction that matters the most here, it's everyone else's. 1:33 The other suitors are visibly uneasy. 1:36 And one of them says this Antonus, you did ill in striking that poor wretch of a tramp. 1:42 It will be worse for you if he should turn out to be some god. 1:46 And we know the gods go about disguised in all sorts of ways as people from foreign countries and travel about the world to see who do amiss and who do righteously. 1:57 And again, you have to remember, guys, these people are pagans. 2:01 But even they understood that it says something about your character based on how you treat someone who you think is too weak to retaliate. 2:08 But Antinus didn't care. 2:10 There was nothing in it for him. 2:11 He thought he had nothing to lose. 2:12 And Homer is very unsubtle about the justice coming to Antinous. 2:18 He was the first suitor killed by Odysseus after Odysseus revealed his true identity. 2:25 So keep that in mind as we turn to Matthew 25. 2:27 And we've touched on this before in the series, but Jesus is describing the final judgment coming down and how people treated him disguised as hungry, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner, you know, people with nothing to offer in return. 2:40 And then he says this in verse 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food. 2:44 I was thirsty and you gave me drink. 2:46 I was a stranger and you welcomed me, verse 36. 2:48 I was naked and you clothed me. 2:50 I was sick and you visited me. 2:51 I was in prison and you came to me. 2:52 Let's skip to verse 40. 2:54 And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. 3:02 And we see the same theme come up in Genesis 19. 3:05 So I would actually encourage you to read the entirety of Genesis 19 today. 3:09 Essentially, you have two visitors arrive in Sodom, they just look like regular old travelers, and the men of the city try to sodomize and abuse them, and they didn't know that these visitors were actually angels inspecting the city's sinfulness and cruelty, but the test was never really announced. 3:25 And this brings up some important things for us to consider. 3:28 How do we treat the customer service rep on the phone that has zero power over our life? 3:35 How do we treat the waiter or waitress? 3:37 How do you treat them at the restaurant that couldn't cause you to lose your job even if they wanted to, right? 3:43 There's there's a power imbalance there. 3:44 Like, how would you act around the new guy at work that nobody's really invested in yet? 3:50 And here's one that's going to probably be convicting for almost all of us. 3:53 How do you talk to your wife and children at home versus in public when everyone's watching? 3:59 And that's the actual test that Christ and the suitors both pointed to, right? 4:04 Character isn't what you do in front of people who matter to your reputation. 4:08 It's what you do in front of people who can't do anything for you. 4:12 You see, Antonus was, you know, probably charming to kings and members of different courts. 4:16 He probably spent a lot of time and effort trying to impress people whose opinions he cared about. 4:21 But he saved who he really was. 4:23 He saved his vicious cruelty for a beggar in rags who he thought could not fight back. 4:30 And a lot of us run the same game, don't we? 4:32 We are gracious to people when we know our grace is being noticed, but then we are dismissive and cruel when nobody's paying attention. 4:40 But scripture says that this is not a small personality quirk. 4:44 That it's not some small inconsistency. 4:46 It's actually a test of who you are as a person. 4:49 Are you so naive as to think that you could also fool God into thinking you're someone that you're not? 4:55 Like, God isn't grading you based on your Sunday school smile or your Instagram, fellas. 5:00 Like he knows everything about you down to your private thoughts and even the desires of your heart. 5:05 Like, I want you to conduct an interesting experiment that I think will help you. 5:09 I want you to pick out one relationship in your life where you currently have most of, if not all, of the power, and the other person has none. 5:18 So this could be a junior employee at work, it could be a service worker, it could be a customer service person on the phone with a heavy accent, it could even be one of your children. 5:26 I want you to treat them today the way you treat someone that you were trying to impress. 5:33 Because the reality is that Christ already told you who's really watching. 5:38 And again, notice how the suitors responded to Antonus' cruelty. 5:42 These obviously weren't perfect men. 5:44 They were camped out in some other man's house eating his food, drinking his wine, and consuming his resources, but even they had enough conscience left to recognize that cruelty towards the powerless was unacceptable. 5:54 Like you don't have to have your whole life in order to still be the one man in the room that stands up and says, that's not right, and you're gonna stop doing it. 6:03 So Antonus threw a stool at a beggar because he thought it wouldn't cost him anything, but it did. 6:09 We'll get to it later on this week. 6:10 It cost him everything. 6:12 When you think you're residing in a room that is dark enough to hide your character, just realize that that is the room where your character is actually under a microscope.