Happy Sunday,
The following is a draft section of my book, Broken News, scheduled for release in ~Fall 2027.
I add/revise/cut content based on feedback from this newsletter each week, so if something stands out as wrong, confusing, or wow-that-actually-helped-please-don’t-change-it… hit reply and let me know!
Scriptural Basis
“But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
Fear of Association
Somewhere along the way, my arrogance and pride turned reading the news into a scoreboard. Every story was a chance for me to gain reputation points—or a threat to lose them. Gaining these points mattered, and so did defending them, which meant avoiding people who might damage my reputation.
Jesus modeled something different. Jesus associated with people even when they hurt his reputation.
In Luke 9, Jesus was preaching and teaching in Galilee when He determined it was time to go back to Jerusalem. Luke 9:51-52 says:
“When the days were coming to a close for him [Jesus] to be taken up, he determined to journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of himself, and on the way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.”
These two sentences would’ve been scandalous to Luke’s first-century readers in a way we can’t fully understand.
The shortest route from Galilee to Jerusalem was to walk almost directly south, but that route required walking through Samaria, and a good, righteous Jew would never walk through Samaria. A Samaritan was someone who was half-Jewish. Their Jewish ancestors had intermarried with foreigners and adopted a mix of religious practices. To a righteous first-century Jew, a Samaritan was a “half-breed” who had polluted the authentic Israelite bloodline and betrayed God’s chosen nation. A Jew’s hatred for Samaritans ran deep, because they were the embodiment of both heresy and treason. For this reason, a righteous Jew traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem would take the long way, adding three days' walk to avoid Samaria and the risk of contact or association with those people.
But not Jesus. He was in Galilee, decided to travel to Jerusalem, and sent people to prepare a place for him to stay in “a village of Samaritans.”
It wasn’t just Samaritans; Jesus spent time with all sorts of people who damaged His reputation. He hung out with prostitutes, contagiously sick people, and tax collectors—Jews who collected money from their own people to fund the oppressive Roman Empire, which was occupying their Promised Land. If Samaritans were historic traitors, tax collectors were current, active traitors extorting their own people for personal gain. In modern terms, they weren’t just simply someone who voted for the wrong candidate; they worked for the wrong party, personally enforced its most oppressive policies on your family, and openly skimmed off the top. Everyone disliked the tax collectors, and everyone avoided associating with them.
Except Jesus. He ate with them (Luke 5:29-32), stayed at their homes (Luke 19:5), and even chose one of them (Matthew) to be among His twelve disciples.
The news trained me to believe that half the country was too evil, too sinful, too wrong to even associate with—that being friends with someone on the “other side” would make me complicit in their crimes, and I should instead spend my time condemning and avoiding them.
If Jesus were walking around earth today, I think I’d be scandalized by His friend group, which makes me wonder if I’m being too safe with mine.
Was this valuable? Was this heretical? Do you have a rebuttal? Should it not make the book?
Please hit reply and let me know! Your replies are genuinely a huge help and are massively shaping this book. I don’t have time to respond to each one, but I personally read every email.
Recommended*: Tired of being told to pick a side? In his new book released Tuesday, Tommy Nixon names the alternative: the Radical Middle. It's not centrism; it's choosing faithfulness over partisanship, and engaging in today’s cultural tensions without losing sight of the gospel or trading your witness for a position. In a polarized political world of seemingly binary options, learn how to live with conviction and compassion. Grab your copy of Embrace the Tension today.
*I’m fortunate enough to be paid to promote products I actually use and genuinely recommend.
Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here.
