What does Tribe teach about vulnerability?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on vulnerability grows out of a close reading of two Gospel scenes where the same pattern appears: the people with the most to lose socially are the ones who act with the most openness, and that openness is what puts them in step with Jesus. In both Mark 14 and Luke 7, a woman enters a room full of people with the power to judge her and does something costly and exposed in front of all of them. Brian points to her as the one with clarity, not the disciples, not the Pharisee, not the people managing their reputations. She and Jesus are the two people who actually understand what is happening, and that shared understanding is inseparable from her willingness to be seen.
The teaching draws a sharp line between proximity and intimacy. Brian says, "Proximity does not necessarily equal intimacy." The disciples were physically with Jesus at the table and missed the moment entirely. The Pharisee in Luke 7 hosted Jesus in his own home and still could not read him correctly. What the woman had that neither group had was vulnerability and transparency, a willingness to act without waiting for a safer setting or a more private moment. In the Luke 7 scene she anointed Jesus in public, in tears, with her reputation already against her. That is the posture Brian identifies as the one that produces intimacy, and intimacy, in this series, is what produces clarity.
The encouragement underneath all of this is that God meets people in exactly that exposed place. Brian says, "If he already knows and he still wants to hang out with you, what does that say about him?" The point is that vulnerability before God is not a risk in the way it is with other people, because nothing is being revealed that He does not already see. The woman in both Gospel scenes models something the disciples and the Pharisee could not bring themselves to do, and the teaching invites the congregation into that same openness as the starting point for real closeness with Jesus.
Taught from Mark 14:1-9 · Luke 7:36-50 · James 4:8 · John 14:15
“Proximity does not necessarily equal intimacy.”
From Clarity Comes Through Intimacy
The passage taught · James 4:8
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 12, 2024 Clarity Comes Through Intimacy Brian Hunter explores how intimacy with Jesus brings clarity through vulnerability and transparency, drawing from two Gospel accounts of a woman anointing Jesus.
- February 11, 2024 Clarity Comes Through Intimacy A pastor and congregation in Jackson Hole explore how intimacy with Jesus, built on vulnerability and transparency, brings clarity in an increasingly complex world.