Bible Study: Parody and Subversion in Matthew's Gospel

Send us Fan Mail I did the whole series on The Little Apocalypse in Matthew and did not comment on the use of the term "the elect." So I did this little addendum to give my thoughts on the matter

Send us Fan Mail Jesus tells two parables that demonstrate what "staying awake" or "keeping watch" looks like.

Send us Fan Mail In this second section of Matthew's "Little Apocalypse," Jesus starts talking parabolically, calling for his audience to "Stay Awake" for the "Coming of the Son of Man." But what does he mean by "Stay Awake," and what is the "Coming of the Son of Man."

Send us Fan Mail I thought I'd address an issue that might come up for some listeners regarding the accuracy of the prediction of the destruction of the temple/Jerusalem, and also express some additional thoughts I had, after recording the episode, about Jesus' statement, "This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place." This is not a polished record...

Send us Fan Mail This is the first in a three part series on Matthew's "Little Apocalypse" in chapters 24-25. This first episode is considerably on the long side because there is so much imagery to unpack!

Send us Fan Mail More episodes in the New Year!

Send us Fan Mail In chapter 5, Jesus gave 9 blessings. In chapter 23, he gives 7 woes.

Send us Fan Mail The Pharisees join forces with the Herodians and Sadducees to try to stop Jesus from plundering the house. They engage him in public debate...but that never ends well for them.

Send us Fan Mail In chapter 12, Jesus talked about binding the strong man and plundering his house. In this episode, Jesus does that. Please consider making a donation to the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund .

Send us Fan Mail My good friend, Susan Cameron, who is a lawyer as well as a seminary graduate, gives us insights into the divorce text in Mark, which is different from but similar enough to the two divorce texts in Matthew that her work gives greater depth to the work that I did on the Matthew passages.

Send us Fan Mail Please consider making a donation to Christian Peacemaker Teams for the work in the West Bank, in Hebron/al- Khalil in Palestine. You can read more about their work and make a donation at https://www.cpt.org/ .

Send us Fan Mail Why did Jesus drive the money changers and people selling animals out of the temple? Also, ancient people had their sacrificial rituals, but do we? What are the rituals of modern capitalism, and do we even know that we are performing them?

Send us Fan Mail Part of the title for this episode, "Making and Ass Out of Rome," is borrowed from Warren Carter, who entitled the section on this passage in his commentary with those words. In this episode, I mention The Yes Men, modern tricksters who expose some of the more absurd and cruel aspects of capitalism. To find out more about them and see them in action, go to https://theyes...

Send us Fan Mail Equality is extremely difficult; there are always people who want to put themselves in positions of power and authority over others. Different accounts of the conquest of Jerusalem by David, Joshua, and Judah: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-israelite-conquest-of-jerusalem-in-the-bible-when-and-who  

Send us Fan Mail Jesus warns against meritocracy in this often overlooked parable. A couple of resources mentioned in the podcast are: Clifton Mark's article, "A Belief in Meritocracy is Not Only False, It's Bad for You," can be found here . The PBS video about Paul Piff and his experiments about wealth and meritocracy can be found here .

Send us Fan Mail The rich young man man comes to Jesus. He's more sympathetic to the movement for a new society than we might think.

Send us Fan Mail Jesus finally leaves Galilee, on his way to Jerusalem, and enters Judea. Pharisees ask him about divorce, and Jesus ends up talking about eunuchs. Good stuff!

Send us Fan Mail This interview is focused on hearing the Gospel in today's context. I interview a local pastor of a bilingual Spanish-English congregation, Pastor Marcos Canales. Pastor Canales hears the Gospel as one who has lived the effects of colonization as Jesus did. Also, his congregation just finished a study of the Gospel of Mark, a major source for Matthew, so we get his insights f...

Send us Fan Mail One of our listeners gives a brilliant modern-day analogy to help us understand and interpret "The Parable of the Tyrant King and the Unforgiving Servant." Also, Time magazine came out with an article on air conditioning, and one place in Canada recorded 121 degrees Fahrenheit!

Send us Fan Mail The parable at the end of chapter 18 of Matthew is usually called "The Parable of the Unforgiving Slave" because it is understood to be about the behavior of one character in the parable. But a closer examination of the parable in its historical context reveals that it is not just about one person's behavior but also about systemic and structural injustice.

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I make the case that what normally has been understood as a passage about "church discipline" is actually about an alternative criminal justice system. The language used is language of ancient judicial proceedings in both Judea and the wider Greco-Roman world. So those who are today talking about abolishing the current criminal justice system and replaci...

Send us Fan Mail This episode starts a new section of Matthew, chapters 18-20, in which Jesus talks about the structure of the New Society, specifically how power, honor, and authority are distributed.

Send us Fan Mail The Gospel story has been used as a pretext for horrible persecution of Jewish people in the West. This persecution led to the modern state of Israel, perceived, for good reason, by many Jews as the only way to escape this persecution. The result has been the dispossession of the Palestinian people. In this episode, I try to grapple with this history and also tell of my experience...

Send us Fan Mail Fresh off the mountain of the transfiguration, Jesus counters the interpretation of the temple establishment, casts out a Roman demon, and cleverly undermines the authority of the temple system of the empire.

Send us Fan Mail The Transfiguration has baffled commentators for centuries. What is the point? How does it fit into the story? I think that I have a good answer for that. If we think of this gospel as a "hero story," what happens in that sort of story when the hero finally decides to take the gloves off and go on the offensive, no longer avoiding conflict but running towards it? I sugge...