Jesus at 2AM - A Humorous, Intelligent Look at the Bible, Church History & the Life of Faith

Why should Christians regard themselves as bound to any sort of moral law? After all, the full defeat of sin has been accomplished in Christ. And our personal salvation is by grace alone. So why, being set free from the law, would one choose to still to obey it? Indeed, might it not be a surest sign of trust in Jesus's sin boldly, proving my confidence in his love and power??? This is the antinomi...

How are we to understand the forgiving and compassionate ministry of Jesus against the backdrop of Torah and some of the harsh punishments demanded by God of sinners? An answer offered by Marcion of Sinope (2nd cent.) was simply that there exits 2 deities - essentially a harsh God of the Hebrews and a more compassionate God of Jesus. And while most of us would quickly reject Marcionism when presen...

When and where did evil begin? And is God responsible for it (if God created everything...)? In this episode we look at one attempt to preserve God's innocence and the unintentional heresy that results from it: Manichaeism (the argument that good and evil have always been present, forces locked in perpetual combat). What we discover is that such an attempt to get God off the hook only distorts our...

  When the going gets tough, the faithful get...incredibly tempted to build golden calves (i.e., to call upon pagan deities). Like Israel at Sinai, we don't intend to abandon the covenant God of Israel entirely. We just...want some immediate help and think another, more local deity might be willing and available. In this episode we examine the heresy of syncretism - the mixing and matching of vari...

If the church has a favorite heresy, it is likely that of gnosticism - the belief that the main problem with the spiritual life is that we have bodies. They seem to be forever getting in the way of pure spiritual pursuits, dragging us back into the baser elements of our nature. If only we could rid ourselves of the flesh! It was an idea first offered by Plato and has been incorporated into the chu...

One of the best ways to learn good theology is to study historically bad theology - to see where we tend to go astray (after all, there are really only about 10 true heresies, we just manage to repeat them in every generation). In this episode, I give a short introduction to the idea of "heresy" and then examine the first official heresy of the church: Arianism. It was the debate over Arianism (32...

The Gospel of Luke ends with a series of new beginnings. First, Jesus's reveals his resurrection to his disciples in a manner that would have constituted certain proof in the ancient world. It is also a sign that the age of salvation has begun, and with it, a new mission for Jesus's disciples. Where once they were followers, now they are witnesses sent to every corner of the earth - a mission, it...

On a spring Friday, somewhere around the year AD 29, two kingdoms (Love and Evil) went to war - a battle brewing since the Garden of Eden. And Evil appeared to have won...briefly. And then it lost everything! In this episode we arrive at proof of Love's victory - an empty tomb and a resurrected Jesus! It is also the moment of Luke's grand reveal (his whole narrative has been building to this). It...

By every visible measure, Good Friday marked the moment love lost. In Jesus, God himself had entered into creation to free his people from their bondage to sin...and in their sin they (we!) crucified him. In this episode we examine the events leading up to and including Jesus's death - events that surely prove Jesus failed. ...And yet, amidst Jesus's suffering and persecution, we see love at work....

Never doubt the power of sin in the world. It led one of Jesus's closest friends to betray him. Led another to deny they'd ever met. It led Jewish authorities to demand an execution of one of their own, and caused the crowds to shout, "Crucify him!" of the one they'd cheered with "Hosanna!" less than a week before. In this episode we walk with Jesus through his final night, beholding sin in all it...

It is the night of Jesus's defeat (or so it would seem). He will soon be betrayed into the hands of his enemies and crucified. But there is one event left in his ministry - the celebration of the Passover (the symbol of Israel's release from her captivity and the night of her salvation). In this episode we take a deep look at the Jewish Passover traditions and what they reveal about the last Suppe...

Jesus's public ministry concludes with warnings of divine judgment upon Jerusalem. He foretells the destruction of the Temple and gives instructions to his followers as to how to survive the impending disaster. And it is with these teachings that Jesus effectively seals his fate. His prophetic declarations have raised the ire of the religious leadership - challenging their authority - and, like ma...

Teaching in the Temple, Jesus continues to press the question of loyalties - a direct provocation of the Jewish sect of the Sadducees (leaders of the Temple).   Text for this sermon is Luke 20:20-40 (NRSV) .   Want to support the podcast by giving to Canvas? Here's a  quick link to give online . Donations in any amount are a huge help to us and tax-deductible (in the USA) to you! Not already subsc...

Having arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus very publicly travels to the Temple and begins to teach. It is a direct confrontation of and threat to the Sadducees (the Jewish sect governing the Temple). It is effectively Jesus's last stand. Here on the mount where heaven and earth meet, Jesus will either persuade Israel to return to her first love, or he will seal his fate as a martyr. In this episode we loo...

At last Jesus makes his entrance into Jerusalem - a scene loaded with symbolism of conquest and deliverance for Israel. Yet as we examine the story in detail, the foreshadowing of death and destruction come into view. This is a heartrending passage - one filled with hopes that will be dashed. Kleenex is highly recommended. Text for this sermon is Luke 19:29-46 (NRSV) .   Want to support the podcas...

As Jesus prepares for his final journey into Jerusalem, he tells the gathered crowd a terrifying story about a nobleman and his 3 slaves. And we'll just say that things do not end well for at least one of the slaves! (Really, really not well.) Our challenge is to interpret the parable: Who is the nobleman?  Who are the slaves? And what lesson are we to learn??? In this episode we explore three opt...

Having just called his followers to an unbounded trust in God and love of other, Jesus now puts those very actions on display - healing a man who is blind, and forgiving the notorious sinner, Zacchaeus. In this episode, regular contributor, Ian Farrell, explains - with incredible humor and historical insight! - the nuances of this moving set of stories. It is an sermon not to be missed! Text for t...

In the strange alchemy of the Kingdom of God, the first shall be last, the way to be rich is to be poor, and the height of maturity is the faith of a child. In this episode we look at Jesus's responses to parents seeking his blessing upon their children (over the disciples' objections!) and to a powerful man's question about how to enter the kingdom of God (he is told to sell everything!). It turn...

According to Jesus, prayer is an essential element of the life of faith, love and relationship with God. And yet for most of us - the original disciples included - prayer is both a struggle and a mystery. Often we pray and "nothing happens." So does prayer affect anything? Is there some special formula to prayer we are missing, some technique we must be taught? In this episode we examine two of Je...

The great theologian Johnny Cash once wrote: "You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good."  Only Jesus said it better. In this episode we look at the temptation to be so focused on the hereafter that we miss the presence of the kingdom of God in the here and now (and our call to embody it!). It's no minor risk - a point Jesus drives home with references to such disasters as the great flood i...

What does it look like - in practice - to love self? And is such love truly godly? (Isn't love of self was the very definition of selfishness, and that love of God and others are the true virtues?) In this episode we look at Jesus's encounter with 10 lepers who take the risk to ask for mercy (always a safe bet with Jesus), and discover that love of self leads to God and ultimately to others. It's...

Maturity in the life of faith requires the ability bear unresolved tension, to live amidst truths that seems to contradict each other. In this episode we examine three (more) declarations of Jesus that - at first read - appear terribly uncharitable. But as we study more closely, we discover a depth of love and grace we would never have seen had we not been forced into paradox. The text for this ep...

How ought we interpret Jesus's call to decisive loyalty (and the warnings that accompany them)? Is eternal, conscious torment truly the punishment that awaits the disloyal? In this episode we examine one of Jesus's most disturbing parables, indeed one of the texts from which the church historically derived the picture of hell. And while such anguish may not be what Jesus intends to express, he is...

The Bible is filled with warnings about the dangers of wealth - a danger stemming from wealth's capacity to make promises. From political power to personal security to utter self-sufficiency, wealth claims it can set us free from anxiety and fill our hearts with meaning. And it's a lie. In this episode we look at Jesus's parable of the "Dishonest Manager." What we discover is that just as our love...

We have all had times of wandering very far from God; sometimes as an act of rebellion, other times as capitulation to sin. Sometimes circumstances overwhelm us and we find ourselves lost on the path of life. Whatever the cause, we have all found ourselves in a "foreign land," wondering what hope remains. In this episode we look at 3 parables of lostness and the relentless passion of God to find....