The Extraordinary Story with Tom Hoopes

So Jesus came, Jesus died, Jesus rose, and Jesus conquered. After going through the Gospels, what else is left to say? “How to Buy Drugs From Desperate Panicked Criminals With Guns” is one of the essays I wrote at the University of Arizona before I dropped out and had to restart my life. I wrote it about the experiences I had leaving my home at age 16 and encountering some of the worst of what Ame...

The life of Jesus gets strange on this episode of The Extraordinary Story. According to some prominent religious art, this is the episode where he flies into the sky. And according to snake handlers, this is the episode where he gives us all sorts of crazy powers. But I want to show how it doesn't have to seem so strange after all, and then finish my evidence for the resurrection with the most pow...

In this episode of The Extraordinary Story, I want to share with you the story of a scholar who poked holes in the resurrection story — and then I want to let you know how I fill those holes in. If you've been following this podcast from the beginning, you know that there’s a long gap between season two and season three. That's because I went on a journey, an intellectual journey, as the work of o...

Remember when you made that crazy promise to God where you said you'd do anything for him? Remember, you laughed it off later as too enthusiastic and figured he laughed it off too. Well, Peter finds out the hard way that no, he didn't laugh it off. We will look at the second to last resurrection appearance in the Gospels today, and see the apostles who are supposed to be fishers of men. Go back to...

Jesus had a busy day after he rose from the dead. We are still right there with him on Easter evening as he visits the Twelve Apostles. Or 10 anyway: Judas was gone and Thomas couldn’t make it. Jesus gives surprising evidence of the Resurrection and helps the Apostles understood exactly why this all happened this way. Then Thomas shows up …   Learn More The Extraordinary Story is a podcast about t...

It’s Easter afternoon and two disciples are leaving town in a hurry in the wake of Jesus’s death.  There are some very strange features to this story. Why don’t they recognize Jesus? Why does he do such a strange miracle? This episode asks these questions and shares one hot take on a longstanding mystery: Who was the unnamed disciple headed out of town with Cleopas? It all adds up to a story tailo...

Today we will be looking at the first people to encounter the risen Jesus, which happened to be women. We will talk about how this was awkward for the first disciples, but kind of great for us today. We'll start to notice also how different the different people's encounters with Jesus after the resurrection were, and ask for the first time, but not the last, why? We will also note the surprising d...

Jesus died on Good Friday. He was in the ground on Holy Saturday, but now it's Sunday morning. Now we get to the good part, the triumph, the redemption. There are a number of resurrection experiences to talk about, but we'll start early on Easter morning at first light, when Mary Magdalene, then Peter, then John saw the inside of the tomb. What they saw changed everything.    Learn More The Extrao...

The Lord is dead. Jesus bowed his head and breathed his last in the previous episode of The Extraordinary Story. But now, even before he is sealed in his tomb, astonishing things begin to happen. The Gospel of John shares a surprising detail that echoes back to the Samaritan woman at the well and passed back through salvation history all the way to Eden. Then when Jesus is buried, his power that s...

Today on the extraordinary story, we will walk with Jesus up the hill of Calvary carrying a cross, and ask again, "Why did Jesus have to die?" Paul says he did it to save us from the wrath of God. How is that okay? And then we will see what happens when Jesus takes up the cross of our sin and it knocks him down. Why is it that the Son of God Himself has to walk such a terrible road? And why do we...

We come at last to the big culmination of Jesus's earthly ministry. The goal of his life. The event he has set his face like flint toward. The event he has been marching forward to reach: the crucifixion. No one expected the Messiah to die on the cross. But we will look back and see that the signs were there in the Old Testament, left there like windows through the walls of the maze looking to the...

Today we will hear the famous words of Pontius Pilate as he presented Jesus Christ for his accusers to see. "Ecce Homo," translated to, "Behold, the man." His words tap into the heart of who Jesus Christ is and who we are. As they reach back to the origins of the human race. But we will also hear him say words that reach forward to the very end of the human race. "Ecce Rex Vester," translated to,...

We will see Jesus Christ get arrested in this episode, and then we'll follow him as he's tried first by his own people, the Jewish leaders, and then by the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate. We will ask and answer the question, why was Jesus silent before his accusers so often? And what was Pilate's wife's dream? And if Judas is in hell, what might be his greatest regret for all eternity? But most...

Jesus continues his epic project of re-edenizing the world, this time in a literal garden, but not the garden of Eden - the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane means "oil press." And we see Jesus here in the Mount of Olives, being crushed like a grape in the fingers of Satan for our sins. We will see what the greatest failure of the apostles was, and how we can make up for it a little, and we will se...

Today we're going to look at the institution of the Eucharist and the institution of the priesthood and the foundation of the whole sacramental system. Here is where Jesus Christ brings the life of God in eternity and unites it with our lives here in the maze. Here is where God makes us his family, so that we can live in a new way, starting now and lasting forever. Everything that's happened in th...

Jesus has been saying, "My hour has not yet come." Today he'll say, "My hour has arrived." It is Holy Thursday, and on this great and ominous night filled with huge moments in salvation history. The first thing he chooses to do is wash the feet of his apostles. Now, why did he do that? And why is it significant that Judas left right after he did that? And what does it mean for us when washing feet...

It's Wednesday of Holy Week, the day before the big days. The chief priests hold a special meeting. They want to find a way to arrest Jesus without alarming the crowds of people in Jerusalem. It's hard because Jesus knows their plans and is steering clear. They're stuck and they can't find a way. And then there's a knock on the door and a man is ushered into the room. He asks, how much will you gi...

The veil drops and we see the Kingdom of Christ for what it is. Angels and thrones and icons all around us. And we ourselves for what we are. Either sheep seeing the true worth of our neighbor or goats. We also get to see some sweet payback when Jesus, tired of the Pharisees trying to trap him, verbally traps them instead.  Learn More The Extraordinary Story is a podcast about the life of Jesus Ch...

This week on the extraordinary story. Jesus stages an intervention for the Pharisees. And for me, too. In a way, we will discuss the seven woes of the Pharisees and a surprising hero who is the opposite of what they are.  Learn More The Extraordinary Story is a podcast about the life of Jesus Christ, who entered the maze of our world to transform it into a path to Him, today and always. The Extrao...

In this episode of The Extraordinary Story, we are with Jesus during the last week before his death, where we learn how two challenges from his opponents provoked Jesus to share wisdom that has changed the course of history. We will discover who asked him to pay taxes, and why his answer addresses the fundamental problems of alienation in the world today. We will also address what it means to "ren...

As Jesus faces his imminent death in the final week of his earthly life, he reveals that the end goal of history is marriage. We'll learn in what way Jesus considers his relationship with us a marriage, why we wont be married to our spouses in heaven, and how to fight the darkness that threatens to swallow us whole while we wait for the wedding. Learn More The Extraordinary Story is a podcast abou...

As the incarnation of of Son of God approaches its most dramatic moment, Jesus urgently decides to... tell some stories. In this episode, we'll learn why the stories Jesus tells in the last week of his life actually are very urgent, and why Jesus focuses here on stories about work. Along the way, we'll learn what kind of "boss" God is, what kind of work he expects us to do, and what's at stake if...

We return to Jerusalem on the morning after Jesus's triumphal entry as he curses a fig tree. We'll learn why he did such a strange thing, why he insisted to Greeks that he himself was a grain of wheat, and what all of this reveals about the Garden of Eden - and ourselves. This episode is all about the “nature logic” of the Gospel, and the way the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is woven int...

This week, we follow Jesus in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and discover the raw power of Jesus alone on a donkey. We'll learn why a donkey is a more kingly steed than a chariot. We'll learn what it means that God's kingdom is "already, but not yet." And we'll learn what the wrath of God looks like from God's perspective. In this episode: Today's episode begins the story of the single week th...

Welcome back to The Extraordinary Story, a podcast about the life of Christ. Season Four will guide us through the final week of Jesus’ life as he approaches the ‘hour’ for which he came: death on a cross. But Tom Hoopes has done some thinking during the break, and returns with a fresh perspective to share with us about why all of this even matters in the first place. In this episode: Why does Jes...