Discovering Jesus

One of the keys to understanding many of Jesus' parables is to know the difference between Eastern shame culture and Western guilt culture. Today we are going to explore those differences, and how they can shed light on Jesus' parable of the banquet. We will discover that this parable, like many, is political in nature, and all about socioeconomic status.

We'll also discover what Jesus meant when he told us his disciples to hate their families and carry their crosses. In the end, it's all about the Kingdom.

Jesus' parables were often told in progressive sets that built on one another. This week we look at three of his most famous parables, here renamed "The Man Who Like To Party," "The Woman Who Liked To Party," and "The Son Who Did Not Like To Party."

Jesus is again going to respond to his detractors, the Pharisees and lawyers, as to why he keeps some pretty nefarious and corrupt company, and why his political/religious movement isn't endangered by his networking strategies and priorities.

As we explore Jesus' response, we will see that Jesus' most famous parable, often called "The Parable of the Prodigal Son," is not about what we usually think it is about as modern Christians. That is to say, we often think the Pharisees would have been surprised by the father's "prodigal love" for his reckless son and that this love - an image of God's love - is Jesus' main point.

However, as we'll see, the Pharisees were not surprised in the least that Jesus depicted a loving God who accepts repentant sinners by grace through faith. In fact, they probably would have been concerned if Jesus depicted God as otherwise.

Instead, there is a deeper, more relevant, more practical, and more challenging question Jesus has for the Pharisees, and for us, if we have ears to hear.

This week we continue to learn about the parables Jesus told; we discover that Jesus' short stories weren't really about teaching abstract biblical truths or timeless theology. Jesus used his parables for something quite different.

It's all about context, and the right context transforms the parables Jesus told. This week we are looking at:
1. The Parable of the Really Good Investment
2. The Parable of the Career Change
3. The Parable of the Indiscriminate Net

Jesus' parables were some of the most controversial and politically charged things he said. Turns out Jesus had a lot of opinions on how to make Israel great again, and some of them were quite unpopular with certain political groups. 

This week he is going to make the case for how the Kingdom of God does not come via violence, and how we unknowingly violate his pacifist position without even realizing it in our everyday interactions with others.

The Lord's Prayer has been used and revered for a couple thousand years by the church, and for good reason! It is a beautiful, succinct prayer that has given voice to many, many people and enabled many to approach God.

In fact, this prayer has been used so often that we sometimes miss what it's actually all about. The Lord's Prayer is not just a nice outline to structure your own prayers with, it's actually a very specific type of prayer for a very specific thing. And today, we find out what this prayer is all about, and why "The Lord's Prayer" might not be the best name to give it.

The way we prayer matters. And it turns out it matters a lot. From MSN chatbots to ancient Roman prayer rituals, we are going to find out how our prayers reveal what we really think about God, and what instructions Jesus gives to correct our prayers and bad theology.

Jesus lays out some pretty concerning warnings at the end of his Sermon on the Mount; he lets us know that some people, even though they performed incredible signs and wonders, will not get into the Kingdom of Heaven. What qualifies someone, then? What does it mean to "build your house on the rock"?

This week we are going to get into ancient building methods, and what Jesus really meant when he told us to build our houses on the rock instead of the sand.

The idea of a narrow road to life and a wide road to destruction was not uncommon in Jesus' day. Lots of other rabbis and Greeks and Romans used this word picture. What is unique is who is on the narrow and wide paths.

This week we dig into one of Jesus' most famous sayings ever. It's always amazing how much we can get out of just a couple lines. Jesus manages, as always, to challenge us and encourage us in new ways and in new  levels as we take this common, well-known saying and pull new meaning out of it.

This week we pull apart Jesus' interesting and deceptively simply recommendation to 
"take the log out of your own eye" before you look at the speck in someone else's.