Jesus Asked (The Podcast)

My publisher, Zondervan, kindly gave me permission to read and distribute the whole of my first book as a serialized podcast. I recorded and edited it together in 2006 in my living room, using a MacBook Pro, Amadeus, and GarageBand.

The opening & closing acoustic surf guitar music is by Paul Johnson and was used for the free podcast with his kind permission. During the readings, you’ll also hear some electronic/ambient that had been created and distributed under the Creative Commons licensing scheme by British composer Adam Fielding.

Here are the 20 episodes; they’re 10-15-minutes each.

01 Superman, Jesus and Richie. Something Jesus didn’t know.
The first episode introduces the fact that, according the Gospels, Jesus asked a surprising amount of questions — he’s not portrayed as a guy full of pronouncements, exactly.

02 A teacher tries to educate the boy Jesus!
The second episode looks at the difference between two stories about Jesus as a boy before giving a capsule survey of the chapters to come.

03 Parables are riddles, a kind of question.
In this third episode we begin the book proper, looking at the what and why of parables which turn out to be a form of question.

04 Parables, secrets and mysteries.
Through parables you gain distance from your circumstances and get inside your problems; for Jesus questions and parables act like a wedge.

05 Questions Easily Answered: Two Sons.
Jesus asked some questions with obvious, yet still surprising, answers.

06 Questions Easily Answered: Some Debtors.
Jesus asked some questions in a way that flirted with rudeness.

07 Ducking Questions: Whose Authority?
Jesus asked some questions in a way that flirted with rudeness.

08 Ducking Questions: Whose Image on the Coin?
Heads, I win; tails, you lose.

09 Surgical Strikes: What Did Moses Command?
Seek Love, Not Loopholes.

10 Surgical Strikes: Who Became a Neighbor?
Seek to Love, Not to Limit.

11 Rebuke by Question: Taking the Disciples Apart
Are you so dull?

12 Rebuke by Question: Where is your faith?
The disciples are dull, Jesus is sharp

13 No Obvious Answer: Why Do You Call Me Good?
Just one thing?

14 No Obvious Answer: Who Do You Say I Am?
Prophet or Messiah?

15 The Syro-Phoenecian Woman
Even the dogs…

16 The Emmaus Road
What things…?

17 How Not to Answer (1)
Avoiding His Questions

18 How Not to Answer (2)
Truth or Consequences

19 Conclusion (1)
Did He Ever Answer Straight?

20 Conclusion (2)
What Jesus Wanted to Know