# The Medium Is the Message — Crossan on Parables, Provocation, and the Pedagogy of Jesus

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/homebrewed-christianity-723917/the-medium-is-the-message-crossan-on-parables-provocation-and-the-pedagogy-of-jesus
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/homebrewed-christianity-723917/the-medium-is-the-message-crossan-on-parables-provocation-and-the-pedagogy-of-jesus.md
Podcast: [Homebrewed Christianity](https://stenobird.com/podcast/homebrewed-christianity-723917)
Published: 2026-03-18T08:56:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NAANT6217893696.mp3?updated=1773778989
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NAANT6217893696.mp3?updated=1773778989
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/homebrewed-christianity-723917/episodes/the-medium-is-the-message-crossan-on-parables-provocation-and-the-pedagogy-of-jesus
Duration seconds: 4405

## Resource

This is the fourth live Q&A from the Jesus and Galilee class with John Dominic Crossan — recorded, appropriately, on St. Patrick's Day, which means Dom is operating with a slight green halo and absolutely zero intention of slowing down. The questions this week go deep into parable theory: what it actually means for a parable to "point elsewhere," why the Parable of the Sower is not about sowing, what the Parable of the Vineyard Workers is doing to anyone in the crowd who has ever stood all day looking for work and been blamed for standing there, and why Luke's version of the Good Samaritan is both right and a domestication of something far more dangerous. Dom takes apart the three sub-genres — riddle, example, and challenge parables — shows how the tradition keeps sliding one into another, and makes the case that Job, Ruth, and Jonah are all challenge parables of the Hebrew Bible aimed at blowing up the certainties of post-exilic restoration theology. There's a devastating reading of the Eucharist as a public political declaration that you are willing to die for what Jesus died for, a meditation on why comic eschatology is the first great act of resistance against autocracy, and a moment where Dom explains why he became an American citizen in 2000 — and it will not surprise you. If you want to hear all four lectures behind these Q&As and send in your own questions for our final session, head over to crossanclass.com — you can join for whatever you can give, including zero. ⁠You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ONLINE LENT CLASS: Jesus in Galilee w/ John Dominic Crossan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ What can we actually know about Jesus of Nazareth? And, what difference does it make? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠This Lenten class ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠begins where all of Dr. John Dominic Cro…

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