Purple underwear. Say one that’s right in the gospel for the Sunday. This rich man may have been wearing purple underwear. Many scripture scholars have discussed this fine linen, highlighting the absolute extravagance of this rich man’s life. And the heartbreaking thing was the wealth consumed. I need it for us in our lives. Some things consume us that take us away from Jesus. Wealth in and of itself…

Did Jesus tell us to cheat the system? Did he instruct us to falsify our tax returns? Did he give us financial advice like the mafia would? In the gospel for this Sunday. Jesus, of course, is not advocating fraud. But what Jesus is saying is that this dishonest steward was hustling, striving, putting in all this effort to make all this money. And the question is, are we hustling when it comes to Heaven? It’s easy…

Every time I read the Prodigal Son story, I get misty-eyed. My heart is leaking. It’s so beautiful because this passage reveals the absolute, incomparable love of the Father, which transcends reason. It transcends mathematics. It transcends politics. It transcends everything in the world. We cannot calculate it. We cannot understand it, but we can receive it. In the gospels, if Jesus were speaking to a hundred…

So I just heard a man tell his future wife something crazy. In our marriage prep session, he said to his future wife that she is the treasure of all treasures, and he’s not trying to be a pirate or anything. What he’s trying to say to her is that beyond my parents, beyond my friends, beyond every single beautiful girl in the universe, I choose you first. That is truly radical, and that’s what we see in the gospel today…

Stop social climbing. That should be the tagline for this Sunday’s gospel. Jesus is saying that, trying to gain social status, trying to reach the highest seat, which we will never truly satisfy. Jesus is saying, Your identity is in me. When we forget about our identity in Jesus, that’s when we try to gain status. That’s when we try to find love in all of the wrong places. And so Jesus says, “Stop doing that and see me….

Getting into heaven is just like slacklining. If you’ve ever been to a college campus, you’ll notice those people who go on tightropes in the quad trying to balance on these slack lines. And so I’ve done it before, and I lasted about two seconds. The key is to keep your eyes forward and on the slack line. As soon as you start turning your head to the side or looking at other things, you lose your balance. You fall, whoa…

So I was just accused of being an arsonist. A student just sent me a message with this AI image of myself, saying, “Thank you for setting the university on fire with Jesus.” Jesus says in the Gospel for this Sunday, “I have come to set the Earth on fire and how I wish it were already blazing.” Jesus was in no way a mediocre person. You are not called to be a mediocre person. You are called to let Jesus set your heart…

Girding your loins 101. Number one, be a bro from the ancient world wearing your tunic. Number two, take the bottom of your tunic and tuck it into your belt. Number three, create an ancient cargo short feature, and now you are ready to go. You’re prepared to lift heavy things, to go for a nice run. You are prepared to do battle. When Jesus says, “gird your loins” in the gospel, he is saying, “be in the position to be…