Hi, this is John Eldridge, and welcome to the Ransomed Hart podcast.

What we are doing over this series is exploring the personality of Jesus from my new book, beautiful outlaw.

There is absolutely no one and nothing that is more captivating than Jesus when you can see

him as he really is.

And to know Jesus as he really is is to fall in love with him.

And so what we're doing in this series, I am reading some excerpts from a new book called

Beautiful Outlaw, discovering the playful, extravagant, disruptive

personality of Jesus, which comes out this October. And so let's explore Jesus together.

Maybe if we allow Jesus the playfulness

we see in his creation, we can then see him at play in the Gospels. Perhaps it will help us

unlock some of these otherwise perplexing stories. After Jesus and his

disciples arrived in Kepurnum, the collectors of the two Drakma tax came to Peter and asked,

Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?

Yes, he does, he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak.

What do you think, Simon? He asked, from whom do the Kings of the earth collect duty and taxes, from their own sons, or

from others?

From others, Peter answered, then the sons are exempt, Jesus said to him, but so that we may not offend them.

Go to the lake, throw out your line.

Take the first fish you catch, open its mouth, and you will find a four drachma coin take it and give it to

them for my tax and yours from Matthew chapter 17 what This is a mighty strange little story. Why in the world does Jesus send Peter off on a quest

right out of an Irish fairy tale, the apostle and the salmon of gold.

We're talking about a few dollars here. What is with the fishing trip?

...