Hey everybody, I'm Tim McEy and this is my podcast Exploring My Strange Bible.

I am a card carrying Bible history and language nerd who thinks that Jesus of Nazareth is

utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have.

On this podcast I'm putting together the last ten years worth of lectures and sermons

where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites

us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith.

And I hope this can be helpful for you too.

I also help start this thing called the Bible Project.

We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology.

You can find those resources at thebibelproject.com.

With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week.

Alright, well in this episode we're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew.

We're going to be looking at a story from Matthew chapter 14.

This is of no relevance to any of you, but it's a special thing in my memory.

This is one of my favorite titled sermons of all the sermons I've ever given in whatever

the ten years that I've been preaching sermons.

The title of the sermons was called Severed Heads and Hungry Crowds.

I'm considering in this teaching two stories that Matthew's put alongside each other.

One is the story of Jesus' relative John the Baptist getting beheaded by the royal family

that the Romans put over the land of Israel, the family of Herod.

It's also followed by a story of Jesus providing food for hungry people in the wilderness

that interrupts his grieving over his cousin's death.

...