Nicodemus Visits Jesus
We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who supports the work of Renewed Heart Ministries. Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue our mission of love, justice, and compassion, even in a time when ministries like ours are being called to do more with less.
Your support means the world to us. Whether we’re speaking into the broader society, engaging within our faith communities, or working one on one alongside others endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings of love and justice, we remain committed to advocating for a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for all. Your partnership helps keep our work alive.
To all of our supporters, from all of us at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you. We are so deeply grateful for you, and we couldn’t do this work without you.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Nicodemus Visits Jesus
Herb Montgomery | February 27, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of John:
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:1-17)
Nicodemus’s visit to Jesus in John 3 is one of this Gospel’s most intimate and arresting narratives. A Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, Nicodemus slips to Jesus under cover of darkness, seeking understanding, recognition, or perhaps safety in the shadows. The conversation that follows begins with questions about Jesus’ signs in John’s gospel to the Jesus’ famous statements about being “born again” and that “God so loved the world.”
This encounter also, in the context of Nicodemus’ power and privilege and his desire to meet Jesus in secrecy, carries urgent social and ethical implications for contemporary concerns. The nighttime setting suggests fear, vulnerability, and the cost of being seen publicly as standing in solidarity with Jesus. The scene is quite familiar for those today in justice work who take up the risk of confronting unjust systems. Jesus was standing on the side of those being harmed by the very system Nicodemus held power in and benefitted from. He had much to lose if he became associated with Jesus publicly.
Reading John 3 through a lens shaped by our justice work today invites contemporary Nicodemuses to consider how transformation begins in risky dialogues across difference. Nicodemus, with all his fear, still takes a step toward Jesus, even if it is a tentative one. And Jesus, taking all of this in, reframes Nicodemus’ identity not in terms of his privilege and power but through starting over and being born again. This story challenges Nicodemuses today to stand in solidarity with contemporary movements for structural change, movements rooted in, as Jesus stated, a love that encompasses the whole world and doesn’t just preserve the in-group for a privileged few. Jesus frames any advocacy by Nicodemus as a kind of rebirth: it requires humility, willingness to be unsettled, and courage to reimagine institutions. Even though Nicodemus is coming to him “at night” as an attempt to save his privilege and status, Jesus knows that it is not possible for Nicodemus to tell the truth without reprisals. Allyship for Nicodemus will cost him something, and this helps me interpret Jesus’ language about being born again in a more life-giving way. Jesus is not saying to Nicodemus that we are all somehow broken as humans and must be born again, as the traditional interpretation states. Rather he is saying that Nicodemus has ascended a professional ladder , and now that he is reaching the top, Jesus tells him the ladder’s leaning up against the wrong wall. Nicodemus must start over. Our reading this week gives us an opportunity to interpret John’s theological vision, not as anti-world escapism, but as a sustained, justice-rooted practice in our churches and public life today, together.
Next, Jesus draws on a troubling and paradoxical image: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The reference here is to Numbers 21, where a bronze serpent, an image of the very thing causing the people death, is raised so that the wounded Israelites may be miraculously healed and live. John’s gospel’s use of this imager is curious, because it reframes salvation not as escape from suffering, but as confrontation with it.
In the wilderness story, the people are not healed by their denial or moral purity, but by looking directly at the symbol of what is causing their affliction. Healing comes when the community is forced to face what is killing them. Jesus applies this logic to himself: liberation emerges through public exposure to the violence of unjust power as demonstrated in his own death.
In our context today, John’s gospel suggests that transformation requires lifting up the truth about injustice rather than hiding it. Jesus on the cross becomes a mirror held up to empire, revealing Rome’s brutality, the religious collaboration of those in power in Jerusalem, and the cost imposed on the poor and marginalized. The cross, rather than being “redemptive” because Jesus’ suffering satisfies some Divine requirement, instead unmasks the systems that produce suffering.
Also, in Numbers, the serpent was lifted up for everyone to see. Healing was communal, not private, and no one was saved through private contemplation alone. Everyone was saved, together, collectively. In the same way, this calls communities to collective awareness and responsibility. Our justice work today follows this pattern when we name injustices such as racism, economic exploitation, patriarchy, xenophobia, transphobia, and state violence. Naming them forces society to look at what it has normalized.
John’s Jesus insists that life comes not through avoiding discomfort, but through truth-telling that leads to transformation. The serpent in the wilderness reminds us that healing begins when we dare to look honestly at the systems that wound us and when those truths are lifted up where they can no longer be ignored.
The last portion of our reading this week (John 3:16) is most likely the most famous Bible passage. Too often, though, this passage is reduced to a private promise of personal salvation. Yet it can also carry profound social and political implications. “For God so loved the world” begins not with an individual soul but with the world, the kosmos: the whole created order and the human systems that shape it. God’s love is expansive, public, and concerned with collective life, not merely private piety.
The gift of the Son in this Johnannine passage is an act of divine solidarity. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is not given to endorse the world as it is, but to confront it, expose its injustice, and heal it. This gift is costly, involving vulnerability to state violence, political, economic and religious exclusion, and imperial power. Read in the context of our justice work today, John 3:16 reminds us that God’s love does not bypass suffering peoples or oppressive structures but enters them to heal them. Salvation, therefore, cannot be separated from liberation, restoration, and the reordering of relationships here in our world presently. Rome wasn’t threatened by early Christians’ personal, private, or individual religious beliefs. Rome did become threatened when early Jesus followers collectively tried to make the world a more just, compassionate and safe home for everyone.
Let’s address also this passages emphasis on “believing.” This language is also frequently misunderstood. In John’s Gospel, belief is not mere intellectual assent but embodied allegiance. It’s referred to as “following Jesus.” To follow Jesus or “believe” in the Son is to align oneself with his way of life, his table fellowship with the marginalized, his challenge to exploitative power and systemic harm, and his insistence that love of God is inseparable from love of neighbor. Belief becomes visible in action. As Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes says, “When you begin with the belief that God loves everyone, justice isn’t far behind.”
Finally, the promise in John 3:16 that people “may not perish but have eternal life” speaks to more than life after death. Eternal life in John begins now, as a quality of life rooted in justice, mutual care, and truth. Social systems that crush the poor, that gender or racialize worth, or that sanctify violence are forms of “perishing” already at work. John 3:16 proclaims that God’s response to such perishing is not abandonment but love made flesh in our concrete, material world. In this light, the last portion of our reading this week is a statement of hope and responsibility: because God loves the world, those who follow Jesus are called to participate in that love too, by resisting injustice and nurturing life, here and now.
“For God so loved the world” is more than a passive declaration. It invites us to learn how to love our world, with all our beautifully rich diversity, too.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What risks have you taken in standing up for justice? Which ones led to better things? Which risks did end up costing you something? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 10: Nicodemus Visits Jesus
John 3:1-17
Even though Nicodemus is coming to him “at night” as an attempt to save his privilege and status, Jesus knows that it is not possible for Nicodemus to tell the truth without reprisals. Allyship for Nicodemus will cost him something, and this helps us interpret Jesus’ language about being born again in a more life-giving way. Jesus is not saying to Nicodemus that we are all somehow broken as humans and must be born again, as the traditional interpretation states. Rather he is saying that Nicodemus has ascended a professional ladder, and now that he is reaching the top, Jesus tells him the ladder’s leaning up against the wrong wall. Nicodemus must start over. Our reading this week gives us an opportunity to interpret John’s theological vision, not as anti-world escapism, but as a sustained, justice-rooted practice in our churches and public life today, together.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
https://the-social-jesus-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/nicodemus-visits-jesus
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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Free Sign Up Here
The Temptations of Jesus and Our Justice Work Today
We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who supports the work of Renewed Heart Ministries. Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue our mission of love, justice, and compassion, even in a time when ministries like ours are being called to do more with less.
Your support means the world to us. Whether we’re speaking into the broader society, engaging within our faith communities, or working one on one alongside others endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings of love and justice, we remain committed to advocating for a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for all. Your partnership helps keep our work alive.
To all of our supporters, from all of us at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you. We are so deeply grateful for you, and we couldn’t do this work without you.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
The Temptations of Jesus and Our Justice Work Today
Herb Montgomery | February 20, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Matthew:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
But he answered,
“It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
This year’s season of Lent begins with Matthew’s version of Jesus’ temptations. I’m grateful to be in the book of Matthew this year. Matthew’s version reminds us that the story of the temptations of Jesus is not about a private spiritual test for Jesus. The story portrays a confrontation with systems of power, scarcity, and domination. In the wilderness, Jesus faces three offers that mirror the injustices of the world: turning stones into bread, gaining political power, and using religion as performance. The problem of scarce resources and the call to turn stones into bread has historically been solved for the few at the top who ignoring the collective hunger of the masses. Similarly, the powerful have not collectively shared political power but seized it through violence. And religion, too, has often been used to legitimize control. But Matthew’s story is of a Jesus who refuses each temptation. Matthew’s Jesus rejects exploitation, coercive authority, and religious manipulation. His choices reveal a vision of justice rooted in faith, solidarity, and liberation, the kind of liberation that still today has the potential to challenge our contemporary oppressive structures and call Jesus-following communities to pursue economic justice, shared power, and faith expressed through action for the common good of all, even those the present system marginalizes and harms.
Let’s start with the first temptation. Jesus’ temptation to turn stones into bread takes place in a world shaped by the Roman Empire’s economic violence. Roman rule concentrated land and wealth in the hands of elites, while peasants were taxed into hunger. Bread was never a neutral symbol; it represented survival under an extractive system that created scarcity for many to secure abundance for a few. In this context, the temptation is not about personal self-control, but about how to use power in a world of injustice.
The devil invites Jesus to use divine power to meet his immediate physical needs apart from confronting the systems that cause hunger. Had Jesus turned stones into bread, he could have alleviated his own hunger and perhaps even fed others, too, without challenging Rome’s exploitative economy. This would have been a form of charity that left oppressive structures intact. Jesus’ refusal signals rejection of a messiahship that solves symptoms while avoiding the deeper causes of suffering.
By responding, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” Jesus invokes Israel’s wilderness story, where manna taught the people dependence, resource sharing, mutual aid, and resistance to hoarding (see Exodus 16). The manna story association here for Jesus followers hearing the gospel fo Matthew woule have called for resources sharing as means of resistance to Roman exploitation in their own context. In his own time, Jesus chooses fidelity to creating a world shaped by economic justice (his teachings on “the kingdom”) over a personal, private shortcut that would bypass solidarity with the hungry and oppressed.
For our social justice work today, this temptation warns against substituting band-aid fixes or benevolent charity for structural transformation. Feeding people matters deeply. Jesus will go on to feed crowds in the gospel stories, but never in ways that reinforce domination or distract from confronting injustice. The temptation to “turn stones into bread” reappears whenever we are urged to use power to manage suffering without naming its root causes, or when we seek temporary solutions that still preserve the unjust systems causing the “hunger” in the first place.
Jesus’ refusal calls us to resist unjust-system-preserving solutions and to commit instead to a justice rooted in restored humanity, shared abundance, and collective liberation and thriving. True bread comes not from the shortcut of magical interventions, but from transforming the conditions that make hunger a reality for so many in the first place.
Jesus’ second temptation of being tempted to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple so that angels might rescue him takes place at the very heart of Jerusalem’s economic, political and religious system. Remember, there was no separation of religion and state in Jesus’ society. The heart of their religious system functioned much as a state capital does and much the same as Wall Street and our Federal Reserve do in terms of economics. So the Temple was not a random location. It was also the symbolic center of God’s presence, and in Jesus’ time it was deeply entangled with Roman power. The priestly elites collaborated with imperial authorities, benefiting from taxation, land control, and economic systems that extracted wealth from the poor while maintaining an appearance of divine legitimacy. Taking all of this together, this temptation is not simply about personal risk or spectacle; it is about using religion to sanctify religious, political, and economic injustice.
The devil in Matthew quotes Hebrew scripture, and suggests that God will protect Jesus if he leaps. This represents a temptation to perform a dramatic, religiously sanctioned act that would force God’s hand and win public acclaim from those invested in the temple system. Had Jesus accepted, he would have validated the temple’s authority and its claim to mediate God’s favor, even as it participated in exploitation. A miraculous display would have drawn crowds without challenging the structures that oppressed them. Jesus refuses, responding, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” He rejects a faith that demands divine rescue while leaving unjust systems intact.
In the context of Roman occupation, this temptation exposes the danger of religious institutions aligning themselves with empire while claiming God’s protection. Jesus’ refusal signals that God is not impressed by religious spectacle divorced from justice, nor does God endorse institutions simply because they invoke Scripture or tradition.
This affirms what we read in Isaiah:
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:11-17)
For our justice work today, this temptation warns against relying on performative faith or symbolic gestures that leave systems of exploitation untouched. It also challenges activists and faith communities to resist the urge to seek legitimacy, safety, or influence through proximity to power. Throwing ourselves from the “pinnacle” might look like trusting courts, politicians, or religious branding to save us while avoiding the costly work of solidarity with communities who are presently oppressed and working alongside them for structural change. Jesus’ response calls us instead to grounded, risky solidarity with the marginalized and a faith expressed not in spectacle, but in sustained resistance to injustice, even when there are no angels to intervene.
Finally, the last temptation in Matthew’s version, the temptation in which Jesus is offered “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” confronts the deepest allure of power. In this story, the devil presents domination as the fastest path to change: Take control. Wield authority from the top. Enforce justice through coercion. Jesus’ refusal does not reject justice itself, but rejects achieving it through empire’s tools, which often are not even an option for grassroots justice movements on the edges of our societies. Jesus refuses to bow to the logic that says liberation must come through domination, violence, or allegiance to unjust power structures.
In the context of the Roman Empire, this temptation is especially sharp. Rome already claimed the kingdoms of the world through military conquest, economic exploitation, and religious legitimation. To accept this offer would mean becoming a “better Caesar,” ruling more kindly but still ruling through Rome’s way. Jesus instead chooses a different path. This path was one that exposes and undermines empire rather than baptizing it. His response, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him,” is a declaration that political orders built on oppression don’t deserve our loyalty.
For social justice work today, this temptation remains profoundly relevant. Movements for justice are often tempted to seek change by compromising core values in exchange for proximity to power. They might silence critique to gain access, sacrifice marginalized voices for broader appeal, or adopt the same coercive tactics used by oppressive systems. Jesus’ refusal reminds us that the ends do not justify the means when the means replicate injustice.
In our justice work today, this story calls us to examine whom we stand in solidarity with, whose voices we center, what power we are willing to refuse, and why. True liberation comes from not from obtaining power at the expense of others, but distributing that power among the collective, with the presently marginalized being included, and with love and justice helping us choose justice without our becoming the very things we oppose.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. On what areas of social justice are the temptations stories focusing your attention this year during this season? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 8: Justice Lessons from the Transfiguration
Matthew 17:1-9
For Matthew’s audience, following Jesus meant stepping into a living tradition of liberation and prophetic courage that stretches back through Moses and Elijah and continues in our social justice work today. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses represented God’s decisive intervention on behalf of the oppressed. The exodus is not merely a spiritual metaphor; it is a concrete act of liberation from economic exploitation, state violence, and dehumanization. To follow Jesus today, then, is to inherit his commitment to justice and freedom. It is to stand with those trapped in modern Pharaohs, systems of injustice and harm, and to declare that such systems are neither natural nor ordained. Elijah embodies another essential dimension of this tradition: speaking truth to power. Elijah confronts kings, exposes the violence hidden behind religious and political respectability, and refuses to bless unjust arrangements. His prophetic voice in the stories insisted that faithfulness to God cannot be separated from justice for the vulnerable. Jesus stands squarely in this lineage. He’s bringing this ancient struggle to its fullest clarity and urgency. In this sense, Christian social justice work is not a political add-on to faith; it is the faithful continuation of the work begun with Moses, sharpened by Elijah, and embodied in Jesus. Ours is a path that still leads from bondage toward freedom, from silence toward courageous truth, from death-dealing crosses of state violence to triumphant and overturning resurrections.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
Are you getting all of RHM’s Free Resources?
Free Sign Up Here
Justice Lessons from the Transfiguration
We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who supports the work of Renewed Heart Ministries. Your generosity makes it possible for us to continue our mission of love, justice, and compassion, even in a time when ministries like ours are being called to do more with less.
Your support means the world to us. Whether we’re speaking into the broader society, engaging within our faith communities, or working one on one alongside others endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings of love and justice, we remain committed to advocating for a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for all. Your partnership helps keep our work alive.
To all of our supporters, from all of us at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you. We are so deeply grateful for you, and we couldn’t do this work without you.
If you’d like to join them in supporting our work, please go to renewedheartministries.com and click on “Donate.”
Justice Lessons from the Transfiguration
Herb Montgomery | February 13, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Matthew:
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” (Matthew 17:1-9)
In our reading this week, we encounter the gospel of Matthew’s version of Jesus’ Transfiguration. This story is often read as a moment of divine revelation and confirmation of Jesus’ identity. Yet when read through the lens of our justice work today, the scene becomes not only a mystical vision but also a political and ethical declaration about power, authority, and faithful resistance to injustice.
Jesus is transfigured on a mountain, his face shining and his clothes dazzling white. He is joined by Moses and Elijah—figures who embodied God’s liberating justice in Israel’s history. The Torah is not abstract morality; it is shaped by the experience of an oppressed people freed from imperial domination. Moses represents the law born out of liberation from slavery in Egypt, while Elijah represents prophetic resistance to corrupt power, especially in his confrontation with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who used state violence and religious manipulation to exploit the poor. Together, Moses and Elijah symbolize God’s enduring commitment to liberation and prophetic justice. Their appearance affirms that Jesus stands firmly in continuity with these traditions, not apart from them.
The context of the Transfiguration is crucial. Just before this scene, Jesus predicts his suffering and execution and calls his followers to take up their cross. In the Roman world, the cross was a tool of state terror, one used to crush resistance and enforce social order. The Transfiguration does not negate this path but confirms it. God’s affirmation, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him,” comes not in spite of Jesus’ commitment to confronting injustice, but because of it. Divine glory is revealed not through domination, but through solidarity with the oppressed and faithful resistance to the violence and injustice of unjust systems.
Peter’s impulse to build three dwellings for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah reflects a familiar temptation: to preserve the spiritual moment and remain on the mountain. When read in the context of our present momeant and the current demand for voices on the side of justice, Peter models the desire to turn faith into private spirituality rather than public responsibility. But God’s vision for justice cannot be contained. The disciples are commanded to listen to Jesus, not enshrine their experience. As Black poet and teacher Carl Wendell Hines, Jr., wrotein his 1965 poem “A Dead Man’s Dream,” “It is easier to build monuments than to build a better world.”
Peter’s impulse to build shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah at the Transfiguration can be read not simply as awe, but as a revealing moment of resistance to the costly demands of justice. On the mountain, Peter encounters a dazzling, validating religious experience: Israel’s law and prophets stand affirmed, Jesus is glorified, and divine approval is unmistakable. In response, Peter wants to institutionalize the moment. He proposes structures or sacred spaces that would preserve the revelation, contain it, and perhaps also control it.
Peter’s desire reflects the human temptation to remain on the “mountaintop” rather than descend into the valley where suffering, oppression, and conflict persist. Mountains are places of clarity, safety, and privilege. Valleys are where demonized migrants are being detained, where unjust systems grind people down, and where standing up and speaking truth carries risk. Building shelters on the mountain would allow Peter and the others to preserve this moment, to protect it from the messy realities of getting one’s hands dirty with the reality of social inequality below. But the Hebrew prophets, whose tradition both John and Jesus stood within), had dirt under their fingernails.
This instinct to control revelation on the mountaintop parallels how religious institutions sometimes prioritize preservation over justice in our time. Faced with injustice, communities of faith often choose to protect tradition, status, and comfort rather than confront systems that harm the vulnerable. For us, then, the Transfiguration is not a call to withdraw but a call to prepare to engage. God interrupts Peter’s plan with a command: “Listen.” Listen to Jesus. And what Jesus has just been saying before and after this scene, is about standing up for life and confronting the powers of death.
Jesus does not stay transfigured on the mountain. He comes down and immediately encounters the Roman oppression and Temple complicity again. In this way, the story challenges faith communities today. Authentic spirituality is not about building monuments to holy moments or defending institutional privilege. It is about allowing those moments to propel us back into the world, where justice, healing, and solidarity are urgently needed. The glory of the mountain exists to empower the courage required in the valley.
The Divine call to listen to Jesus in our reading this week holds deeper meaning for us, too. It means following Jesus back down the mountain, into the valleys where the guilty are justified and violence is committed against the innocent and those who resist. The cloud that overshadows the scene, telling Peter, James and John to listen to Jesus, reminds us of the cloud of divine presence in the Exodus folklore, when God traveled with a displaced people through the wilderness. In Matthew’s transfiguration, the Divine voice once again aligns itself with those on the margins of power, not with empire or the elites, and the command to “listen to him” elevates Jesus’ teachings. Jesus insisted on mercy, welcoming the stranger, economic justice for the poor, enemy love, inclusion of the excluded, and the humanity of those the system had valued as the least. In this way, the Transfiguration in Matthew’s Gospel challenged those complicit with Rome. It challenges Christian complicity with nationalism and injustice today too. Following the Jesus of the Transfiguration means aligning oneself with the liberation and courageous truth-telling found in the stories of both Moses and Elijah.
In Matthew, when the Transfiguration vision ends, only Jesus remains. Moses and Elijah fade, not because the law and prophets are discarded, but because they find a renewed expression in the model of Jesus’ teachings and actions. For Christian communities committed to social justice today, the Transfiguration proclaims that the struggle for liberation even against the impossible odds faced by slaves in Egypt, the courage of prophetic truth telling and speaking out against Ahab and Jezebel, and Jesus’ costly path of standing up to complicity with imperial harm in the face of being threatened with a cross, are all the very places where God is present.
For Matthew’s audience, following Jesus meant stepping into a living tradition of liberation and prophetic courage that stretches back through Moses and Elijah and continues in our social justice work today. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses represented God’s decisive intervention on behalf of the oppressed. The exodus is not merely a spiritual metaphor; it is a concrete act of liberation from economic exploitation, state violence, and dehumanization. To follow Jesus today, then, is to inherit his commitment to justice and freedom. It is to stand with those trapped in modern Pharaohs, systems of injustice and harm, and to declare that such systems are neither natural nor ordained.
Elijah embodies another essential dimension of this tradition: speaking truth to power. Elijah confronts kings, exposes the violence hidden behind religious and political respectability, and refuses to bless unjust arrangements. His prophetic voice in the stories insisted that faithfulness to God cannot be separated from justice for the vulnerable. Jesus stands squarely in this lineage. Like Elijah, Jesus names the lies that sustain oppression; like Moses, he announces a way out. When Jesus proclaims good news to the poor and release to the captives, he is not starting something new. He’s bringing this ancient struggle to its fullest clarity and urgency.
To follow Jesus today is therefore not primarily about private piety or institutional preservation. It is about joining a movement of liberation and truth-telling in our own context. I can’t help but think of the courage being demonstrated in Minneapolis at this moment. Following Jesus means challenging laws, economies, and cultural narratives that crush the vulnerable, even when doing so is costly. It means organizing, resisting, and reimagining community in ways that reflect God’s desire for abundant life for all. In this sense, Christian social justice work is not a political add-on to faith; it is the faithful continuation of the work begun with Moses, sharpened by Elijah, and embodied in Jesus. Ours is a path that still leads from bondage toward freedom, from silence toward courageous truth, from death-dealing crosses of state violence to triumphant and overturning resurrections.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does Matthew’s Transfiguration inspire you to leave the mountain and engate justice work in the valey? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 8: Justice Lessons from the Transfiguration
Matthew 17:1-9
For Matthew’s audience, following Jesus meant stepping into a living tradition of liberation and prophetic courage that stretches back through Moses and Elijah and continues in our social justice work today. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses represented God’s decisive intervention on behalf of the oppressed. The exodus is not merely a spiritual metaphor; it is a concrete act of liberation from economic exploitation, state violence, and dehumanization. To follow Jesus today, then, is to inherit his commitment to justice and freedom. It is to stand with those trapped in modern Pharaohs, systems of injustice and harm, and to declare that such systems are neither natural nor ordained. Elijah embodies another essential dimension of this tradition: speaking truth to power. Elijah confronts kings, exposes the violence hidden behind religious and political respectability, and refuses to bless unjust arrangements. His prophetic voice in the stories insisted that faithfulness to God cannot be separated from justice for the vulnerable. Jesus stands squarely in this lineage. He’s bringing this ancient struggle to its fullest clarity and urgency. In this sense, Christian social justice work is not a political add-on to faith; it is the faithful continuation of the work begun with Moses, sharpened by Elijah, and embodied in Jesus. Ours is a path that still leads from bondage toward freedom, from silence toward courageous truth, from death-dealing crosses of state violence to triumphant and overturning resurrections.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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Salt, Light, a City on a Hill and a Justice Oriented Faith
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Your support means the world to us. Whether we’re speaking into the broader society, engaging within our faith communities, or working one on one alongside others endeavoring to follow Jesus’ teachings of love and justice, we remain committed to advocating for a world that is inclusive, just, and safe for all. Your partnership helps keep our work alive.
To all of our supporters, from all of us at Renewed Heart Ministries, thank you. We are so deeply grateful for you, and we couldn’t do this work without you.
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Salt, Light, a City on a Hill and a Justice Oriented Faith
Herb Montgomery | February 6, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Matthew:
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-20)
This week’s reading has multiple themes worth looking at. Let’s begin with the metaphor of Jesus followers being “salt.” When Jesus tells his listeners, “You are the salt of the earth,” he draws on an image of something that is earthy, practical, and quietly subversive. In the ancient world, salt was not a luxury garnish but a necessity. It preserved food from decay, brought out flavor, and in Jesus’ own culture was often associated with making covenants. Read through the lens of our justice work today, the metaphor could also point to a community whose presence actively resists corruption and nurtures life in the midst of systems that harm and exploit. Let’s see.
Salt preserves by slowing decay. In a social context, this suggests a calling to confront and restrain forces that degrade human dignity such as poverty, racism, patriarchy, xenophobia, violence, and economic exploitation. To be “salt” is not to retreat into purity but to be mixed into the realities of the world, especially where suffering is acute. Salt only works when it comes into contact with what is spoiling. Likewise, justice-oriented faith requires proximity to injustice and a willingness to be changed by that encounter.
Salt also enhances flavor. This points to the positive, creative dimension of justice work: cultivating communities where hope, equity, and mutual care can flourish. Justice is not only about naming what is wrong but about helping life taste more fully human. In a just society, policies, economies, and institutions are shaped around compassion and shared wellbeing rather than profit or power alone.
Finally, Jesus warns that salt can lose its saltiness. In social justice terms, this is a caution against accommodation and complacency. When faith communities absorb the values of domination or individualism, they lose their distinctiveness and moral force. To remain “salty” is to stay grounded in solidarity with the marginalized and committed to transformation, even when such commitment is costly. “You are the salt of the earth” calls for an engaged, courageous presence: even only in small doses, salt is still capable of preserving life and bringing out its best flavors.
Next let’s consider Jesus’ image of a “city on a hill.” This imagery has often been lifted out of its context and repurposed to describe nations, power, or exceptionalism. Writers from the United States, notably, have used this image to describe their country. Yet in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is not addressing empires or nations. He is instead speaking to a marginalized community of disciples living under Roman occupation, and calling them into a distinctive way of life shaped by God’s justice. Jesus’ metaphor is ethical, not nationalistic.
A city on a hill is visible not because it dominates, but because it cannot hide. In the same breath, Jesus speaks of light, good works, and glorifying God. The “light” he envisions in this chapter is the concrete practice of compassion and justice, peacemaking, and solidarity with the poor that he has just described in the Beatitudes. This city shines when people who hunger and thirst for justice forgive debts, refuse violence, and love their neighbors and their enemies. Its visibility comes from lived faithfulness, not military might, economic supremacy, or cultural dominance.
So to read the “city on a hill” as a nation-state is to invert Jesus’ meaning. Empires seek to be seen through power; Jesus instead calls his followers to be seen through compassion and a justice that results in peace. The city he imagines is not built by coercion or exclusion but by communities that embody God’s reign, the Kingdom. That kingdom is God’s just future where the vulnerable are protected, resources are shared, and humanity is restored. This kind of visibility often brings risk, not praise, because it exposes injustice and challenges systems of exploitation.
Jesus’ words call his followers, not countries, to account. The question is not whether a nation shines, but whether Jesus-following communities reflect the justice and mercy of God in public and unmistakable ways. When followers of Jesus engage their world by organizing for things such as fair wages, welcoming migrants, and resisting racism, all while standing alongside those harmed by unjust systems, they became that city on a hill. Their light points beyond themselves, not to national glory, but to the character of the Jesus they follow and the world his teachings have led them to not only imagine, but also to work to shape.
This makes even more sense when we hold it in the context of the image of a lamp on a lampstand. Jesus’ lampstand image calls followers to let justice-shaped faith be publicly visible. Light is not meant to be hidden in private piety or confined to personal morality while injustice persists around it and while the world burns. The saying challenges communities to place their values where they can illuminate real conditions of harm and inequality. A lamp on a stand exposes what is broken and guides others toward safer, more just paths. When Christians advocate for the oppressed, confront unjust systems, and practice compassion openly, their faith demonstrated through their choices and actions “gives light to everyone in the house.”
Lastly let’s consider Jesus’ words, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). These words are often heard as a theological clarification, but they are also a deeply social and political statement. Spoken to people living under Roman occupation and local elites who benefited from systems of exploitation, this declaration situates Jesus firmly within Israel’s long tradition of justice-seeking faith. These words signal continuity with the ethical and societal justice demands of the Torah and the prophets, and challenge any religion that divorces faith from the well-being of the vulnerable.
The “law and the prophets” were never merely about ritual observance or abstract morality. Torah and the prophetic tradition were concerned with concrete social realities: fair treatment of the poor, protection of widows and orphans, limits on wealth accumulation, hospitality to the stranger/migrant, and resistance to oppression. When prophets like Amos, Isaiah, and Micah condemned Israel, they did so not because people lacked religious zeal, but because they practiced worship while neglecting justice. By declaring that he fulfills rather than abolishes this tradition, Jesus affirms that God’s concern for justice is ongoing and non-negotiable.
In Matthew’s Gospel, fulfilling the law meant that Jesus consistently deepened and intensified the law’s ethical intent: justice for the vulnerable and marginalized. Matthew’s gospel moves beyond surface compliance, and Matthew’s Jesus opposes violence, promotes community, and extends love even to enemies. In social justice terms, Jesus’ fulfillment exposes systems that technically obey rules while producing harm. It critiques structures that claim legality or tradition while perpetuating inequality, exclusion, or violence.
Jesus’ teaching also resists the use of the law as a tool of domination. In his context, legal interpretations were often shaped by those in power to protect their own interests. By reclaiming the law’s original purpose of human flourishing and communal well-being, Jesus challenges both religious and political authorities alike. His fulfillment of the law centers those most impacted by injustice: the poor, the sick, the marginalized, and the outcast. This orientation suggests that any interpretation of faith that harms the vulnerable is a betrayal of the law’s true intent.
Today, Jesus’ words caution against forms of Christianity that dismiss social responsibility in favor of spiritualized belief or personal salvation alone. They also challenge movements that appeal to “biblical values” while ignoring the prophetic demand for justice. Faithfulness to Jesus does not mean abandoning moral traditions or prophetic critique; it means carrying them forward in ways that confront contemporary injustices such as economic exploitation, racism, patriarchy, LGBTQ discrimination, mistreatment of migrant communities, and more.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets” is ultimately a call to a justice-shaped faith. It insists that following Jesus means participating in the long, unfinished work of aligning social life with God’s vision of justice, compassion, and liberation: the hope of both the law and the prophets.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. What does a justice-oriented faith look like for you? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
I want to say a special thank you to all of our supporters out there. And if you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by going to renewedheartministries.com and clicking donate.
My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
As always, you can find Renewed Heart Ministries each week on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s Threads. If you haven’t done so already, please follow us on your chosen social media platforms for our daily posts.
If you’d like to reach us here at Renewed Heart Ministries through email, you can reach us at info@renewedheartministries.com.
Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 6: Salt, Light, a City on a Hill and a Justice Oriented Faith
Matthew 5:13-20
Today, Jesus’ words caution against forms of Christianity that dismiss social responsibility in favor of spiritualized belief or personal salvation alone. They also challenge movements that appeal to “biblical values” while ignoring the prophetic demand for justice. Faithfulness to Jesus does not mean abandoning moral traditions or prophetic critique; it means carrying them forward in ways that confront contemporary injustices such as economic exploitation, racism, patriarchy, LGBTQ discrimination, mistreatment of migrant communities, and more. This passage is ultimately a call to a justice-shaped faith. It insists that following Jesus means participating in the long, unfinished work of aligning social life with God’s vision of justice, compassion, and liberation: the hope of both the law and the prophets.
Available on all major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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