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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
inspiring
reflective
First Yancey book I've read. Loved his writing. Deep, profound, well researched, yet very personal. Definitely had me thinking about Jesus and who He was/is.
This is a remarkable book. It was recommended to me by a friend, who told me it was so powerful she had to put it down every few pages to take it all in. Initially, I was skeptical- How powerful could it possibly be?- and then I read it. I have read a lot of "Christian" books, on subjects from apologetics to worldview to theology, but never one like this- a Christian book about Christ. The Jesus I Never Knew was like a cold mountain stream, washing from me, as Yancey puts it, the "layers of dust and grime applied [to Jesus] by the church itself."
That this book is so revelatory and exhilarating goes to show just how thick the dirt and grime are. Yancey doesn't seek to form his own version of Jesus- he simply exposes and describes the man that humans throughout history have disfigured and covered up. This is not to take away from Yancey's writing, which is prose-like as it seamlessly weaves together stories both from his own life and from the life of Jesus to tell the story of Christ. Yancey draws on a wide variety of sources- from Tolstoy to Dorothy Sayers to Ghandi- dropping in C.S. Lewis-like nuggets of wisdom along the way (my favorite, regarding Jesus's miracles: "A sign is not the same thing as proof; a sign is merely a marker for someone who is looking in the right direction.").
The Jesus I Never Knew revealed to me how much of my Christian faith has not been shaped by Christ. For much of my life, my experience of Christianity has revolved around resisting secular culture, holding the correct theological positions on this or that, abiding by a list of dos and don'ts. As I read this book, I sometimes felt twinges of disbelief: Is Jesus really like that? Why didn't I ever hear about that in church? A few examples that particularly struck me:
"Jesus never tried to hide his loneliness and dependence on other people"- p. 99
"Jesus moved the emphasis from God's holiness (exclusive) to God's mercy (inclusive). Instead of the message 'No undesirables allowed,' he proclaimed 'In God's kingdom there are no undesirables.'"- p. 155
"Power...tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other." - p. 205
I could go on and on about the merits of this book but in truth, I loved it because it showed me who it is I believe in and made me want to know him better. It swept away the accretions of Christianity and showed me Christ. By painting a picture of who Jesus was and is- or more accurately, unearthing the picture from layers of dirt and peeling paint- Yancey introduces us to someone all of us have heard of, but many of us don't know.
That this book is so revelatory and exhilarating goes to show just how thick the dirt and grime are. Yancey doesn't seek to form his own version of Jesus- he simply exposes and describes the man that humans throughout history have disfigured and covered up. This is not to take away from Yancey's writing, which is prose-like as it seamlessly weaves together stories both from his own life and from the life of Jesus to tell the story of Christ. Yancey draws on a wide variety of sources- from Tolstoy to Dorothy Sayers to Ghandi- dropping in C.S. Lewis-like nuggets of wisdom along the way (my favorite, regarding Jesus's miracles: "A sign is not the same thing as proof; a sign is merely a marker for someone who is looking in the right direction.").
The Jesus I Never Knew revealed to me how much of my Christian faith has not been shaped by Christ. For much of my life, my experience of Christianity has revolved around resisting secular culture, holding the correct theological positions on this or that, abiding by a list of dos and don'ts. As I read this book, I sometimes felt twinges of disbelief: Is Jesus really like that? Why didn't I ever hear about that in church? A few examples that particularly struck me:
"Jesus never tried to hide his loneliness and dependence on other people"- p. 99
"Jesus moved the emphasis from God's holiness (exclusive) to God's mercy (inclusive). Instead of the message 'No undesirables allowed,' he proclaimed 'In God's kingdom there are no undesirables.'"- p. 155
"Power...tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other." - p. 205
I could go on and on about the merits of this book but in truth, I loved it because it showed me who it is I believe in and made me want to know him better. It swept away the accretions of Christianity and showed me Christ. By painting a picture of who Jesus was and is- or more accurately, unearthing the picture from layers of dirt and peeling paint- Yancey introduces us to someone all of us have heard of, but many of us don't know.
Gave me a whole new understanding of Jesus and a gentle reminder of how we should live.
Yancey writes in a very casual but clear down-to-earth human way, going through Jesus' Jewish origins, his birth, life, challenges, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension etc...he referred intensely to the four Gospels, only occasionally taking from Paul's writings and quotes from other great Christian men and women of God to further illustrate his point. Which I think was good, because it really captured the life that Jesus lived on Earth. I also loved the way he describes the society during Jesus' time and places himself in it. He then tells his readers about his own skepticism and unbelief that he might and has faced while trying to write this book.
One thing that Yancey made very clear was that Jesus was and is and will always be the One and Only God like no other. Instead of all the splendor and the majesty, Jesus came as a baby, died a criminal, rose from the died, and ascended into Heaven. I mean, Jesus, who was very God of very God, was and is the ultimate epitome of Love and Humility. Yancey stressed a lot on those 2 points:-
Sinless friend of sinner that was how someone put it. Jesus mingled with everyone - from pharisees to tax collectors to people deemed by the society to be immoral. In fact, Jesus accepted the immoral and outcasts of the society more than the pharisees and the high people. This level of humility is staggering, considering that Jesus was God incarnated. Come on, he could split the world in two if he wanted to. It is not worldly wealth and position that will bring one closer to God, it is the heart.
It dawned on me while going through this book. Jesus could have just wiped out everyone that wanted to crucify him with a snap of his fingers by commanding his legions of angels to descend from heaven. Jesus' came face to face with his greatest temptation not in the desert but on the Cross. But he loved us too much, just too much. He knew that he had to go through this period of unfathomable suffering to reconcile us back to God. He knew that he was the perfect, one and only person that could only suffer the perfect death.
But in this divine love, incomprehensible to us, Jesus was somehow fully human. He was surprised, righteously angry, sad, happy and really experienced all that was human.
Furthermore, I loved the way Yancey illustrated Jesus as the Prodigal Son who left the house of his heavenly father, went to a foreign land, gave away all that he had, and returned THROUGH THE CROSS to his father. I've never seen it in that perspective before.
Another point Yancey wrote about was that it was Transformation. We should not be trying to 'christiazed' the world because the world(apart from God's Grace) can and will never be successfully 'christianized'. Oppression and force will never work. God's ways are too opposite, too high, for the world to actually comprehend to much less follow - He demands love and humility, peace and feeding the hungry. We should be transforming not the outward political structure of the society but the inward spiritual hearts of men. We, witnesses of Jesus should be displaying the signs of the Kingdom of God in the world, and let the world judge the merits of God's Kingdom. We are to herald God's Kingdom on to earth.
All in all a very well written book by Yancey. Easy to read, but opens the mind and clarifies fuzzy-wuzzy perceptions about Jesus.
One thing that Yancey made very clear was that Jesus was and is and will always be the One and Only God like no other. Instead of all the splendor and the majesty, Jesus came as a baby, died a criminal, rose from the died, and ascended into Heaven. I mean, Jesus, who was very God of very God, was and is the ultimate epitome of Love and Humility. Yancey stressed a lot on those 2 points:-
Sinless friend of sinner that was how someone put it. Jesus mingled with everyone - from pharisees to tax collectors to people deemed by the society to be immoral. In fact, Jesus accepted the immoral and outcasts of the society more than the pharisees and the high people. This level of humility is staggering, considering that Jesus was God incarnated. Come on, he could split the world in two if he wanted to. It is not worldly wealth and position that will bring one closer to God, it is the heart.
It dawned on me while going through this book. Jesus could have just wiped out everyone that wanted to crucify him with a snap of his fingers by commanding his legions of angels to descend from heaven. Jesus' came face to face with his greatest temptation not in the desert but on the Cross. But he loved us too much, just too much. He knew that he had to go through this period of unfathomable suffering to reconcile us back to God. He knew that he was the perfect, one and only person that could only suffer the perfect death.
But in this divine love, incomprehensible to us, Jesus was somehow fully human. He was surprised, righteously angry, sad, happy and really experienced all that was human.
Furthermore, I loved the way Yancey illustrated Jesus as the Prodigal Son who left the house of his heavenly father, went to a foreign land, gave away all that he had, and returned THROUGH THE CROSS to his father. I've never seen it in that perspective before.
Another point Yancey wrote about was that it was Transformation. We should not be trying to 'christiazed' the world because the world(apart from God's Grace) can and will never be successfully 'christianized'. Oppression and force will never work. God's ways are too opposite, too high, for the world to actually comprehend to much less follow - He demands love and humility, peace and feeding the hungry. We should be transforming not the outward political structure of the society but the inward spiritual hearts of men. We, witnesses of Jesus should be displaying the signs of the Kingdom of God in the world, and let the world judge the merits of God's Kingdom. We are to herald God's Kingdom on to earth.
All in all a very well written book by Yancey. Easy to read, but opens the mind and clarifies fuzzy-wuzzy perceptions about Jesus.
This was a very interesting take on Jesus, working through historical fact as well as personal stories of faith. I enjoyed it very much and will re-visit it in the future, I'm sure, as questions about faith come up quite often. I also appreciate the inclusion of quotes from other historical and important figures. A quick read, but truly makes you think.
Very consistent with many of my own thoughts about Jesus. Interesting reading about this author's struggles to get to the point where this version made sense to him. Had to have been hard given his upbringing in a pretty conservative-sounding church.
Many great insights into Jesus, His life and teachings, and how His followers can more fully embrace His example.
Of two minds about this. On one hand, this is organized in such a way that we can explore the life of Jesus Christ in a more organically biographical way than is presented in the gospels. It's a sort of fan nonfiction that groups concepts and persons at the major "beats" of Jesus's life and ministry. On the other, I had more than one spiritual check and ultimately decided not to finish the book. Like the Holy Spirit didn't want me to get to Pentecost. With that said, I wouldn't recommend it but I wouldn't go out of my way to prevent someone from reading it-- especially if that person weren't a follower of Christ and this could help them in that direction. Also, open to correction and discussion.
informative
reflective
slow-paced