Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 7

Here's how to tell if you are a disciple of Jesus: If you are failing miserably to hear and obey his call, if your perfection falls far short of his command, and you have no hope to make yourself righteous but depend on him completely for forgiveness, then you are his disciple. It means you really have been listening to what he says.
Yancey does an excellent job of showing how the rest of the Sermon on the Mount plays out from the Beatitudes. If anything, the rest of the Sermon is even more strict and harder to hear than its opening lines.
Read Tolstoy if you want to see what it's like to be a follower of Jesus. Yancey spells out in a few pages just how difficult (indeed impossible), and yet how necessary, it is to "be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Tolstoy was this kind of agonized Christian. Eventually he spent himself trying to follow Jesus. In so doing, he left a powerful legacy of faithfulness.
And then there's Dostoyevsky, the perfect contrast and the perfect fulfillment of Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky saw the grace of Jesus in a way that Tolstoy never did. Where Tolstoy strove for perfection as Christ demanded it, Dostoyevsky saw that perrfection in the Christ that dwelled in him. Tolstoy is law, Dostoyevsky is grace. Both are from God, both are necessary, one fulfills the other.
Thus grace is the final word. Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount so that we could see the perfection of God, realize how far we are from that perfection, and also find that the forgiveness of Jesus is the only way for the gap to be covered.

Where have you seen yourself fall short?
Where have you seen your own redemption?

Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 6

In chapter 6, Yancey begins the enormous task of approaching Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, with the very difficult analysis of the Beatitudes.
Christians have always had trouble with the words of Jesus, especially these. How can we deal with a Lord who tells us that the poor, the mourners, and others like them are actually blessed? The world tells us that it is the rich and popular and famous and powerful who are blessed - and we fall for it. We want to believe it, because we want to have all that stuff, and still have God's approval.
So many have tried to soften what Jesus has said, even to the point of reversing his principles (Remember the Be Happy Attitudes?). But to his great credit, Yancey will have none of this. (Consistently through the book, Yancey has insisted on taking Jesus at his word - as if he really meant what he said, not what we hoped he would say.)
Yancey sees truth in the Beatitudes on three levels:
First, they are promises of things to come. There really is an eternal heavenly hope for us, and it will be blessed. Those who suffer and hurt now can look forward to an eternity of blessedness.
Why does God do things this way? Why not just bless all of us here and now?
Second, the Beatitudes are indications of a great reversal. Those who put their trust in the world's blessings, the rich, powerful, etc., will trade places with those who are hurting now. See the same attitude in Luke 1:52-53 and 16:25. A key to understanding this reversal is the dependence the needy have of God. Their advantage - they know they are in need; the rest of us think we're okay on our own.
How do we use our weaknesses to bring us closer to God?
Finally, Yancey sees the Beatitudes on the level of psychological reality. Stepping through each of the Beatitudes in turn, he points out how the rich really are poor, and so on. Those whom the world considers blessed are really not as happy or fulfilled as we might assume. But those who are poor, especially some who have made themselves poor for the sake of the Kingdom, are the truly happy ones.
What worldly blessings are crippling your soul? What trials are blessing you now?

Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 5

Why does the Apostles' Creed skip right from Jesus' birth to his death?
Why do you suppose no one who saw Jesus in the flesh left a description of his appearance?
Why was it possible for people to see Jesus and not know who he was?

How do you imagine Jesus' personality? As Yancey correctly points out, some people liked to spend a lot of time with him, but others were deeply insulted. Maybe the best illustration of this was Palm Sunday. A crowd welcomed him to Jerusalem, and later called for his death.

The chapter title is "What would I have noticed?" It would be hard not to notice, or at least hear about, the miracles, IF you lived in the area where Jesus performed them. It seems that many people who did know about the miracles managed to miss the point of why Jesus did them.

Jesus liked to use parables, which wasn't all that unusual. But he told them to all who cared to listen, not just his inner circle. He even claims to have used them just for the purpose of separating the friendly from the unfriendly. It seems to have worked - a little too well perhaps.

In the centuries since Jesus, his image has grown quite a bit. Perhaps if we saw him today, we may also be surprised by what we notice.

Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 4

In Lutheran circles, we have a name for the content of chapter 4. It's The Theology of the Cross. Yancey probably knows all about the concept, but didn't want to confuse matters by throwing in a Term. It's okay for you to use it, though.
Even without the term, he lays out the concept admirably. There are two competing theologies, it turns out. One, the Theology of Glory, looks to success and power as its hallmarks. It's a very tempting way to think - that our religion is the strongest, or most popular, or make the best rational sense. We would like to prove Christianity is correct by the miracles it performs or the blessings it receives from God as tangible rewards. But all of that is hogwash, and not the way God operates.
The Theology of the Cross is God's way. It is illustrated in the crucifixion, obviously, but also, as Yancey points out, in the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.
The devil tempted Jesus with all those glories - miracle, mystery and power - that seem reasonable, especially for the Messiah. But Jesus said no to all of it, choosing instead the way of the cross. By so doing, Jesus defeated the devil for a time; and by choosing the cross he defeated the devil permanently.
God takes a risk by adopting this strategy. He gives us freedom, even freedom to reject him, if we so choose. He does not force faith, but coaxes love from us.
People usually abuse their freedom.

Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 3

Did you know that Jesus was Jewish?
Recently I read in the Lutheran that there was a huge controversy in a hospital in Wisconsin. Someone had donated some art by a local painter. Several pictures were involved, which depicted Jesus in his historical setting, as a first century Jew would have looked. People actually complained that the artist made him look too Jewish! What else would he be?
Yancey points out what an aware Bible reader would notice, that Jesus carefully observed the Jewish law. The only time he got in trouble (in terms of Jewish law) is when he had to remind the hyper-legalists that the law was made for the sake of people, not the other way around.
The followers of Jesus have been fond of re-casting their Savior in their own image.
How do you imagine Jesus?
To a certain extent, it is a good thing to imagine him being like us. He did live and die for us, and had to be human like us to save us. If imagining Jesus as a modern American helps you to connect with him, by all means do so.
Nevertheless, do not forget that all people in every time and place have the same savior.
What would you think of an artist who painted Jesus to look European? African? Asian? What do you think of the carving of a crucifix done several years ago that depicted Jesus as a woman?
Absolute realism is not possible, since we don't know what Jesus looked like. But maybe that's a good thing . . .
How much realism do you think is necessary?

What does it mean that Jesus was Jewish? What implications does that have for the way we treat Jews today?
What do you think of what Yancey says about that?

It is true that many (but not all) Jews do not recognize Jesus as their Messiah. But then many (but not all) (Germans, Poles, Koreans, fill in the blank) have done the same.

Much of Yancey's third chapter is devoted to a description of the historical circumstances in which Jesus appeared. He describes four political/social groups that were active at the time: Pharisees, Saducees, Essenes and Zealots.
Do you see similar groups today? With which of the four groups do you find yourself most in sympathy?

Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 2

In chapter 2, the author explains in ample detail how humble were Jesus' beginnings, according to the Bible.
Christmas cards tend to sanitize the whole business, constrained as they are to be bright and pretty and cheerful. Lots of gold and glitter appear on Christmas cards, and those that mention Jesus at all say nothing about his purpose. He came to die - an idea that is offensive from square one. Once again, Jesus himself can be lost in our popular conceptions of him.
Now anyone who has witnessed a real birth knows they are messy. A one-minute old baby is not all that cute, and there's no reason to believe Jesus was either. Add in the smell of the animals and a lot of glitter falls off your picture of the incarnation.
Jesus was also (to make matters worse) in considerable danger from Herod and others when he was born. As soon as the powers-that-were got wind of the newborn king, they wanted him out of the way. (Eventually, they did kill him, of course.) Add to that the weakness of his current condition, and you can see the danger.
Yancey relates four attributes of God, highlighted in the Christmas story, which were not presented as divine virtues before this point, but would be forever after, at least by Christians. These words are humble, approachable, underdog and courageous. He treats each in detail.
Again, the world, even many Christians, are given a picture of God which will surprise and even shock them. How is the God of Christmas different from what society expects? How is he different from what you normally expect?

Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 1

Well, let's see if this works.
This is the book study of Yancey's The Jesus I Never Knew, meant for study by members of the Inwood (Iowa) Lutheran Parish, although others are very welcome.
I'll start by commenting on each chapter, and allow about a week for other comments to be added before I go on to the next. Feel free to leave comments on any chapter at any time.
--Pastor Wolf

The first chapter is called "The Jesus I Thought I Knew." Here Yancey relates his own early views of who Jesus was, and includes a variety of others. The views are as various as the people who hold them. I first heard the joke about Baptists, but it probably applies to everybody - "Where two or three are gathered, there will be four opinions."
Different concepts of who Jesus was depend on who holds them. Some make Jesus to be just like them; others pattern Jesus according to their needs. There are political Jesuses, as well as ethical ones, family friendly ones and you name it. Jesus has been made out like figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Mister Rogers. Authors and movie makers have told very different stories about the same characters and events. They can't all be right.
Why do you suppose people so readily re-create Jesus in another image?
What image did you grow up with?
Has your image of Jesus changed?
Yancey relates his experience as a child, that Jesus was someone who taught him to be nice, and to obey his parents. My experience is similar, but I don't remember him ever being happy with me. I did not think of him as a comforting, Mr Rogers presence as Yancey did. He was more of a behavior monitor.
My view of Jesus changed the most, I think, when my brother died. That's when his role as Savior became most clear to me, probably because I needed a savior then. Again, he is so much more than that.
Maybe we are supposed to see Jesus anew, often.
When I ask in confirmation whether it is easier to see Jesus as fully God or fully human, almost universally the students will say fully God. Yancey says just about the same thing. Jesus' humanity is harder to grasp. Why do you suppose that is?
I await your comments and will respond. The next chapter is about Jesus' birth.