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.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Yancey, Jesus, Chapter 1
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1 comments:
--Tim
Hello to all or a few to just Pastor Wolf. Its great for me to join in this discussion about the book “The Jesus I never knew”. I hope that I can gain a little more understanding about Jesus that may come from others prospective.
The first chapter I feel that I need to loose all my preconceived notions and broaden my definition of who Jesus is not only what he looked like but the spirit also. We look at the life through the passages of the bible but find it a little incomplete of Jesse’s early part of his life and family. We know he was raised in the Jewish faith and knew Jewish law but he often went outside of the rules that were imposed his religion.
The image I grew up with was one learned from my Lutheran background, which seemed a little to back and white and incomplete. As I find with all history there always seem like there’s more to the story because we are looking through someone else’s recollection of the events that happened 50-100years after the death of Jesus. Perhaps Jesus is beyond definition and can’t be placed in a box and is always changing but yet the same today as he was yesterday?
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