EngineeredTheology

I couldn’t resist a book that begins the first chapter with Jesus sitting in a vegan restaurant, listening to his iPod, being approached by the Apostle Paul who promptly punches him in the face.

I can’t remember another book I’ve read that takes a satirical approach on discussing how we follow Jesus. After reading it really makes me wish this form of writing wasn’t so rare in current literature. The humor and absurdity brings us to question who it is we really think Jesus is. We are confronted with the Magic 8 Ball Jesus, Political Jesus, Peacenik Jesus, Televangelist Jesus, King James Jesus, etc. We have all these ideas of who Jesus is, but they all come down to ways we have reduced the real live Jesus into something we can contain and deal comfortably with. The fictional tale is about how we must give up these imaginary Jesuses if we want to ever come in contact with the true living Jesus, and how easy it is to deceive ourselves all over again.

The book, while not exactly short is an extremely quick read and pretty entertaining. In the realm of the Screwtape Letters, talks a lot about what Jesus is not, but has a difficult time when it gets to what Jesus is. Amusingly, this is exactly how we end up with imaginary Jesuses instead of apophatic statements. It points to how we need to reckon the Jesus in our minds, to the Jesus found in the Gospels. The true Jesus is found in the Gospels making the people around Him uncomfortable, challenging social norms, and encouraging others to freely give of themselves; can we expect the true Jesus who lives with us now to be any different with us?