When I first saw the title and make-up of this book I was
intrigued and excited. I have been pursuing the life and teaching of Jesus for
a while and I thought that this might offer a new viewpoint or a way that I
could share the life and words of Jesus with others differently. At the very
least this book held the potential to reconnect with familiar passages in a new
way. As far as these are concerned I was not disappointed.
Mikalatos essentially retells the basic story of the Gospels
in modern language but also places them in a contemporary setting. He recasts
various stories from the Bible and guides the reader through the real emotions
that might be present if we encountered Jesus today.
There were many things that I liked about this book. It is
easy to read. It does not just tell the stories but Mikalatos interacts with
the theology and implications of Jesus on our lives. The book has a fresh and
up front way of talking about Jesus and the importance of the interactions told
in the Gospels. For the new believer or the person that has grown weary of
reading the same passages over and over this may be a good surge to the soul as
they see Jesus differently. However, those who are still captivated by Jesus
and seek to read in order to obey this book doesn’t really add much value, if
any.
This brings me to the things that I did not like about the
book. One issue is that the stories were cherry picked. I get that the author
was not trying to retell the Bible but it feels like so much was left out. The
other thing is that the author tried to harmonize the Gospels. He picked from
different Gospel writers without carrying over the unique theological thrust
that these stories communicate as they are tied together in a particular way.
All of that being said this is a good book. It may not be for everybody but it is a well written and
certainly creative expression of the life and teaching of Jesus.
