The Jesus I Never Knew
The name Philip Yancey is one that is often mentioned in Christian circles these days, the man concerned having written a number of very popular books. Whilst browsing in my local Christian bookshop, I found “The Jesus I Never Knew,” and decided to give it a go.
Subtitled “Why No One Who Meets Him Ever Stays The Same,” the book builds around the notion that a true Christian has a living relationship with Jesus Christ, and has to make life-altering changes as a result. Throughout, Yancey demonstrates how if we are to follow Christ, we have to change the way we live.
“The Jesus I Never Knew” is divided into three sections, entitled “Who He Was,” “Why He Came” and “What He Left Behind.” Each of these sections is divided up into a number of chapters, including one focussing on Jesus’ family background, a couple looking at his teaching, and then one each on his death, resurrection and ascension. In these chapters, Yancey constantly challenges the image of Jesus that we pick up from an early age – the attractive white man with a beard and flowing brown hair, surrounded by children and animals. Instead, he refocuses on the identity of Jesus as he appears on the pages of the Bible – from prophecies about him coming in the Old Testament, through his ministry in first century Palestine and beyond. The identity of Jesus as revealed through God’s word is radically different to the Jesus the world – and indeed, many Christians – picture when they hear his name.
One of the most thought-provoking chapters in the book looks at the Sermon on the Mount – the chapters in Matthew’s gospel which report Jesus’ most concentrated period of teaching. This sermon has proved troublesome to many over the centuries. The Beatitudes, for example, which open the sermon in Matthew 5, seem to be impossible ideals in a fallen world. Yancey, however, taking each beatitude in turn, demonstrates how we should strive to live by these standards, since we need to view the world in an eternal, heavenly perspective and not a worldly one. Any attempt to water the truths of this sermon down, Yancey believes, or to say that it is no longer relevant in the twenty-first century, deny the gospel itself.
Yancey pays such close attention to all areas of Christ’s earthly ministry, and attempts to come closer to the man through the Biblical reports of his actions and words. It soon becomes clear that the picture of Christ with which we are familiar, is grossly inaccurate. In “The Jesus I Never Knew,” the real character of Jesus becomes clear – a man of flesh and blood like any other, but at the same time a man who was God; a man who shocked and scandalised those around him, yet left a message still as powerful and relevant to us two thousand years later; a man who refused to fit the preconceptions of those who had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Messiah, yet was something far greater.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, whether you have had a living relationship with Jesus Christ for many years already, or if you’re new to the Christian life, or even if you’re just intrigued by the man who claimed to be God. Whatever your beliefs, you will grow in your understanding of just who Jesus was, and what he was like, and be challenged to respond to this in an appropriate way.
This is the best Christian book I have read for some time.
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Simon is a teacher, writer and preacher based in Kent in the United Kingdom. Simon enjoys sailing, and is a keen geocacher. Simon is married to Claire.
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