THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW

BY PHILIP YANCEY

1995 Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 386 pp.

A Book Review by Joseph Ng

November 2002

Time, distance, and culture separate us from the time Jesus walked the earth. Our modern encounters with Jesus come through modern lenses and filters, some of which distort our view of Him or even turn us off. What we need is a guide to take us through a time warp to first-century Palestine and gently point out to us the scenes and their significance, as we survey the life of Jesus—from His miraculous conception to His ascension.

Perhaps one of Yancey’s two best volumes (the other being his Disappointment with God), The Jesus I Never Knew not only transports us vividly into the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life but also provides a riveting commentary relating the impact of each scene in those days as it would to us. The reader is taken into the oppressed world of the Roman Occupation, not totally unlike life in modern Palestine. King Herod the Great is aptly compared to his modern equivalent Josef Stalin. The Zealots are first-century Marxist revolutionary-equivalents. Scenes from Fiddler on the Roof are invoked for the wedding of Cana. A rabbi stripped naked and forced to preach by the Nazis while another Jew was being killed before him illustrates “the shame endured by God’s Son on earth, stripped naked, flogged, spat on, struck in the face, garlanded with thorns” (p. 259). But the major contribution of the book is its telling us (or attempting to tell us) why Jesus did what He did—why perhaps He didn’t do any more or any less.

DESCRIPTION

The book is thus divided:

Part One: Who He Was (“The Jesus I Thought I Knew,” “Temptation: Showdown in the Desert,” etc.)

Part Two: Why He Came (“Beatitudes: Lucky Are the Unlucky,” “Resurrection: A Morning Beyond Belief,” etc.)

Part Three: What He Left Behind (Ascension: A Blank Blue Sky,” etc.)

Yancey confides that his work has its roots in his Sunday school ministry in Chicago, where he would run and compare snippets from various videos on Jesus’ life and discuss these with his students. The benefits were enormous not only to the students but on the author himself. “Essentially,” he says, “the films helped restore Jesus’ humanity for me. … What would it have been like to hang on the edges of the crowd? How would I have responded to this man? Would I have invited him over for dinner, like Zacchaeus? Turned away in sadness, like the rich young ruler. Betrayed him, like Judas and Peter?”

Thankfully, the author manages to communicate those impressions through his book for us who missed out on his Sunday school. Jesus, he found, “bore little resemblance to the Mister Rogers figure I had met in Sunday school and was remarkably unlike the person I had studied in Bible college. For one thing, he was far less tame … [than] a Star Trek Vulcan” (pp. 18-19). While still upholding the ancient creeds, Yancey takes a radically Biblical approach to paint a historical Jesus, one who is more real and more faithful to the Bible’s description than the popular image passed over from centuries of tradition.

CRITIQUE

The Jesus I Never Knew is appropriately named. It has challenged me to rethink the Jesus of the Gospels as much as the suggestion of a Harley-riding figure and more recent archaeological reconstruction of Jesus’ face (BBC photo below). Strip away the filters of modernity, and meeting the historical Jesus uprfont could change your life.

I have already congratulated the success of the book. But to illustrate this further, Yancey’s analysis of the Temptation of Christ is particularly helpful, a treatment that is echoed in his Disappointment with God. Whereas many Bible commentators and preachers try to press the three tests into Eve’s succumbing to the serpent’s lure in Gen 3:6 and the elements of “the world” in 1 John 2:16, he takes them prima facie, for what they are—an invitation for Jesus to exert His divine prerogatives in provision, protection, and power. Jesus, of course, refuses, and we’re returned to the very Yanceyish theme of God’s shyness and restraint: His typical method of winning converts over is not by bluster or spectacle, but by gentle wooing and understated benevolence. So Christians and churches are to be careful not to get sidetracked with free handouts, miracles, and politics (Yancey wisely makes application on the separation of church and state, p. 322).

My reservation about the book will also be typical with Yancey’s other books, which is his unqualified use of examples and sources that may mislead the less-informed to potentially dangerous sirens on the religious scene. Liberal theologian C.H. Dodd, for instance, is approvingly quoted regarding Jesus’ genealogy without any qualification on who he is (p. 59). Existentialist Soren Kierkegaard, too, is favourably quoted on his view of divine omnipotence (p. 87). Roman Catholic nun Mother Teresa is ranked with Christians Wilberforce (antislavery movement) and Booth (Salvation Army) in the service of Christ (pp. 157, 307). Two other Roman Catholic figures, Francois Mauriac and Henri Nouwen, both exalted without qualification, make questionable examples of the Beatitudes (pp. 146-50). Yancey inclusion of so many interesting quotes throughout his book no doubt contributes strongly to its readability, but one wonders if there really is a paucity of examples from evangelicals, or perhaps an unstated ecumenical agenda afoot.

One additional reservation is Yancey’s advocacy of civil disobedience. In this book and elsewhere (e.g. Soul Survivor), he gives much prominence to the posthumously disgraced civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Having considered the resurrection of Christ, Yancey notes, “The Resurrection actually constituted an act of civil disobedience, since it involved breaking Pilate’s seal and striking down the official guards. In this case, triumphing over the powers meant active resistance” (footnote, p. 276). It is unclear how the divine “striking down” of Rome informs Christians’ “active resistance” towards the governments and military of our day.

It would be interesting to see how differently the book might be written in light of the September 11 incident of 1991. On Jesus’ self-prophecy of His resurrection, Yancey writes, “Imagine the reaction today if an Arab man ran through the streets of New York City shouting, ‘The World Trade Center will blow up, and I can rebuild it in three days’” (p. 255-56). Strangely prophetic words, indeed.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

J. Dwight Pentecost. 2000. The Words and Works of Jesus Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Alex Webb. 2001. Looking for the Historical Jesus. BBC News Online: 26 Mar 2001 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1243954.stm)