A classic book on the Jesus of the Gospels that challenges us to rethink what we think we know about him.
I keep looking for a really good book about Jesus. One that does justice to both his humanity and his divinity. That presents him as the eternal Word of God made flesh. The one who walked in our world and the one who is the risen Lord of glory. I want it to be one that provokes my mind but also inspires my heart. One that I have to pause reading at times to think some more, or to bow my head in worship. One that causes me to cry out, like the apostle Paul, ‘Oh, to know Christ.’
Yancey’s classic book on Jesus from the 1990s is one that I have had on my shelf for many years and only just got around to reading. He is definitely focused on the human Jesus, the extraordinary man we see in the gospels, how he must have appeared to those around him. He is trying to understand Jesus ‘from below’ as he calls it. To do what he quotes Martin Luther as trying to do – ‘to draw Christ as deep as possible into the flesh.’ And this certainly has its merits. But, for me, it is with mixed results.
Part of my challenge is that I don’t always connect with his particular writing style. He acknowledges that he is primarily a journalist as a writer, and goes for what he calls the ‘impressionistic snapshots’ approach. I am someone who prefers the line-upon-line approach of the teacher. But that’s a personal thing – you may prefer his style. What I do admire about Yancey though is his commitment to honesty and reality. He insists on scraping away any pious or religious layers that cover our thinking about Jesus, and challenges our traditional assumptions and perspectives. At times this results in a refreshing and moving portrait of Jesus and certainly he shows just how revolutionary Jesus is. The commitment to being honest and not letting us get away with easy, superficial answers and assumptions is typical of Yancey as shown in his other books titles – ‘Where is God When it Hurts?’ ‘Disappointment with God’, ‘Soul Survivor’. And his book ‘What’s So Amazing about Grace’ is a special favourite which I will be reviewing it in the future.
Some chapters of this book on Jesus are better than others. Interestingly, it was his chapters on those parts of Jesus’s life that are often overlooked that I found especially thought-provoking. For example, his baptism and temptation which Yancey relates to the big question of why God doesn’t just stop all evil in the world. Also, the Ascension in which he suggests Jesus takes the risk of being ‘forgotten’ and the risk of entrusting his mission to people like you and me! Gulp! He also has some very interesting things to say about the Sermon on the Mount. It represents, Yancey suggests, ‘the great reversal’ of God’s kingdom in which the ‘servants’ and not the ‘stars’ are the blessed. And it reveals the highest ideals of God’s ‘law’ while awakening us to the grace we all need as we fall short of those ideals. By far, his chapter on the kingdom was the highlight for me as it captured so much of the message of God’s different kingdom that is so central to this site, and I will be returning to it in a later article.
So I certainly appreciated the book. I will only include in my reviews those books I think are worth reading. And don’t just go by what I say. Philip Yancey was awarded the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year award for this book in 1996 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. So many people have clearly valued this book.
Overall, I enjoyed it, am glad I read it, and would recommend it. But I am still looking for that really good book about Jesus.
If you have any recommendations of such a book, please let me know in the comments below.
A Different Kingdom 
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