Simply Jesus Summary by Wright - Book Report/Review Example

Simply Jesus Summary On the first part, Wright begins his work by describing Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem. Jesus is surrounded by a lot of people as he is carried by a donkey. Among the people in the crowd are his followers and many onlookers. There is a lot of noises, women crying and others shouting to grace the triumphant entry. In this part Wright tries to outline more about Jesus by explaining who he was, the activities engaged in and its importance. Wright states that the churches have reduced the kingdom of God to a private mission here on earth. The marking of the Easter holiday is seen to be inappropriate as the people celebrate happily despite there being a sad event that preceded the event. Wright notes that, the world of Jesus, Jesus as God and his behavior are the most important things that we should look into if we want to understand Jesus. All the key issues suggested by wright are strange for our own understanding. In Jesus’ world, the cultures are very different compared to the contemporary cultures present at our time. Wright argues that even Jesus did not know he was God! The actions made by Jesus are also too confusing, in that short period that he dwelled amongst the Jews He really acted like He was in charge (11). Through these actions, He was seen to be taking the role of God. Wright further goes ahead to analyze “the perfect storm." When a set of given circumstances combine through the least expected chances to bring about the most unexpected conditions to mankind. Wright describes the storm in two different ways. In the first instance he says the modern Christians have created a storm as situation when dealing with issues regarding the life of Jesus at his time; there are very many accounts about Him. Secondly he outlines the situation during the first century in which Jesus lived. The basic storm that Wright talks of is made up of conservatism and skepticism of the Christians which has further gone to create equivalent version of the modern day Christians, Wright labels it as a “myth." He targets those adopting the modernist categories of Christianity; both the liberal and the conservative. The two groups differ in their belief about God. The conservative believe that God always intervenes in their issues in a supernatural way. The liberals, on the other hand, say that Jesus and the kingdom of God are just an idea meant to the humans in a natural process. The second part looks into how Jesus brought Gods kingdom to the Christians of the 1st century. When starting his ministry in the world Jesus that God was in control. Wright likens the situation to a sporting world where a coach might be replaced by another one, mainly due to poor performance. Jesus marked the introduction of Gods kingdom to earth by winning more and more followers. Jesus is thought of having a “party following." Jesus would heal the sick and even raise the dead. These miracles kept the crowd entertained and always in a happy mood. Throughout the centuries, the Jews always knew that they were God’s chosen people. When Jesus came, they saw it as an opportunity for them to seize power from the ever oppressive Romans. Jesus’s movement was sometimes seen to be political in nature. He always moved around with 12 disciples; this was seen as a scheme to reconstitute the Israel authority; Israel had two tribes for over 800 years. According to Wright Jesus’ parables, tried to show the manifestation of heaven here on earth. During Jesus’ time, the message was directed to the Jews but later Jesus took it to all, including the gentiles. This is seen as if the “right” people did not take the message as it was intended by God, but instead the “wrong” people accepted God’s kingdom on earth. This leads to Wright asking if really the same has happened to the modern day Christians. Have they also rejected God’s word as it is intended to them? At God’s level, the line separating well from evil is very clear. When at the human level the line is less clear, individuality together with a collective judgment impairs the lines visual (123). Wright argues on why the people concentrate a lot on depicting evil in the society when the world is not all about “us versus them." There is no stated reward in winning the good and evil battle? The Jews used the Sabbath to put their belief in action. This was seen as the only time when man’s time and God’s time actually met (134). This was a time that God supposedly took a day off after making the earth and all in it. The last part of the book seeks to explain the meaning of Jesus as the king today. Wright states that God’s main intention was always to rule the world using the humans (209). God’s kingdom is rooted in His worship. This means that all worshippers are aligned to their lord, Jesus. In this kingdom love is much stronger than death and chastity are regarded to be the same as God’s faithfulness and holiness. Wright’s explanation has not been successful and has not achieved its aims Wright’s work has had so many critics as compared to sympathizers. He concentrates a lot on the historical setting of the bible; this makes him equate situations that took place in the 1st century on what they should be like at the modern day life (wright 9). He wants people to see what a modern day Jew’s relationship with God will be like, the plans for the future, since they are the Gods people. This cannot be what is expected since Jesus took the religion to all people. Wright tries to fight the western Christianity, which has evolved over time. Times have changed and so has the way people worship. Wright insists that Jesus’ doctrines should form the backbone of Christianity (171). Wright evades from using “son of God” as it has been used by many theologians. Instead, he states this to be a myth and asks for anyone to condemn him as a hopeless liberal while others might think of him as a conservative dwelling on a losing battle (32). Simple Jesus does not in any way prove how God intends to establish His kingdom on earth. Wright is just a liberal who does not believe that Jesus was the son of God. He goes ahead to demean Jesus’ purpose when he was on earth, he places Him as someone for the show off in his miracles and creating party mood activities in His missions. Reference N.T Wright. Simply Jesus. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. Text Read More