“That God’s love includes ‘acceptance and care’ there is no doubt. That his love can be reduced to this should be a scandal.” (p.116)
Read ill-legalism's interview with the author, Mark Galli.
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Meek and Mild Goes
A Review of
Jesus Mean and Wild: The
Unexpected Love of an |
Jesus Mean and Wild is a refreshing look at a challenging topic. Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today, disturbed by the modern marketing of a Jesus who is always warm, fuzzy and comfortable, takes us through the gospel of Mark where we see a Jesus many of us know, but few of us talk about. He introduces us to Jesus who is unafraid to tell us that life is not going to be a rose-petal strewn path, but a struggle on a difficult journey.
Galli invokes politically incorrect and culturally inconvenient terms like "repentance" and "holiness" – unpopular concepts for an increasing number of postmodern pundits looking to upset the theological apple cart. While other authors are calling into question some of the basics of traditional orthodoxy like substitutionary atonement and the existence of hell, Galli points us beyond theory and into the praxis of how the real work of Jesus impacts our lives.
Some of his more engaging chapter titles include:
- Difficult Love
- It's Not Nice to be Nice
- Love That Makes Enemies
- Wretched Individualism
- The Joy of Unfulfilled Desire
- Mercifully Irrelevant
- Really High-Demand Religion
- Gracious Impatience
- Harsh Tutors of Love
- Forsaken by Grace
One characteristic of the postmodern Christian landscape is to neatly, almost hermetically, divide Bible according to how God interacts with the world. In the Old Testament they exclusively depict a God of wrath, judgment and vengeance in contrast to a New Testament portrait of a saccharin-sweet Jesus who never says an unkind word, never does an unkind thing and is never anything but "nice." The one thing all Christians seem to agree on is that Jesus was a pretty sweet guy who was meek as a lamb and harmless as a dove. However, the New Testament paints a picture far more complex than the current crop of Christians are inclined to accept. It is much easier to reduce Aslan to a tame lion and minimize the inconvenient passages that speak of a Jesus who was anything but nice.
Jesus Mean and Wild is bracing for its candor and stark honesty. Instead of promising a pampered life of luscious lotus-eating, Jesus promised us a life of trial and trouble that will end in triumph. Too many of us look forward to the victory without any thought of the cost of the conflict and get discouraged, disillusioned or disheartened when trouble comes our way. Even our leaders make us feel that something is wrong because we are experiencing all these difficulties. Like Job's three friends who were " physicians of no value," the current crop of Christian feel-good authors and pop psychologists are little more than motivational speakers with a "Christianese" accent. Galli, offering a counterpoint to the feel-good pap typically found in bookstores and pulpits, is refreshing for his honesty.
He uses the metaphor of a coach who has an arduous tryout for getting on the team. The coach does not let the players relax, but instead works them even harder in practice than what they experienced in tryouts. The coach's goal is to help them mature as players so they can persevere when the going gets tough and achieve victory through adversity. Galli quotes Frederica Mathewes-Green to capture this: "We must stop thinking of God as infinitely indulgent. We must begin to grapple with the scary and exhilarating truth that he is infinitely holy, and that he wants the same for us." (39) In the Game of Life, it is helpful to have someone "tell it like it is" and Galli is one of the voices that pierces through the sugar-coating to get at the medicine inside the message of Jesus Christ. May we all have the fortitude to take it.
by Rick Presley
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