Title: Simply Jesus: Who He Was, What He Did, Why It Matters
Author: N. T. Wright
Hard Cover: 208 pages
Publisher: HarperOne - 2011
Language: English

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The Context of Jesus

Writing this review during Advent heightens my awareness of the critical role context plays when we approach the topic of Jesus. It is precisely the context of the birth narratives we read this time of year that make significant the many prophecies we see fulfilled in Jesus. The story just wouldn't make sense if the evangelists didn't set the stage with the words from the Hebrew prophets. Jesus isn't simply born "long ago" or "far, far way." Jesus is born at a very specific time in history, in a very specific place in the world. This matters tremendously for the story's impact. Were Jesus to have been born at any other time in history, in any other place, he could not have been Israel's Messiah and therefore he could not be the Jesus Christians worship; he would be neither "Jesus of Nazareth" nor "Jesus Christ."

N. T. Wright further sets the stage of Jesus' story by letting readers into many of the  assumptions citizens of first-century Palestine (whether they be Jew or Gentile) would have made about Israel's Messiah due to the development of Judaism up to that point. This insight is critical for understanding Jesus because this is the understanding of the  Gospel authors who wrote about Jesus—and the Gospels are our primary source of historical information about Jesus.

[Sidenote: Some observant readers will note my use of the qualifier "historical" in the previous sentence and might begin to question Wright's approach to the study of Jesus. This is to be expected. In recent US evangelicalism, many pages of ink, many pixels, and many mp3s have been used to campaign against any quest for the "historical Jesus". Wright is aware of the misgivings among US evangelicals toward such pursuits, and he is prepared to defend his methodology. For more on this, I'd recommend readers to his essay entitled, "A Grateful Dialogue: A Response" in Jesus & the Restoration of Israel edited by Carey C. Newman. Yet Wright even takes a moment in this book's preface to briefly comment on why we need both theological and historical study of Jesus. He writes,

"…writing about Jesus has never been, for me, a matter simply of 'neutral' historical study (actually, there is no such thing, whatever the topic, but we'll leave that aside for the moment); the Jesus whom I study historically is the Jesus I worship as part of the threefold unity of the one God. But, likewise, writing about Jesus has never been a matter simply of pastoral and homiletic intent; the Jesus whom I preach is the Jesus who lived and died as a real human being in first-century Palestine. Modern western culture, especially in America, has done its best to keep these two figures, the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith, from ever meeting. I have done my best to resist this trend, despite the howls of protest from both sides."]

This context which Wright provides is the socio-political-religious atmosphere of Jesus' day. What type of world does Jesus arrive in? Who did Jews expect him to be? Who did Romans fear he would be? These are important questions, without which we can scarcely piece together the story of Jesus, and therefore we cannot know if we are following him correctly.

Imagine I tell you to vote for Barack Obama in the 2012 election, but you've never heard of him or know anything about US presidential politics. You ask me to tell you his story. Now imagine trying to tell the story of Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008 without mentioning George W. Bush, September 11th, or the war in Iraq. Imagine if you couldn't mention Islamic fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, socialism, or liberalism. Would his story make sense? Who would you think Barack Obama was? What about all the many references he makes to the previous administration, to presidents with whom he shares ideals, or to the US Constitution? If you had no clue what he was referring to when he mentioned these people, events, and so on, would you be able to determine what his campaign was all about? Would you be able to say definitively on what platform he ran?

So it is with Jesus. The context into which Jesus of Nazareth enters is a swirling, dangerous ball of energy. Therefore, Wright appropriately and brilliantly utilizes the analogy of "the perfect storm" throughout the book to describe the various pressures that surrounded Jesus. He also uses the analogy to describe the pressures we encounter approaching Jesus today. In both cases, I found this use of the analogy both helpful and memorable.

The Kingdom Movement of Jesus

Context is not the only thing Wright provides in Simply Jesus. Wright builds a case, using both historical context and biblical exposition, for a particular interpretation of Jesus' fundamental message and movement: what we call "the Gospel." Wright argues that Jesus' message and movement was one of God's Kingdom, and this kingdom about which he preached, and which he personally embodied, was not some distant and disembodied dimension removed from space, time, and matter—but was instead a tangible, bodily, political kingdom. Here Wright picks up on one of his most common writing themes: his critique of modern, Western Platonism which envisions "heaven," or "spirituality" as disembodied, immaterial, or non-physical. This gradation of reality into more and less real with invisible, non-physical things at the top, and visible, physical things at the bottom is unbiblical and should be rejected by Christians who wish to remain faithful to Scripture. Wright is famous for exposing this error, and has written on this subject in several of his other books.

What this means for us is that the kingdom which Jesus established and is the king of is not an ethereal, baby-angel-infested, cloudy realm somewhere far away, but is rather a reality which overlaps and breaks into this physical, political world into which Jesus dared to enter. The kingdom of God is as much a worldly reality as the one the Zealots sought to establish through violent revolution, yet it is as radically different as it can be. Instead of violence, Jesus the King rules and reigns in peace. His kingdom is nothing like the kingdoms of the world which rely on swords, for his power is love. And it is for this very reason so many of Jesus' disciples could not recognize his kingdom until he was standing before them, an embodied, glorified reality wearing the signs of his sacrifice.

Christus Victor and Nonviolence

Two of the most encouraging aspects of Simply Jesus for me personally were how centrally Wright locates: 1) the nonviolent teaching and example of Jesus; 2) the so-called "Christus Victor" view of Jesus' atonement, in the overall message and movement of God's kingdom. Unlike so many US evangelicals, these two themes are inseparable from the Gospel for Wright. He writes,

"Jesus has announced God's kingdom and has also embodied it in what he has been doing. But it is a different sort of kingdom from anything that Pilate has heard of or imagined: a kingdom without violence ([John] 18:36)." - p.183

and,

"Jesus is the Lord, but it's the crucified Jesus who is Lord—precisely because it's his crucifixion that has won the victory over all the other powers that think themselves as in charge of the world." - p. 205

and again,

"When God wants to change the world, he doesn't send in the tanks. He sends in the meek, the mourners, those who are hungry and thirsty for God's justice, the peacemakers, and so on." - p. 218

I was very pleased with how well Wright articulated these themes in the book, and wished he'd had space to write more on them. I have not yet read Jesus and Victory of God, but have read an article celebrating Wright's interest in these themes in that work, so I hope that is where I can read more of Wright's thoughts to that end.

The Wrap-up

Though I thoroughly enjoyed this book overall, I must say I was a bit disappointed with the ending. So much of the book was brilliant build-up, like a thundering march to war, that I expected the end to be spectacular. I'm not sure exactly what I expected Wright to write, considering I know how Jesus' story ends, and I'm familiar with Wright's eschatology.  But how the book does in fact end left me feeling a little let down.

Wright concludes by addressing the common question and problem of how we reconcile the twin truths of Christ's current reign as the Lord of the world with the reality of sin, corruption, and death that we are confronted with practically every day. Rightly, Wright points to the truth that Christ reigns in and through people: both his church and the rulers and authorities. However, at this point one always has to add several caveats considering the behavior of these bums. So it's not exactly thrilling to hear all along that Christ is victorious, defeats the satan and the powers, inaugurates the kingdom, only to end with "Ah, yes, and occasionally the church and governments get it right in the meantime." It's just not the pay-off for which one hopes. I'd rather Wright had ended with Christ's coming kingdom when all is "put to rights" (as Wright likes to say) in which peace and justice, God's shalom, is established forever.

Now, of course I believe Christ reigns in the church. And I even acknowledge that in a broadly providential sense, God is reigning in the wider world. And of course this is precisely how we should respond to the questions and problem of how we reconcile the truth of God's inaugurated kingdom with the reality of sin, corruption, and death. So, it may not be entirely fair to blame my disappointment on Wright. It may be more true that I'm disappointed with how little I see Christ reigning in the US evangelical church, my immediate contextual lens on the world. Instead of seeing the nonviolent, victorious movement Jesus started, what I see much more often is a violent, yet defeated, church.

I highly recommend Simply Jesus, but reading this book isn't enough. Followers of Jesus, those of us who claim to inhabit the kingdom Jesus inaugurated, must embody that kingdom now by putting on display in our lives the love of God that Jesus demonstrated on the cross. There's no other hope for the world than the love of Jesus, and we are custodians of it.