Response to “The Jesus I Never Knew” “the Jesus I Never Knew,” by Philip Yancey, was a lot more interesting than I was expecting. When I first read the plot, or summary, on the back of the book itself, I begin to wonder what this book what relate to me in what way. As I continued to dig deeper in the marvelous writing of Philip Yancey, I instantly began to relate to his occurrences, and remembering of Jesus as a young child. Just as I begin to read the first chapter, I noticed Yancey referred to Jesus as the nurturer in his Christian walk. As children we always have an imagination of what Jesus is and ours were very similar. He is the man we run to when there is no one there to comfort us in our valleys. As Yancey continues, he begins …show more content…
But his appearance is not what made people want to follow Him, and listen to what Jesus had to say, because what he said, need to be heard by the people on this earth.
Yancey brings “Sermon on the Mount,” in to perspective and breaks down what we think is something to look up to in our lives, but then talks as if, this day in time, the things we should be doing as Christians is somehow hard to do. To summarize, how to be a Christian. How do we compare our lives to the high expectations. When sometimes we cannot go a day without sin. I don’t think Yancey was bashing the sermon itself, but explaining that sometimes being a Christian is hard, and our expectations are high. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus in everything we do in life, we will be the best we can be.
Something we all love about Jesus was his ability to preform miracles on human beings just like us. Yancey tries to explain why Jesus was on this earth and did the things He did while he was here. Yancey begins to describe some of the miracles Jesus did like water to wine for example. Then Yancey questions why some of these miracles were preformed and why some were not. This was hard for me to understand because I have never thought about this before. Why did some people receive the blessing of healing and others did not? Honestly, I begin to come up with my own thoughts and begin to think I cannot compare people that received and people who did not. When we
The excerpt from “Under the Feet of Jesus” by Helena María Viramontes illustrates a young girl named Estrella who, in learning to read, transitions from ignorant and flustered to competent and analytical. Viramontes displays this character development by using selection of detail, figurative language such as imagery, and tone that correspond with Estrella’s experiences and situation.
This kind woman tried to encourage this boy to have faith in God and Jesus, Jesus was the “lamb of god” also “a man with sorrows and acquainted with grief.” “Sundays [were] days for Jesus; it was wrong to feel comfortable or laugh on a Sunday.” Jesus was the lamb of god and went around the world for three years sending his message to others implying them not to do harm. When the little boy grew up to be a businessman, “he began to wonder about Jesus [again],” in a different aspect than before. The businessman knew that great successful businessmen inspire enthusiasm and build great organizations, Jesus Christ already established the greatest organization above anyone else. The businessman now waited to see if anyone would write a novel about Jesus Christ, an individual who knew him personally. In the businessman’s mind, he would treat Jesus Christ as an individual he never heard of before. The businessman had no faith in Jesus Christ, but was interested in making money off a character he thinks is weak, and grabbed twelve individuals from the bottom of the chain and built the greatest organization people praised him love and forgiveness. Nobody wrote the book so the businessman wrote the book
In essence, the novel “Under the Feet of Jesus” is well-developed. Author Viramontes used three literacy devices which were selection of detail, figurative language, and tone. Selection of detail gave the reader more understanding. Figurative language gave the story a little humor and interest. Lastly, tone was used to set the mood of the excerpt. Using those three literacy elements the reader can analyze Estrella as curious, sensitive, and
Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.
Fictional characters are persons that, when enlivened through careful, skillful writing and articulate literary elements, are incredible and relatable figures in any thoughtful novel. In Under The Feet of Jesus, the vibrant and distinct character of Estrella is thoroughly expressed as a young and passionate girl who struggles with her understanding of things that aren’t familiar— such “foreign alphabets” and Perfecto’s tools. Estrella is consumed in these emotions towards things she doesn’t understand, or know for sure, and expresses her moods without restraint. Helena María Viramontes, the author of Under The Feet of Jesus, uses selection of detail and figurative language to further develop this same iron-willed and impassioned character
In the book Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright makes three different claims throughout. N.T. Wright's first claim is about the “perfect storm”. The “perfect storm” takes up a large section of the first few chapters, and in those chapters N.T. Wright writes about that to enter the “perfect storm” you must step out of your own storm that is happening in your life, you must jump back into the “perfect storm” just as Jesus did in his own life. N.T. Wright fails to fully support the idea of the “perfect storm” throughout the book. Wright writes about the two myths that create the “storms”, the first is “… the high-pressure system of conservative Christianity” and the second is “... the new classic modernist myth…”. N.T. Wright loses his credibility to his claims by never giving evidence that disproves they myths. N.T. Wright states that the stories in the bible “...’really did happen’. And there the matter ends…. Facts or no facts”. N.T. Wrights claims are never fully
After reading “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” by Marcus J. Borg I realized that I myself have to find ways in loving and embracing Jesus differently than how I used too. This book is how the author addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. The author shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and at the same time sustaining. The author shows how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more Christian life. He looked at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing
One of the many things that puzzle people even today; is how Jesus was portrayed and how he became a part of history throughout the centuries. Fortunately, within the book Jesus Through the Centuries, written by Jaroslav Pelikan, readers are able to get a sense of what societies viewed Jesus as and how he was/is important to many aspects of the world such as; the political, social, and cultural impact he had left. As Pelikan discusses this very topic and theme in his book, we see how there’s a connection between his audience in this book and Jesus’s are closely similar. When he got his motivation to write about Jesus through the Centuries, Jaroslav had an open audience, which was intended for anyone of all ages, races, and beliefs to read
In Jesus’ Resurrection, Yancey gives some personal life experience to connect with the reader, and explain the significance of Easter Sunday. He tells the story of how his cat died on Easter Sunday when he was young. It was on this day that Yancey learned what he called “the ugly world,” irreversible. Then later on in his life he ends up loosing three friends in one year. All three died in different situations, but it was a difficult time for Yancey. He uses the deaths of his friends as another event that is irreversible. He compares the loss of his cat and friends to the feeling of loss the disciples had when Jesus died. The disciples grieved for Jesus’ death just as Yancey did for his cat and friends,
The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the infancy narrative contributes a large sum of background information of Jesus that contributes to the development of Matthew’s Christology. In order to analyze how Matthew develops the Christology, we have to cut the infancy narrative into sections. This paper will discuss background information of the writing of this Gospel, literary elements of Jesus’ miraculous conception that reinforce his Jewishness, how Magi and literary devices help to understand Matthew’s Christology, what important biblical hero the infancy narrative parallels, and what foreshadowing is caused from this infancy narrative. Comparatively, the use of divine intervention in dreams to fulfill prophecy has been a key focus of the infancy narrative in order to create an unusual birth narrative and develop the unique Christology that Matthew envisioned specifically for the Jewish Messiah.
Some scholars argue that evidence of Jesus of Nazareth 's existence can only be found within the writings of the New Testament. They believe that the New Testament is a biased and unreliable source for the existence of Jesus. They therefore claim that Jesus did not exist. The historical existence of Jesus is necessary to demonstrate the truth of Christianity. While Christian scholars do not discount the reliability of the New Testament as a historical document, they are also able to point to other historical documents and consider non-Christian writings which support the existence of Jesus. In this paper I will argue that Jesus the Nazarene was an actual, historical person and that this can be demonstrated through extra-Biblical resources.
It is possible to write on the life of Jesus from the information gathered from the bible. I will be dividing my essay into three parts. In the first part of the paper, I will talk about the nature of the gospels, John’s views vs. the Synoptic, discuss if the authors of the gospels are eyewitnesses and how they used written sources. Also I will talk about the Q source. Then I will elaborate on the topic of how Matthew and Luke were similar. Then I will continue on by discussing how the Old Testament uses Moses, Samuel and Elijah to interpret Jesus, and finally whether or not the Sermon on the Mount happened. In the second part of my paper, I will talk about Jesus’s birth and childhood, his miracles, his resurrection, and what Jesus did to cure people, spirits and how they are interpreted to the prophet, magician and the mad man compared to Saul and Elijah. The final part of the paper I will talk about what Jesus talked about as regards to the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of the Romans and what he intended by speaking of the end of the world. I will also speak of the reasons behind the Romans executing him. My sources for this paper will be the New Jerusalem Bible Readers edition as my primary source and lecture notes from Professor Trumbach.
An angel appeared before a woman named Mary and stated to her that she would give birth to a son. She would name her son Jesus. Mary being a virgin gave birth to a child, conceived by God through his Spirit. Jesus being conceived in a supernatural manner became man and God in one creation. God became incarnate in this child who became known by the name of Jesus (Mathew 1:18-25) . Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, born in a town south of Jerusalem, raised in Nazareth in a small village in Galilee. Jesus was not any ordinary child. Jesus was the son of the living God. Not only was He the son of Mary, He was foremost the Son of God. He was incarnated sent to us for the redemption of all mankind. So how do we handle the incarnation of God?
The first thing that one needs to understand is the true meaning of the miracles Jesus performed, even though the Devil does not want us to understand the meaning. He loves when we speculate and question. In the Bible, miracles are often referred to as “signs.” Miracles are acts that only God can be responsible for, usually above and beyond natural laws. Baker’s Dictionary of the Bible defines a miracle as “Synthesizing the root connotations of these terms, we may define a miracle biblically as an observable phenomenon effected by the direct operation of God’s power, an arresting deviation from the ordinary sequences of nature, a deviation calculated to elicit faith-begetting awe, a divine inbreaking which authenticates a revelational