One of several books I’ve been slowly, but steadily trudging through is Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by authors Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. If you are interested in seeing Jesus in his original light, instead of how the Western world has formed him, I recommend it. I feel as if Spangler and Tverberg are taking me back in time, to see the culture of Jesus’ day, so as to shed increased insight into his words and actions.
There is a growing concern amongst some, inasmuch as the Gentiles of old fashioned gods after their own imaginations (Romans 1:21ff.), that we’ve done the same thing with God the Father and His Son Jesus. To some, this formulation of God based on human conceptions was a problem of the past. But if it happened then, it most certainly can happen now.
In a way, he’s been Westernized to fit our needs. Think about it…many of us see him as white, Republican, and concerned about making us rich. But this is not the Jesus of Scripture. He wasn’t white. He wasn’t political (John 18:36). He wasn’t concerned about making you rich (Luke 12:15). His concern was that you have life in him (John 10:9-10).
It’s never easy to have your notions of things broken down, but sometimes they must for us to see clearly. Veils must be torn; haze must be lifted; light must penetrate darkness. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus is helping do some of this for me. It can do the same for you.
