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Genre: (as wikipedia sayeth) Religion, Historical Fiction Main characters: Jesus of Nazareth, Judas Iscariot Time and place: 1st century Judea First sentence: “A cool heavenly breeze took possession of him.” Summary: Jesus of Nazareth is a tormented young man. God is always in his mind and God is asking for submission. Yet Jesus is afraid, he doesn’t want the burden that God wants to entrust him, he just wants a normal life. He doesn’t have a choice though. God is omnipotent. And Jesus became Christ, the Messiah, starting on a road that we all know where it ends. What if it didn’t have to end this way though? Could Jesus “skip” the cross and just grow old along his wife and children? Would Jesus give in to this last temptation? |
As the author puts it in the prologue, the book is an exercise in describing “the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.“. It tells the story of the life of Christ, from this very point of view: the feelings the human part of Christ might have felt at one time or another. Mr. K’s Christ is not the serene person we might have in mind when we think of Him of the gospels; he has moments of peace, but he also has moments when he is angry, afraid or feels lust. Overall, this Christ is so utterly, so incredibly human that one can only resonate with his plight. Sure, it can be said that this whole process is demeaning to the godly part of Christ, he being considered the one without sin (and he says it himself in the Bible that even thinking of sinning with a woman is just as sinful as the deed itself). However I tend to be in the opposite camp: after all, we are taught that Christ was just as much human as he was God, which makes it very plausible that he had all the basic human feelings too.
To think that the book opens with Jesus being a cross-maker! A cross-maker, working on the Sabbath, in an effort to defy God so much that He’ll leave him alone, and working up more and more anger seeing how useless his battle was (““Yes, yes,” he murmured, “you understand perfectly. Yes, on purpose; I do it on purpose. I want you to detest me, to go and find someone else; I want to be rid of you! [...] and I shall make crosses all my life, so that the Messiahs you choose can be crucified!“). But God still, ceaselessly, calls to him, and despite his not feeling up to the task (“I can’t! I’m illiterate, an idler, afraid of everything. I love good food, wine, laughter. I want to marry, to have children. … Leave me alone!“) Jesus has to give in in the end, especially as his whole being was thirsting for God despite the unjust way he thought himself treated.
And so it begins. Judging by the apostles mentioned, Mr. K has used the Gospel of John as main source (the only one where Nathanael was one of the followers). Which isn’t to say that Bible is followed to the letter. It’s actually interesting to notice how the author has handpicked a few elements in the Bible and distorted them a bit, to serve as a basis for the legends about to be born not as the legends themselves. For example the visit of the three magi has not actually happened, it all was a dream Mary had one time. Mary’s husband has become paralysed on the very day of their wedding, a way to explain how Mary remained a virgin until Jesus was born. Jesus walking on water and inviting Peter to join him is also a dream that only hints at its possibly being true. At the other end of the spectrum we have Jesus who is literally slapped and he literally turns the other cheek (a thing that I don’t remember actually happening in the Bible, I only remember this being advised).
There are of course some moments that have been kept faithful to their Bible telling though. The one with the stoning of Magdalene is almost one of those — I say almost because. unlike in the Bible, in this book this is the very scene where the cross-maker becomes the Son of God in the eyes of the people. The author has nevertheless preserved the very essence of the moment, the “Let him among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone!” part, and the way everything is narrated makes this one of my favorite scenes in the book.
The author has done a great job depicting the general atmosphere of the time, that of urgent expectancy: most people (Judas among them) feel that the Messiah should arrive any day now, and they are constantly looking for Him and taking what they think is steps to clear His path (alas, one of these steps was planning the murdering of Jesus himself but oh well, at least they had good intentions). Here or there though there are also a handful of people (Old Zebedee for one) content with their earthly lot and thinking all the talk of Messiahs nonsense (“[...] it seems that wherever you go and wherever you stop, you find a cross. The dungeons are overflowing with Messiahs. Ooo, enough’s enough! We’ve been getting along just fine without Messiahs; they’re nothing but a nuisance.“). It should be perhaps noted that the Messiah was seen by many as an overturner of the current way of life, someone who will help the Jewish people shake of the Roman yoke (a thing that very much explains why mostly poor people dreamed about His coming while the well-off didn’t much care). I was actually very much disappointed later on, during the book, to discover how few of Jesus’ followers went with him out of conviction and how many of them did so hoping that they are on the road to riches, honors and greatness (“Impressiveness, rank, clothes of silk, golden rings, abundant food and to feel the world under the Jewish heel: that was the kingdom of heaven.“).
An unexpected portion of the book deals with the fact that Jesus and Mary Magdalene knew each other as children, and they were actually in love. But God did not let Jesus marry her, and it’s for this very reason that Magdalene has turned to selling her body (“In order to forget one man, in order to save myself, I’ve surrendered my body to all men!“). It’s not only her though, as Judas and even Barabbas were previous acquaintances of Christ when a carpenter too. Speaking of which, it was very interesting to observe many of the apostles-to-be before the event that was to forever change their lives: John was a very religious young boy, Peter was a fisherman, his brother Andrew has lived in the desert for a while, Judas was a blacksmith and so on) — people with day to day lives, a “detail” I haven’t given much thought before.
Someone I had trouble liking was Mary, although I did partially understand her. She is a simple woman and wants nothing more from life than what she considers her due: her only son to take a wife and give her grandchildren. Granted, Mary’s life has been a hard one, what with her husband being unable to move or speak for many years now, and her only son considered crazy by some (herself included). And yet I cannot help finding her reactions exaggerated (although I admit that perhaps they weren’t so at the time): she scratches her cheeks, beats her head against stones and once she even wants to curse her own beloved son. A very contrasting image to the one we have of Mary in the Bible, where she is aware of Jesus’ role on earth and accepts it, despite its leading to her own heartbreak.
What I liked most: What I took to be the sermon on the mountain. First of all that is one of my favourite parts of the Bible. Because of it I paid particular attention to the moment in the book and it didn’t disappoint. At that moment Jesus was not yet a full fledged Messiah, “a gawky bird he was, struggling to twitter for the first time“, and yet his whole being was struggling to get God’s message across. A message of love, a message that was rather badly received by the people around him (who expected something different), and Jesus’ authenticity was doubted by some. I very much like these parts, where people have issues with what Jesus has to say, because they sound very real to me — I mean, if someone came and told you to believe something completely opposed to your innermost thoughts, would you jump and take it for granted, or would you have to struggle with the new ideas for a while?
A quote to better illustrate the idea:
Andrew was infuriated. He extricated himself from his brother’s grasp and went and stood before Jesus.
“I’ve just come from the river Jordan in Judea,” he shouted. “There a prophet proclaims: ‘Men are chaff and I am the fire. I have come to burn up and purify the earth, to burn up and purify the soul so that the Messiah may come forth!’ And you. son of the Carpenter, you preach love! Why don’t you take a look around you? Everywhere: liars, murderers, robbers! All are dishonest—rich and poor, oppressed and oppressors, Scribes and Pharisees—all! all! I too am a liar, I too am dishonest, and so is my brother Peter over there, and so is Zebedee with his fat paunch: he hears “love” and thinks of his boats and men and how to steal as much as he can from the wine press.”
Other details I liked: the relationship between Jesus and Judas (my favorite ever, show spoiler
), the fact that Lazarus was only revived and not otherwise changed in any way (so the poor thing was partially rotten, but it did sound quite believable to me), the fact that God is, most of all, good (all the parables in the Bible that ended badly for someone have had their endings rewritten) and the way Jesus has explained the fact that he too has brought people laws, some of them contrasting to what they have considered God’s law before:Does God’s will change, then, Rabbi? asked John, surprised.
No, John, beloved. But man’s heart widens and is able to contain more of God’s will.
What I liked least: The part where Jesus was in the desert. I was expecting it to be somehow “muddled” since I thought he’d be half hallucinating after spending all that time without food or water, but I didn’t expected it to be that long. I even ended up skipping some lines now and then. Darn.
Recommend it to? Anyone up to a story of the life of Christ a bit different than what we were taught. It’s not an easy read (the writing is beautiful at times but heavy at others) however the ideas explored might be worth the time.
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