The 1970s hit musical “Godspell” presented the story of Jesus in a lively and contemporary way that resonated with an entire generation of young people, many of whom had drifted away from organized religion. The struggle to somehow separate early Christianity from modern-day traditional religion is still in progress by believers who prefer to be known simply as followers of Jesus.
One of the show’s most loved songs was “Day by Day,” which was based on a prayer by a medieval English bishop, St. Richard of Chichester (1197-1253). In its original and fuller form, the prayer read:
“Thanks be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits you have given me,
For all the pains and insults you have borne for me.
A most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,
May I know you more clearly,
Love you more dearly,
Follow you more nearly,
Day by day. Amen.”
KirklandEven as “Godspell” audiences were swaying to the rhythm and singing along with the cast, they often were being drawn into a spiritual experience they may not have been completely aware of. Perhaps unknowingly, they were getting in touch with some of their deepest desires as they expressed in words their longing for a close relationship with Jesus (“three things I pray”) and reviving the spiritual dimension of their lives.
In his book with the provocative title, “Jesus Mean and Wild,” Mark Galli provided a portrait of Jesus whose personality had its sharp edges.
Galli’s book did not completely destroy the image of Jesus as meek and mild, as suggested by the Wesley hymn we grew up singing. It did, however — based on the gospel account of Mark — make it clear that at times our Lord was neither meek nor mild.
Galli declared in his introduction that Jesus “sternly charges” or “strictly orders” people he heals, regards religious leaders with “anger” and “grief,” destroys a herd of swine while showing no regret and providing no compensation to the owner, is “indignant” with his disciples, describes his generation as “faithless” and overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple in a moment of rage — and there’s more.
“Nearly everywhere we turn, in the gospel of Mark for example,” Galli wrote, “we find a Jesus who storms in and out of people’s lives, making implicit or explicit demands and, in general, making people feel mighty uncomfortable.”
Galli, who is the author or co-author of several books, including “131 Christians Everyone Should Know” and “Beyond Smells and Bells,” said outright that this 207-page book, containing a guide for group discussions, did not aim at being either interpretative or theological in nature, though he relied on a number of modern Bible commentaries.
“This is merely one man’s attempt to understand theologically and pastorally what in the world Jesus was up to when he acted so mean and wild,” he said in the introduction.
Galli said that it was ‘”The Cost of Discipleship” by the German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer that greatly influenced his thinking about our Lord. “The Jesus he painted in that classic suggested to me that Jesus was more intimidating and attractive than I had imagined.”
In the book’s foreword, Eugene Peterson, the classical scholar who gave us the lively translation of the Bible called “The Message,” found Galli’s book especially appealing and even necessary in a free-market economy where everyone is more or less free to “fashion and then market whatever sells” — including Jesus.
“When evangelism is retooled as recruitment,” Peterson wrote, “then marketing strategies for making Jesus more attractive to a consumer spirituality begin to proliferate. Words or aspects of Jesus that carry unwelcome connotations are suppressed. We emasculate Jesus. Every omitted detail of Jesus, so carefully conveyed to us by the gospel writers, reduces Jesus. We need the whole Jesus. The complete Jesus. Everything he said. Every detail of what he did.”
As to the book’s devotional nature, Galli encouraged believers to “read, study and inwardly digest the Gospels, where the mean and wild Jesus roams. There you will find, especially in the darkest and most forbidding passages, the very splendor and richness of God’s love.”
John Ortberg of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church praised Galli’s book for its portrayal of Jesus, who is “unleashed, untamed, undomesticated and unpredictable” and concluded, “I want to know this Jesus, though he scares me a little.”
There can be no greater longing in the heart of any disciple of Jesus than to “know him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly.” We should want nothing less in our lives than Jesus in all his fullness, sharp edges and all. And is that a little scary? More than a little.