Zeal

My latest walking partner is the audio book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Azlan.

In just a few miles, I have plowed through the first five chapters and I find that what Azlan says about the politics and economic conditions of the time into which Jesus was born draws my attention like a flame.  I want to know more.

The Jesus Azlan focuses on is one about which, he says, we know very little, but about which we can surmise a great deal from the conditions of the times, conditions that were increasingly oppressive, with famines, bloodshed and severe Roman rule.

Jesus, he says, was a Zealot, a seditious bandit in the eyes of the Romans, a man who wanted to reclaim the land of God for God, taking it back from Rome and the High Priests who had sold out to pagan rule.

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.  - Revelation 3:2

One point Azlan makes repeatedly in his book is that Jesus, the man, was a poor, illiterate Galilean, a farmer who couldn't read or write and who spoke with a telltale accent that would have revealed to all that he was from a region rich in revolutionary furor.

This, he claims, was a man who looked upon the leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem as corrupt, idolizing through tribute, the Roman Gods and Emperor.  He was going to set that right.

Now that Azlan's book is about to be made into a movie, I am intrigued.  I wonder what the reaction will be to this portrayal of Jesus as a revolutionary bandit who takes on the mantle of The Anointed One (Messiah) to wage a war of words and possibly swords against Rome.

Will this Jesus gain in popularity?

In all the predictions and prophecies about the coming of an AntiChrist, one who gains popularity as a false Prophet of God, the assumption is the figure will be a human.

What if this false prophet is a reinterpretation of Jesus?

I still have more to read, and I am determined to finish the book.  Regardless of how I feel about the man history barely recorded, I find Azlan's ability to set the scene of the times to be masterful, and it raises a lot of questions.

Will it change the way Christians think of Christ?

I would love to know.

I do think that Jesus would have found the words of John's Revelation to be true about many in his time and now.

Wake up and see that your works are not perfect!

I guess we could use a little zeal when it comes to our commitment to seek what is true, don't you think?

More to come...