King's Cross - The Story of the World in the life of Jesus

Gillian Pegler | July 2014 - Highfields Book of the Month
By Tim Keller - (2014) London: Hodder and Stoughton

This book is just brilliant!  I think he's read all the big books on Mark's gospel and distilled them down into something that you and I can read for pleasure - it's not a struggle to read, but it is a struggle to put down!

I have to admit before I start this review that I've only read half of it, but I'm prepared to vouch for the other half!  Keller writes about the King and the Cross.  He works his way through Mark's gospel, unpacking it to show who Jesus is, why he came, and what it means to follow him.  Not unlike the Christianity Explored course, but that's no surprise, because that's how Mark wrote his gospel.

I've had my eyes opened to some points that I'd totally missed as I've studied and taught Mark before.  Little things that get lost in the detail, like the boat being swamped in the storm in Mark 4 means the water in the boat was up to the sides of the boat - how I missed that before, I'll never know, but I've always imagined the disciples running around like a bunch of girls up to their ankles in water.  No.  'Swamped' is Mark's word.  About to go under from the weight of water, not just the waves. 

The bigger thing I'd missed about that storm in Mark 4 though was more important.  He says that Mark has deliberately set out the account to parallel Jonah.  Boat.  Storm.  Going to sink.  Jonah asleep in the hold / Jesus asleep on his cushion.  Experienced sailors think they are going to die.  The storm calmed by God's authority.  Says Keller, 'Jonah said to the sailors, in effect: If I perish, you survive.  If I die, you will live."'  Ring any bells?  He continues that Jesus is the true Jonah, and some day will 'calm all storms, still all waves...  Jesus was thrown into the only storm that can actually sink us - the storm of eternal justice, of what we owe for our wrongdoing.  That storm wasn't calmed - not until it swept him away.'  Amazing insights! 

Keller writes all this in a very readable way.  He brings in historical facts, cultural information, interpretation of Greek words and stuff that's got lost in the mists of time and he brings the text alive, uncovering stuff that our 21st century Western minds hopelessly miss.  I think he's read all the big books and distilled them down into something that you and I can read for pleasure - it's not a struggle to read, but it is a struggle to put down!

When, in Mark 7:18-19, Jesus declared all foods clean, he wasn't over-riding God's law, rather, Keller explains, he was declaring that he fulfilled the Levitical cleanliness laws, which he calls visual aids for the spiritual / moral cleansing that we need.  How simple an explanation is that?!  He then goes into a borrowed but brilliant explanation of Zechariah 3 and how one man, the High Priest, would spend a week preparing himself for the Day of Atonement, spend the night before in prayer, and then go into the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifices of atonement for sin.  It was all done in public, and this one man represented the people before God.  Sound like anyone else you know?

So, I've read the first half - King - and am looking forward to the second - Cross.  Read it with me!  Join my journey of seeing Mark's gospel through fresh eyes.