Just a few moments ago I finished the third book in Eugene Peterson’s Current series of writings. The Jesus Way is a challenging and thought provoking book that goes into great detail Exploring first of all what Jesus meant by “I am the Way . . .”
Peterson describes the power behind metaphor and particularly the way metaphor in a way that my english teachers wish they could communicate. He looks at how Jesus’ way is an invitation to participate in the movement of God, and to participate with Jesus in the redemption and restoration of the world.
from there Peterson looks at the ways that lead up to Jesus. Using the Examples of Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, and Isaiah peterson shows how each one of these leaders and prophets embraced their role in pointing to Jesus. Each chapter really has a theme that is explored in great detail (Abraham – Sacrifce, Moses – Bringer of the Words of God, etc.) These chapters are particulary profound.
After looking at Jesus ancient predecessors, he turns to three of the major figures that surrounded Jesus’ life and contrasted them to Jesus and the Jesus Way of life. Herdod in his desire to be great. Ciaphas and his desire to create a God System that benefited him, And Josephus and his desire to use the Zealotry of his fellow Jews to advance himself politically, at the cost of his fellow Jews’ freedoms.
This book is worth the read. I’ve had it for a while and finally got it done. This reading one book at a time resolution has been quite helpful for me personally. It is a little wordy and heady but I could tell that Peterson was doing his very best to put as much power into every word that he could muster. I underlined a ton of passages, and this is a book that I will have to digest over time.
It’s also a great resource if you are looking to do a Character Study on any of the OT characters mentioned. The David chapter will be very helpful to me as I prepare for an upcoming study on David for our youth group.
So read the Jesus Way and I think you will be pleased, challenged, and encouraged.
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