Jesus Mean and Wild
BOOK REVIEW – JESUS MEAN AND WILD
Author: Mark Galli Publisher: Baker Books
Subtitled “The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God”, this book is a deliberate challenge to the Sunday School concept of “Gentle Jesus meek and mild.” The back cover blurb begins, “God loves you and has a (crossed out: wonderful) difficult plan for your life.” Author Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today, takes the reader through the Gospel of Mark, drawing from its pages a picture of Jesus quite unlike that which has traditionally been presented and embraced by the Church – and far more desirable. This is a Jesus Who does not fit into any of our neat, pre-packaged boxes, and Who surprises us with His raw reality and His untamed power.
In his foreword, Eugene Peterson points out that this generation is by no means the first to try to remake Christ in an image that is softer, nicer, less scandalous than the truth as presented in the Gospel, but we have done so zealously. He says, “In a free-market economy everyone is more or less free to fashion and then market whatever sells … When evangelism is retooled as recruitment, then marketing strategies for making Jesus attractive to a consumer spirituality begin to proliferate. Words or aspects of Jesus that carry unwelcome connotations are suppressed. We emasculate Jesus.”
Mark Galli sets out to reverse that emasculation.
The first chapter, Difficult Love, attacks the notion that if God loves you, everything in your garden will be rosy. He points out that at Jesus’ baptism, the Father publicly announced both His love for and His approval of His Son. Immediately following, the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days of testing. Not exactly the way most of us would like God to demonstrate His love and approval to us!
He goes on to deal with repentance, the war between holiness and unholiness, the kind of prayer that brings real change (and sometimes produces scandal in the process) and a raft of other challenging aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry.
In the final chapter, Fearsome Love, he writes, “Indeed, the basic notion prevailing about Jesus – that He is loving, merciful and kind – is right on the mark. C. S. Lewis says that every ages gets something right and something wrong about God. This is something our age has gotten right. What we have failed to see is how dynamic, how free, how surprising, how untamable, how paradoxical this love is.
This love is a grace that demands repentance, a balm that can hurt, an impatience that has a merciful end, a suffering that redeems.”
Throughout the book, Mark Galli draws on both his own life experience and his wide knowledge of the lives of past and present-day saints to complement his exposition of the Biblical narrative. The result is a highly readable and informative book. Discussion questions at the back also make it ideal for study in a small group.
My only concern is that its appeal may be limited to those who already know this “mean and wild” Jesus. I tried to share about this book in a Christian chat room, and was howled down by those who simply could not bear the thought that Jesus could be anything other that spun-sugar sweet and nice. My prayer, though, is that at least some who in the past have settled for a “nice” Christianity, will be challenged to see Who Jesus really is, and the kind of exciting – if far from comfortable – Christian life to which He invites us.
