O'Reilly's Book

A couple of weeks ago, my husband returned from BJs Wholesale Club with a present for himself -- a Keurig coffee machine.  He knows full well that I like coffee too, but it doesn't really agree with me all that much, so my preference is tea.

Since he treated himself, he admitted to feeling guilty and so he'd bought me the book, "Killing Jesus," by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugart.  I finished it yesterday.  Would I recommend it to you, my faithful readers?  Yes, I would.

O'Reilly/Dugart do a good job of framing the situation that Our Lord finds himself in.  They explain the workings of Roman society and the intricacies of how Jews lived and navigated around their own 600+ rules, the temple, and the festivals including Passover.  You will find out how laws were broken in order to crucify Jesus at the behest of the Jewish hierarchy. 

The title does provide me with an opportunity to explain one important thing -- Jesus was not KILLED.  Jesus gave his life for us.  The Bible quotes Jesus as saying, "It is finished."  Jesus did his father's will by becoming fully human while being fully God and coming to earth.  He lived the life of a typical Jewish boy in a small Jewish town.  He learned a craft -- carpentry -- alongside his father.  Did he know right from the beginning of his life that the ending would be the cross?  I don't know; I doubt it.  But I do know that no one took his life from him -- he gave it. 

The pressure on Jesus was tremendous.  He outwitted the most gifted thinkers in Jerusalem with his answers, and many of those answers guide us to this day like, "Render to Caesar that which is Caesar's and render to God that which is God's."  He prayed in the garden awaiting the guards he knew were coming for him.  Bet you thought they were Roman guards.  I did.  They weren't; they were Jewish temple guards who came and got him after he received a kiss from Judas, the traitor, as a signal to them that this was the man they were seeking.  And while he waited in that garden, he wanted his beloved apostles to pray with him, but instead they fell asleep.  Like Peter's three-times denial, they fell asleep three different times.  And all that while Jesus is so fearful of what is to happen that he sweats blood.  Was he afraid of the physical torment?  Of course, I'm sure he was.  But there was something much greater that awaited Jesus on that cross.  He felt the total weight of all of the sins ever committed by humans.  My sins.  Your sins.

It is humbling and sad and sorrowful all at the same time.  It should be the first thing we think of every single morning -- we were ransomed by the blood of God.

It puts everything into perspective, like for example, how short our lives really are in the big picture -- God's overall plan for humanity.  It puts our sufferings into perspective too. 

There are a few places in the book where my understanding differs, but I'm no Biblical scholar.  I think you would find that the book is worth the read.

Thanks, my dear readers, for joining me on this day.