Preface

This is a work of restoration.
As if a conservator refurbishing an ancient mosaic in a pre-modern monastery, I am attempting to restore, repair, and preserve what I believe to be the truest, most accurate image of Jesus.

In no way meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive, this small, specific volume addresses what I feel has been lost, stolen, and obscured about Jesus—his message and the meaning of his life. If I lived in a different time and place this would be a different book.

From the very beginning, Jesus has been appropriated, his message altered—added to and taken away from—by culture, religion, his family and first followers, Paul, the Roman Empire, the Christian religion, and on and on, up until and, despite my best efforts, including, me. For even as I attempt to restore and reveal, I unwittingly alter and conceal. Thus, this is, inevitably, my gospel, my Jesus as much as anything else.

What I offer is not dogma or doctrine but discussion—a contribution to the ongoing conversation between open seekers of understanding and enlightenment. I write this as one asking questions far more than offering answers. 

The concepts I share and the language I use to convey them are meant to inspire, not offend, to provoke thought not anger, and I hope you will receive them in that spirit. My intention is to be accurate and expressive, to place these timeless, transcendent truths in language that restores the original power, provocation, and profundity of Jesus and his message.

These essays, written over many years, represent over three decades of dedication and serious study, and are informed by the work of scholars in the field, but this is a devotional, not an academic book—personal reflections born out of my passion for Jesus, his vision, mission, and message.
Look closely.

Beneath the layers and layers of dust and dirt, of history and tradition, culture and religion, there is a more perfect picture awaiting rediscovery. Behind the cosmic Christ there is Jesus, an illegitimate peasant with the power of God on his tongue and in his hands. Beyond the icon, there is an iconoclast who overturns temple tables and kicks down fear-based religion and class-based divisions and proclaims God’s unconditional love until it gets him killed. In some small way I hope my work here helps to uncover, restore, and preserve in the purest sense possible the authentic message of the man behind the man, the son of man who both is and shows the way.