Rodney Reeves

Summary: Through an imaginative study of the gospel, letters, and Revelation of John, considers what it means to abide in Christ, coming to faith, living communally in Christ, and facing the tribulations of the end of the world.

In my observation, it seems that much of our instruction in Christian discipleship, if there is such instruction, centers around the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and the letters of Paul and maybe James, if we are up for the challenge. Of the writings attributed to John, we sometimes commend (or at least used to) the Gospel of John as reading for those considering Christ. Revelation we either shy away from altogether or use it to springboard into end times speculations. And John’s letters? Mostly, it seems we use a few verses like 1 John 1:9 as memory verses but give them little attention.

In this work, Rodney Reeves reclaims the canonical writings attributed to John as valuable in the shaping of our spiritual life. For Reeves, it centers around the world “abide”–what it means to make our home in Christ both individually and communally, and in his Word, which abides in us, enabling us to incarnate the person and work of Christ in the world. For the Gospel, the Letters, and Revelation, Reeves follows a fourfold pattern as he considers how we abide in Christ and his Word abides in us involving hearing the Word, confessing the Word, incarnating the Word, and abiding in the Word.

The Gospel of John is the invitation to follow the Word home. We hear this in Jesus response to the disciples question, “where are you staying?” with his invitation to “come and see.” Come and see gives way to “See and believe” as Jesus invites Martha to confess the power of Jesus to raise Lazarus and as Jesus invites Thomas to see and believe and Thomas confesses him Lord and God and worships. “Believe and see” flips the previous words, inviting the nobleman to return home with only the word of Jesus that his son would be well and the blind man to wash the mud out of his eyes, believing that he would see. They incarnate the word of Jesus, taking it in and living it out and discover its truth. Two women, filled with the word of Jesus abide in it. The Samaritan woman tells her townspeople to see a man who told her everything she had ever done and come to him, becoming the first evangelist in the gospels. Mary at Bethany proclaims Jesus as the anointed king who will die, also saying “see and come.”

The Letters of John, written to communities, speak of how we may commune with the Word together. Hearing the Word together moves the community from self-justification to confession of sin, recognizing that we cannot hate and say we love Christ. In turn, we confess that Jesus alone is the Christ, the anointed one, denying the worldly competitors that vie for our allegiance, recognizing them for what they are “anti-Christ.” The Word is incarnated in our communities by our love for each other and our hospitality to strangers, in contrast with Diotrephes. We abide together in the Word by loving without fear and protecting ourselves from idols, the worship of heroes or anything that supplants our love for Jesus, the source of our love for each other.

John’s Revelation instructs us in how we might remain in the Word until the end of the world–especially when that world is a counterwitness to the Word. The Word we hear in Revelation is a call to worship the Lion who is the worthy Lamb who was slain. Our confession of the Word is a declaration of war. Worship is warfare against the systemic evil of the world, joining, if need be, the two prophets slain and raised, in refusing complicity in the worship of idols. Incarnating the Word, is following the Lamb, including being slain rather than seeking the power of the evil one that promises success and power. We abide in the Lamb by looking for the new heaven and the new earth rather than placing hope in Babylon, which in our day, the author argues, is hopes in American greatness.

There is a strong challenge in the latter part of this book to the political idolatries of both left and right with the invitation to “come out from her, my people.” I’ve been asked whether we are living in the time of the Apocalypse, something any perceptive person might wonder with a global pandemic, rapidly warming and less habitable planet, insurrections, war, discord, economic collapse, and rampant inflation. Reeves concludes with posing for us the question that is most vital, and in line with his theme:

“The Apocalypse is not only a revelation at the end of the world; it is a revelation of the church at the end of the world. God knew that, as we watched the world fall apart around us, we would need to see our place in a crumbling world. When the earth quakes at the weight of glory, when heaven shakes earth to its core, when idols are destroyed and the kingdoms of men fall, when pandemics threaten humanity, when all creation is purified of evil and all that is left is what God has made, where will the church abide?” (p. 257).

Will we abide in the Word of Jesus, in Jesus himself, alone? That is both the question and the invitation posed by this book.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.… (mais)

David Capes, Rodney Reeves, and E. Randolph Richards are three biblical scholars from three different institutions (Houston Baptist University, Southwest Baptist University, and Palm Beach Atlantic Univerisity, respectively). They have previously collaborated on a book about the apostle Paul, Rediscovering Paul: an Introduction to His World, Letters and Theology (IVP Academic, 2007). They are back at it. Their new book from IVP Academic is Rediscovering Jesus: An Introduction to Biblical, Religious and Cultural Perspectives on Christ.

Don't let the academic publisher or their resumés scare you. This is an engaging and interesting and accessible read! I had fun with this book. To me, this is really two books in one. Part I is a romp through the biblical images of Jesus, uncovering what is distinctive about the portrait of Jesus in Mark, Matthew, Luke and Acts, John, Paul's epistles, Hebrews, in the non-Pauline epistles and Revelation. Part II examines extra-biblical images of Jesus. Capes, Reeves & Richards look at the Gnostic Jesus, the Muslim Jesus, the Historical, demythologized Jesus, the Mormon Jesus, the American Jesus and the Cinematic Jesus. In each chapter, after exploring the distinctive portrait of Jesus in the Bible or culture, they ask, "What if this were the only Jesus?" The result is they showcase the important contribution of each Bible writers picture of Christ, and show how cultural depictions of Jesus, while sometimes illuminating, often obscure our perception of who the Jesus really is.

While there is some first-rate biblical theology and cultural analysis here, this is a completely practical and non-technical text about Jesus, appropriate for undergrads (or even a Christian high school). Part I is helpful because it reveals how the entire New Testament, all the books together, gives us our picture of who Jesus is. The Jesus of Mark appears on the scene, binding the strong man and fighting the religious establishment, but there is no mention of Jesus' virgin birth, his post resurrection appearances, his great commission or ascension. Luke's Jesus was more politicized, and didn't even give a theological account of the atonement (71). Matthew's Jesus is firmly connected with Israel's God and has the most developed ethic. John's Jesus is not of this world and focuses more on the after life than this life. "Christians who read too much of John's Gospel and not enough of Matthew's might talk abut eternal life but not about caring for the least of these" (86). Paul's high Christology is almost devoid of biography (how Jesus lived). If the Priestly Jesus of Hebrews were our only Jesus we'd focus on purity, perfection and completion. The non-Pauline epistles are immersed in Jesus' teaching but without the Gospels you wouldn't know that the origins of John, Jude, Peter and James' words are found in Christ's teaching. The apocalyptic Jesus is the disquieting image of the warrior lamb and the glorified Christ. Each of these images enlarge our picture of Christ. Any image that is excluded from our portrait of Jesus would result in bias and incomplete vision.

What of Jesus' cultural images? Capes, Reeves and Richards focus on images of Jesus that have a great deal of cultural pull. They profile the esoteric gnositic Jesus, the localized prophet of Islam, the Post-Enlightenment historical Jesus, the American hero, and the movie star. They observe (writing as one voice):

Jesus outside the Bible can on occasion help us rediscover some aspect of Jesus that has been ignored or sidelined. More commonly, though, these nonbiblical images influence and color our biblical image. Understanding these images helps reveal ideas that need to be expunged from 'my Jesus.' While I found themes and emphases from the various biblical images of Jesus that needed to be reintroduced into my picture of Jesus, I also found other themes and emphases from nonbiblical images that needed to be extracted from my portrait of Jesus. both of these processes help me to rediscover Jesus. (261)

The disparity between cultural images of Jesus and the Jesus of the Bible is highlighted well throughout part II. Perhaps it is the 'Cinematic Jesus' which highlights how much a depiction of Jesus for a particular era says more about that culture and time than it does about the real Jesus (244-245).

This is a fun, thought-provoking book that deserves a wide readership beyond the classroom. I give it five stars

Notice of material connection: I received this book from IVP Academic in exchange for my honest review.
… (mais)

This book is the best book on or about the Bible that I have read in a long time and if I had the resources I'd give a copy to everyone I know (lending of it is unfortunately not enabled for Kindle). I think every Christian should read it. Dr. Reeves is a Greek expert and Pauline scholar, Dean of the Courts Redford College of Theology and Ministry at Southwest Baptist University. As I mentioned before my encounters with him really influenced me and I've never met a Southern Baptist pastor/theologian/teacher who talks, teaches, and writes like him. I had the privilege of hearing him preach a sermon series on Paul while he wrote this book, and his passion for imitating Paul was quite evident.

Reeves does an excellent job explaining the context of Paul's day and the situations of the churches which received his letters. He lucidly explains various lines of scholarly thought on confusing passages. Reeves asks thought-provoking questions about how we imitate Paul as we do church today. What is this "crucified life" that Paul talked about?

I think as believers we often think of Paul as the greatest preacher who ever lived, who was wholeheartedly admired and respected by believers he came into contact with--the children's Sunday School version of Paul. We also think of the Church in Paul's day as being relatively undivided--non-denominational. In reality, Paul's letters to Corinth tell us that he was not a great public speaker-- far inferior to the famous Corinthian orators trained in rhetoric. Churches looked at Paul's life of hardship--beatings, shipwrecks, etc.-- and wondered if he was under God's punishment rather than blessing.

"(T)he Corinthians had come to despise the messenger. That's because Paul sounded like a fool to them." (loc. 406).

They questioned his teachings. There were plenty of factions and groups who thought their doctrine was superior to others. James and the Judaisers in Jerusalem questioned his Gentile disciples' rights. Paul spent much of his ministry collecting money for the famine-stricken church in Jerusalem (even though there were churches in Greece and Asia likely just as impoverished) likely to try and unite the factions, particularly Jew and Gentile, but scholars are divided as to whether Jerusalem even accepted Paul's gift.

"Paul saw every event in his life, every relationship he had, as opportunities to experience the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus." (loc. 95)

Paul saw Jesus several times in visions and appearances, but we forget he wasn't around Jesus to soak in his teachings while on earth. Yet, Paul's writings and life are such a fantastic reflection of what Jesus' life meant.

Reeves contrasts Paul's life with the American life-- we're constantly striving to avoid loss and gain security. We're also constantly trying to stand up for our rights.

"(I)f I spend most of my time protecting my interests and devote much of my energy trying to avoid loss, how will I ever gain Christ? For those of us who prize comfort, will we ever experience the crucified life?" (Loc. 335).

Christians are often quick to judge a person who they see in poor circumstances as "reaping what he (presumably) sowed" or as suffering due to some secret sin. Reeves reminds us that followers looked at Paul's (and Jesus'!) hardships the same way-- surely these were fools:

"(T)he cross should make us all reticent to declare who is cursed by God...There was nothing about him that looked like success. I can imagine Paul's converts saying, 'If that's what the cross does to a man, I'll try something else'" (Loc. 206 and 284).

Reeves expounds on Paul's teachings on marriage, fellowship (particularly the Lord's Supper), legalism, eschatology, and more than I can review here-- I highly recommend reading all of it. One example of a poignant question Dr. Reeves asks the modern church: Has today's church made "family" an idol? We're always reading about liberals' "war on the family" and that "adulthood means marriage; marriage means children." That's not supported by Paul at all, quite the opposite. Paul urged his disciples to love Christ more than anything, and marriage-- where you have to divide attention among the needs of spouse and children-- was to be avoided given the imminence of Christ's return:

(W)e often misunderstand (or completely ignore) his advice about marriage because we don't share Paul's eschatological outlook...Paul didn't write for posterity, believing one day his advice would become our Scripture. No, he wrote because he believed the time was short" (Loc. 1504 and 1700).

(Paul) presumes that a man will love Christ more than any woman. He thinks that women won't look for fulfillment in a man because they find everything they need in Christ...In our attempts to make Christian families ideal, we forgot our most important obligation: devotion to Christ (not the family) is what makes a man or a woman a Christian...As far as Paul was concerned, true love isn't found in marriage" (Loc. 1542, 1564, and 1587).

Reeves imagines what it would look like if Paul were doing marriage counseling. Husband and wife bring their grievances to his office and Paul responds with questions about their individual walks with Christ--the heart of the problem, but sadly missing from most books and counseling on marriage and communication.

In independent-minded America, we often believe we can be Christians by ourselves. That our denomination--our team-- is the "winner." That our sins only have private consequences. Paul's letters overwhelmingly paint the Church as a united family, what helps one is to help all-- what hurts one hurts all (most people never grasp that the "you" in Phil 1:6 is a plural noun). That's the overarching theme of the crucified life-- our old families, customs, beliefs, our rights to ourselves are crucified with Christ.

"He would encourage us to find a way to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, even for those with whom we disagree. Paul would remind us that we can't be Christians by ourselves." (Loc. 2827).

This book is five stars. One complaint I have (besides lending being disabled) with the Kindle version is that the references aren't hyperlinked for easy flipping back and forth.… (mais)