This weekend I read, “Imaginary Jesus” on my Kindle.  Check out this a video promoting this book by Matt Mikalatos:

Like any book, not everything the author shares or suggests is of value, but there are always nuggets that stay with you.  Here are what I think are the highlights of Mikalatos’ thoughts:

On discipleship: (A disciple) “would eat when I eat, rest when I rest, an under the same olive tree. You wouldn’t take the shortcut while I went the long way.  We would be inseparable. You would live like my shadow, mimicking my actions until you could do what I do without thinking, until you had the same instincts, thoughts, and words.”

On Jesus and civil government:”It’s not like the Roman occupationist government was a godly, loving government, either.”

On Christian service: “Every time I refuse to serve and love those around me, I am saying that I am better than Christ, better than God.”

On Communion (the Lord’s Supper): Here was a reminder that when I least deserved it, when I was his enemy, he died so that I could live.  He died so that the entire world order could be restructured, so the dead could live, so that the universe could be restored.  He died so that I could live a victorious life, so that I could become like him and not longer be held captive to my own nature and desires but could instead break out of those for my deeper desires, those amazing, wonderful, transcendent actions that I so badly wanted to do but couldn’t without his help.  He dies so that I could live his life.”

On Jesus and our suffering: “He was hurting with me.  He mourned our loss.  Whatever his control in the situation, however he had chosen to act or not act, I knew he hadn’t made that decision lightly.”

As designed, this fictional tale is helping me make certain, I am not creating Jesus in my image, but that I am allowing Him to mold me and make me after His will.

– Scott