Books in Trilogy: Fishers of Men (639 pgs), Come Unto Me (570 pgs) Behold the Man (679 pgs)
Rating: PG
Summary: In an ancient land in a time foretold by prophets, a babe was born beneath a shining star. Thirty years later, Jesus of Nazareth began teaching a message of hope, peace, and love. He claimed to be the Son of God, and his words and his life - would change the world. In Fishers of Men, the first volume in the series The Kingdom and the Crown, best-selling author Gerald N. Lund transports us to the days of Christ's mortal ministry and invites us to experience the emotions and events of those extraordinary times. Reports of Jesus of Nazareth have reached the ears of David ben Joseph, a merchant in Capernaum, who has waited and watched for the Messiah ever since a special, starlit night thirty years ago. He and his family decide to see for themselves whether or not the rumors are true and journey to hear Jesus. Though David is quick to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the rest of his family is more cautious. His wife, Deborah, and his son, Simeon, leaders in the rebellious Zealot movement, look for a Messiah that will crush the Romans with power and the sword, not one preaching a message of love and forgiveness. Meanwhile, reports of Jesus have reached into the very heart of Jerusalem, and both the powerful Sadducee Mordechai ben Uzziel and the Pharisee Azariah are growing uneasy with the news. Though they hold opposing political views, both agree that something must be done to stop this man from Nazareth before he gets out of hand. However, in Mordechai's own household the influence of the carpenter from Nazareth begins to create conflict.
In Come Unto Me, volume 2 of the bestselling series The Kingdom and the Crown, Simeon of Capernaum wrestles with how to undo the damage wrought by his reluctant conversion to a man called Jesus of Nazareth. His determination to follow the teachings of the Master has cost the life of one friend and sent three others to a Roman prison to await execution. How can he stay true to the teachings of Jesus, which require that he love his enemies, and yet deliver the friends who face death because of him? A similar dilemma faces Miriam of Jerusalem. Her father, along with the other leaders of the powerful Sanhedrin, are determined to stamp out the growing popularity of this itinerant preacher from Nazareth. But Miriam too has found Jesus to be far more than a mere man, and this poses a terrible choice for her--will she follow family or faith?
In Behold the Man, Jesus of Nazareth has been preaching in Judea for three years and has gathered many followers with his teachings and miracles. But he has also made enemies among the rulers in Jerusalem, who fear his power and his influence and who have conspired to put an end to him by whatever means possible. Mordechai ben Uzziel's life couldn't be any worse. His daughter, Miriam, has vanished from Rome, spirited away by none other than his old nemesis - Simeon ben David. Meanwhile, Mordecha's credibility with the Sanhedrin is jeopardized when the council learns that his own daughter has become a disciple of this so-called Messiah. Simeon ben David's life could not be any better. After struggling to follow the Savior and to testify of his knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, Simeon has found peace and joy in following the Master. More than that, he has found love; he and Miriam will be betrothed before the feast of Hanukkah. The family of David ben Joseph continues to follow Jesus, though the Savior's teachings now carry an undercurrent of sorrow and unsettling prophecy. And despite increasing danger, Jesus' ministry draws him inexorably toward Jerusalem. Along the way, Jesus performs miracles of astounding power; healing a woman afflicted for almost two decades, restoring sight to a man born blind, and raising Lazarus after four days in the grave. But not everyone is thrilled to hear Jesus declare, I am the light of the world; I am the bread of life during the Feast of the Tabernacles. As the end of Jesus' ministry and his life approaches, the lines are swiftly and solidly drawn between those who will stand for Jesus and those who will tear him down. The final volume of The Kingdom and the Crown series, Behold the Man details the last week of Jesus' life his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the spiritually fulfilling Last Supper, and the crowning achievement of the atonement that begins in the Garden of Gethsemane and culminates in the Garden Tomb.
My Thoughts: These books were fantastic! I have always loved historical fiction because it's more interesting than reading straight history, but you learn all the same stuff, and the emotions and experiences of the fictional characters are so easy to relate to. I always feel like these things probably did happen to some family or another. This WAS the experience of SOMEONE who lived at the time the book is written about.
The author wrote these books very carefully. He did not want to make Jesus into someone he was not, so in the Author's note at the beginning of the first book he explains that he tries to follow what is written in the New Testament accounts as closely as possible. Every time in the novels that Jesus is teaching the people or performing a miracle, the account comes directly from the Bible. The author fabricates some of the personal identities of the people the Savior heals, and he also fabricates the specific reaction of the witnesses, but the events and the words of the Savior himself come straight from one of the four Gospels. Obviously, what is written in the Bible isn't going to cover anything, so there are a few times when the author fabricates a conversation or an action of the Savior, BUT it is never anything of doctrinal consequence, and at the end of each chapter he includes the reasoning behind what he wrote and sometimes some historical context which I found fascinating.
I learned so much from reading these books! I have learned some things about the parables Christ taught and why the people were so unprepared for him. I've always wondered why the people in Jerusalem completely missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. I knew that the Jews were expecting the Second Coming Messiah, the one who would smite their enemies and deliver Jerusalem from bondage. But I didn't get WHY. I also didn't understand why the Pharisees had become so strict on their observance of the law. How come they got trapped by this law-worship instead of remembering that the true intent of the law was to lead them to Christ? Well, this book has helped me understand both of those, plus a lot more. At the time of Christ, the Jews had just been through a LOT of captivity. They had just been allowed to return to Jerusalem from being captive in Babylon, but now they were under Roman rule and they did not like it. The reason they fixated so much on the warrior Messiah was because they felt sure that He was what they were waiting for to deliver them from the Roman empire. There are so many amazing prophesies about Jerusalem being delivered from bondage, it is no wonder they focused on this and felt sure the Messiah would come and do just that. They were tired of being under someone else's rule. And the Romans weren't exactly nice either. AND I did some research...the Jews never did escape their bondage. After the Romans, it was just someone else. They didn't get their "land" back until after World War II when the Allied powers felt bad for the Jews and said, hey we need to give you your homeland back, this is not fair, so we just gave them Palestine. Only....there were already lots of other people living there who weren't too keen on the Jews taking over. A problem which is still going on today. It's no wonder they are still looking for the Messiah.
The other thing...the Pharisees were so strict about all aspects of the law of Moses because they had read carefully in the scriptures...when the people were not keeping the commandments well enough, the Lord chastened them and they were punished. So, they came to the conclusion that all these years of captivity were because they were not doing a good enough job of keeping the commandments with exactness. They thought that if they could just observe the law BETTER, then surely they would be blessed with deliverance, and the Messiah would come. Unfortunately, they got much too caught up in this theory. That made sense to me too. They were just feeling neglected by God, and thought that if they kept the commandments absolutely perfectly, there was no way he could withhold his blessings. They were so afraid to do anything that might be construed as against the Law of Moses, because they wanted so badly to find favor in the eyes of God. I can completely see how this happened to them. It also gives Jesus's comment "except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" extra impact, because at the time, the people would have wondered how you could possibly be more righteous than these men who were so devoted to keeping the Law of Moses with exactness?
Other things I learned - when Jesus gave the sermon on the mount, there are several verses that we don't really give much thought to but which are actually quite significant. One is the phrase, " whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." In the book, it is pointed out that Jesus specified the right cheek. If a right handed person were to hit me on my right cheek, they would have to do it with the back of the hand. A backhanded slap was considered a great insult to a person's pride/reputation, and men killed each other over it. So Jesus was not necessarily saying that we should just let people rough us up and abuse us, but he was saying we should not let our pride get the better of us. Basically, if someone is trying to bait us, not to take the bait.
Another phrase, also from the sermon on the mount, that I've never thought twice about, "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." The book points out that one of the things any Roman could do at the time was stop ANY Jew, and force him to carry his pack for him for 1 mile. The Jews hated this, of course, so this statement from Jesus was really quite shocking! It is along the same lines as loving your enemies. So interesting.
Also, one of the parables Jesus told was discussed in the book. It's the parable of the unmerciful servant, found in Matthew 18:23-35. I had never really understood the gravity of this before. The one man owes his master 10,000 talents. Ok, big deal right? Well, apparently one talent would have been considered a LOT of money, 10 talents was a fortune. So 10,000 talents was an unimaginable sum. Probably similar to several billion dollars in today's money. So the fact that his master forgives him the debt when he asks for mercy is staggering. He doesn't just give the man more time, he completely forgives it. Then, that same man refuses to forgive the debt of one of HIS servants, which is a mere 100 pence. Hardly any money at all. If we're keeping with our earlier analogy of relating it to today's money, I'll just say the guy owed him $10. He has just been forgiven an unimaginable debt, and then he is unwilling to forgive the mere pittance owed to him. Christ is using this as an analogy for how we should forgive. We all sin in our lives. Thousands of little sins. Some big ones, but probably too many to count. And if we repent and ask for mercy, we will be forgiven. So what right have we to refuse to forgive one thing that another person has done to us? Even if it's a big thing? If we want to be forgiven of the thousands of things we have done wrong, we need to forgive all the things others do to us. It was a great new insight, one that was actually discussed in one of the general conference talks this past weekend.
I also learned more about some of the other miracles Christ performed, why they were so important, and why he did it. There's the time he curses the fig tree...always seemed a little bit of an odd thing to do. These books go over that. Of course, most of these interpretations are largely the author's thoughts and feelings on the subject and it doesn't mean it's the only way these things should be interpreted, but I felt like I was enlightened some. I loved these books!
The only thing that could have made it better is if there were more! It ends with the resurrection, and I know the lives of the early Christians were not at all easy. I would have loved to keep reading to see how all the character's lives were affected by the religion they chose to accept.
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