When
Jesus of Nazareth died the horrible death of crucifixion at the hands of
the Roman army, nobody thought him a hero. His movement was over.
Nothing had changed. This was the sort of thing that Rome did best.
Caesar was on his throne. Death, as usual, had the last word.
Except that in this case it didn't. As Jesus's followers looked back
on that day, they came up with the shocking, scandalous, nonsensical
claim that his death had launched a revolution. That by 6:00 p.m. on
that dark Friday the world was a different place. They believed that
with this event the one true God had suddenly and dramatically put into
operation his plan for the rescue of the world. They saw it as the day
the revolution began."
Leading Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T.
Wright argues that the church has lost touch with the revolutionary
nature of the cross. Most Christians have been taught a reduced message
that the death of Jesus was all about "God saving me from my 'sin' so
that I could 'go to heaven.'" According to Wright, this version
misconstrues why Jesus had to die, the nature of our sins, and what our
mission is in the world today.
In his paradigm-shifting book Surprised by Hope, Wright
showed that the Bible's message is not that heaven is where we go in the
future; rather, the Bible sees the primary movement as heaven coming
down to earth, redeeming the world, beginning now. In this companion
book, Wright shows how Christianity's central story tells how this
revolution began on a Friday afternoon two thousand years ago and
continues now through the church's work today. Wright seeks to wake up
the church to its own story, to invite us to join in Jesus's work of
redeeming the world--to join his revolution.