J.R. Briggs

Living in the Gospels for a year

December 30, 2009

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At the beginning of each year I try to prayerfully develop a purposeful, grace-filled spiritual formation plan for the year ahead. I don’t always keep to the formation plan all twelve months, but I do strive to live it in an attempt to be more like Jesus.

Last Christmastime I was thinking through what 2009 could look like. I had heard a quote by the famed Jewish theologian David Flusser from Hebrew University in Jerusalem said that if Christians are to be like their rabbi, Jesus, they have to intimately know who he is, how he lived and what he taught – inside and out.  He stressed his point even more saying that if Christians do not read the four gospels once a week it would be hard for them to call themselves followers of Jesus. Sure, its bold and provocative, but there is little doubt that Flusser meant it.

The quote stuck with me. I knew I couldn’t do that for the rest of my life, but I wondered if I could attempt to do such a thing for an entire year.

As a passionate nerd, I love reading. My dream would be to be stuck in a Barnes & Noble for weeks on end and not be allowed out. I considered for a while if I should stop reading anything but the Bible for an entire year, but my wife thought that would cut off a huge source of life for me. I think she’s right. So instead, I wondered if it would be worthwhile to replace the time I spend reading with the priority of reading the Bible. Then I wondered if I could actually do what Flusser had suggested: Could I actually try to read the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – each and every week for 52 weeks in 2009?

As I was thinking through this last Christmas we were in Michigan visiting Megan’s parents. On the Sunday between Christmas and New Years Megan and I decided to make the trek across the state to Grand Rapids to attend a service at Mars Hill (what some would call The Christian Postmodern Pilgrimage). While Rob Bell was away (as most Senior Pastors are away on the last Sunday of the year) Ed Dobson was filling in to preach. I’ve always respected Ed Dobson, having interacted with him briefly at a conference a few years ago in San Diego. Unlike most people that day at Mars Hill, I was actually more excited to hear Ed (no offense, Rob).

During his sermon, Ed shared that he had tried to live like Jesus – really live like him – in the past year. He was writing a book on his yearlong experiment (which was published fall of this year called The Year of Living Like Jesus).

Ed grew a beard. He ate kosher. He kept Sabbath. He forgave his enemies. He hung out in bars (something he had never done before). And ironically enough, he committed to reading the gospels once a week for the year.

Wow, I thought. Maybe I should try this reading experiment after all.

Not the kosher-eating, Sabbath-keeping, bear-growing portions, but of reading through the four gospels each week for an entire year. So I nervously committed to trying to read the gospels once a week during 2009. (Thanks for the extra motivation, Ed!)

Starting the last week of 2008, I began the experiment. I agreed to enter into this time with the motivation to not just know more information, but to become more like Jesus. The goal was not information, but formation. Right reading, I figured, might point me in the direction of right living. The desire was to match my orthodoxy with my orthopraxy (or maybe it was the other way around).

I agreed to do it, not out of legalism or arrogance, but out of truly wanting to know this fascinating, confusing, enthralling, challenging, magnetic, life-giving, mysterious person of Jesus on his own terms, not mine.

I wanted to be introduced to Jesus for the first time…again. I agreed to do it, so long as it does not interfere with my family. I agreed to do it, so long as it didn’t become an idol in my life. This reading experiment was more difficult than I ever imagined. If I knew how difficult it would be I don’t know if I would have done it in the first place.

It’s important to know up front that while I completed the reading most weeks, it was far from perfect. I totaled it up and figured out that I read the four gospels only 39 of 52 weeks – far from perfect – which was probably a good thing, as it kept me quite humble (something Scripture and followers of Jesus should be marked by anyway).

It’s hard to believe that that experiment ends today. I’ve learned a great deal through it all. I journaled many of my insights, thoughts and lessons learned in each chapter of the gospels in a black lined Moleskine, which I’ll always treasure.

Here are some of my reflections as I look back on the year:

1. After a year of reading, I am less like Jesus than I would like to be (my wife would tell you the same). I have so much more to go. I’m still way too judgmental, impatient, course, selfish, critical and my faith is less than what I thought it would be at this point. Good thing grace is the central message of the gospels I was reading…

2. The process messed with me. It was much more of a personal sacrifice than I thought it would be. It took much more time than I ever imagined. On average, I could finish in about 7.5 and 8 hours a week. That’s a lot of things I have to say ‘no’ to in order to say ‘yes’ to this experiment. Some times that meant saying no to going out with friends, watching a movie, reading another book, checking email one more time, and, more often than not, going to bed at a reasonable hour. Without proper planning, I’d pay for it the next morning when I had to fit the snooze more than once…

3. Keeping the gospels from becoming stale took some intention. To keep the Gospels from getting stale I read them in a different order each week. One week I’d read ‘forward’ (Matthew-Mark-Luke-John) and then the next week I’d read ‘backward’ (John-Luke-Mark-Matthew).I’d read in different translations. I’d read in different Bibles (so that my eyes wouldn’t only gravitate only to the words I’d underlined or circled). I’d read in different places: coffee shops, my office, the couch, walking around my living room, etc.

I purchased the TNIV on audio so I’d break things up by listening to the gospels on long drives in the car, working out on the treadmill or on walks around the neighborhood. Changing things up helped me keep the newness of the gospel writers present and the staleness of familiarity at an arm’s length – at least most of the time. And I stayed far away from commentaries. Very few things, I believe, would have  sucked the alive-ness out of the Scriptures during the year for me than reading commentaries.

4. Admittedly, there were many times I didn’t want to read the gospels. In fact, many times I considered quitting the experiment altogether. (The first time I thought about it was early February!) It was too difficult. I missed spending time in other books I’d grown to love – books on history, leadership, biography and yes, even, theology. Ashamedly, I admit there were times I simply wanted to read books about Jesus and about the Bible, but loathed the thought of actually reading the Bible. (Was there such a thing as too much of a good thing – or was my attitude just plain wrong? Or was I afraid of something?)

5. But overall as I look back on my experience, my love for the Scriptures grew. The priority of the Bible grew in my life. Sometimes it whispered to me. Other times it spoke to me so audibly it was as if the gospel writers were sitting in my living room. Still other times the gospels shouted to me (sometimes at me) with such clarity and conviction it would be impossible to miss. And yes, still other times I wondered if everyone had walked out of the room because I wasn’t hearing a darn thing.

Overall, I found that while I was reading specific passages I had read dozens of times before – some so familiar I had quasi-memorized them – that a new thought, insight, connection, conviction or challenge would emerge from the text. I was truly experience the role of the Holy Spirit working in the Holy Scriptures. I kept come back to the phrase, “All Scripture is God-breathed…” God was inhaling and exhaling, life – new life – into me as I read the familiar words of Scripture.

6. After all is said and done, I am more startled by Jesus than I was last year – or any other year. Or maybe I am more startled because of who I thought Jesus was, based on my experience, upbringing, environment and pre-conceived ideas. Rather than being comforted (though at times I was) I was jolted into the awareness of this explosive person of Jesus, who started a revolution of love – but a revolution nonetheless. He was controversial. Hated. Loved. Feared. Revered. Ironic. Intriguing. Disruptive. Peaceful.

The adage is true: Jesus comforted the disturbed and disturbed the comfortable. And it was certainly true of me. The words and works of Jesus in the gospels dislodged chunks of apathy, laziness and selfishness that had been deeply embedded in my heart. Painful dislodging. But there were times of hurt and confusion and disappointment and doubt that the Holy Spirit met me and comforted me with promises I had heard and knew in my head, but had forgotten in my soul. These realizations about Jesus made me ask some blunt and challenging questions about who his followers would be today.

7. I won’t be doing this reading experiment again in 2010 – at least not this intensely. (I’m developing a formation plan for 2010 that springs out of the experience I’ve had the past year – one that is challenging, but modified – developed out an appreciation for the Sermon on the Mount). With that being said, if people are looking for an adventure with Jesus and a challenge in Scripture reading, I’d highly recommend it – but it will require an incredible amount of sacrifice. If I were to do it again I’d find a reading partner and occasionally get together over coffee to make sure that what was being read was being implanted into our everyday lives.

It was an incredibly fulfilling and stretching year learning more of Jesus.

I hope that in 2010, by the grace of God, I’ll act, live, think, love, serve, lead and live to be more like Jesus – at least more than I did in 2009.

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