So, Holy Week is almost over. So far it’s felt pretty normal. Almost like any other week really. That’s my own fault and I’m pausing now to ask forgiveness….
Last weekend though, I attended an event that inspired me to search out some holiness. It was a pseudo book launch for a project called The Voice: The Last Eyewitness. There were some good bands there – Waterdeep and the Rob Seay Band – who lifted my spirits considerably. And the main writer and proponent of The Voice, Chris Seay, was there too.
He challenged and inspired me and I bought the book.
The Voice is a retelling of the last week of Jesus’ life. Meant as a companion to the Bible, not a replacement, its intention is to recapture the art, poetry, the prose and the beauty of the scriptures as they were originally written. Seay, and the others behind the project, believe much of that beauty has been lost in translation over the centuries that have passed since the New Testament was written.
“Too often the passion, grit, humour and beauty has been lost in the translation process,” reads a description of the book. “The Voice seeks to capture what was lost.”
The story is told in the voice of John, Jesus’ beloved disciple, as an old man looking back on the most important period of his life, and in history.
This is done with scripture, mostly from the Gospel of John but also from the other three Gospels. It’s incredibly illustrated, and uses boxed sidebars that explore what John may have been thinking – often these are insights from scholarly sources -- as he witnessed miracles, questioned, and grew in faith as he saw heaven and earth joined together in this son of man called Jesus.
The Voice was crafted carefully and painstakingly, with the creative skill of people like Seay tempered by theologians and historians to ensure the accuracy of the content.
I quickly became absorbed in the pages as they told this story that is so familiar to me, in a brand new way that made me feel like I was hearing it for the first time. I often felt, as was the expressed intention of the writers, like I was sitting around a campfire with good friends talking about the most important thing in the world.
“I’ve outlived the rest of the “the twelve,” and His other followers,” John says, early in his narrative. “I can’t tell you how lonely it is to be the last person with a memory, some would even say a fuzzy memory, of what Jesus looked like, the sound of His voice, the manner of His walk. The penetrating look in His eyes. All I can do is tell my story.”
And the story is told beautifully. John emphasizes over and over the fact that he witnessed the events of Jesus’ life with his own eyes, and that when everything else is forgotten, it must be remembered that what he is setting down on paper…is true.
“Now I want to be very clear. This is my story, but unlike what you hear from most storytellers, this is completely true. I am giving you the testimony of an eyewitness, and like my brother disciples, I will swear on my life that it is true.”
Hmmm. I can almost smell the campfire smoke as I settle-in to listen to the story.
Chris shared an anecdote from his own life that helps me to explain why this book is important.
He shared about his grandfather, his “Pappy,” who only had one arm. He passed away when Chris was still young. Chris was often curious as to how Pappy lost his arm, but his family always shied away from the subject. Finally, when he was old enough, he learned that Pappy had been shot when he objected to the way a man was treating a woman.
But Pappy was so angry that despite his wound, he picked up his attacker with his good arm, and threw him across the room. And, such was the force of the blow, the man died.
After the incident, Pappy became a pacifist, desperately avoiding violence or confrontation.
After Chris learned this, he started to realize some truths about his own life. He realized why his own father also avoided confrontation, even at times when Chris felt he should have taken a stand. And he realized how his grandfather’s life, and the implications of that event, had trickled down and affected his own life, contributing to make him into the man he is now.
When Chris became a Christian, he realized that the Bible, the written, divinely inspired words of Jesus and his followers, had the same ability to help him see truths in his own life. It is Jesus’ story, and as a follower of him, it was Chris’ story too – a living story that coincides with the heartbeats of those who seek to know Him.
The Voice is an attempt to broaden and deepen that search for truth by helping us know who this man Jesus was and what his life could mean to our own.
So, as Holy Week now merges into Good Friday, a day that commemorates the most important journey Jesus would take in his short life, I’m trying to take some time to get lost in these pages and rediscover Him as I struggle along on my own journey.
Check out the conscious reflex drawings of Rob Pepper at: http://www.dailydrawingdiary.com/
Check out Waterdeep at: http://www.waterdeep.com/
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