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Understanding Jesus
What the admirers of the wisdom of Dan Brown seek to do is to relegate the four Gospels, a product of the first century when Jesus lived, to a secondary position in preference to some paintings and documents of the 15th century and their 21st century interpretation. Rajendra Prabhu could not have chosen a more opportune time to bring out his book, Understanding Jesus. One mark of our post-modern restless era is the renewed interest in religion. The world is being flooded with Gospel knowledge through the media—to a believer this again is a fulfillment of the prophesies of the Bible about the end times. The author, hailing from a Hindu background, states in the preface to the book, that it "is a humble offering to all those non-Christian people including agnostics and atheists to help them access both to the teachings and personality of Jesus Christ." It is also his statement of faith when he quotes the Bible to say, "Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God`85the Son has in Himself the full nature of God`85." It is no digression here to point out that Christ is admired and accepted as a great teacher by a vast number of Hindus as well. But they have difficulty, as in the case of Mahatma Gandhi, in accepting His claim: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." While the soundness and wisdom of His teachings are accepted by adherents of other faiths, they dispute His claim to divinity. However, a person no less than Swami Vivekananda observed: "In Him is embodied all that is best and greatest in His own race and Himself is the impetus for the future, not only to His own, but also to unnumbered other races of the world. If I as an oriental, am to worship Jesus of Nazareth, there is only one way left to me, that is to worship them and God and nothing else." The teachings of Jesus, though simple in words, have a spiritual depth that cannot be easily grasped through a mere intellectual exercise. So also the meaning of the cross, which was an instrument of torture in ancient times. The author himself refers to the passage in which Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:15) And the reply from Peter is: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." A reading of the Bible does not always seem to lead the reader to this conclusion. Let us take the case of Dan Brown, who authored The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and also of Wheaton College, one of the finest graduate schools. He has degrees from Regent’s College in Vancouver, Canada, which specialises in Missionology (Study of Christian Missions) and also from Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy. He is the son of a presidential award-winning maths professor and professional sacred musician. This background has not prevented Dan Brown from weaving out of the sacred facts, an entirely fictional plot for a money-spinning novel. So it is one thing to be acquainted with the facts and teachings of Jesus and, quite another, to believe in Him. Faith and scholarship do not always seem to merge. To Peter’s assertion that His master is the Son of the living God, Jesus’ characteristic response was: "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man (flesh and blood—in other translations) but by my Father in heaven." Truth comes as a revelation from God and not from human scholarship or intelligence. Herein lies the significance of this book by Rajendra Prabhu. If his inner eyes had not been opened, he would not have been able to write what he had written. Spiritual truths are to be spiritually discerned. He has ‘studied’ the Bible and that has led to a correct understanding of Jesus. He is able to traverse the traditions and philosophies of the past that hold him in their grip and come to acknowledge openly his conviction that Jesus is Lord. This intellectual honesty, at a time, when forces are at work to paint Jesus Christ as a western and an alien to the eastern mind, is admirable indeed. If anything, independence has brought to us a narrowness of mind wherein we have begun to label worldviews and philosophies as eastern or western. Jesus Christ came into this world for everyone. If Shakespeare, Kalidasa, Tagore, Lincoln and Gandhi need to be accepted by all regardless of culture and background, Jesus Christ, as a central figure of human civilisation and history, cannot be confined to a particular culture or region. His instructions for life transcend time, space and regions. What do you think of Jesus? There are millions of books today to answer that question notwithstanding the fact that books meant for entertainment like The Da Vinci’s Code are also a plenty, confusing the reading public. Prabhu’s book will certainly help the Indian reader to understand Jesus for who He is.
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