Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed is an excellent book.  It begins beautifully and I imagine Scot's main message of loving God and others will resonate with most readers as I found it impacting.  The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 "... Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength ..." and Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor as yourself" combine together in Mark 12:30-31 form McKnight's "Jesus Creed". 

For too many believers, this passage is lost in the gospel narratives between parables, arguments, and prophecy.  Many cling instead to the Beatitudes and the Resurrection and leave this "Greatest Command" outside.  McKnight aids the Church by bringing this truth to his readers.  This is essential to all spiritual formation of all believers.

The question demands to be answered how did we get here?  How did so many theologians, professors, commentators, pastors, and so many other church leaders, allow us as a church to get here?  Here being an age of $10 million sanctuaries, Christian celebrities, and a multi-million dollar Christian book/music/Scripture magnet industry.  No explanation is found but McKnight offers a solution by living out the greatest commandment.

This is an easy book to love and a difficult one to not recommend to anyone who desires to apply the Gospel message in his/her life especially with such a powerful ending with the chapters on the Last Supper, The Crucifixion and the Resurrection.   I hesitate to offer any criticism.  (Further being a Biblical Seminary student, I look forward to meeting him one of these days and tell him how big a fan I am of his blog).   That being said, one issue that left me unsettled as I continued reading was that McKnight oversimplifies the message and the person of Jesus.   In short, He said and did a tremendous amount in three short years and depending on perspective, some of it was just as controversial as it was life changing. 

As I am writing this, I find myself in the awkward position in not wanting to be sympathetic to the Pharisees, however, when we examine some of the confrontations, Jesus was not the easiest guy to figure out from their perspective.  This is true many times from our perspective as well. 

While McKnight gives an often heard explanation of the meaning and context behind the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 (pg. 53) and describes "the walls" with the bleeding woman or the leper (pp. 156-159), he does not offer his wisdom on some of the more difficult sayings of Jesus like "I did not come in peace but with a sword" (Matthew 10:34) or some of the harsher words found in various confrontations with the Pharisees even calling them a "brood of vipers".    Harsh words from a man preaching love.  An appropriate place could have been Part 5 like "In the Jordan with Jesus" or writing a new one like "In the Temple with Jesus" or at the "Debate Table with Jesus".  It would have seemed to be an appropriate place for some of the "harder teachings" of Jesus, which were among the combined obstacles for his enemies in accepting him.

To avoid a misunderstanding, it is not my intention to defend these same people who would at a moment's notice stone me for actions I take for granted today.  Jesus knew their hearts (as He knows mine), they knew the prophecies, and many of them were desperately consumed by their own power.  However, there are many times Jesus did not speak to them in the same kindness as when he forgives the woman caught in adultery or Mary or the blind man or countless other faces in the Gospel.   Whatever our sovereign Lord's intention is, I am content with it but the point remains, Jesus was not always "Mr. Nice-Guy" or McKnights's very endearing Jesus.  Dallas Willard's depiction of Jesus in The Divine Conspiracy seems to be a little more accurate as he navigates through the misunderstandings brought on by the Beatitudes .

     Perhaps the two can collaborate on a new book, The Divine Dogma.  In any case, McKnight gives each Christ follower and the Church community a beautiful blessing in the Jesus Creed.  Frankly, it's nearly impossible to disagree with McKnight's thesis of loving God and loving others.  After all, I am fairly certain that disagreeing with this truth puts the individual in the uncomfortable position of not agreeing with the Gospel.   Indeed, if we lived more by the Jesus Creed, our lives would be more loving, more sacrificial, less self-absorbed or as we like to now say, more missional.   Doing so would be fulfilling the mission of the Kingdom.