Carol of the Brown King

I am fascinated by books like Carol of the Brown King for missiological reasons. So when I saw this book on the shelf of Christmas books at our local public library, I picked it up.

Here was the question that I asked: Is it appropriate to retell the story of the incarnation as if the primary actors were not Jewish? [I don't think there's any problem with casting the wise men as being of various races, as this is something on which Scripture is silent.] On a missiological level I am sympathetic, because I desperately want those who hear the story to understand that Jesus came for sinners, not just for white people, or Jewish people.

But when I seek to understand the incarnation on its own terms, I just can't justify retelling the story in a way that casts the characters as anything but Jewish. My hope hangs on the fact that the living God called a wandering Aramaen named Abram and promised to bless all the nations in Him. The work of God in history is revealed as His setting His favor on an undeserving and unlikely nation in order to bless all the nations through them. Thus Jesus' identity as a Jew is not incidental, but essential. Hence both Matthew and Luke trace His genealogy in their gospels. Jesus came as the rightful heir to David's throne, in fulfillment of God's historical action in the descendants of Abraham.

As a non-Jew, I need to hear and realize that Jesus was a Jew, and that I, who was once a stranger and alien to the promises of God, and without God in this world, am now made an heir of the promise! Inasmuch as I would love to endorse a book that is inclusive in its intent, reading the Gospel on its own terms requires me to say that such a retelling is more harmful than it is helpful because it obscures, rather than illuminating, the saving work of God in history.

In my view it is better that any non-Jewish child like myself should see the Messiah as different from myself and be forced to ask, "Why?" That question brings the answer: the God who created all the nations of the earth, graciously chose the heirs of Abraham to be His people - and that by grace now allows those of us who are outsiders to the promise to be included by trusting Jesus.