Twenty Questions Jesus Asked

'Have you never read?' 'Who do you say I am?' 'Why are you so afraid?' This book reflects on twenty questions Jesus asked people during his ministry and considers how we might answer them for ourselves today.

In doing so, we can connect Jesus' teaching with daily life and with our walk of Christian discipleship.

Each devotional chapter concludes with a prayer, thought or meditation to help us wait upon God as we contemplate what he is asking us today.

Elizabeth Rundle has spent many years helping people connect with God through Scripture. Most recently she has contributed to BRF's Day by Day with God notes but she has also written over a dozen books of Bible reflections for a number of Christian publishers, including CWR and Kevin Mayhew. She has broadcast on local and national radio and prepared scripts for television 'epilogue' slots. She is ordained in the Methodist Church.

From The Church Times August 2009

Twenty Questions Jesus Asked is a book that was asking to be written, one that made me wonder: "Why didn't I think of that?" In a little more than 100 pages, Elizabeth Rundle offers a fresh perspective on who Jesus us, then and now.

This book will challenge and encourage people of faith, however new or long-held that faith may be. It could also draw in those who are seeking faith. In our church's Christian-basics group, we ask member to read a Gospel right through; their frequent response is amazement at the person of Jesus who jumps off the page. This book has a similar effect, as Rundle shows that Jesus's words are vibrant, radical, and relevant to life now.

Her style is conversational, and expresses the thoughts of a disciple conversant with and confident in scripture, while being deceptively direct. The chapters are far from formulaic, but there is a common thread of background material running though the book, which connects several sections.

So those who enjoy historical and geographical detail will find, for example, a succinct explanation of the tax system that operated in Jesus's time, with the author's innocuous but revealing comment: "Somehow it's strange to think of Jesus as a taxpayer!"

Rundle also garners related Bible passages to sit alongside the central text in each chapter, thus creating a tapestry against which Jesus's questions are set, and through which they come into sharper focus and lose predictability. Inevitably, one of the problems of a book like this is that most of the passages are very familiar.

You probably know the joke about the man who watched Hamlet, and complained that it was just a bunch of quotations strung together. So, here, the words we know so well are those that have the ring of universal truth, and still touch a chord in the heart. Rundle is alert to this.

In chapter 16, "Whose portrait is this...?", without mentioning "Render unto Caesar...", she acknowledges that Jesus's words "were almost proverbial in their brevity and eternal relevance", and then refreshes the analogy to include credit and debit cards, and, tellingly, store loyalty cards.

Each chapter moves from background to foreground, past to present, rather as a film director draws in the audience to the central event of each scene. At times, the approach is subtle, but the author's stated purpose is clear: to invite us to answer each of Jesus's questions for ourselves.

The principle way in which Rundle achieves this is to identify with the disciples who inhabit the scenes with Jesus. She makes full use of Peter's foibles, sympathises with Thomas over his label as a doubter, reassesses Judas's character, and takes us into the experiences of them all. She also slows space for the women close to Jesus to take centre stage. The chapters end with short and varied reflections, to lead a group or individual into prayer and further exploration.

While some of Rundle's writing is punchy and journalistic, other passages have the feel of an Ignatian meditation. The most moving example of this comes in the final chapter, which looks at the encounter between Jesus and Peter on the shore of the lake after the resurrection.

The smell of charcoal, she reminds us, would have transported Peter straight back to the scene of his denial. Jesus knew that; Peter experienced it; but I had never understood it until I read this book. For insights such as this, I am profoundly grateful to Elizabeth Rundle.

I enjoyed Twenty Questions, and was challenged by it - or rather, by the questions of Jesus, which it made me reconsider. The question is: will you read it, too?

Reviewed by Anna Brooker

Anna Brooker is Priest-in-Charge of All Saints', Isleworth, in west London

From The Diocese of Hereford Newspaper - Spring 2009

This small book is crammed full of thought provoking material as it takes us on a journey through Jesus' ministry and looks as some of the questions that He asked of the disciples, the Pharisees and individuals he me along the way. Each chapter ends with a prayer or reflection that relates the question back to us. This book is probably best suited to being used for Bible study either by individuals or groups and in my opinion could be adapted for use as a Lent study course. Alternatively the questions could form a good base for a sermon series.

Reviewed by Lynn Money, Staunton-on-Wye

From North Sound Radio, July 2008

'What is He asking you?' This question on the cover gives a clue to the stimulating content of Elizabeth Rundle's latest book. Jesus' Twenty Questions will all be familiar to bible readers but the thoughts the writer develops from these starting points make very interesting reading.

After providing the scriptural setting for each question she develops the thought taking it right into the life of the reader before spelling out a final challenge. Most chapters end in a Prayer or relevant point for Reflection, making it a very worthwhile read.

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