Phyllis Tickle never ceases to amaze me with her insights. My friend and pastor Steve handed me a copy of The Words of Jesus with the words, “This blew me away.” With an introduction like that, I had to read the book.

Tickle has taken the actual words of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, and broken them down into different categories. For instance, there is a chapter on “The Words of Public Teaching” and another on “The Words of Healing Dialogue”. By reading the words of Jesus, with only enough commentary (never more than a sentence long) to set the context, you really begin to hear Jesus. You don’t just see him, you hear him.

The introduction to the book may be the most powerful part. Tickle explains how the process of writing the book opened her heart to new ways of understanding Jesus. It’s a brilliant insight into such things as how we know Jesus through our heart and how Jesus was an “actualist” not merely a realist or metaphorist. The first 50 or so pages are filled with these reflections, and I found myself amazed at her insights.