09/27/2021
“Yeshua went again into the region of Yehuda and across the Jordan,” Zachary writes in a typical line from this atypical retelling of key incidents from the Gospels. But she adds, “He took his disciples with him and three Marys walked with him: his mother, his sister, and his beloved companion.” The “beloved companion” is Mary Magdalene, that most contested of Biblical figures, called Maryam in this radically inclusive account and treated with reverent respect by Yeshua, who trusts her to “preach about The Kingdom and to heal the sick.” Drawing from the Gospels, other early Christian texts, and translations of the Tao Te Ching and the Bhagavad Gita, Zachary’s vision of the life, death, teachings, and resurrection of Yeshua is both deeply researched and deeply personal.
Zachary notes, in an inviting preface, that she hopes that reading this new version of the most familiar (and fought over) of tales will prove a “perspective-shifting experience” for readers. She acknowledges that there’s no record establishing the precise relationship between Yeshua and Maryam, but concludes they must have been close friends, together embodying the “necessary balance of sacred masculine and divine feminine energies.” That balance guides Zachary, who alternates between masculine and feminine pronouns for God and has Yeshua address disciple Shimon’s distaste for Maryam’s prominence among the disciples who “fish for people.”
Zachary sources most lines of her retelling in ancient texts, combining Christian beliefs with other traditions, emphasizing light, rebirth, and knowing the self as a route to healing. (An appendix spells out the subtitle’s “keys for resurrecting your life.”) A spiritual healer herself, she preserves the healing miracles, though her take on the loaves and fishes story suggests Yeshua as a good manager rather than a creator of food. She numbers the lines, offers copious explanations of familiar and unfamiliar terms, and places the words of God in blue text. Readers looking to blend Christian teachings with other spiritual traditions will find much to ponder.
Takeaway: A vivid, deeply researched retelling of key moments of the Gospels, woven through with elements of other spiritual traditions.
Great for fans of: Thomas Jefferson’s Jefferson Bible, Elaine Pagels’s The Gnostic Gospels .
Production grades Cover: B Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A-
The Messenger reimagines familiar passages in ways that are stretching and challenging, with the ultimate goal of inviting new insights ... The aim is to unsettle typical notions of religiosity, opening the way for a new, inclusive way of looking ... It is designed as a story to be shared; it includes book club questions and other invitations that can be done alone or with others ... The Messenger is an eye-opening spiritual book that invites a search for personal truth.
I appreciate the point of view, the shifting of the traditional view in a way that amplifies the mystery and purpose in terms of bringing out the meaning so that the reader not only reads it and hears it, but absorbs it and feels it. There is a gentle and loving energy that emanates from this work. Not only were my eyes opened to a deeper truth; my heart was opened to embrace a more expanded experience of love.
First Reader - Kimberly Wohlford
This project was divinely inspired. It's such a labor of love. The way the story format is themed and laid out in an integrated way, I love how it explains in a way that is spiritual yet palatable and easy to digest that allows for inherent worthiness and dignity, and that even non-Christians are children of humanity.
First Reader - Jessica Sharp
My first reaction was, 'Oh, that's a little bit different than what I've perceived before'. But I read it again, questioning my old way of understanding. A few things I knew; others I haven't wrapped my head around yet, but so many aspects of this ancient story make so much more sense now. Just recognizing the humanness in everybody; that is the message.
First Reader - Carol Poulson
