Everybody likes Jesus. Don't they?We overlook that Jesus wasJudgmental-preaching hellfire far more than the apostle PaulUncompromising-telling people to hate their familiesChauvinistic-excluding women from leadershipRacist-insulting people from other ethnic groupsAnti-environmental-cursing a fig tree and affirming animal sacrificeAngry-overturning tables and chasing moneychangers in the templeHe demanded moral perfection, told people to cut off body parts, made prophecies that haven't come true, and defied religious and political authorities. While we tend to ignore this troubling behavior, the people around Jesus didn't. Some believed him so dangerous that they found a way to have him killed. The Jesus everybody likes, says Mark Strauss, is not the Jesus found in the Gospels. He's a figure we've created in our own minds. Strauss believes that when we unpack the puzzling paradoxes of the man from Galilee, we find greater insight into his countercultural message and mission than we could ever have imagined.

Mark Strauss (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego. He is the author or coauthor of several books and numerous articles, including How to Read the Bible in Changing Times, Four Portraits, One Jesus: An Introduction to Jesus and the Gospels, How to Choose a Translation for All It's Worth (with Gordon D. Fee), The Essential Bible Companion (with John Walton) and commentaries on Mark's Gospel in the Zondervan Exegetical Commetary Series and Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 9. He is New Testament editor of the Expanded Bible and the Teach the Text Commentary Series. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Committee for Bible Translation for the New International Version and as an associate editor for the NIV Study Bible.Strauss has a heart for ministry and preaches and teaches regularly at churches, conferences and college campuses. He is the weekly teacher at the Cove Bible Study at The Church at Rancho Bernardo. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Roxanne, and three kids.