Preface

Our lives are filled with flashbacks. Painful losses in the past drive athletes to future victory. Our best vacation experience draws us back to re-live great moments. Bitter breakups make people wiser in their dating lives or they become increasingly jaded from the many layers of anger and betrayal. Vivid lessons our parents taught us become embedded into our lives and serve as a foundation for raising our own children. No one can understand who we are without understanding our past.

The same is true for understanding Jesus. His “past,” however, doesn’t begin with Mary. That’s where it gets complicated. It’s also where the Old Testament becomes an absolute necessity for us to even begin to grasp who Jesus is.

People like to learn about Jesus, but often they don’t like to study the Old Testament. Jesus’ stories are engaging, amazing, and attractive across cultural lines. It’s fairly easy in many cultures to gain an audience by telling about His amazing life. Without a basic understanding of how Jesus relates to the Old Testament, however, they will simply fit Him into their own worldview. Hindus will believe in Jesus as another one of their millions of gods. Buddhists will simply see Him as a great man whose example should be followed. Some will see Him only as a great prophet. And non-religious Westerners will just see Him as a good moral teacher. All of these things are true, of course, but Jesus’ claims about Himself go much further. These claims must be seen through the eyes of a first-century Jewish worldview that had been shaped by millennia of interaction between Yahweh and His people.

There are two general approaches to teaching through Bible stories. The first is to start with the Old Testament and tell the stories chronologically. This ensures that people will have a Biblical worldview, but it takes a long time to get to Jesus and the Gospel. The other approach simply skips the Old Testament altogether in order to get to Jesus faster – leaving large worldview gaps that inhibit a fuller understanding of Jesus. This is why I wanted to write Flashback.

These stories begin and end with Jesus. In the middle, however, there will be flashbacks to Old Testament stories that provide for a fuller understanding of the climax of the New Testament story. This isn’t exactly a new way of storytelling. Movies and novels have used this approach for a long time. Perhaps none have made it into such an art as the hit show Lost. It was while thinking about this show that the idea behind Flashback was sealed. The life of Jesus is told chronologically, but the Old Testament flashbacks are not in any particular order. A simple timeline is provided at the end of the book.

As you read the stories, I’d like for you to try to find yourself in them. Are you the Pharisee? The “sinful woman?” The disciple boldly proclaiming the Gospel? The soldiers that flogged Jesus? The man eating the fruit? The boy facing the giant? Or maybe you’re all of these. My prayer is that you will begin to see the Bible as so real and the stories so alive that they will serve as “flashbacks” to your own life story; and that you will find your identity in Jesus as much as your own family history. I hope that you will have a greater understanding of the biggest question of all – “Who is Jesus?” – and experience a greater compulsion to love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

There are several ways this book can be used. It was written to be used as a weekly Bible study to introduce students in Southeast Asia from radically different worldviews and religious backgrounds to Jesus. We tell the story first in our own words and then discuss it in small groups. I’d like to give a special thanks to Candis Garner – she was the first to use the stories and gave me valuable feedback and encouragement to continue it.

Flashback can also be a tool for Christians to have a fuller understanding of both who Jesus is and the big picture of God's Word. Feel free to read each story in the Bible! I've provided many references for you to find them.

David Parks