reviewsbyerin | "When Jesus Wept" by Bodie & Brock Thoene

I consider Bodie & Brock Thoene to be some of the original pillars in the current Christian fiction market. While giving them their full props, it had easily been a dozen years since I read one of their books. When I heard that their latest release featured Lazarus of Bethany as the main character, I was immediately intrigued. What a unique focus for Biblical fiction!

The Lazarus of "When Jesus Wept" is a wealthy and well-respected vineyard owner. Grieving the recent loss of his wife and son in childbirth, his proud religious shell is beginning to soften. Curious about the wild man preaching in the desert, Lazarus goes to see John the Baptist and witnesses Jesus' baptism. Later he runs into Jesus again at a wedding in Cana of Galilee and sees firsthand to the miracle of water being turned into wine. A wine far better than anything he has ever tasted in his experience in the industry.

It is through hearing Jesus teach about being the True Vine that Lazarus is drawn to Him. This is language that Lazarus understands, and he and Jesus share many conversations about the workings of God being similar to the work of a loving and faithful vinedresser. There was one exchange that I kept turning back to read again and again, hearing the truth of it in my own heart. The Thoenes have Jesus saying:

"...Those who love God are not exempt from pain. But for the righteous man to suffer? Think of it! Only the wise vinedresser knows what will make the best wine. The vine is stressed -- it reaches deep for the water, the shoots are pruned, the clusters are thinned, and in the end the fruit is richer and the wine full of character and grace. Though the growing may be difficult, God will be glorified at the end of every righteous man's story." (page 146)

Through the eyes of Lazarus, we continue to see many miracles from his firsthand account, as well as the growing unrest among the religious elite of Jerusalem. As one would expect from a Thoene novel, the details of history and culture give another depth to works we are already familiar with. One thing I found was that they chose to focus their Biblical expounding on the gospel of John, probably because that is where the "I am the vine" passage comes from. As a consequence of this, when there are multiple Bible accounts of a miracle, they stuck with the John version. This means, for example, that when Jesus walked on the water, Peter does not join him as he does in the book of Matthew. Another notable story left out of the novel would be the famous passage of Mary and Martha contrasted in Luke 10. While I believe it the truth of what John himself wrote ("And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." John 21:25), it would have been nice to see all of the details that we know about the Biblical people and events presented.

That was really my only minor complaint about this story. The rest was very beautifully written, and I had too many other favorite scenes to list. It was very interesting to see how they handled Lazarus's death and resurrection, and I felt it was well done. I loved how they highlighted the power of Jesus' voice in the moment when he called out Lazarus' name, and that even though it meant leaving the beauty of Heaven, Lazarus was powerless to do anything but willingly obey the call of the Master to come back to earth and serve his Lord and Friend throughout any more days given to him.

This is a book I would recommend to anyone. Even with the exception I took to their use of one sole Gospel as their focus, a lot of what the authors have Jesus speaking is direct Scripture, with footnotes to those passages. I loved this story and it will be staying on my keeper shelf.

I received my copy from LitFuse in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own. Click below for information about a Facebook party and iPad Mini giveaway!