What If the Side Characters Had Their Say?

SILENT WITNESSES IN THE

GOSPELS:

BIBLEBY STANDERS AND THEIR

STORIES

By Allan F. Wright

Servant/Charis, 2002

219 pages, $11.99

To order: (800) 486-8505

Jesus told perfect stories: simple, yet profound tales about ordinary people engaged in unremarkable yet meaningful activities. For 2,000 years these riveting parables have drawn people to the Church and into a closer walk with the Author of Life.

Can our Lord's stories be improved upon? No. Expanded upon? Why not? Allan Wright seems to have asked himself that latter question as the starting point for his book. He takes some of Jesus' parables, along with other stories from Scripture, and looks at the figures who made it into the scriptural record, but only as bit players. “Bible bystanders,” he calls them.

Wright imagines the stories of such onlookers as the servants at Cana who filled the wine jars with water, the lepers who failed to return and thank Jesus for healing them, the boy who donated his lunch to feed the multitude and the woman with the alabaster jar.

Working from the premise that no one is insignificant in the eyes of God and convinced that these silent ones have much to teach, Wright names them and gives them thoughts and dialogue. “The Gospel characters that I write about are familiar to most of us who have grown up attending a church or…reading the Bible,” he writes. “After much prayer and reflection, I have tried to imagine what it must have been like to be near Jesus, close to the action as he traveled around with his band of disciples.”

The fictional narratives serve as bases for reflection on the significance and substance of the scriptural accounts. After telling each story, Wright, a religion teacher at a Catholic high school in New Jersey, takes his readers a couple of steps further — just as he might lead a classroom of eager students.

First he provides interesting bits of historical and cultural background that enhance the reader's understanding. In the story of the Good Samaritan, for example, it helps to know that, in addition to being blazing hot and a haven for brigands and robbers, the rugged 17-mile road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops 3,500 feet.

The second thing Wright does — and herein lies the meat of his book — is to gently peel away layers of meaning, showing readers how to apply these ancient stories to their struggles with life in the 21st century. After recounting the story of the raising of Lazarus, for example, he writes: “The image of these men removing the stone and unbinding Lazarus has left an impression on me that I can't shake. When I think about that scene and the request of Jesus, I wonder what ‘stones’ he might be asking me to remove before the power of God is unleashed in my own life.” After pondering the story, he identifies his own problems as “attitudes toward others and ignorance of the Scriptures, Church teaching and, most importantly, sin.” Reminding readers that Christians can call upon the Lord for help in removing such impediments, Wright concludes, “After all, even when God raised his own Son from the dead, he used angels to move away the stone.”

The habit of reading, absorbing and applying Scripture is invaluable to spiritual growth, and Silent Witnesses is a useful manual for learning the technique. In fact, because the exercise is so worthwhile, I found myself decidedly disappointed over the first-draft quality of the writing. Rigorous rewriting or editing might have made this good book great.

The good news is that t h e characters and their imaginative stories rose above the shortcomings of craft to challenge, inspire and even bless my reading. Between the lines as much as in them, I found myself rewarded with a startling reminder of the power and perfection of Scripture itself.

Ann Applegarth writes from Eugene, Oregon.