Week 1: Introduction — "The Jesus I Thought I Knew"

1.Yancey opens by describing the Jesus he encountered in childhood Sunday school flannel-graphs — pale, serene, floating slightly above the messiness of real life. How does the Jesus you grew up with compare to that image? What sources — church, family, culture, film — shaped your earliest picture of him?

2.Yancey says he began this project by watching every film portrayal of Jesus he could find, from Cecil B. DeMille to Zeffirelli to Martin Scorsese. What do you think filmmakers consistently get wrong (or right) about Jesus? What does the very difficulty of portraying him on screen tell us about who he is?

3.Yancey describes teaching a class on Jesus to a group of adults and being struck by how their questions differed from what he expected. Why do you think Jesus provokes such different reactions in different people — reverence, irritation, longing, indifference — even among people who have read the same Gospels?

4.The book's central claim is that the real Jesus of the Gospels is more surprising, more unsettling, and more gracious than the version most of us have inherited. Do you find that claim hopeful, threatening, or both? Why?

5.Yancey admits he writes as someone who came to faith slowly and who still wrestles with doubt. How does an author's honesty about his own uncertainty affect your trust in what he says? Does intellectual honesty about faith feel like a weakness or a strength to you?

6.John 1:14 says the Word "became flesh and made his dwelling among us." In your own words, what is the scandal of the Incarnation — and why does Yancey suggest that scandal is the starting point for understanding everything else about Jesus?

7.As you begin this study, what is one specific thing about Jesus you genuinely want to understand better — something that has always confused, troubled, or fascinated you? Share it with your group, and return to it at the end of the book.