On my recent week's holiday, I listened to the whole of The Essential Jesus, aka Luke's Gospel, while driving in the car. I hadn't realised what a disturbing and powerful experience it would be.

The translation is good. I particularly liked the way the verb 'to evangelise' was rendered 'to proclaim the great news'.

On the other hand, I wasn't that impressed with anachronistic attempts to help the reader, such as adding words like 'ritual' before 'washing', and calling law the 'Jewish' law (I thought it was God's law!).

However, the most significant thing about the listening experience was the way in which Jesus came across.

You are faced with a powerful and distinctive personality, full of words, yet surprisingly difficult to grasp the details of what he meant. And I don't just mean the parables.

This Jesus is so different from the neat packaged gospel presentations and my own sermons.

You should try this audio version. I think you would find it quite an experience.

Jesus is heard as someone with a sense of menace in his words. There is a demand and a threat, even as he announces the great news of the kingdom of God.

And he is someone who makes very high demands of his listener, serious demands of the heart. Demands to love enemies and generously give without worrying about return. Demands for a level of generosity that is extraordinary.

Interestingly, there is no sense in which this Jesus is an ethical teacher. His words don't appeal to a sense of what is right in the classic ethical sense, but rather what is wise, what ought to be done in the face of the great news of the coming judgement and blessing of the kingdom of God.

So much was clear, and yet so much remained unclear even to one who spent decades (apparently) studying the New Testament and Christian theology

Finally, there is the shock of the Cross.

Jesus is so in control. And so effortlessly so, that one feels sympathy with those like Peter who don't understand and at times even wish to oppose Jesus' desire that the Son of Man will suffer many things and be crucified.

If you've not done it before, I can recommend a listening straight through to the Gospel of Luke in The Essential Jesus MP3s.

At one level, it makes Jesus less easy to connect to.

The real Jesus is so much more difficult and more mysterious than the ‘invisible friend Jesus’ we so often substitute.