Easter Inside Out: The story as if you were there, by David Kitchen 

​'If this kind of retelling scripture is something you have never tried, this is a great place to start'

Easter Inside Out: The story as if you were there
By David Kitchen
BRF Ministries
ISBN: 9 78 1800 3935 16
Reviewed by Jeannie Kendall 

Retelling the Bible stories as if we were there is a technique a few of us use in sermons or books. As David Kitchen points out however, it goes back at least as far as Ignatius of Loyola. Like any way of engaging with scripture, some personality types will find it easier or more appealing than others, but many people find it a refreshing way to engage with the bible, particularly the more well-known stories which are all too easy to gloss over in their familiarity. 

What David has done here is slightly different. He has taken each day from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday (and a little beyond) and told the story not just through the eyes of the wider group of disciples (male and female), but also through others such as Caiaphas, and a soldier called Albus – as a named character he is of course imagined but there were many soldiers who formed part of the Easter story.

Some days have more accounts than others, Good Friday and Easter Sunday understandably having the most.

Inevitably in a book of this kind there will be some accounts we warm to more than others – I was slightly disappointed that ‘Honest Thomas’ (as I call him) was not named in a chapter heading but instead his meeting with Jesus and extraordinary outburst of faith come in one entitled ‘Doubt, Matthew anticipates a problem’.

That aside, this is a very good book which would be excellent to use for devotions in Holy Week, although with six group study sessions outlined plus questions for a book club it could also be used in group settings, and the texts behind each section are listed. The background to the stories is carefully woven in without interrupting the narrative.

As the cover says, it is an opportunity to ‘see the story in your head, feel it in your heart and know that dead men don’t eat fish’.

If this kind of retelling scripture is something you have never tried, this is a great place to start, during this key time in the church’s year. If you already know it is something you enjoy, it is equally one to recommend.

 

Jeannie Kendall is a ‘retired’ Baptist minister, a current co-leader on the Pastoral Supervision course run by Spurgeon’s College, speaker and trainer. She is the author of four books: the fourth of which, on Psalm 23, should be out next year, and is working on a fifth