The Memorial of Jesus: Stories Told by the Disciples Who Called Him Friend

“Today we want to remember Jesus as the child who grew up in the streets of Nazareth
with his brothers and cousins, as the teen who challenged his parents
and the rabbis, as the young man who shared stories and wine
around the campfire late into the night,
and as the compassionate one who sat vigil with a neighbor suffering loss.”
– Yakov

Jesus lived, died, and rose again. And then, according to the first chapter of Acts, his friends and family gathered in his memory.

Set up as a Jewish memorial service, The Memorial of Jesus follows Jesus’ family members and closest friends as they share their fondest memories of Jesus.

In this research-based novel, we find a Jesus who learned lessons through successes and failures, who leaned upon his disciples as they leaned upon him, and who sometimes got too smelly at his job to sit at his mother’s table. Through the imagined words of his friends and family, we see Jesus through their eyes as son, brother, friend, and leader.

(The Memorial of Jesus was made possible by a grant provided by  the Five Wings Arts Council with funds from the McKnight Foundation.)

 

About the Author

Judy grew up in Chicago, but prefers the country life in middle Minnesota so that she can greet the sun in her pajamas with a cup of coffee in hand. She received a degree in Religious Studies from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin and worked for ten years in religious education.

After attending St. Cloud State University, she had a second career as a parent educator which, she says, “prepared her for being a grandmother”. She is an avid reader, drawn mostly to books related to spirituality, philosophy, and history. She enjoys good fiction, as well, especially books that are deeply human.

Judy’s passion is writing. She authors a blog, My Thoughts on Peace, where she expresses her opinion about such things as politics, culture, religion, and the critters in her backyard.  She enjoys needle work and it gives her great  pleasure to put the last piece in the puzzles that her husband, Bernie, labored over for weeks. She and Bernie enjoy traveling, gardening, preserving the produce together, and spending time with their four children and their partners, twenty-three grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

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