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24 hours that changed the world

Gospel according to Jack Bauer?

24 HOURS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
By Nick Howard
Authentic Media. 80 pages. £2.99
ISBN 978-1-85078-772-7

Fans of the high-octane Fox TV series 24 will instantly recognise the format of Nick Howard’s little book describing the last hours of Jesus’s life on earth, from the last supper and Judas’s betrayal through to the women’s encounter with the angel.

Sensing the parallels with the modern-day conspiracy and infiltration story, the author condenses the fast-paced narrative of the ‘longest day’ of Jesus’s life into 24 short one-hour chapters. However, where 24’s hero Jack Bauer achieves his fictitious infamy through recognisably worldly and apparently controversial methods, the narrative shows that the real hero of the real events that happened nearly 2,000 years ago was and is the Lord Jesus.

The author, interviewed in the March issue of EN, sticks very closely to the biblical text throughout. While he imagines some dialogue and background details, he has gone to some lengths to ensure that nothing in the hour-by-hour retelling goes against the gospel accounts. He helpfully brings alive the sequence of events and little explanatory details explain the whole Jewish context in which these events happen and brings home to readers forcefully the vested interests, the farce of the trials and the motives that various groups had for wanting rid of Jesus. He ends the book with ‘The Present Time’, a short gospel challenge.

Tapping into 24’s format, it is obviously ideal for giving to fans of the show as it will throw into sharp relief the two protagonists and their respective kingdoms. However, whether one is drawn by or indifferent to the analogy with 24, it will also be read with profit and enjoyment by seasoned Christians already familiar with the Passion story, giving as it does a fresh feel for not just the chronology but the incomparability of the Jewish Messiah.

Kathy Cowan,
member of the church family at St. Andrew the Great, Cambridge