A Biblical Bromance: Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

It’s hard to imagine that Jesus Christ was anything less than divine and righteous throughout his entire life – possibly even a little uptight, given his unique circumstances – but author Christopher Moore aims to show us that we may, in fact, have been sorely mistaken. Forget anything you thought you knew about Jesus Christ and come meet Joshua, the real Messiah.

In his national bestseller, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Moore takes us on a hilarious, outrageous – and surprisingly sensitive – journey through Joshua’s antics as a kid growing up in Jerusalem and beyond, as told by his best friend and loyal companion, Biff. Together they discover girls, sex, demon monsters and the occasional kung-fu fighter, somehow finding that being “the Messiah” justifies just about everything - even eating bacon.

Although Jesus’ life after his thirtieth birthday has been well-documented, little is known of his childhood and how he grew up.  Enter Biff, who has been resurrected in order to recount the Messiah’s earliest years. Biff shows us that Joshua (that’s his Hebrew name – “Jesus” is Greek) was actually a bit of a square, and was far more insecure and uncertain about his glorious role and divine sacrifice than he let on when he was older. In fact, the two friends work diligently to ensure that Joshua has as much life experience under his tunic as possible, traveling as far as Asia in order for him to learn exactly how to be the Messiah.

As Biff guides us through Joshua’s adolescence, his insecurities become more obvious and Joshua – the man – becomes much more real. People generally don’t question what he must have been like as an actual person, especially at what would be such a trying period in anyone’s life; one can only imagine what things must have been like for him given the whole “Messiah” thing. Most probably assume that Jesus was, for the most part, comfortable with his destiny and only had rare moments of doubt. Moore encourages us to do away with this attitude and instead suggests that he was nothing but a vulnerable kid who still needs to figure out who he is despite the fact that, unlike most of us when we were that age, he knows his place in life.

Though Joshua maintains a certain air of divine arrogance, it is easy to forget, while reading the story, who he actually is. In fact, you start wanting to scrap that deeply ingrained image of the holy Saviour when you begin to discover that Joshua was human and had the same hopes, fears, dreams and anxieties that anyone else would have. He faced the same pressures from his parents (okay, maybe not the same pressures – his parent is God, so maybe he’s got a bit more pressure than the average kid) and has the same confusion that a kid who knows he was adopted may have when confronted with the reality of the situation. Like every child who is becoming an adult, he wants to fully experience everything that is a part of growing up. He’s human – just like us -- and he can be an asshole or an idiot in exactly the same ways.

Through all of this, Joshua’s parents seem to be okay with who he is and who he will become, nurturing and protecting him and ‘his gift’ until the time is right; one part secret weapon, one part really cool magician, waiting for the perfect moment to make his debut. This interpretation is interesting, since not much is known about how Mary and Joseph really felt about bearing – and raising – the Son of God.  I’m not sure about you, but I’d be pretty intimidated by the whole thing and probably more than a little concerned.

Despite being probably the worst influence any parent would want spending time with their child (and he knows it), Biff is surprisingly loyal to Joshua, willing to be a guinea pig for him so that the Messiah himself doesn’t actually have to do anything that might “tarnish” his holy image.  He goes so far as to “take one for the team,” introducing Joshua to sex with the help of several prostitutes and getting an STD in the process.  Since Joshua can’t actually engage in pre-marital sex himself, Biff ever-so-graciously helps him out and has the experience for him, providing a play by play as Joshua sits in the next room.

While many of their travels and antics are just as outrageous and can only have been concocted by an exceptionally crazy and creative mind – I won’t even get into the kung-fu and the demon, but trust me, they’re part of the journey as well – Moore treats the crucifixion of Joshua with a sweet sensitivity that you’d hardly expect, especially given everything that has happened to and between Joshua and Biff up to that point.  In fact, you start to find yourself getting a little choked up; the fantastically wonderful journey that you’ve just been on shouldn’t have to end that way, even though we all know that it does.

Lamb is a wonderful, light-hearted tale of what could have been – even what should have been – uncovering the lighter side of religion and encouraging us to re-examine whoever we thought Jesus might have been. It reminds us that Jesus was human, along with all that that might entail. He even had one of those friends that you probably didn’t want to take home to your parents all that often.  With friends like Biff, how could Jesus be anything else but one of us?

Comments (1)

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Kit-Kat

May 10, 2010

Votes: +0

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Great

Good recap =)
Being an avid reader I must say, this is probably the best book I've read in the last 2 years. Anyone who is everyone should pick up a copy and enjoy this insta-classic.

~Kit-Kat~

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