Yesterday while traveling for most of the day, Jenni and I listened to The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports. This is one of many first-class productions by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. These CDs are great long-term investments for your family. Unlike videos, these require (and help develop) a lot of imagination.

The Life of Jesus series is creative and well-done. It’s over eight hours long altogether, and its reconstruction is based on Luke’s Gospel (cf. Luke 1:1-4).

The basic plot is this: Paul is in jail in Rome, and Luke is with him. A Roman senator is sympathetic and asks Luke to travel to Palestine to compile a record of the life of Jesus in order to make the Roman emperor more sympathetic to Paul’s cause so that Paul will be released. This Roman senator’s code name is Theophilus. Luke’s mission is to interview as many primary sources (i.e., people who had direct contact with Jesus) as he can, and his travels are full of action and suspense. (They’re probably over-dramatic and at times pushing the envelope, e.g., Luke casts demons out of a magician, and such like–but I don’t want to spoil the plot by listing much more.) The plot gets a little complicated, especially if you listen to the whole series without much of a break. Overall: creative, stimulating, thought-provoking, enjoyable.