"the funny, shocking, surprising, subversive teaching of Jesus"

Will Willimon's new book, Why Jesus?, sounds refreshing indeed. It sounds like a book about Jesus that does not convert him into a theology professor, a life coach, or a therapist! Amazing!

I learned about the book from two posts by Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk (Part 1, Part 2). Mike says:

In my Christian experience, the funny, shocking, surprising, subversive teaching of Jesus has often been quenched by analysis and exposition. We’re not good listeners. It’s hard for us to stay in the moment with Jesus the Storyteller. We want the explanation, the moral, the lesson. We want the punchline to be clear, the message to be practical and edifying. We resist being left hanging. We don’t want Jesus to respond to our questions with even harder questions. We’re impatient. We want the answers so that we can pass the test. Now.