Countless books have asked the question: Can Jesus relate to you?
The Lower East Side of Heaven considers the question: Can you relate to Jesus?
After all, about 113 billion people have been born in Earth's history and only one of those has lived a sinless life. So how do we, well-practiced sinners, connect with a guy like that and develop a meaningful faith in him?
From the unique perspective of a self-proclaimed "Sweathog," Steve Rosenbaum shares his journey to faith through humor, personal stories and down-to-earth interpretation of scripture.
With chapter titles such as "Doctor C," "FrankenSavior," "GodFellas" and "Parable of the Mona Lisa," The Lower East Side of Heaven does not offer any of the well-worn pleasantries and patronizing compliments normally tossed at the Savior. Instead, the reader is inspired to cultivate a personal fascination for the most authentic life ever lived.
What if we could seize upon the unrivaled inspiration found in the life of Christ when he walked this earth? What if we took a "first time" look at the man we think we already "get"? Rosenbaum calls our attention not only to the nobility of Jesus' teaching, but to the nobility of his silence as well. How did an individual with the ability to raise the dead keep that secret for thirty years prior to his public ministry? How does a man sit on power like that? Would that not make him the world's first and only real dual-identity hero?
The triumph of Jesus' sinlessness, a recurring theme of the book, is approached from a variety of angles. For example, many are unaware that Jesus actually dared his enemies-not his loyal worshipers, but people obsessed with discrediting his claim to deity (and therefore insanely motivated)-to prove him guilty of sin. That was more than twenty centuries ago and to this day his sinless record is still intact. As Rosenbaum points out, "Move over, Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken, meet the real Iron Man!"
The goal of The Lower East Side of Heaven is to help the reader to get past viewing Jesus in the pre-packaged, mechanical way to which we've been accustomed. It urges us to see him for the truly authentic human being he was and to grasp the significance of God's immigration to Earth. The book's hopeful premise is that through this type of inspired consideration, even the most unlikely of believers can develop a genuine personal faith.
