This is the second in a series of three novels depicting the life of Jesus written by the bestselling author Anne Rice, known for her vampire stories. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt dealt with his childhood while this one begins when he is 30 years old. In the restive town of Nazareth, two boys who have been seen under the same blanket on a winter night are stoned to death. There is a lot of anger and fear in the community. Yeshua bar Joseph is over 30 and the target of a lot of gossip due to the fact that he is not yet married. His brother James gives him a hard time and wants him to do something about it. Yeshua loves Avigail, a lovely village girl with a beautiful voice but is reluctant to act on this love. As he tells his mother, Mary:
"There are things I know, and things I don't know. Sometimes knowledge comes to me unexpectedly — in moments of surprise. Sometimes it comes when I'm pressed, and in my sudden answers to those who press me. Sometimes, this knowledge comes in pain. Always, there's the certainty that the knowledge is more than I will let myself know. It's just beyond where I choose to reach, just beyond what I choose to ask. I know it will come when I have need of it. I know it may come, as I said, on its own. But some things I know certainly and have always known. There's no surprise. There's no doubt."
Many characters in this novel have expectations about Yeshua. A scribe who was impressed when he was learning in the Temple as a youngster says that "the world swallowed you." Jason wants Yeshua to get more worked up about the power-hungry Romans. And Avigail turns to him in her moment of deepest need. He also stops the rain from falling when asked by the community to do so.
Rice makes the most out of two formidable events — when Yeshua is baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin John bar Zebedee and when he is tempted in the wilderness by Satan. These events compel him to call his disciples and to begin his ministry by driving a devil out of a woman. The final event in this drama is the wedding at Cana between Avigail and a young man called Reuben. Yeshua saves everyone from embarrassment by turning the water into wine when the supply runs low. When asked what he will do next, Yeshua replies: "I will go on, from surprise to surprise."
