Sigmund Brouwer talks about his reasons for writing The Weeping Chamber.
“The Weeping Chamber is a very personal book for me. At the time I wanted to know what it would have been like to walk with Jesus
in the last days of his life. I wanted to grow beyond those Sunday school impressions of Jesus that I'd formed when I was 10 and
come to a more mature understanding of Jesus. The story is about a desperate man who encounters Jesus in the last week of Jesus'
life. The questions that man asked were the questions I would have had, were I in his shoes.”
“My research took me to the Holy Land to give myself a sense of what it would feel and sound and smell and look like to walk the
same roads Jesus walked that last week of his life. But I also steeped myself in the four Gospels. What struck me again and again
was how accurately the Gospels portray the human condition. These books are not written in novel or journalistic format, yet the
truths they portray are no less compelling or accurate. I saw the Gospels for what they are: four eye-witness accounts from people
who had been with Jesus for three years, and then told about their experiences. When I pored over the Gospel accounts, I imagined I
was sitting down with Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and listening to their memories of Jesus. This brought the stories to life for
me in a whole new way.”
“I hope that through reading The Weeping Chamber and the Gospels in this way my readers will see Jesus in a new light, as I have.
I hope they will gain a fresh sense of how relevant he is to their lives, how only he holds the answer to the deepest questions
of the human soul.”
Interview