Album Spotlight: Jon Guerra—Jesus

By Jen Rose Yokel

It only takes one listen to Jon Guerra’s lush, lyrical music to know you’ve found something special. It’s worshipful without sounding like the worship genre, personal but universal, ethereal but grounded. And for his third album Jesus, Guerra returns to the heart of faith. In a work he describes as devotional music — less Sunday morning praise and more Monday morning prayer — Guerra offers 12 reflections on the life and teachings of Jesus.

There’s a balancing art to writing songs from Scripture. Deeply familiar phrases like “do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth” or “take up your cross” carry so much meaning that writers can slip into easy interpretations. But Guerra’s songs have a way of wiping the dust off these time-worn phrases and becoming reacquainted with Jesus. In the story behind the album, he writes, “I began cyclically reading through the Gospels, in different translations. The repetition became prayerful and then generative: little song fragments started coming. I was trying to really hear the words, to feel the stories again…”

Little fragments grew into full songs, and eventually a sort of liturgy for troubled times. Some songs, like “Take Up Your Cross,” feel like a gentle, repeated meditation. Others, like “Who is the Greatest?” subtly put Jesus’ teachings in conversation with life in a competitive, power-hungry world (“So become like children / And you will be the greatest… Just like oak trees in a field / They’ll stand tall when all is healed”). And then there’s the standout track “Reckoner (Axe Laid at the Root)” that deals more directly with Jesus’ place in a time where “The country’s getting meaner, computers getting smarter / The pains we try to numb are only getting sharper.” From power and empire to anxiety and scarcity mindsets, these songs offer a counterpoint and a safe place to land, inviting us to confess, reflect, and quietly recenter.

It’s also worth mentioning the record’s most personal moment, “Where Your Treasure Is” a grounded contemplation of trust and anxiety. Listen close and you might hear your own prayers: “But Lord, if I’m honest / I’m scared to death / That if I give my fish and loaves / There won’t be anything left.” It’s the sort of song that shows how devotional music and engaging Scripture can do more than teach, but also invite a conversation.

Jesus, like its namesake, is simple and complex, comforting and challenging. Come for a restful soundtrack, and stay to uncover new layers in meditative lyrics and intricate arrangements. This is an album best experienced start to finish, on repeat, until the songs take root and invite you into your own prayer and reflection. After all, sometimes the best thing music can do is generate something in you.

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Jen Rose Yokel is a poet, writer, and spiritual director. Her words have appeared at The Rabbit Room, She Reads Truth, and other publications, and she is the author of two poetry collections. She is also the co-founder of The Poetry Pub, an online community for poets. Originally from Central Florida, she now makes her home in Fall River, Massachusetts with her poet/professor husband Chris, their rescue dog, and an assortment of books and houseplants. Her latest book, Beneath the Flood, is available now from Bandersnatch Books. You can find her on Substack at Alongside Journal or on Instagram @jroseyokel.