Three Cheers for the Bible, Part 2
Continuing from April’s three-cheer celebration of the Bible, this month’s entry is the star of the show—the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; four related but unique accounts of the earthly ministry of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior, the Redeemer, the King of Kings.
What was foretold as a mystery in the days of the patriarchs, judges, kings, and prophets came to life in the gospels. If the Old Testament is black-and-white television, the gospels are 5K Ultra-HD TV. In the gospels, the main plot and climax of all of creation are revealed vibrantly and completely.
One remarkable aspect of the gospels is that, although they are four accounts of the earthly life and ministry of Jesus, they each have their own unique original audience, perspective. and purpose.
Matthew, which reads as a continuation of the Old Testament, focuses on the fulfillment of God’s promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-13:
When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Mark, in contrast, skips Jesus’s early upbringing and gets right to the point in Chapter 1 with Jesus’s baptism, temptation, calling of the disciples, miracles, and teaching. In only sixteen short chapters, we have a “Cliff’s Notes” account, which due to its brevity, would have traveled quickly and effectively around ancient Rome. Perhaps it was an early version of a “TL;DR” response to longer texts.
Unlike Mark, Luke gives us a lengthy, detailed narrative. The longest book in the New Testament, it’s only part one of Luke’s writings. While part 2, the book of Acts, follows the church from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, Luke’s chronology is reversed. It has Magi coming to see Jesus from the ends of the earth, follows Jesus through Samaria and Judea, and culminates with Jesus’s time in Jerusalem.
John takes a different approach. With minimal overlap to the other three “synoptic” gospels, John retells the Genesis creation account with the resurrected Jesus in mind. The book is meditative, symbolic, and the most explicit proclamation of Jesus as the great “I am”.
It is remarkable for there to be so much harmony between four books written at different times by different authors, but a skeptical reader of the gospels might struggle with what appear to be inconsistencies between them. For example, Matthew and Luke’s genealogies don’t seem to square up. I have found that these seeming “contradictions” are actually great opportunities to challenge the way I read the Bible.
For example, it helps to understand that ancient Palestinian culture was incredibly different than our familiar Western, modern culture. Ancient Jews had a language, customs, and ways of thinking that would leave most of us scratching our heads. Many Bible passages that are difficult for us today would have been obvious to the original readers, just like if the gospel writers could read our Facebook posts, they would be confused.
Rather than be discouraged by passages that are confusing to a 21st century American, dive deep into the wonder of how Biblical authors carefully inscribed their messages to tell God’s truths. The Holy Spirit guided them, and He will guide you as you trust the inerrant truth of his Word.
All that to say that the gospels are an open treasure chest intended to reveal the mysteries of God’s ultimate plan of salvation to all readers for all time. Read them, meditate on them, enjoy them, and share them with your friends. And tune in next time, when I finish this series with the 3rd “cheer”, the Epistles.
