Four Gospels, One Jesus

This week we talked about the challenges of reading the Gospels. Why did God give us four parallel, complementary accounts of Jesus' life, ministry, and teachings, and not a single, more comprehensive volume presenting his complete biography? We need to remember that these too are occasional documents, written to specific audiences with definite pastoral concerns and theological interests. We have talked about the importance of context in interpretation, and the Gospels are certainly no exception. We need to look at the historical situation of Jesus, and appreciate what his actions and teachings revealed to his disciples and to the multitudes. We also need to think about the historical context of the writer, years after the cross and resurrection. The writers used selectivity in bringing together and arranging their accounts of the teachings and works of Jesus in order to teach and minister to the needs of their audiences. The Gospels are reliable accounts of what Jesus did and said, but they are not exhaustive biographies. They have a message. They teach theology. We need to read each of the four as complete narratives, and study them carefully to understand what the writer was teaching his original readers. Having done that, we can ask how the principles taught relate to us in our 21st century context.