Critical Analysis of the Gospels
The Gospel of Jesus Christ remains a legendary story couched on the page of history. A true story told from four different perspectives with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior, mighty King, and served as the central figure of these respective narratives. The gospels may be classified into two categories, the first dubbed the “synoptic” because of their striking similarity, while the other is the Gospel of John widely attributed to the apostle John. The Gospel of Mark is one of the Synoptics and thus gives a clear presentation of the “beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” though to a particular target group, unlike Matthew, Luke, or John. However, like its counterpart gospels, Mark comes along with a graphic unique approach narrating the good news. This Gospel is comparatively shorter than the other two synoptic gospels (shorter than John’s Gospel as well: Barnes) and unique in approach to the presentation of facts, probably because of the author’s intentions, motives, or target readership. That said, this particular Gospel is an excellent enlivening depiction of what transpired when Jesus Christ traversed this terrestrial ball.
Every writer of the canonical Gospels found in the New Testament set out with a different and unique purpose and audience. Luke’s Gospel is known as the Gospel of “inclusiveness” because Luke’s mission seems to be to highlight the universal scope of Jesus’ message and ministry to include those who were outside of the genetic “nation of Israel” (Hultgren, 1976). From the very beginning of Luke’s Gospel, he continually places the spotlight on the expansiveness and inclusivity of Christ’s love and salvation (Hertig, 1998). In Luke 2:10, Luke records the message of the Angels to the Shepherd’s in the Judean fields: “[Christ’s coming] is good news of great joy which shall be for all people!” From this point onward, we continually see how Luke intentionally highlights certain aspects of Jesus’ message and ministry to make clear that Christ is that Savior of the entire world, not just Israel, and that this is truly good news for all people!
Throughout the rest of Luke’s Gospel, we continually see this theme repeated. In chapter five, we see two examples alone of Christ’s universal mission of salvation. In verse twelve, Jesus approaches a man with Leprosy, a disease that would render anyone who came in contact with it ceremonially “unclean” according to the Jewish law, and touches him so that he would be healed. This radical action shows that Christ had little regard for the ceremonial laws of his people, but cared more about reaching out and saving even the most marginalized, broken, and unclean. Then in verse 27, Jesus calls Levi to be a disciple and holds a banquet at Levi’s house with the tax collectors and “sinners.” When the Pharisee’s criticized Christ for this scandalous action, Jesus replied: “I have not come to all the righteous, but sinners to repentance!” (vs. 32)
Another radical example of inclusiveness in the Gospel of Luke is found in the parables that Jesus tells. In Luke 14, Jesus tells a parable about a great banquet in which the master asks for his servants to go to the highways and bring in the marginalized, poor, and pagan to be a part of the master’s banquet. Jesus then likens the banquet to the Kingdom of God, indicating that those who are part of what God is doing are not merely Jews but all peoples. Again in Luke 15, Jesus uses two more parables to describe the radical inclusiveness of God’s Kingdom. In verses 1-7, in response to the Pharisees ever so consistent grumbling about who he associates with, Jesus speaks of the “lost sheep.” In this parable, Jesus likens the sheep to the sinners he spends his time with and says that he must go searching for that lost sheep and that all of heaven rejoices when one of these stay ones repent and is found. To further clarify this point, Jesus then tells the story of a woman. That fact alone- that Christ is using a woman, who is seen as inferior in Jewish culture, is profoundly offensive to those listening- especially in that Christ is using the woman to represent God in this parable. But Jesus tells how this woman, upon losing a coin, will search her house up and down to find it and when she does, she will rejoice, just as God does when sinners repent. These parables seem to highlight the radical nature of Christ’s salvation. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Mark’s Gospel makes an exciting read because it highlights several critical points concerning the work and ministry of Jesus Christ (Collins & Attridge, 2007). The narrative is relatively swift, highlighting numerous facts relating to the Lord Jesus, his ministry, and achievements concerning sinners to the extent that some have suggested that it is a mere prologue, summary, derived from or introduction to Matthew’s Gospel. But that theory remains unproved and thus the status quo is that the book is a distinctly a correct actual narrative just as the author wrote it down. As earlier intimated, the said Gospel is the shortest among the Synoptics and quite distinct from its fellows (I.e., Matthew and Luke) or John. It does not record any genealogy or the nativity story but straight away focuses on Jesus as the servant and mighty deliverer who wrought many miraculous acts pointing to God (Barclay, & Drane, 1975).
Compared to Luke’s account, Mark is not as chronologically presented because its main thrust is to present key facts to its target readership, demonstrating that Jesus is the long-expected Saviour, a mighty deliverer hence the focus on the miraculous (Rhoads, 1982; Broadhead, 1992). For instance, as early as Mark 1, Jesus is said to have wrought several miracles and carries on throughout the gospel narrative highlighting such unusual incidences. The reader is encouraged to scan the gospel passages to prove this point. The contemporary mind must have been startled at the claim to the mighty acts wrought by a perceived mere mortal, Jesus Christ, and would, therefore, have been captivated or drawn to his claims. It is worth noting here that the miracles thus recorded in the book took place in the realm of time as wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is precisely at this point that opponents to this gospel raise issues. Some reject the miraculous claiming that the author wrote intending to hoodwink or mislead people into irrational belief in a man claiming to be a divinely appointed miracle worker (Broadhead, 1992). They say that the miraculous is impossible and could have been explained away by natural means. Yet another school claims that the supernatural occurrences were a common feature in Jesus’ day, mostly done by the magicians of the day; therefore, Jesus was no different but merely a clever supernatural worker. Other skeptics, however, assert that Mark’s emphasis on the miraculous veils the actual ‘real Jesus’ suggesting that what is brought forth in this Evangelist’s Gospel is a probable misrepresentation of facts. They claim that the real Jesus has been lost to history, enshrouded in mystery, though he was in fact an ordinary man, let alone a political figure that was eventually crucified for defying the powers of the day. Mark merely recorded or wrote what the apostle Peter said or preached about. Thus, the Gospel is a simple, straight forward presentation of the true and real Jesus so that any person can read and understand, leading to salvation (Colijn, 1998; Gamel, 2012).
Undoubtedly, Matthew stands as the most Jewish – centered of all the Gospels which uses most accounts from the Old Testament as compared to the Luke, Mark, and John (Cox and Easley, 2007). Even though with an attention on Jesus being the Jewish Savior that came in satisfaction of Old Testament predictions, Matthew additionally shows a widespread job for Jesus’ life and strategic the central Gospel to utilize “church”(Matthew 28:18-20), where the Jewish Savior is calling his pupils to make supporters of the considerable number of Countries (Cox and Easley, 2007).
Mathew, in his writing, primarily targeted Jewish audience who were well conversant with the Old Testament and the Jewish Messianic hope. With the Jewish being the audience, Mathew used the Old Testament as his authority to demonstrate Jesus as the fulfiller of Prophets’ words. The perusers of Mathew view Jesus as the Jewish Savior. “Matthew composes as a Jew who has found in Jesus the satisfaction of all that is valuable in his Jewish legacy.’ Satisfaction’ is a focal subject of the gospel” (Carson, France, Motyer, and Wenham (Eds,), 1994). It is Jesus’ satisfaction of the Messianic predictions that laud Him to Matthew’s group of spectators for them to put stock in Him. Although we live in a less Biblically educated present reality than in Matthew’s time, the association between the Old Testament predictions and satisfaction in Jesus can be utilized to exhibit the uniqueness of Jesus and can assist some with peopling take a gander at Jesus.
The Gospel of St. John is an intriguing text filled with symbolism, imagery, and allegory that leads its many modern readers to easily misinterpret passages and its intended meanings (Martyn, Hara, & Kawashima, 1979). The Johannine Gospel inspires faith and allows deep spiritual experience, but it requires from its reader an imaginative mind and open heart (Schnackenburg, & Hastings, 1968). Some of Johannine passages may seem also challenging and controversial to the modern readers because John sounds in them negative, harsh and politically incorrect. These passages seem to promote sectarianism, dualism, anti-Judaism, and religious exclusivism. How should a modern reader digest these sensitive issues without undermining the spiritual soundness of the Johannine Gospel and not fall into pitfalls?
The Johannine Jesus proclaims to be “The Way, and the Truth, and the Life (14: 6). This passage is typically understood in the light of Christian exclusivism (Bauckham, & Mosser, 2008). The “Way” was an expression used by the early Christian movements. They believed that Christianity was the only right path for humanity. According to John, only a few people were capable of accepting it (18:38). Those who could not hear the words of Jesus were lost (Neyrey, 2007). The acceptance of Jesus as the Son of Man is a prerequisite to salvation. The Christians leaders who evangelized the Jews in the synagogues were accused of leading the Jewish people astray from God. The local Jewish authorities viewed the Christians as a threat to Jewish identity and integrity.
In his theological discourse with the Jewish authorities, John makes a very hostile statement against them through Jesus’ words: “…but you seek to kill me…you are from your father the devil…you are not from God” (8: 37, 44, 47). This passage is an example of why the Gospel of John is a challenging text for those who venture into reading it. It has to do with an impression he makes that all Jews are the sons of devil. Because of John’s harsh words directed towards the Jews, his Gospel is considered to be the most anti-Jewish text in the Bible. The Johannine reader has to be careful in his interpretations of John. The Gospel of John tells the story of Jesus, the Son of God, who came to earth from heaven to give us eternal life (Burkett, 1990). Both John and his readers were limited in their understanding of God’s messages.
In conclusion, in this paper, we have explored that the Four Gospels (Mark, John, Mathew, and Mark) present the gospel message in distinct ways based on varied target audiences with diverse cultural beliefs, Biblical knowledge, and relation to the Jewish People. Each of the Gospel writer’s theological standpoints can be instructive to us today as we intend to make the 2,000-year-old story relevant in our world today. However, we can take comfort from Luke’s focus on God’s sovereignty and be confident that we present the Gospel to the hearers in God’s strength and accordance with his sovereign plan for history but not in his strength. John, with the help of the Holy Spirit, wrote the story that inspires faith that goes beyond human understanding. Faith is not a matter of our voluntary declaration, but it is a matter of our spiritual experience and a gift of God. The Gospel of John instills spiritual experience. The world is filled with injustice, violence, and indifference.
References
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Broadhead, E. K. (1992). Teaching with Authority: Miracles and Christology in the Gospel of Mark (Vol. 74). A&C Black.
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