I’ve decided to read through the Gospels. To be very honest, I almost lied just now and said, “I’ve decided to read through the Gospels again.” But the truth is that I have never read through all of the Gospels. This shames me to admit, especially as a graduate of the Honor Academy internship. One of the best things about going to the Honor Academy is that you are placed on a yearlong Bible reading plan. If you follow it diligently (and you are supposed to), you will have read through the entire Bible by graduation. To say I was never diligent about staying on track with the reading plan would be to make a severe understatement. And this really bothers me, especially now that I am realizing what a blessing a year off to focus entirely on my walk with God was. I should have read the entire Bible by now. And at least the Gospels.
Well, I am reading them now, and I have started with Matthew. It is so much more fun to read the Gospels after the Foundations Symposium a few weeks back. Dr. Kenny Price came and taught on them: specifically, how they blend together to present a picture of God. I never realized that the four Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John-- each present a very different facet of the same Lord because they were written to reach very different groups of people. They all blend together, four different notes to form a divine harmony of truth. There are those who grow suspicious upon realizing how very different the four books are. I think it’s beautiful that the Gospels aren’t four carbon copies. Four very distinct people wrote them who spent time with Jesus. I think that, were four of my friends to write out my own life story, they would all four remember and give significance to different things. They would capture me in different poses.
----
Matthew was writing to the Jews first and foremost, connecting their Old Testament to the New Testament. In Matthew, Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled twelve times. His purpose was to show them the Jesus as Messiah and Jesus as the King. Because Matthew is writing to the Jews, there are things found in Matthew that are not found in any other Gospel. Example: Matthew dives into the genealogy of Jesus first thing as though it is incredibly important. Most of us skip over all the “begats” but the Jew would never do that. Why? Because the first thing the Jew wants to know is whether Jesus fulfilled the prophesied qualifications of being the seed of Abraham, and a son of David. This was of utmost importance.
Matthew is the only Gospel writer who talks about the Magi, who came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Mark, Luke, and John completely skip over this part of the story. But Matthew was out to prove that Jesus was King, so he would never skip it.
Matthew’s record of Jesus’ teachings was also different from other Gospels. In Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is shown to be someone speaking with great authority about the kingdom of God. He is Judge and law-giver. Mark’s account of the Sermon on the Mount is very different, because Mark was writing to the Romans, and he sought to emphasize that Jesus came to be a servant. The Romans were a people of action. The Jews were a people of deep religious feeling and conviction. Jesus was presented to them as Rabbi who taught with authority concerning the kingdom. The Lord’s Prayer in this part of Matthew includes “For Thine is the Kingdom”, but Luke’s version, for example, does not include it.
The word “kingdom” in Matthew is found over 50 times. “Kingdom of heaven” is found 30 times, and the phrase is only used in Matthew. Why? Because the Jews already felt that they were the kingdom of God. “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” mean the same exact thing, but Matthew wanted to make clear that Jesus was not talking about an earthly kingdom. So he coined the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” to clarify this. He wanted to avoid confusion.
“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” The word righteousness is used seventeen times in Matthew-- more than in any other Gospel. “The throne of his glory,” “the holy city,” and “the city of the great king” are all phrases found in Matthew that show the lordship of Jesus as well. John the Baptist is also quoted as having said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mark and Luke only reference the repentance part of his message.
----
Something I found very interesting is that the each Gospel writer references a different miracle as having been the first that Jesus performed. The very first miracle Jesus did perform was turning the water into wine at the wedding in Canaan. But Matthew chooses instead to begin with a miracle that would reach into the heart of a Jew more than any other: the healing of the leper. I actually got teary-eyed when Dr. Kenny Price taught about this. Nothing else would have got the attention of the Jewish mind better than this healing . . . Why?
Because the leper was, to the Jews, a complete picture of sin. A leper was considered unclean, and it was commonly believed in the Jewish community that lepers were being judged and cursed because of sin in their lives. They were untouchable. When a Jew would come within twenty feet of a leper, they would yell, “Unclean!” People who were declared lepers lost all relationship with their families. Family members would only come close enough to throw them food. Life was hell for a leper.
“When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.” - Matt. 8:1-4.
Jesus reached out and touched the untouchable, the walking picture of unclean things, the living portrait of sin. He could have simply declared healing over the man and the man would have been healed. But he reached out his hand and touched him.
This definitely got some Jewish attention.
----
I think it is beautiful that Jesus met what was probably an emotional need as well as healed a physical sickness. The man probably hadn’t been touched in years. It makes me emotional, just thinking about it. I mean, imagine being the leper. Imagine how it must have felt to not be touched, to not be talked to, to be thrown food across distances. A leper could never belong. I think we have all felt something like a leper in our lifetimes. Maybe not everyone, but I know I’ve tasted what it feels like to not be accepted, to be rejected, to be left out. Jesus reached out to the lonely leper and touched him, and it makes me tear up because as disgusting as I was in my sinfulness, Jesus reached out and touched lonely me.
-----
I think I am going to talk about Mark next. . . Americans love the book of Mark. No "begats" there. He's been called the cameraman of the Gospel writers. The Romans didn't care about genealogy. They cared about action, servant-hood, divine power, and conquest. In fact, by the end of Mark's first chapter, Jesus has already cast out a demon, healed someone with a fever, cured great crowds, and healed a leper. (By the end of Matthew's first chapter, Jesus hasn't even been born yet. There you go.)
Yes, next up, I'll be diving into the book of Mark.
No comments:
Post a Comment