The four Gospel accounts serve a specific purpose in presenting the life of Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do not write biography in the usual sense of the word. Not one of them attempts to present a complete account of His life and ministry. That is not their purpose. What they give us is selective biography.
While each Evangelist has a particular aspect of our Lord’s earthly life and ministry to emphasize, they all have one overriding theme to which they give the most attention—the events of the Passion Week. The Gospel records devote a “disproportionate” amount of space to this one week, each account beginning at or near the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into
| Gospel Account | Number of Chapters | # of Chapters on Passion Week | Amount of Each Writer’s Material |
| Matthew | 28 | 8 (chapters 21-28) | 1/3 of Matthew |
| Mark | 16 | 6 (chapters 11-16) | 1/3 of Mark |
| Luke | 24 | 6 (chapters 19-24) | 1/4 of Luke |
| John | 21 | 9 (chapters 12-20) | Nearly 1/2 of John |
Also, John devotes 7 chapters (1/3 of his material) to just one 24-hour period within that week (John 13-19).
It’s easy to see which theme receives the most attention in the Gospels. Out of 89 total chapters the Gospels devote 29 to this one week in the 33-year life and 3-year ministry of our Lord. “It is no wonder that in a famous phrase M. Kahler described a Gospel as a passion narrative with an extended introduction” (I. Howard Marshall, “Jesus in the Gospels,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 518).
Biographies don’t usually give so much space to so short a period of time. But there is an obvious theological purpose in the Gospels: to underscore Christ’s redemptive work—to give a pointed account of what He came to do, which was “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). That explains His crucifixion. It was not the tragic end to a good life; it was God’s plan from the beginning. The Scriptural response to this Good News is faith—faith that results in worship.
And they sang a new song, saying,
"Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation."
(Revelation 5:9 ESV)
I'm enjoying these preparatory thoughts. This particular post flies in the face of those who emphasize Jesus' life of good works and miracles as though the point of the Gospels is that He is our Exemplar only. Truly, the Gospel includes his life of perfect obedience and good works, but the heart of it is His death, burial, and resurrection!
ReplyDeleteI'm also reminded that we are never told to remember his birth or his life, but we are to remember His death (1 Cor. 11:24-26).
That’s a good point about the directive to remember His death. It is His death we proclaim every time we observe the Lord’s Table; yet we do so with a view to His imminent return.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, thanks to Dr. Layton Talbert for pointing out this emphasis in our Sunday School program a couple of years ago.