Most stories follow a certain pattern and use certain elements to get a message across. Today I want to look at the Gospel stories and how they work to tell the story of Jesus and what He accomplished for us. They all tell the story of Jesus but each has a different emphases, theme and different story telling technique.
Three of the Gospels work the same way, and one of them works a different way. The three that work the same way are Matthew, Mark and Luke. They’re often called the Synoptic Gospels (synoptic means “to see together”). John works differently. The church has often gravitated to John because he does his own thing – he does all the heavy theological thinking for us. John tells the story from Heaven down. He starts with a prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…”
Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell the story of Jesus, in a sense, from earth up allowing the reader to discover who Jesus is as the story unfolds. We learn gradually that Jesus was different from any other person who ever lived on earth. They knew this as much as John, but their early readers did not. So they slowly begin to identify Jesus to the readers so that they can see them in a fresh way.
Let’s look at a way one of the Gospel writers gradually revealed Jesus’ identity:
Ø Read Mark 8:31-33
This is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus predicted His own death. The word “teach” in verse 31, indicates that Jesus was instructing the disciples what must happen to Him as the Messiah.
- In your journal, list the four (4) things Jesus said would happen to Him:
- Why do you think Peter reacted the way he did?
Peter never expected Jesus to die so soon. He probably envisioned serving under Jesus for many years and seeing great things happen over time. Besides, he probably couldn’t imagine anyone being resurrected before the end of the world. Jews of that time believed that all Jews would be resurrected all at once in the end of days.
- How would you have felt if you had been Peter’s shoes when Jesus said the words in verses 31-32?
- Why did Jesus call Peter “Satan” and say “You’re not setting your mind on things of God but on things of man.”?
- What do you think Peter discovered about Jesus through this experience?
- Pretend for a moment that you don’t know how the story ends. What can you discover about Jesus from this passage?
The disciples were in a process of discovery, and Mark presented his stories in a way that took his readers through the same process. When we understand how the stories work, modern-day readers can enter that process as well.
