Chapter Six
1. Even a casual reader
will soon perceive that, while there is a good deal of similarity between
Matthew, Mark and Luke (the ‘Synoptic Gospels’, so-called since they share a
common point of view), John is distinctly different.
- What explanations
does Polkinghorne offer for this distinction?
2. The essential point
that the Gospels are seeking to get across is expressed in John, where it is
said, ‘these things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in
his name’ (20.31). This concentration on what is primary means that we should
not look in the Gospels for complete consistency of subsidiary detail in what
they have to say. We may easily
imagine these differences of detail arising in the period of oral transmission
that preceded the assembly of the stories in consolidated written
form.
- How does this shape or
re-shape our grasp of the Gospels’ formation and purpose?
3. If these considerations persuade
us, as I believe they should, to take the truthful intent of the evangelists
with due seriousness, they will lead us to go on to enquire what we can
reliably learn about Jesus from the Gospels. We shall be concerned with finding
out both what he said and what he did.
- Surely the first thing that strikes one is Jesus’ use of
parables.
- Next, one might look for certain turns of phrase that are
repeated and which seem to be
characteristic of him.
- One
final example of the striking character of the discourse of
Jesus can be found in the manner in which he
often dealt with
hostile questioners.
- Review each of these patterns and discuss their importance.
4. I
have already indicated that I do not suppose, however, that every word
attributed in the Gospels to Jesus was actually spoken by him in his earthly life. The
custom of the ancient world was such that it would not have been considered
fraudulent to attribute to a historical character words he might have said in a
particular circumstance, even if it was not part of that character’s actual
experience, provided it was thought that the statement was compatible with what
the character would have been expected to say had he been in that
situation.
- How does such communication differ from that of today?
5. We
need also to recognize that there are words of Jesus that are ‘hard sayings’,
with which we have to struggle in various ways. First there are the sayings that uncompromisingly
challenge the reader with the cost of discipleship, making it clear that to
follow Christ will be a demanding vocation. Other hard sayings arise in the context
of disputes with the scribes and Pharisees, who are frequently condemned and
called ‘hypocrites’ (e.g. Mark 7.6–13). There are sayings of Jesus about judgment in which he speaks in a manner that
the modern reader may find disturbing. Finally there is the long apocalyptic
passage in Mark 12…and of an end-time of catastrophic woes and suffering to be
followed by the deliverance of the elect.
-
What makes such sayings “hard?” Is it
Jesus…or us? Why?
6. Perhaps the most certain
fact about the deeds of Jesus is that he was an outstanding healer. Jesus is also credited with other remarkable deeds. John’s Gospel insists that miraculous acts are
to be understood as ‘signs’, that is, they are windows through which one can
look more deeply into the reality of what God was doing in Christ. They are not
to be treated as if they were simply a series of stories of wonder-working. To
be theologically credible, miracles must be revelatory events, not capricious
conjuring tricks.
-
How does Jesus serve as that revelatory window through which you, too, witness
the deep reality of what God is doing today?
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