Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This will be my last post for 2024 and the next post will be circa mid January 2025 so the little grey blogging cells have a chance at a recharge. I have updated this post a little to reflect concerns raised in the comments about inaccurate, even heretical thinking. I have used italics to indicate the updates
Continuing one theme this year past (and other years), What is going on in the gospels?, especially as we try to make sense of the differences between the gospels, and the significant difference between the Synoptic Gospels and John's Gospel, I have a few thoughts about "Christmas" and the gospels.
For instance, if we think about what is essential to all four gospels and what is not, then we see that across all four gospels it seems essential to the shared core gospel narrative, that John the Baptist features, there are miracles, there is teaching by Jesus, there is recognition of Jesus being the Son of God, there is building conflict between Jesus and Jerusalem-based religious authorities, one part of this conflict involves an incident in the Temple in which Jesus' upsets economic activity there, a plan is hatched to do away with Jesus, Judas is drawn into the plan, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, placed on trial, Peter denies knowing Jesus, Jesus is committed to being crucified, he is crucified, dead, buried by Joseph of Arimathea, and rises again on the day after the Sabbath which follows the day of crucifixion.
What is not essential is a narrative about the conception, birth and infancy of Jesus: Mark has none, nor does John.
What unites the gospel writers is that Jesus has an origin: Mark locates Jesus' origin in the prophetic scriptures of ancient Israel, and comfortably reports him described as "the Son of David." Behind the Markan Jesus is Israel's history fuelled prophecies, that a new David would come to Israel. Matthew locates Jesus' origin in genealogical terms (descended from Abraham) and spiritual action (conceived by the Holy Spirit), with numerous prophecies fulfilled in his birth, infancy and adult mission. Luke locates Jesus' origin in spiritual action-come-angelic announcement (conceived by the Holy Spirit, connected to a miracle overcoming barrenness in a relative who will be the mother of John the Baptist), connects him genealogically further back than Abraham, to Adam the son of God, while also locating Jesus into the prophetic tradition of Israel, his active role in Israel's life fulfilling ancient prophecies about the restoration of Israel.
John whizzes past David, Abraham and Adam to locate Jesus' origin in the very being of God: Jesus is the Word through whom the world is created, the Word become human flesh, the revelator of God who comes into the world from the very heart of God.
If Matthew and Luke tell a narrative in which Mary is the mother of Jesus and God the Holy Spirit is the agent by whom Jesus is conceived of a human mother without a human father, then John tells a narrative which invites us into the intimacy of Jesus God's Son with God Jesus' Father. Put another way, Matthew and Luke open up the question, What does it mean that God is Jesus' Father and Jesus is God's Son?, and barely offer an answer. John takes up the question and provides a full answer to it.
Yet, not to neglect Mark, if Mark is the earliest gospel, then Mark presents the reader with Jesus doing God-in-action things: forgiving sins, healing people, delivering demons, feeding multitudes, ruling nature. Matthew and Luke also present Jesus in this way, but develop Jesus the teacher imparting wisdom, law, announcement of Good News. John takes up what all three propose and develops their proposals: In Jesus God is present in the world, through divine actions of Jesus God offers life for the world, what Jesus says and does is a full and complete revelation of God. To see Jesus is to see God; to seek God, you should meet Jesus because only in Jesus is the fullest representation of God to be found in the context of human history.
Essential to the Gospels, all four, is encounter with Jesus is the means to eternal/abundant life.
6 comments:
Is Jesus the Word? Might a better, orthodox answer be Yes and No rather than simply Yes.
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.'
*Not*: "In the beggining was Jesus and Jesus was with God and Jesus was God."
The Word became flesh as Jesus, in a very specific way, at a specific time, and spoke in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's son, Joseph's son, such and such's cousin.
Possibly born in a manger.
But before Abraham was, Jesus did not exist. I Am existed - for sure. Jesus is the wonderfully unique, specific, first century Jewish master, teacher, prophet...messiah indeed, Son of God. The one in whom God the Word became incarnate, truly, fully, and mysteriously.
But Jesus - as fully human - had a human birth, parentage, life, and death. The Word does not.
Jesus is the Word incarnate *and* the Word existed long before Jesus was born.
Aaaarrrrggh! Heresy, Peter! The Holy Spirit is NOT the father of Jesus! Jesus has no human father (other than St Joseph, his foster-father). The Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit, but Jesus's conception has no analogue to human conception, and certainly not to Greco-Roman mythology, as enemies of the Virgin Birth have often averred. It is a good thing at this time of year to dip into that great tome on the subject by the Protestant theologian J. Gresham Machen written about 100 years ago when Modernism was rampant.
I think it's also the case that Mark has rather more to say on the pre-existence of Christ than many have realised. Simon Gathercole of Cambridge wrote an excellent little book some years ago called 'The Pre-existence of the Son'focusing on expressions in the Synoptics 'I have come so that etc'. Note also that Mark 1.2 modifies the quotation from Mal 3.1 to read 'before *your face' instead of 'my face'. Who is being addresed? This reads like a heavenly conversation between the Father and the pre-incarnate Son. Of course, the divinity of Christ is clear to anyone reading Mark carefully (forgiving sins, nature miracles etc).
Pax et bonum
William Greenhalgh
Thank you for your posts this year, and Happy Christmas/New Year!
Many other humans in Jesus' time and culture, and outside have forgiven sins and performed miracles, so this isn't a good basis for Jesus's uniqueness and divinity (which I don't deny BTW).
"...only in Jesus is God to be found." (Peter).
Really? This is hardly biblical. Unless you are saying that Jesus is the same as the Word, which is getting very blurry, and in which case God as Jesus is everywhere.
So either God is found in Jesus and in many other places too ("For your immortal spirit is in all things"), or God as Jesus who is being conflated with the Word is found everywhere.
Thanks All for comments.
William and Mark: I have made some adjustments to the post, in italics, to attempt correction of my erroneous ways.
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