Starting in September, our Life Groups will be digging into the Gospel of John together. Of course this is the fourth account of the earthly ministry of Jesus that we find at the beginning of the New Testament. But did you know that John stands out quite a bit from Matthew, Mark, and Luke? Those books are called the “Synoptic” Gospels, meaning events are “seen together” in often similar wording and order. But John takes a different approach!
The Synoptic Gospels each have their different emphases, but all stick to a basic chronological approach to relate those themes. This doesn’t mean they’re identical; all three have different vignettes strategically omitted or emphasized in order to drive home their unique theological points. John, however, doesn’t submit to a strict chronology. Of course the gathering of the disciples happens at the beginning and then Passion Week happens toward the end, but in-between, the movement of time is much less important than the movement of conversations.
Also unique is John’s literary style. If it helps, you can imagine that Matthew writes a bit like an accountant, Mark like a reporter, Luke like a historian, and John…..like a poet. This explains, perhaps, why people seem to draw many of John’s words into memory so easily. It connects with the heart in a way that a straight historical approach may not.
“Now wait a minute…are you saying that John is somehow a more powerful book than the others?” Nope. “Are you saying that it’s not historically accurate?” Nope. “Are you saying that John took artistic liberties?” Nope. I’m saying that the Holy Spirit used the apostle John to craft an authoritative Gospel account that would unpack the material in a very unique way because we needed an outside-the-box Gospel [just as much as we need the other three!].
Maybe another way to think about it is that each Gospel had an intended original audience. Matthew wrote for a Jewish audience who very much needed to understand the fulfillment of their God-given heritage in Jesus. Mark wrote for a Roman audience – people who were practical and cared deeply about power. Luke wrote for a Gentile audience with great detail and explanation of situations that would have been unknown to them. John wrote for the philosophically-minded Greek world. These different emphases were inspired because even today, across the world in different cultures, we have people who need to hear the story from these various perspectives. And indeed we each need to hear all four, benefitting from them uniquely at different God-ordained seasons of our lives.
So, the Gospel of John: distinct, poetic, philosophical, conversational, engaging, memorable, a priceless gift from the Holy Spirit to you. But don’t just take my word for it. As the Gospel of John likes to say…”Come and see!” (1:39, 1:46, 4:29, 11:34).