Navigating the differences in the Gospels
Contrary to the message in some top-selling books, C. Kavin Rowe writes that the differences in the Gospels are not a problem. Instead, they are a rich reflection of the way in which the Bible mediates God’s redeeming presence to the world.
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August 18, 2009 | It’s a sad fact that many Christian leaders no longer feel that they know how to read the Gospels. It is not their fault, really. For a long time their teachers in mainline divinity schools or seminaries did not know how to teach the Gospels. With some exceptions, New Testament professors were content primarily to point out the differences between the four Gospels. “What do you make of the fact that in Matthew Jesus apparently rides on two colts into Jerusalem while in the other Gospels he’s on only one?” And they would leave it at that.
These kinds of differences between the Gospels have recently become fertile ground for spiritually deformed exploitation of our simple trust in the Gospels to tell us the truth about God and the world. In this way of thinking, the differences between the Gospels are seen only as problems, evidence of the Gospels’ faulty witness. Quite naturally, of course, the Gospels are then thought to invite a thorough debunking. It is true that such books sell and make lots of money for their authors and the publishing entourage -- which is all fine enough in its own way. The problem is that in the wake of poor training, this new wave of ignorance about the theological character of the Gospels looks even to Christian leaders a lot like knowledge. The upshot of this illusion is that many of us no longer actually read the Gospels to shape our thinking about Christian leadership.
Questions to consider:
- How did you learn to read the Gospels?
- What is the theological importance of the differences between the Gospels?
- What can Christian leaders learn from the Gospels, and why must we continue to read them?
But we should. If we are to think Christianly about how to practice traditioned innovation in the leading of our institutions, we could hardly find a better resource than the Gospels. Indeed, there are no more important texts in the Bible than the four Gospels that begin the New Testament. They and they alone actually narrate the life history of Jesus Christ. To read the Gospels is to become immersed in the foundational story of the Christian church and, therefore, in the pattern of traditioned innovation that sustains the church through time. How then should we think about the differences between the Gospels?
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