Day 6: Overview - Christ Crucified
- Readings: John 19:1-37
- Bonus Reading: Other Gospel accounts of the crucifixion
photo: Desiring God
Today’s blog is a little different. I think it’s important for us to understand the Gospels, the Gospel writers and why the Gospels were written. All the Gospels are different because they were written to different audiences. Their main theme was the same -The life of Jesus Christ. Yet, each Gospel writer shares some aspect of Christ that they deem important.
What I love most about the Gospels is that each of them dedicates a large part of their writings to two events that changed the course of History for Christians – the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Without these two events, we have no hope, no conquering of sin, no atonement, no victory, no eternal life. The Crucifixion and Resurrection are everything to us.
Every Easter, my husband and I put the kids to bed, grab a box of Kleenex, a good blanket, sit on the couch and watch Passion of the Christ. We have a love hate relationship with this tradition. I hate watching this movie, YET it is so good for us. It’s one thing to read the Gospel accounts but to watch the death of Christ is another thing. His sacrifice, the weight of the world’s sin, the separation from God, the beatings just make my heart completely ache. (Hence the Box of Kleenexes). We realize it’s Hollywood but we take this movie and bring it to the scriptures. Then when we read, we have a visual and that visual helps us understand just a bit more and brings the Gospel story to life.
I challenge you to do that this Easter. I’m sure Red Box will have it or buy it here.
But let’s get off that rabbit trail and back to the Gospel accounts. Below are each Gospel and a small summary of whom their audience is and why they wrote it.
Matthew – the book of Matthew was written to the Jews to portray Jesus Christ as our Messiah and eternal King. Matthew uses many OT passages that prophesied Jesus as the Messiah from his birth to his suffering servant death. Matthew proves with his historical narrative that Jesus was man and God and he alone provides the way to the Kingdom.
Mark – the book of Mark was the Gospel written to the Romans. It is a very quick overview (because that culture wanted quick and concise) of Jesus as the Son of Man, his work and his teachings. Mark always aimed to portray Jesus as the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve others. In Roman times, the ideal man was strong and powerful but Mark shows us that Christ was a servant and not warrior.
Luke –the book of Luke was written for the Gentile and Greeks. Gentiles were anyone who was not Jewish. Luke gives us a very detailed account on the complete life of Christ from conception to after death. His Gospel is well researched and aimed to show that Jesus was not just an imaginary person but a very real man who came to be our Savior
John – the book of John was written for Christians in the early church. John is all about deity of Jesus being the eternal word of God. John’s goal was to prove to his readers that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that Jesus is the only way to eternal life – All who believe in him will have life and not perish (John 20:31) He uses specific titles for Jesus and I Am statements that show Jesus’ holiness. He wanted us to understand who Christ was and that we have direct access to him.
So as you dive into each account of the Gospels keep in mind who they were writing to and their purpose in writing. When you do this, you’ll begin to understand why each Gospel account is so different yet just as important as the others.