The Gospels

Last night during our Bible study I told a funny story about our work and witness trip to the Kansas City Rescue Mission that we took about 4 years ago. As I told the story, several people who were involved in the story interrupted me to tell me I left out an important detail. The details they mentioned weren't important to me or to the story, I thought. After the third participant added to my story it made me think of the Gospels and the differences between them (especially between the Synoptics and John).

What was important to the author of Matthew may not have been important to the author of John, Mark or Luke (or any combination you want to put together). We tell narratives based on what we believe is important to the story. We are all editors in some way or other. This makes the Gospels come to life for me! How exciting is it that we are treated to a four-lens view of the life of Jesus (sure, maybe Matthew and Luke borrowed from Mark, perhaps those three borrowed from Q--but they're still different enough to give us a unique perspective)?

I love reading straight through one of the Gospels, searching for a theme or perspective that is unique to that Gospel and then trying to figure out why it is unique--what was that author trying to say differently? Studying the Gospels is like panning for gold!