HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF MARK, LUKE, MATTHEW
by Thomas B. Woodward
Overarching Concerns
1 Mark, Luke, and Matthew are Gospels, not biographies. They are written to persuade and the stories and events are mostly chosen and arranged for that purpose. Each gospel has a different picture of Jesus and a different audience – more later.
2. Later editors have added explanations to several Parables. Disregard the explanations because without exception, they distort the meaning of the parables.
3. These three gospels are related to one another in interesting ways. The clearest and most succinct explanation can be found by googling on “Synoptic Theory.” You can also find all about “Q” there.
4. As I mentioned in my sermon on suicide, there is a phenomenon I refer to as the Ladder of Regard in the four gospels. In Mark, the earliest gospel, Judas starts out in high regard, as does John the Baptist. But from gospel to gospel, they are held in less and less regard. With the disciples, all that is reversed. In Mark, they begin at the bottom of the ladder. As Holden Caufield remarks in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, I like almost anyone better than the disciples: they were about as much use to Jesus as a hole in the head.” Over time, they ascend the Ladder of Respect.
5. All three authors use typology to relate the events of their gospel to events in the Hebrew bible. Here are some of the most memorable (those with an asterisk indicate what I have discovered on my own.)
The Disobedience of Eve reversed by the Obedience of
Mary;
The Confusion of Voices at the building of the Tower of Babel is reversed on Pentecost with the complete understanding of all languages;
Hannah’s Song (I Samuel 2) forms the basis for Mary’s Song, the Magnificat
The crossing of the Red Sea by the Jews, followed by the 40 years in the wilderness, is recapitulated in Jesus’ baptism followed by his 40 days in the wilderness.
In Matthew, The Sermon on the Mount recalls the event of Moses delivering the Ten Commandments from the mountain.
In the accounts of the Transfiguration, Jesus is flanked by Moses and Elijah who representing the Law and the Prophets.
·
Isaac
carrying wood to a sacrifice is deepened with Mark’s account of Simon of Cyrene carrying the wooden
cross of Jesus to his crucifixion. Simon has two sons. Alexander (Greek for “one who contends),
recalling Isaac’s son, Jacob. who wrestled with an angel. Alexander with his Semitic
father and Greek named brother, is named Rufus, which in Latin means “red,” recalling
Isaac’s son, Esau, who founded the city of Edom, which was situated on, you
guessed it, red clay! What a family: Semitic father with Greek and Roman sons –
pretty much the known world carrying the cross of Jesus. One last thing: neither Isaac nor Simon is
sacrificed, as a lamb is provided.
Isaiah’s vision of the Suffering Servant is the source of the characterization of much of the Passion Story.
Matthew structures his gospel into five sections, reflecting the five books of the Torah.
· The wood of the cross upon which the body of Jesus hangs recalls the wood of the trough (manger) which supports the body of the baby Jesus.
6 The Metaphysics of It All The physicist, Karl Heim, in his book, The Christian Faith and Natural Science, wrestled with our occasional experience of the mysterium tremendum or the “Thou” of Martin Buber’s I and Thou. That led him to the following, using 20th century geometries, Immanuel Kant’s understanding of human experience, and Buber’s approach to religious language. Here we go. A dot cannot comprehend a line and a line cannot comprehend a circle, just as a circle cannot comprehend a threedimensional object or world. Taking religious language and experience seriously, Heim concludes that there is an additional dimension, the Holy, which normally cannot be comprehended by humans, even though it is omnipresent. There are occasions when the barriers between the Holy and the profane are broken and we feel ourselves in the presence of the Holy – sometimes through personal piety, other times when confronted by the mysteries of creation or our own deaths.
Mark seems to have understood this. In place of nativity stories and resurrection appearances, he has two bookmarks for the beginning and completion of his gospel which also make sense of much of Matthew and Luke. In writing about the baptism of Jesus, he notes that the heavens are split open (the Greek he uses in schizo, which refers to a splitting apart, in this context the heavens are split apart, resulting in no barriers between our two dimensions of human understanding and the full presence of the Holy.
Then, at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross, the veil of the tabernacle (which contains the Holy) is split apart (schizo again) and the barriers between the Holy and humans have been overcome once more. This understanding transforms so much in the gospels and in our conception of ultimate reality. We no longer have to worry about what happens when we die, where is heaven? etc.. Immanuel Kant made an important distinction between what we can experience through our senses and reality, itself, which does not entirely conform to the limits of our senses.
So, if you are confronted by a smartass pseudo scientist arguing that you can’t prove the existence of God, simply hand him (I have been told there are no smartass women) a copy of the above with the words, “You are probably unaware that for the past 67 years, Euclidian geometry is not the final word about our world.
MARK’S GOSPEL
It is startling that there are no stories about the nativity of Jesus at the gospel’s beginning and the gospel ends abruptly with ephobontu gar or “because they were afraid.” Theories for this include the early scroll of the gospel was severely damaged. It has also been thought that this was Mark’s way of creating mystery. I side with Karl Heim and what I call “Mark’s Bookends.”.
A second mystery is one Jesus creates by referring to himself as “the son of Man.” That title was well known in the Bible, but not without mystery as it appears in the Book of Daniel in the description of the final reality, with the Son of Man arriving surrounded by the full glory of God. The other appearance of the title, which in the Psalter, has it referring to humans in their absolute finitude, lower than the worms. So, when Jesus refers to himself as the son of Man, he leaves us to make up our own minds.
Mark then has his own stuff, some information from Q, and a string of miracles which suggests that Jesus has dominion over nature, sickness, and even death – raising the issue among his followers “Who is this man?
Then comes an example of the literary genius of Mark with the marvelous middle of his gospel, parallel accounts of a blind man recovering his sight and the disciples coming to faith.
The rest of the gospel is filled with the predictions of Jesus about his upcoming death, what has been called Mark’s “little apocalypse,” in chapter13, the appearance of Simon of Cyrene with his sons (the importance of which escaping the disciples and every Biblical scholar until now) and the Passion narrative which Mark imported into his gospel.
Again, returning to the sermon on “St. Judas,” Mark uses a Greek form of the verb “phileo” to describe the betraying kiss of Judas. The form of that verb he uses is kataphileo, which means to kiss over and over again, just short of passionately. Matthew follows Mark with the use of kataphileo, but Luke more or less lets Judas off the hook by anticipating Geraldine Jones great line with “The devil made him do it.”
MATTHEW
It often seems like Matthew’s gospel was written by a rabbi to appeal to the Jewish community. His gospel has much more teaching than either Mark or Luke and his gospel is organized into five sections, reflecting the five books of the Torah. Matthew descending a mountain with the Sermon on the Mount recalls Moses descending the mountain with the Ten Commandments.
Matthew has pulled together bits and pieces from Luke’s gospel along with material from Q and his own insights to create the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the Beatitudes. What is scattered throughout Luke is brought together brilliantly in the Sermon on the Mount (beginning at chapter five of the gospel).
The moral vision of Matthew is the basis of one of the very best books on Christian living, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. I am not aware of any book dealing with what is a Christian. It challenges, comforts, creates dilemmas and resolves them. Matthew has one of most challenging verses in all of the Bible in the inspiring fifth chapter as Jesus speaks, “You are the light of the world. Note that he doesn’t say “You ought to be the light of the world” or “You better be the light of the world,” just simply “You are the light of the world.”
If that weren’t enough, turn to chapter 25 and the Parable of the Last Judgment. Whenever you hear a right wing demogogue harranging about what a Christian he or she is, read Matthew 25 aloud and ask simply how his or her faith is related to Matthew 25. Current political struggles in the House of Representatives could be improved by readings of this parable. Project 2015 is a direct contradiction of Biblical morality and ethics.
LUKE
Now we come to Luke’s gospel. This is about the Compassionate Jesus. And it is not only the compassion; the ministry of Jesus is defined largely with feminine characteristics. Here are the words of the comedian Mark Russell, speaking about his favorite topics, the Christian church (shortly after the Episcopal church began ordaining women:
"The Roman Catholic Church cannot conceive of married priests. The Episcopal Church now has married priests who can conceive. . . And can you imagine anything more ridiculous than women priests? Think about it. Women baptizing babies? teaching the young, guiding teenagers, feeding the family, guiding and forgiving the confused, comforting the sick and the dying? Can you imagine anything more ridiculous than that? Let's give them some guns and put them on the front lines in the military where they belong!"
Luke’s gospel is full of our most beloved parables – and none is as simple as it first seems. Take, for instance, Luke’s parable of the Prodigal Son. The parable contains three main characters: the father, his older, dutiful son who has run the father’s business after his brother has run off with his inheritance, and the younger son who has wasted everything he could get his hands on, Does this family remind you of anything? His last name begins with “F” and ends with “d.” You are right, it is Sigmund Freud, And Luke’s family is living out the heart of Freud’s basic understanding of family or intrapersonal dynamics. Thus:
The younger son is the personification of the id; of immediate needs.
The older son is the personification of the superego, the moralist.
And the father, the ego, is attempting to hold the family together.
Luke’s insights were way before their time. With this parable, Luke might have considered placing a sign, PSYCHOLOGIST ON CALL, in a prominent place by his/her front door.
If that were not enough, a case can be made that Luke was written by a woman. He/She even has three parables (The Unjust Judge, the Leaven, and the Lost Coin) in which a woman stands for God! When you ignore the interpretation of the later editor, what you have is a woman of enormous determination and power.
If you are tempted to believe that being compassionate means that you are weak or lost in your feelings of timidity, check out Mary’s most famous lines, the Magnificat. Growing up in a Morning Prayer parish, I was used to singing or praying this lovely song, filled with gentleness and compassion almost weekly. Then I listened to the words of the Magnificat more than the notes we were singing. Here is the Magnificat with audience participation underling how revolutionary the vision of Christian faith is:
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. APPLAUSE
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name. APPLAUSE
He has mercy on those who fear him in every
generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit. RICH - HISS
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, RICH – BOO
POOR - CHEER
and has lifted up the lowly. POOR - APPLAUD
He has filled the hungry with good things, POOR – CHEER
and the rich he has sent away empty. RICH – HISS, BOO
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.
AMEN POOR – APPLAUSE ` RICH – HISS, BOO
Mary did not get these
revolutionary ideas from any of the male prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos,
or Micah. Mary, herself, or a female author, is mostly repeating the
revolutionary words of another woman, Hannah, in her earlier song (I Samuel
2:1-10).
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I would recommend starting (or continuing) your study of the Synoptic gospels with Mark. There are two excellent renditions of the Gospel, one by Alec Baldwin (only the first half is still on youtube) and a second by Sir David Suchet, series.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjOgcMQXvSc -,
You can also find my favorite New Testament scholar, A.J. Levine, in several of her talks and interviews on Mark and on the rest of Christian scriptures in youtube. She attends services at an Orthodox synagogue and has a Phd. in New Testament Studies! Her book on the parables of Jesus is stunning, as her understanding of the parables comes from her heritage which allows her to understand the parables from the perspective of a first century Jew – quite different from the perspective of Christian scholars. Here is where you will find her talking informally about Mark. https://www.youtube.com/live/m4U0LewYIuA?si=3qNs8gRrEKPG339z
For me, it’s a tie for second between Luke and Matthew. As you read them, enjoy the ways they have copied from Mark while being aware of how much has come from other sources, especially what we know about Q. You will find a lot of information on google.
Happy Gospel-ing.
