“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace, which He made abound toward us…” (Ephesians 1:7-8).
When you read the Gospels closely, you’ll notice that they spend a disproportional amount of time when writing about Jesus’ life (33 years) on the events particularly surrounding His death (the final 24 hours He lived before defeating death and resurrecting). The authors all virtually rush through the life of Jesus to land at His death, spending great detail on it- and the events surrounding it- as if to alert us to the fact that there is more happening that we might have imagined. And, as I’m learning, there is far more happening than what I had thought.
Martin Kahler has called the Gospel
“passion narratives with extended introductions.”
It’s almost as if the writers skip much of the material that common biographers would share with us (What color hair did Jesus have? How tall was He? Was He funny? Did He walk with a swagger? Was He even a good carpenter?) and then begin slowing down when they get to the Last Supper. And, that relatively short space of time is the most significant period ever to have occurred in the history of the world.
Indeed, it occupies a great percentage of their writing space:
- 26% of Luke focuses on the Cross- and the events surrounding it.
- 33% of Matthew.
- 37% of Mark.
- 42% of John.
Remember, Peter writes that we are redeemed by the Blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:18-19). We see the pages that discuss the details of Jesus’ Blood taking a great deal of ink and white space, it seems. Indeed, redemption is far bigger than what you might have imagined. (You can read more about that, by the way, right here.). That’s why the Gospels are out-of-balance biographies. What happens at the end is so important.
Related articles
- A game changer for me; seeing the scope of what Jesus did (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)
- More about freedom (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)
- When and where did Jesus set you free? (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)
Pingback: Free- inside, outside… | Be The Change