What about the Bible?
Talk for Café Church, St Philip & St James’ Church
Sunday 8 November 2009
A young family were witnesses to a car accident, and the police asked each member of the family to give a statement explaining what had happened. The dad was a bit of a petrolhead so knew the make and model of each car involved. The mum recalled how many people were in the cars. The little boy didn’t know anything about cars. All he could remember was the puppy that ran out in the road that caused the cars to swerve. His sister saw a toy get thrown through the open car window.
Each witness gave a different statement. Each person’s version of events was slightly different, according to their perspective. Not only of the angle they saw things from, but according to what interested them, what made them stop and look in the first place. Even though they all had different accounts, they were still each telling the truth,.
In the same way, the NT gives us four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus – the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each document tells us the same basic narrative of Jesus’ life, but one might focus on the parables Jesus told, whilst another may skip over these to focus on the nature and character of Jesus. When we put all four accounts together, we get a much fuller and richer portrait of the life and work of Jesus.
But is it that simple?