Four Gospels

Each one of the four gospels is different.  Certainly, there are many parallel passages, but overall each one is different.  Matthew records the Sermon on the Mount.  None of us would want to miss that sermon.  Mark is in a hurry and also uses the fewest words which is why it is often recommended to someone wanting to begin reading the gospels.  Luke gives us a birth story that no one else figured needed to be told.  And, John leaves us with unfinished stories and images lingering in the air.    

Everyone has their favorite.  For some reason the gospel of John has always had more magnetic power than the others.  As a boy learning to read the Word, I was captured by the stories in the earlier chapters.  When I started preaching, those stories were so often the springboard for sermons.  And now as one whose boyhood is a distant memory, it is the images and the subtle leading of words which cause me to go back to it again and again.    

More than the others it seems that John invites us to read and to "go figure."  Personally, t seems that such speaks of the spirit of Jesus.  When asked questions that could have been answered with an either-or answer, He sent people away scratching their heads and searching their souls.  I have done a lot of both over the years,  While I am aware I have more understanding than I did when I started, the journey will never be completed on this side of the River.