Christ in the Gospel
The Friend of All in
Luke
Luke
arranges his material creatively. Although Luke writes with Gentiles view, his
two-volume work presents one of the most traditional Christologies of the New
Testament. One distinctive feature in Luke’s portrait of Jesus is Luke’s
interest in Jesus prayer life. Jesus is depicted as praying at every critical
turn in his ministry, beginning at his baptism. Luke applies a rich variety of
titles to Jesus that highlights in his ministry and personhood. Jesus is Savoir
(2:11), the Son of David (18:38), and King (19:38). He is the Son of the
Father. (1:35; 9:35) but also Adam (3:38). He is compared to Jonah of old and
to Solomon (11:29-32). As the Son of Man, he not only suffers and is exalted
but also to minister (5:24) and shares the lot of those who are marginalized
and outcasts (9:58). Another frequent title is teacher (7:40; 22:11).
Jesus
love is universal and all-inclusive and reaches out to and is a friend of all
kinds of people: women, poor, sick, despised and others who are in danger of
being ignored by the religious and political establishment.
The Word of Life in
John
John’s
Gospel is preeminently a work of Christology since Jesus is the focal point of
its many signs and discourses. John portrays Jesus as the incarnation of God’s
preexistent Word. The Christology in John are most fully developed and are
almost put in juxtaposing.
The
Jesus of the fourth Gospel does not teach in parables; in contrast to the
synoptic, in John, Jesus is monologist. The miracles portrays are also
different from Synoptics and even the entire structure of the Gospel of John is
unique comparatively. The prologue is unique and the most distinctive feature
is the application of the tile Logos to Christ, which connects Jesus with both
the Old Testament beginning, the Word as creative force in Genesis 1, and the
Greek concept of wisdom. This Logos, who became flesh and dwelt among human
beings, was full of grace and truth (1:14). He is unique in that he is the only
begotten Son of the Father. In Him, and only in him we see the Father is
(1:18).
Typical
of John is his dual emphasis on the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. John’s
Gospel is in many ways the most human portrayal of Jesus: Jesus experiences
fatigue (4:6) and anguish (12:27): he weeps (11:33) and changes his mind
(7:1-10). In other hand, Jesus is ‘God’s Word’ the Logos. He speaks as no man
has ever spoken (7:46); he is the one who reveals the Father (1:18).
John’s
Gospel is full of symbolic material and contains much less action than the
Synoptics. A central theme in Jon’s Christology is the intimate relationship
between the Father and the Son (Ch.5) and this becomes the central issue in the
debate between Jesus and Jews. Also, the most distinctive feature of Jesus’
self-designation is the list of “I am” saying, seven altogether, corresponding
to the seven signs. The ambiguous “I am” phrase goes back to the
self-revelation of Yahweh in the first part of the Old Testament when God names
himself “I AM” in response to Moses request (Exod.3:14).
Of
all the various titles, image and symbols applied to Jesus in the Gospel of
John, two seem to be the most important: Messiah and Son of God. These are
major confessional titles for John. At the beginning of the Gospel, John the
Baptist denies he is the Messiah in Jesus (1:20). Soon, after, Jesus names
himself the Messiah (4:26), which is extraordinary given that the Synoptics’
Jesus is hesitant to do so. For John, Jesus is the Messiah because he is the
one whom God sent into the world, the Son of Man who came from above, God’s
Word made Flesh.
John
contains fewer to Jesus as the Son of God, but it is another crucial way of
identifying Jesus. At the beginning of the Gospel, John testifies that Jesus is
the Son of God.
.jpg)