Four Voices, Two Vistas, One Person: Why Understanding the Narrative Shape of the Gospel Matters (original) (raw)

Sound bites work because they strikingly capture a pithy thought, in a way that the average person can readily remember. For this reason-and in spite of their modern-media-attuned name-"sound bites" are not a new phenomenon. The ancients called them aphorisms, or "delimitations"-not quite as sparkling, but it meant what it said: an original, laconic saying that expressed something definitively. Your average first-century urbanite knew scores of them: "marry well," "pick your time," "a cost to every commitment," "nothing to excess." Jesus was surely not the first to speak in such ways. But he was among the most adept: "love your neighbor," "Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath," "blessed are the poor in spirit," "I have come not to call the righteous but sinners," and the justly famous "golden rule": "do to others what you would have them do to you." Self-important intellectuals might sometimes be tempted to smile at such rustic simplicity. But if one wants to change the world, one must engage with the mass of humanity. Given the gospel's unrivalled influence on human history, Jesus clearly knew what he was doing. Unsurprisingly, many Christians' knowledge of Jesus consists largely of a scattering of these isolated sayings, along with a few stand-out stories (e.g. casting out demons, healings, multiplication of the loaves and fish, calming the storm, his encounters with Zacchaeus and the woman caught in adultery, and his final action in the Temple), all of which are bracketed by the annually celebrated events of Christmas and Easter. But as a moment's reflection reminds us, these sayings and actions do not just float about in some kind of Christian ether. They are drawn from the Gospels, which, as is now increasingly recognized, are carefully constructed and highly textured narratives. It is when we examine the four Gospels more closely that interesting questions begin to emerge. As most of us know, the first three-Matthew,