This year, instead of reading through the full Bible in 365 days1 as I’ve done for the last few years, I am taking a slow-and-steady approach through just the New Testament, using Dr. Dave Dorst’s New Testament verse-by-verse devotional as my guide. In the devotional, Dr. Dorst leads us through one story at a time (rather than a straight-through reading of Matthew-to-Revelation) which means that some days the plan has us rereading the same story as written by two, three, or four of the Gospel writers. Occasionally, the accounts are practically carbon copies of one another; at other times, the passages are so different from one another that the Gospel writers seem to be recounting entirely different stories.
There are a number of stories that appear in a single Gospel narrative with no mention from the other three. For instance, only Matthew tells of the wise men visiting newborn Jesus. The stories of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan can only be found in the book of Luke. John’s account of the Gospel is the only one to mention that Jesus washed the disciples’ feet during the Last Supper. Only Mark includes the odd detail of a young man (likely Mark himself!) fleeing naked at Jesus’ arrest.
It is amazing to see the unique perspective that each of Jesus’ four biographers brings to the narration of His life, death, and resurrection. Each of the four Gospels was written with a different audience in mind, and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each bring their own background, personality, and passions into the narrative. Together, the four books of the Gospel serve to paint a complete picture of our Lord and Savior; individually, each Gospel account is a testament to God’s recognition of the unique spiritual needs of His people for whom a single narrative, told through a one-dimensional lens, would not suffice.
Something else that has stood out to me in my current study of Jesus’ life is the specificity and uniqueness of each of His interactions. Jesus used different tactics in calling His disciples: some were collective callings (Simon and Andrew, James and John), others were given to just one man (Matthew); some came to Jesus through an introduction from John the Baptist while others’ first encounter with Jesus was not associated with any other ministry; some are commanded by Jesus to “follow me” while others received a more direct calling to become “fishers of men.”
Jesus also brought a personal touch to other parts of His ministry, from the way He catered His sermons to each audience to the varying ways He healed the sick who came to Him. It’s been fascinating to note the times when Jesus healed publicly and when He chose to make a healing more private; when He used words to bring about someone’s healing and when He used a healing touch or other physical means (such as saliva or water); when a healing was incidental (as with the woman with the issue of blood who was seemingly healed with little direct interaction from Jesus) and when a healing or other miracle was a primary event (as with the raising of Lazarus from the dead). Throughout His time on earth, Jesus demonstrated a profound understanding of the nuances of every circumstance and setting, acknowledging and adjusting to accommodate the unique needs of each individual touched by His ministry. His approach was the opposite of one-size-fits-all.
I love that Jesus’ personal touch did not end with His earthly ministry but continues with us today. No two testimonies are the same, with Jesus meeting each of us where we are and working in our lives with an intentionality and specificity that would be impossible for anyone other than the Master Author and Creator of our bodies and souls. Whether through divine circumstances or whisperings of the Holy Spirit, passages of Scripture or sacred dreams, moments of silent prayer or dramatically indisputable miracles. . . Jesus understands what is required to capture the attention of each of His children, and He meets us right where we are. There are echoes of similar refrains within the songs of each of our lives, but no two medleys are identical.
For all of our singularity and idiosyncrasies, there is one thing that is NOT unique to each of us: we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. Our sinful nature is a universal affliction, one that has been worn by every single human who has walked this earth. . . every human, save One. In His holiness, Jesus is a category all to Himself. And because of HIS unique sinlessness, He was able to take on the sins of mankind, enduring the penalty that we deserved.
This week we will celebrate Good Friday, when Jesus hung on the cross on our behalf, willingly enduring physical and emotional torment as He took on the punishment that WE deserved. His great sacrifice paved the way for the personal and personalized relationships that we enjoy with our Lord today. What a blessed gift we have been given.
Lord Jesus, thank you for the intentionality that went into creating each of your children. And more than that. . . thank you for desiring to have a personal relationship with each of us that accommodates our distinct needs. Thank you for loving us so much that you bore the punishment for the sin that we all carry. Forgive us for the ways that we have treated your free gift of salvation cavalierly; we will never fully grasp the depth of your sacrifice, but help us to embrace the unique offering of love that you extend to each of us. We love you and we thank you, we adore you and we praise you.
- While I’m not reading through the full Bible with my eyes, I am listening to the whole thing via The Bible in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz podcast, which I listen to while I get ready every morning. ↩︎
