DIfferences Among the Portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke

Each of the gospels provide a slightly different answer to the question of who Jesus was, characterizing him in diverse ways. In the Gospel of Mark, the idea of Jesus as God's Son, or the Messiah, is focused upon, but in a way that is less obvious than the reasons popular in Mark's time. When Mark writes his gospel, he is already aware of the belief that Jesus is the Messiah because of his miracles, but Mark regards this in a critical fashion. He does not deny that Jesus did these miracles, but he sums up Jesus' miracle activity in the question at Caesarea Philippi in Chapter 8. Mark beliefs more in the idea that the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, or the Messianic Secret, is revealed through his suffering. Mark gives cosmic significance to Jesus (1:12-13), and he focuses on the adult ministry of Jesus in order to show his divinity. Mark's account mainly records the actions of Jesus, rather than his teaching, and how everything leads to Jesus' death - the event that defined his identity. Mark tells the story by thinking about the death and letting all the events that lead up to that death move toward it and through it. The Gospel of Mark teaches that to believe that Jesus was the Messiah because he was able to perform miracles is not a true understanding of who Jesus was. Proof of this is the description of the events after the confession of Peter, Jesus says, "the Son of Man has to suffer and to die." And Peter says, "This should not happen to you," and Jesus rebukes him as Satan. Although Jesus' inner circle of disciples come close they never fully understand the necessity of suffering before Kingdom can come, and the fact that Jesus is the son of man who has come to suffer, and that the true messiahship of Jesus cannot be recognized in his miracles. The story of the suffering and the death of Jesus reveals the secret of who Jesus really is.

The Gospel of Matthew depicts Jesus as more of a "New Moses" in that he presents the definitive, eschatological teachings about the Torah. To illustrate this, his identity as a man from Israel and a descendant of Abraham (as well as of the line of David is focused upon. This in turn leads to the perception of Jesus' teachings as fully in the legitimate tradition of Israel's teaching of the law. Jesus is seen as a fulfiller of the law, thus no part of the law will disappear; Jesus has come not to abolish but to fulfill the prophecies and promises to Abraham and David [Mt 5:17]. Jesus is portrayed in Matthew as embodying and climaxing Israel's historical experience of God, and this exudes a superlative personal authority. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount the Matthean Jesus is able to teach Torah definitively based on his personal authority. Jesus is seen in Matthew as the perfect son of Abraham, something essential to his ability to teach the Torah, which is regarded as the expression of God's wisdom in written form. In Jesus something greater than the Temple is present [12:6, where according to Sirach 24:10 wisdom has taken up her abode], and he exudes authority greater even than Solomon who was famed for the wisdom received from God [12:42]. This Gospel is concerned with the position of the early Christian churches in its relationship to Judaism, and Matthew's portrayal of Jesus shows him as both the recapitulation and climax of Israel's long history of relationship with God, and as someone who holds the divine authority to teach God's will conclusively.

The gospel of Luke is intended for an audience aware of the story of Jesus, and is marked by clear themes and motifs introduced in prologue. Jesus' birth in context of world history, as opposed to the limited perception of Jesus in his relation to the Abrahamic & Davidic line present in Matthew. His genealogy instead begins all the way with Adam, and a "universal" theme is emphasized throughout entire gospel. Jesus comes across in Luke's gospel like a philosophic teacher, kind of like Socrates in that he is reasonable and dispassionate, as well as a critic sometimes of society yet concerned about the way his teachings bear on society. He dies in fact very similarly to Socrates. His death is shown in Luke's gospel as more of a martyr's death in that Jesus goes to the cross calmly with the knowledge of what he has to do. Pontius Pilate is not responsible in Luke's gospel, and in fact tries to get rid of the case by sending Jesus away to Herod, which reflects the kind of political concerns in Luke's gospel also related to Jesus. Jesus is seen in Luke as less of a rebel and more of a teacher, social reformer, or philosopher. Luke portrays Jesus in the gospel as a Savior who is filled with the Spirit of God, according to the image of the divine man. Jesus is the person in whom divine powers are visible and are exercised, both in his teaching and in his miracle doing. The image of the divine man also belongs in Jesus' travel narrative. The gospel of Luke is the only one that has a long travel narrative of Jesus.... The travel motif has been a very important motif in antiquity to describe the life of great divine men, miracle workers, teachers. Most frequent response to the coming of Jesus is simply joy, as seen in the reactions to both the announcement of birth (2:10) and after Resurrection (24:41). The divine man motif is important even through Jesus' suffering and death, because Jesus dies the perfect martyr's death, an exemplary death. There is no crying, "my God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?". But Jesus dies commending his spirit into the hands of the father, as a pious martyr really should do in a suffering death. So the image of Jesus is one that is fully developed out of the image of the divine human being.

Work Cited
St. Mary's Press College Study Bible. Winowa, Minnesota: St. Mary's Press, 2006.