Right now in our quest to ReDiscover our Bibles by reading the whole New Testament in 2012, we’re reading through the gospel of Mark. Last week we read the first five chapters of Mark, and this week we’re reading chapters 6-10. But this brings up an interesting question that you might not think about right away: What is a gospel? Here’s my quick take on that.
A gospel is not exactly history, and it’s not just Jesus’ biography. In the Bible, a gospel is a story of the life of Jesus, but it’s a story whose main point is to tell us something about God, to direct us toward the good news that in Jesus God brings his kingdom near to us, and to invite us to take up God’s call to follow this Jesus.
So when you read one of the four Biblical gospels, you aren’t just reading a story about something that happened a few thousand years ago. You are engaging with a point in the past that is the key to everything that comes after it, as well as everything that came before. And, more than that, when you read one of these gospels, the stories it has to tell aren’t separate from your life, but by their very nature draw you into them and invite you along for the ride. God, Jesus, his disciples, various religious and political leaders and regular folks from that time are all characters in these stories, but you are a character in these stories too. You are called to follow, called to open your eyes to see and open your ears to hear the good news, called to faithfulness and obedience to God’s Reign on the earth, called to take up your cross, called to serve right where you’re at. The gospels become the story of your life, the way you understand your life and how you live it.
The fact that the Biblical gospels place these demands and invitations on us and convey God’s calling and his love for us is what makes them some of the most exciting things ever written.
