Devotional Thoughts: The Gospels as Screenplays?

What are the Gospels?

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Yup.

But what are they?

They aren't biographies in the way we understand biographies.

Today, when we think of biographies we think of massive tomes like Doris Kearns Goodwin writing about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (768 pages!) or David McCullough's Truman (1120 pages!).

Grabbing one of my Bibles on my bookshelf:
Matthew, p. 554-572 (18 pages)
Mark, p 573-585 (12 pages)
Luke, p. 586-607 (21 pages)
John, p. 608-623 (15 pages).

If one were to read aloud the Gospel of Mark, how long would it take?

According to Gary Friesen about 90 minutes!

Would it be horrifying to think of the Gospels as movie screenplays?

Interestingly, one recent film maker opted to use the text of the Gospel of John as his script for a movie. The film ran 180 minutes.

The life of Jesus in all its detail would be far too much to write about. The Gospel of John acknowledges this in John 21:25: Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Inherent to a biography is selection of material. Doris Kearns Goodwin could have probably written several thousand pages about FDR but she cut it down to 768 pages.

And if her book were ever to be made into a movie, the screen writer would trim it down even more.

Did the Gospel writers act as the screen writers of their day?

There must have been lots of material written about Jesus and a lot of material that existed in oral form. At some point, with the church growing, as a practical matter, authoritative and reliable material about Jesus had to be produced.

We get hints of that from Luke 1:1-4: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

And so a screen writer must adopt a style and select material accordingly.

The Gospel of Mark doesn't beat around the bush and dives right in with Mark 1:1: The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

This is followed by the citation of prophecy from the Old Testament, a brief sketch of John the Baptist, Jesus baptism and temptation, Jesus preaching, Jesus calling the disciples, Jesus healing and so on ... boom, boom, boom ... in staccato fashion with quick hit episodes.

The Gospel of Matthew takes an entirely different approach. There are long lingering passages like the Genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew 1:1-17, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 or the Kingdom Parables of Matthew 13.

Skeptics will say, yup, they wrote screenplays as in fictionalized and fabricated and fanciful stories of a Jesus who never existed.

They presume intentional deception on the part of the Gospel writers.

On the other hand, is it possible that they selected and arranged actual stories, events, deeds and teachings of Jesus and wove them into a screenplay?

They are not meant to be exhaustive and comprehensive biographies of Jesus. Instead, imagine if you will, an executive producer (God in this case) asking four film makers (Gospel writers) to come up with a script for a movie about the life of Jesus running anywhere from 90 minutes to 4 hours so that followers of Jesus would be encouraged in and educated about their faith.

Result: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Lord, you say, Come, follow me. It isn't easy. It wasn't easy for the disciples in the Gospels either. But you have called and have given us instruction and have sent the Holy Spirit to remind, convict and empower us. Lord, help me to follow you and live a life that shows you are in my life. Amen.