Beginning Once Again With John

This time I chose John. The last time I read the Bible, I read Luke's gospel and there was a John the Baptist in it. I wondered if the John who wrote the gospel was the same as the one Luke referred to. This is what I found.

To my surprise, I was actually right this time. John is indeed Jesus' cousin, John the baptist. I suppose that this is a rather irrelevant conclusion but what I find so important in it is the fact that Luke actually mentions John. Although John spares parts with angels in them, unlike Luke, he does acknowledge the fact that there is a God. This also makes me wonder if he knew beforehand, since he was older than Jesus, if Jesus would be the Christ. This is something that doesn't really have an easy answer but at least, up to now,he does say " I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." (John 1:34)

First of all, John starts his gospel with Jesus' baptism as oppose to Luke who begins his gospel with the first Christmas. This first difference is a bit crucial because it's basically saying that Jesus' story begins with his baptism, once he is the "son of God" officially while Luke thinks that Jesus' story is worth telling from the very beginning. This also implies that Jesus only comes into John's life once he gets baptized by him.

I also noticed that the miracles that John talks about are more "materialistic" than those that Luke mentions. Luke tells us about how Jesus came into every village to "heal" the sick but John focuses on how Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. This might also seem like an irrelevant observation but in a way, its these things that describe what Luke or John might actually be.

Its interesting to see Jesus' story being told from different perspectives rather than just one. I think that the more participants in a story, the better the story will be. And why is this you may be asking yourselves right now? Well, this is what I believe: any story becomes plain and boring when this old guy is telling it (my image of Luke) but when there is more than on narrator, the reader has the opportunity to agree, disagree and later, even take sides towards one version or the other.