Gospels as Theology

	Fr. Roger Vermalen Karban

The readings for Sunday, January 20, 2002, the Second Sunday of the Year, are Isaiah 49:3-6, I Corinthians 1:1-3, John 1:29-34.

One of the perks of being an evangelist is that you get to write the lines for everyone in your gospel — including Jesus. Though we’ve always presumed this, only recently have we appreciated its significance. It meant one thing when we thought gospels were biographies of Jesus; something else when we started to realize they were intended to be theologies of Jesus.

People always have had problems with Jesus saying different things in different Gospels. For instance, none of his words are more significant than his eucharistic words over the bread and cup: the “words of institution.” Yet we have five different versions of these words he asked us to repeat over and over again in his memory. Four — in the Synoptics and I Corinthians 11 — are proclaimed during the Last Supper; one — John 6 — is situated in the miraculous Passover feeding.

This disparity presents no problem for those who believe the evangelists intend to convey theology, not history. Theology is more than “just the facts;” it’s what those facts mean in the life of an individual and a community trying to imitate Jesus. The same facts can always have different implications for different people.

Every sacred author must go beyond facts in order to demonstrate meaning. Deutero-Isaiah, for instance, realizes one burning fact: he’s failed in carrying out the prophetic ministry Yahweh gave him. (Please read today’s passage as Deutero-Isaiah composed it. Put the unbelievably omitted verse 4 back into the text — the verse which mentions his failure.)

The meaning of his failure is that Yahweh is glorified and Deutero-Isaiah promoted. Though it seems a contradiction, God is honored when someone agrees to serve God, not when someone succeeds in that service. If the Jews to whom the prophet was originally sent won’t listen to him, then Yahweh will make him “. . . a light to the nations (Gentiles), that salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Think about it; more Gentiles listen to Deutero-Isaiah today than Jews.)

Evangelists go beyond interpreting their own personal experiences when they compose their gospels. They’re also concerned with the experiences of the community. They try to convey the implications of Jesus’ faith being mirrored daily in the lives of a whole group of people. This especially concerns John.

It’s evident from today’s pericope that John’s church has started to parallel the risen Jesus’ importance in their lives with the importance of the Passover lamb in Jewish history. Both take away sin; both are sacrificed. But Jesus accomplishes more. That’s why John the evangelist makes the last great prophet of Judaism, John the Baptizer, an announcer for what the evangelist’s community is experiencing.

Because of that church’s belief in Jesus’ pre-existence as God, the Baptizer can proclaim, “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me. . . . He is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. . . . He is the Son of God.”

A theological understanding of gospels places a huge burden on Christian communities. If the way they imitate Jesus is warped, the theology they surface will also be warped. That’s why Paul is careful how he starts his letter to the Christian community in Corinth. As we’ll see over the next three weeks, it’s a church bordering on the warped.

“You have been sanctified in Christ Jesus,” the Apostle reminds them in our second reading, “called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”
We must have some understanding of what God is calling us to be before we can understand the significance of who we are.