Bearing witness (April 2025)

Dear Friends

April will see us take the annual journey through the holiest of weeks. What a week it was for Jesus. It is interesting to notice some of the different ways in which the four gospels handle what happened. Here’s just one example. It is the time of the Passover. The Synoptics (Greek for ‘seen together’ because they share so much in common) – Matthew, Mark and Luke - tell us that the last supper is a Passover prepared for by Jesus and the disciples (Mt. 26: 17-19; Mk. 14: 12-16; Lk. 22: 7-13). John, whose chronology often doesn’t fit with the other three gospels, has Jesus die on the cross on the day of Preparation, the day before the Passover (Jn. 13: 1 & 19: 31). By this timeline, John’s long account of the final evening Jesus spends with his friends in chapters 13 to 17 doesn’t include the institution of the Lord’s Supper with the bread and wine becoming Jesus’ body and blood. John doesn’t have Jesus reshaping the Passover because his death happens as the lambs are being sacrificed the day before the Passover. John is doing something different to the other gospels in this. In John there is a deep connection being made between the crucifixion and the Passover sacrifice because, theologically, John’s emphasis is that Jesus is the new and ultimate sacrificial lamb. Remember how John’s gospel, at the beginning, has John the Baptist watch Jesus and declare: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”(Jn. 1: 29).

Matthew, Mark and Luke, by contrast, home in on the final Passover Jesus shares with his friends. Jesus gives it a new focus as he steps into the sacrificial role. The meal that traditionally relived the saving of slaves from Egypt by the power of God becomes a new exodus from sin and death for all who take this cup and share this loaf and remember Jesus – the power of God revealed in a life lived and offered and risen from the dead.

Some people get upset about these sorts of inconsistencies in scripture. They become evidence of the Bible’s unreliability. If the texts get things as basic as the timing of the crucifixion wrong, why believe them on any of the rest of the Jesus story?

I think that is missing the point. The gospels, and the whole of scripture, are full of historical moments. But the Bible wants to be much, much more than a history book. More than anything else, the Bible wants to be a witness. That is why the stories and the reflections, the poems and the hymns, the wisdom and the wonder have been compiled, collected, collated and passed on across the generations. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John want to bear witness. Yes, that means tell stories and recount events. But do much more. Share how the stories and the events change you and change the world. Share how this life of a wandering rabbi the Romans crucified reframes the world and everything in it for ever. Tell the truth as the truth has come to you and set you free. For the synoptics, that means recounting the Last Supper so that you explain why sharing bread and wine matters and links us directly to the death and rising of Jesus. For John, that slips into the far background and it is the significance of the Passover sacrifice that takes centre stage.

We, now, are the witnesses to the Holy Week’s events. We bear witness to all that happened and that has been handed on to us. It is for us to let the ancient tale take root in the here and now. Our churches and our lives stand as signs that this story is the greatest story ever told, a truth to build life upon, a spring of living water to refresh and heal the world. These four gospels give us the gift of knowing, of seeing the world in a new and staggering light, of letting hope sing.

Christ is risen! Alleluia! Amen!

Neil