PRAYING THE GOSPELS

Praying the Gospels


It's not much of a leap to read a Psalm, which is already a prayer, and then adapt it and use it to pray today. It's a little harder to imagine using stories as resources for prayer. Yet, biblical stories, especially those found in the four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John offer some of the richest material for prayer. The key is learning how to use them as material for prayer.

Before we can use these beneficially in prayer, though, we need to understand the nature of the material called "Gospel." Again, if you're not much interested in background material, skip right to the section "Big Themes."

So, What's a "Gospel"?

In older Bible versions, the first verse of the Gospel of Mark reads, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God “as if the word gospel was the technical name of the work that was about to follow. Well, it wasn't, but it now is.

Behind the word gospel stands a Greek word (the four Gospels were first written in Greek) that means "good news." What Mark was really saying, and what most modern translations say, is "Here begins the good news about Jesus, the messiah, the son of God."

Nonetheless, Gospel has stuck and refers not just to Mark's work about Jesus it also refers to that of Matthew, Luke, and John. These are ancient biographies, all written in the first century, that attempt to inform readers about the life, words, and meaning of Jesus. Though other "gospels" were written, none were considered reliable accounts. Since the earliest days, Christians have used these four to recall the story of Jesus.

I've called these "biographies “and they are but you'll run into roadblocks right off if you think they are like modern biographies. If you understand how the Gospels differ from modern biographies, you'll be able to benefit from them more.

Modern biographies are anxious to explore the subject's childhood and youth to discover early influences, decisions, and turning points that determined the course of a person's life. Our age has very much been influenced by Sigmund Freud and others, and we're fascinated with childhood.

Ancient biographies are not. The ancients believed that personality and character were given at birth and merely were manifested in life. If the Gospels focus on an early incident, they do so simply to reveal character. For example, the only childhood story of Jesus recorded in the Bible shows a 12-year-old Jesus instructing religious teachers, who are impressed with the child's wisdom (Luke2:4152).

Modern biographies are also strictly chronological. For the most part, they record the key events in the subject's life in the order in which they happen.

Ancient biographies are not all that interested in the order of events. Naturally, they have to acknowledge the order of the large events for Jesus' biographers, that means they recognized that his birth must come before his ministry, and that his ministry must come before his death. But ancient writers were more interested in grouping their material thematically to show the essential character traits of their subject.

When you read the four Gospels, then, you're going to find that each writer orders material differently. This is not because some were good historians and others weren't, but simply because each ordered his material to reveal something unique about Jesus.

For example, the Gospel of Matthew organizes Jesus' teaching into five parts and scatters these five blocks of teaching throughout the Gospel. Matthew is trying to show that Jesus is the new Moses, the new lawgiver. He's imitating the pattern found in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, which in Judaism are together called the "Law of Moses."

Each Gospel writer collects his material incidents, parables, and teachings in this way. When we read the Gospels, we are wise not to begin with modern assumptions (trying to figure out decisive moments, or seeking to outline a strict order of events), but instead, let each Gospel writer tell the story in his own way.

To Each His Own

So what exactly is the emphasis of each writer? I'd like to look at this briefly not because I want to turn you into a New Testament scholar, but to help you appreciate more deeply each Gospel as you read and pray it. Let's begin by looking at the first three Gospels, which are very similar in style and content. They likely all used a similar source in writing their accounts, and they supplemented that account with their own research.

Tradition says that Matthew was one of the original disciples, and many think he's the same guy as Levi the tax collector (Matthew 10:24 and Mark 2:1314). A second-century writer names Papias said that Matthew "wrote down the oracles [sayings of Jesus] in the Hebrew language." If this tradition is accurate, we're today reading a version edited and passed on by some of Matthew's disciples, because this Gospel seems to have been written about 40 years after Jesus' death and resurrection.

Papias was certainly right about one thing: the Hebrew, or Jewish, nature of the material. Matthew, more than the others, seems to be written for early Jewish Christians and tries to show that Jesus is the Jewish messiah and that he is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

A typical example occurs early on. When the wise men come to visit the infant Jesus, they quote an Old Testament prophecy:

"O Bethlehem of Judah,you are not just a lowly village in Judah,For a ruler will come from youwho will be the shepherd for my people Israel."Matthew 2:6

The Gospel of Mark is said to be written by a man named John Mark, who was an early companion of the apostle Paul and, later, of the apostle Peter. Papias calls Mark "the interpreter of Peter," who wrote down Peter's recollections about Jesus.


Mark's audience seems to have been Roman that is, non-Jewish and is designed to show that Jesus is the Son of God, a person of swift action and supreme power. He doesn't include nearly the amount of teaching as does Matthew, and his Gospel is fast-paced and takes about a half-hour to read straight through.

Luke was a physician and an early convert who accompanied Paul on some of his journeys. He also painstakingly interviewed many eyewitnesses of Jesus' life in preparing his work ("Having carefully investigated all of these accounts from the beginning. . . ", as he put it).

Like Mark, Luke writes for a non-Jewish, Greco-Roman audience. He's interested in Jesus not just in his divine nature, but especially as humanity in perfection. At the same time, Luke's is the most personal Gospel, in which we get a glimpse into Jesus' intimate relationships, especially with women and children. Luke likes to highlight the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus, and he records more of Jesus' teachings on prayer than the other Gospels.

Now for Something Completely Different

The Gospel of John is in a league of its own. You get this sense after reading but a few verses. Where Matthew, Mark, and Luke try to set Jesus into his times as soon as possible, John begins like this:

"In the beginning the Word [Jesus] already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."


Tradition claims that John was not only one of the 12 disciples, but the "beloved disciple," one with whom Jesus was especially intimate. But his Gospel seems less interested in intimate details than giving a more cosmic view of Christ. Mark begins his work by recording Jesus' baptism, Matthew and Luke begin with Jesus' birth and John begins at the beginning of the universe: "in the beginning."

John's Gospel was probably written late in the first century, much later than the other Gospels, so it's not likely that we have his original words, but his words transcribed and edited by a group of his disciples.

Jesus is "the Word," the "water of life" (John 4:426), the ''resurrection and life" (John 5:1947), the "bread of life" (John 6:2659), the "light of the world" (John 8:12), and so on. Thus, John is more interested in the spiritual truth of Jesus, not the mere recording of chronological detail (though there are many passages that, in terms of history, are more detailed than the other Gospels). And thus John's Gospel is rich with symbolism and strong contrasts (light and dark, truth and falsehood, love and hate), and belief plays a large role in the book.

Again, this emphasis, as with the other three Gospels, is not just significant literarily but especially in terms of prayer. If you read through a Gospel prayerfully (more of that in a bit), you'll want to have some idea of the overall theme of the Gospel you're praying through.

Big Themes

No matter which Gospel you pray through, you're going to find certain themes that arise time and again. If these are the type of issues you'd like to explore, praying through the Gospels is a practice to take up. Here are seven of the more prominent themes:

1. Jesus. The Gospels are first and foremost about the person of Jesus, as seen most clearly in the opening of the Gospel of Mark: "Here begins the good news about Jesus. . . ." The Gospels are primarily concerned to reveal who he is, what he taught, and his continuing significance for every age.

2. The kingdom of God. This is the overarching theme of Jesus' teaching. He begins his ministry with the message, "At last the time has come. The kingdom of God is near! Turn from your sins and believe the good news" (Mark 1:15).

Jesus is referring to the reign of God, which has a present and a future dimension. In terms of this life, Jesus' teaching about the kingdom highlights the truth that we're in good hands: God is in charge of all that goes on, even when his good purposes remain mysterious. This also implies that a new way of life and a new set of morals must characterize the citizens of the kingdom.

The kingdom also refers to the future reign of God, when history will come to a perfect conclusion, when all sin and death, crying, and pain will be eliminated.

3. Commitment to Jesus. Because Jesus is the Lord of this kingdom, the Gospels naturally spend a lot of time emphasizing the need for commitment to his ways and to his person.

4. Service to others. It's not a religious life that the Gospels emphasize, but a life lived in the world for the world. So don't start praying through the Gospels unless you're willing to spend time meditating on your need to reach out to others.

5. Money. The Gospels spend a lot of words recording Jesus' teachings about money. It appears that Jesus thinks how we spend it says a great deal about our commitments an uncomfortable but necessary subject of prayer.

6. Prayer. If many parts of the Bible help us pray, then the Gospels, more than many others, teach us how to pray. Many passages talk about the role of faith and perseverance in prayer.

7. Love. If the summary of Jesus' teaching is to love God and to love your neighbor, this is also the summary of the Gospels. If you want to grow in love, then the Gospels are the place where you'll see how better to do this.

Reading the Gospels Prayerfully

There are two ways to use the Gospels to enrich your prayer life. In the first, the left side of the brain (the rational part) plays a larger role.

This method I've called meditation. It's a matter of trying to understand a passage as a literary work in which the author is trying to make a point. To read meditatively is simply to try to discern the author's point and then to ask appropriate questions about one's own life in self-examination. (See "Listen Up," for more on this.)


Let's say I'm reading Mark 4:3541: Jesus and his disciples are in a boat when a "fierce storm" arises, in which "high waves began to break into the boat." All the while, Mark notes, Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat until the frantic disciples wake him: "Teacher, don't you even care that we are going to drown?"

Mark continues, "When he woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, 'Quiet down!' Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. And he asked them, 'Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith in me?' And they were filled with awe and said among themselves, 'Who is this man, that even the wind and waters obey him?'"

I would begin by analyzing the various purposes of the passage: to show the power of Christ, and to teach the importance of trust in the midst of fear. I would pick one of the themes let’s say, trust and ask myself in what areas of my life I remain afraid, and in what ways I find it difficult to trust Christ. Let's say that I was worried about my finances, that they were in a mess and that I simply found it hard to trust that Christ was present and caring about this situation. I would then pray for Christ's help: to be aware of his presence, to trust him to watch over me even when a financial storm was pelting me.

Praying the Gospels

There is another way to deal with stories. Rather than stand apart from the passage analyzing it, dissecting it, figuring it out I could enter into the passage and experience it, and let it figure me out.

Taking the same passage used previously, I might imagine myself as one of the disciples. I would try to put myself in the boat, to watch the storm clouds approaching, feel the wind whip over the surface of the lake, watch whitecaps form, feel the spray and then a full wave, feel the boat rock. I'd try to feel the fear, and then I'd try to imagine what I'd most fear losing in life.

Then I'd hear the strong words of Christ, feel the wind die suddenly, note the waves calm and feel the wonder and peace of God's power.

I can't say what exactly I'd "learn" from this because the associations would move freely back and forth from the present to the past and back to the present. The image of losing my job might rise in my mind while I'm on the boat, or maybe the feeling I had when I lost a friend to drowning. In any case, this method has a way of bringing up all sorts of odd and wonderful connections that can then become a part of more rational prayer.

I might, for example, become aware of how much I still am affected by my friends' drowning, along with residual guilt that I never paid him proper respects. I'd include whatever thoughts and emotions and recollections that arose in my prayer.

There are many more ways to pray the Gospels (see Chapter 11 and the last section on "Lectio Divina" for another suggestion). Nor will every passage elicit equally "useful" prayer material. But the Gospels have endured as prayer resources precisely because they are able to speak to the human soul at a depth that transcends every age and culture.