Jesus

The four Gospels introduce Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. They record his proclamation of God’s kingdom, his healings, his death on a cross, and his resurrection. John begins by describing the Word who was with God and was God in the beginning, then became flesh and lived among us. Matthew and Luke also give genealogies of Jesus, with different arrangements of names.

Matthew and Luke report that Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit before she and Joseph lived together. In Luke, the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a son and name him Jesus. In Matthew, Joseph intends to end the relationship privately, but an angel speaks to him in a dream, and he takes Mary as his wife.

According to Luke, Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem for a registration. Jesus was born there. Mary wrapped him and laid him in a manger, a feeding place for animals. Shepherds heard the angels’ announcement and came to see the child. Afterward, they told others what they had heard.

On the eighth day the child was circumcised and named Jesus. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant God had commanded Abraham to keep. Later, Joseph and Mary brought the child to the Jerusalem temple as the law required. Simeon took him in his arms and praised God. Anna, a prophetess who worshiped at the temple with fasting and prayer, also gave thanks and spoke about the child to people awaiting Jerusalem’s redemption.

Matthew recounts wise men from the east following a star, worshiping the young Jesus, and presenting gifts. When King Herod sought to kill the child, Joseph followed a warning in a dream and took him and Mary to Egypt. After Herod died, the family returned and settled in Nazareth. Matthew tells this account separately from Luke’s temple visit.

At twelve, Jesus went with his parents to Jerusalem for Passover. On the journey home, Joseph and Mary thought he was among their fellow travelers. When they could not find him, they returned to Jerusalem. After three days they found him in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking questions. He said he had to be in his Father’s house. Jesus then returned to Nazareth with them, obeyed them, and grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and people.

While John the Baptist preached repentance at the Jordan, Jesus was baptized. The Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven identified him as the beloved Son. Jesus then faced testing in the wilderness for forty days. Matthew and Luke recount temptations to turn stones into bread, jump from the temple, and worship the devil in exchange for the kingdoms of the world. Jesus answered with Scripture. In Galilee he proclaimed that God’s kingdom was near and called people to repent and believe the Good News.

Jesus called disciples to accompany him. Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing nets, and Matthew rose from the tax booth to follow him. Jesus appointed twelve to be with him and sent them to preach and heal. John also records Andrew seeking Jesus after hearing John the Baptist’s testimony, and Philip bringing Nathanael to him.

At a wedding in Cana of Galilee, the wine ran out. Jesus told the servants to fill jars with water, draw some out, and take it to the person overseeing the feast. The water had become wine. John calls this Jesus’ first sign, a miracle revealing his glory, and says that his disciples believed in him.

In Galilee, Jesus taught in synagogues, homes, and beside the lake. Synagogues were places where Jewish people gathered to hear Scripture and teaching. In Nazareth he read Isaiah and announced the fulfillment of good news for the poor and freedom for the oppressed. His hometown listeners first marveled but later became angry and took him out of the town. He passed through them and left. When people in Capernaum tried to keep him from leaving, Jesus said that he must proclaim God’s kingdom in other towns too.

The teaching Jesus gave his disciples on a mountain is called the Sermon on the Mount. He pronounced blessings on the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and the peacemakers. He called the disciples the salt and light of the world. Alongside murder and adultery, he addressed anger toward a brother and lust in the heart. He taught people to love enemies, pray for persecutors, and avoid giving, praying, or fasting for public notice. He taught a prayer addressing God as Father and told people to treat others as they wished to be treated.

Jesus healed people with fever, paralysis, blindness, and other illnesses, and cast out demons. He told a paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven and then commanded him to rise and walk. He raised Jairus’s daughter and a widow’s son in Nain. In Nain, he had compassion on the widow and returned her living son to her. When a storm struck the boat he shared with his disciples, he calmed the wind and sea.

Jesus used familiar things such as seed, soil, mustard seed, and yeast in parables about God’s kingdom. In the parable of the sower, seed falls beside the road, on rocky ground, among thorns, and on good soil, with different results. Jesus explained to the disciples that the parable concerned people hearing and receiving the word. In the Good Samaritan story, the person who cared for the injured man became his neighbor. The story of the lost son describes a father welcoming his returning son with a feast, while the angry older brother refuses to enter.

Jesus ate with tax collectors and people called sinners, and spoke with a Samaritan woman at a well. Several women traveled with Jesus and the disciples and supported them from their resources. At Martha’s house, Mary listened to Jesus, and he said she had chosen the good part. He told the disciples not to prevent children from coming to him, then held and blessed them. When his mother and brothers came to see him, he said that those who did God’s will were his brother, sister, and mother.

Conflict also arose. Some scribes, teachers of the law, and some Pharisees, members of a Jewish religious group, questioned Jesus’ forgiveness of sins, his healing on the Sabbath, and the disciples’ failure to observe the handwashing tradition. Jesus spoke of doing good and saving life on the Sabbath and taught that evil coming from the heart defiled a person. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to Jesus by night and called him a teacher sent from God. One scribe affirmed Jesus’ answer about loving God and one’s neighbor.

While imprisoned, John the Baptist sent disciples to ask whether Jesus was the one they awaited. Jesus told them to report the healings and good news for the poor that they had heard and seen. After they left, he told the crowd that John was the prophet sent to prepare the way. When Jesus heard that Herod had killed John, he withdrew by boat. A crowd followed, and he had compassion and healed their sick.

In a deserted place, Jesus fed a large crowd with five loaves and two fish. John identifies the loaves as barley bread. When the crowd sought to make him king by force, Jesus withdrew to the mountain alone. That night he came across the water toward the disciples’ boat in the wind. Matthew records Peter walking on the water too, then becoming afraid and beginning to sink. Jesus reached out and caught him. In John, Jesus called himself the bread of life the next day. After many disciples left, he asked the Twelve whether they also wished to leave. Peter answered that Jesus had the words of eternal life.

Near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was. Peter confessed that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus spoke of suffering in Jerusalem, being killed, and rising on the third day. When Peter objected, Jesus rebuked him. He said that anyone wishing to follow him must deny himself and take up his cross, and that anyone wishing to be great must serve.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. His appearance changed before them, and Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with him. A voice from the cloud told the disciples to listen to the beloved Son, and they fell down in fear. As they descended, Jesus told them not to speak of what they had seen until he had risen. Below the mountain, a father brought his son, whom the other disciples had been unable to heal. Jesus rebuked the demon, and the boy recovered.

On the journey toward Jerusalem, Jesus continued meeting and teaching people. He told a wealthy man asking about eternal life to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow him. The man left grieving because he had much wealth. At Jericho, Jesus restored the sight of Bartimaeus, who kept crying out despite others trying to silence him. Jesus also called the chief tax collector Zacchaeus down from a tree and stayed at his home. Zacchaeus promised half his property to the poor and fourfold repayment if he had obtained anything by fraud.

John recounts Jesus raising Lazarus in Bethany. By Jesus’ arrival, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Jesus spoke with Martha about resurrection and wept when he saw Mary and the others crying. After the stone was moved, he thanked God and called Lazarus out. When Lazarus emerged, Jesus told the people to unbind him and let him go. Many believed in Jesus, but the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and began plotting his death that day.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road and shouted hosanna. In the temple, he overturned the money changers’ tables and the seats of those selling doves. He said that God’s house should be a house of prayer, but they had made it a den of robbers. He also healed people who came to him in the temple with blindness or difficulty walking.

Chief priests and elders questioned Jesus’ authority, while Pharisees and Herodians asked about taxes. Sadducees, who denied resurrection, asked about marriage after the resurrection. Asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus taught love for God with the whole heart and love for one’s neighbor as oneself. When a poor widow gave two small coins, he said she had given more than others because she had put in all she had to live on. Jesus also spoke of the temple’s fall and told the disciples to remain watchful because they did not know when the time would come.

The Gospels record Jesus being anointed with perfume in Bethany. Matthew and Mark describe a woman pouring it on his head. In John, Mary, Lazarus’s sister, pours it on Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair. When the action was criticized as waste, Jesus spoke of its connection with his burial. Matthew and Mark then recount Judas Iscariot going to the chief priests to arrange to hand Jesus over.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus shared a Passover meal with his disciples. He called the bread his body and connected the cup with the blood of the covenant. Luke records his instruction to do this in remembrance of him. At the meal before Passover described in John, Jesus removed his outer garment and washed the disciples’ feet. He told them to wash one another’s feet, following his example, and gave them a new command to love one another. He also warned of betrayal, Peter’s denial, and the disciples’ scattering.

After the meal, Jesus went with the disciples to Gethsemane. In sorrow and distress, he prayed that the cup might pass if possible, but asked for the Father’s will rather than his own. The disciples he had brought close to him fell asleep. Judas arrived with a crowd and identified Jesus with a kiss, and they arrested him. One disciple cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear, but Jesus commanded him to put away the sword. Luke records Jesus touching and healing the ear. The disciples fled. Peter followed but denied Jesus three times, then went out and wept when the rooster crowed.

After questioning by the chief priests and Jewish leaders, Jesus was handed over to the Roman governor Pilate. Luke records Pilate sending Jesus to Herod, who sent him back. At the crowd’s demand, Pilate released Barabbas and handed Jesus over for crucifixion. Soldiers mocked and struck him. At Golgotha, Jesus was nailed to a cross between two criminals, and he died.

Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. John says he had kept his discipleship secret because he was afraid. Joseph wrapped the body in linen and placed it in a new tomb. Matthew describes a large stone closing the entrance, while John records Nicodemus bringing spices and helping with the burial. Women who had followed from Galilee watched the tomb and the placement of the body. According to Luke, they returned to prepare spices and rested on the Sabbath.

Early on the first day after the Sabbath, women including Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. The Gospels differ in the women named and the details of how the news was carried. Mark 16:8 describes the women fleeing in trembling and fear, saying nothing to anyone. In Luke, the women return from the tomb and tell the apostles, who do not believe them. In John, Mary Magdalene meets the risen Jesus and tells the disciples.

In Luke, the risen Jesus accompanied two disciples on the road to Emmaus and explained the Scriptures. They recognized him during a meal and returned to Jerusalem. In John, Jesus appeared to disciples gathered behind closed doors and showed his hands and side. Thomas had not been present and said he would not believe without seeing and touching. Eight days later, Jesus appeared again, and Thomas confessed him as his Lord and his God.

Beside the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told disciples who had caught no fish through the night to cast their net on the boat’s right side. They caught many fish and shared breakfast with him on the shore. Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved him. Each time Peter answered, Jesus entrusted him with feeding and tending his sheep. When Peter asked about another disciple’s future, Jesus again told Peter to follow him.

In Matthew, Jesus sent the disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all he had commanded. He promised to remain with them until the end of the age. Luke records Jesus blessing the disciples and being taken into heaven. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and praised God in the temple.