The gospels don’t tell us everything we want to know about Jesus. Large portions of His childhood and adolescence are left out, and there are many questions we still have about His life. However, the question that each gospel account strives to answer for us is, “Who is Jesus?” Matthew pointed to Jesus’ genealogy for the answer; Jesus is the descendant that God promised to Abraham and King David that would bless the world. John focused on His divinity; Jesus is the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Luke’s account focused on the historical context for Jesus; Jesus was a real man, who really lived, died, and rose again from the dead.
The Gospel of Mark focused on Jesus’ ministry. He skipped the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth entirely and started instead with the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, which was announced by his cousin, John, known as the Baptist. John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. When God broke His 400 years of silence, it was to send the angel Gabriel to Zechariah to tell them about John’s birth. Gabriel said, “Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. … he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born” (Luke 1:13-17 NIV). The angel promised that John would make the world ready for Jesus’ message.
Mark began, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way— a voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. … And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’” (Mark 1:1-8 NIV).
John was the forerunner for the Messiah, which in his time was a person who ran ahead of an approaching monarch to announce their arrival. John’s job was to prepare the people for the Advent of the Lord. He didn’t announce Jesus’ birth; John was only 6 months older than his cousin. Rather, John began preaching to prepare people for Jesus’ ministry 30 years later. Thousands of people flocked to hear John preach and to be baptized by him.
He urged people to renew their faith in God and prepare their hearts for the coming of the Lord. He also confronted the wrong ideas they held about the Messiah. Most expected the Messiah to be a political deliverer who would free them from Roman domination. One day when John was baptizing in the Jordan River, Jesus came. Instead of introducing them to a political leader, John introduced the Messiah as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 NIV).
Jesus spent the rest of His life telling people what the Kingdom of God would look like, which was so different than what they had expected and so much better than they could have hoped for. This is why over and over, the gospels describe Jesus’ message as good news. That is in fact what the word “gospel” means: good news. It was the good news that Jesus came to earth to bring us salvation.
Good news was in the very first sentence of Mark’s account. It’s how the angel announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, saying “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11 NIV). Luke put it succinctly later on in his book: “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached” (Luke 16:16 NIV). Matthew summed up Jesus’ ministry in a phrase he repeated several times throughout his account: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:35-36 NIV).
In the Old Testament, the good news that was proclaimed was for a limited group of people. The moment God made His promise to Abraham, He made the Israelites His people. Throughout the Old Testament, the good news God spoke through His prophets was for them. He made it clear even then, however, that it was temporary. One day, they would be used to bless the earth. When Jesus came in the first Advent, the good news of His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection was for everyone. That first Christmas was a gift for the whole world.
