Reading the Gospels Together How do you begin a gospel? – Part 7 Now that we have listened to how each gospel writer chose to begin his gospel we cannot help but marvel at how very different these beginnings are from one another. That is not a problem to be solved but a blessing to be received. These beginnings give us insight into the rest of each gospel. And they demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that each writer was very deliberate and careful in how they began their gospel. These beginnings testify to the brilliance of each of the four writers. And, if we believe in the inspiration of God’s Word, they also testify to a God who speaks in different ways to meet different needs. Yes, these beginnings are the brilliant creation of their authors but they are also signs of the presence and activity of God in their lives and in the life of God’s people. The brilliance of these four beginnings gives us confidence that we can trust each one of these writers to proclaim the gospel to us. To be sure they all have their own community in mind as they write their gospels and the needs of that community is addressed in the way they begin their gospels. It will be helpful for us to imagine as best we can what their community may have looked like. That is not an easy task, but if we pay attention to what they say we can gain some insights. Our community is different from theirs and that will mean that we need to translate what they say to meet our own needs. At times we may find that what a gospel writer says has little meaning for us. But most of the time we will discover that the gospel they proclaim has power in our lives too. Reading each of these stories by themselves has power in our lives; but, reading them together is even more meaningful. Thinking about how each gospel writer chose to begin their gospel in contrast with how others chose to begin opens up new insight into each writer. That is the whole purpose of this study – to read the gospels together to increase our understanding and their meaning in our lives.