Thinking about last Sunday’s Gospel and the phrase from Job where God asks him if he walked on the tempest or the waves and the Gospels account of the disciples reaction to Jesus dealing with wind and wave
Looking at the different ways the Gospel writers view and portray Christ gives us wonderful pictures of devotion and what makes our worship of Him span the gamut from praise and adoration, to awe and what be properly thought of as fear. We should feel something like Job felt. A beautiful exposition of this come from David Scaer in a CTQ article back in 2005
Mark portrays Christ as an untamed lion; he is like the Aslan of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles. For those asking themselves “What Would Jesus Do?” Mark is a shock to the system, reflecting the fact that Jesus’ actions are often unpredictable, even strange. As we look for glory, Mark cautions us that the Lord often appears to us behind masks, and that our God is the crucified one. On the other hand, the Evangelist John furthers our understanding of Jesus by plunging us into previously unfathomed theological depths, and lifting us up, on eagles’ wings, to unchartered spiritual heights. John depicts Jesus as an alien, who has come to us from realms of glory, and whose true identity is a mystery to be unraveled. John also offers an intimacy not found in the other Gospels. Here we meet Jesus one-on-one, as does his Beloved Disciple, and are attached to him as branches to a vine. With the woman at the well, we come to see baptism as Christ’s living well that springs within us. We come to see that in Holy Communion we also rest our heads in the bosom of our Lord. John leads us into the mysteries, where we see that the Christ and the sacraments are one, and that through the sacraments Christ – becomes one with us.
