Conversations with Christ in the Gospels – Introduction

Conversations with Christ in the Gospels – Introduction.

“Jesus said and did countless things that I haven’t included in my testimony here. If they were all recorded one by one in detail, I can’t even imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books. The entire cosmos doesn’t have room for all the books that would have to be written! Amen. (John 21:25).

John chooses to close his gospel of Jesus in an interesting way… He said he didn’t even come close to recording everything Jesus did during His ministry. There were too many conversations, healings, miracles, stories, sermons to include in his gospel! He even used the Greek word “cosmos”  in saying that there simply isn’t enough space in the world to contain everything Jesus did in His three years on earth. On the one hand, this is a classic example of hyperbole, of exaggerating for effect to make a point. On the other hand, there has been more books written about Jesus Christ, more music composed, more art produced, more speeches made, than any other person in history. So maybe John wasn’t so far off after all.

We do know from the gospel stories that Jesus had mastered the art of conversation. Jesus proved He loved people by engaging them in any number of ways, including in conversations. One New Testament scholar reports that Jesus had about 132 personal contacts during His ministry, and 122 of those contacts were with people He met here and there in His travels from village to village, town to town, in the middle of nowhere or even in Jerusalem. Jesus made a habit of maintaining personal contact with people at all costs. He was not a mystical wise man sitting in a mountain cave waiting for the people to approach Him. He instead sought others out.

Walk, walk, walk. Sometimes it must have seemed to the disciples that’s all they did, walk one dusty trail after another. They were always on the move, constantly walking from here to there, engaging people in conversation all along the way… It is estimated by the Bible scholars who research such things that Jesus and His disciples walked an estimated 2,500-3,100 miles during their three-year ministry! They would not restrict their travels to trips from Capernaum to Jerusalem, a total of 85 miles, or from the Sea of Galilee to Jerusalem (70 miles), or a journey on foot from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a total of 65 miles. But the disciples would also find themselves following Jesus to the far northern port of Tyre, 104 miles from Jerusalem, or maybe for a short jaunt to Samaria, only 42 miles from Jerusalem. Hither and yon, here and there, one conversation after the next. As renowned Chicago pastor Rev. Otis Moss said, “Jesus had a mobile ministry, going to where He was needed!”

In all His conversations:

1. It was a come one-come all openness to anyone He met along the way: clean or unclean, women or men, touchable or untouchable, outcasts or insiders, religious or nonreligious, Jewish or Gentile or even Roman! On top of that, He even wasn’t shy about talking with the dead to call them out of their “sleep!”
2. He was a Master of asking questions: some were open-ended, others were very pointed; some were out of curiosity, others were challenging; some seemed rhetorical, others seemed painfully obvious; some were to reveal Himself, others were to guide the other into self-understanding. One scholar reported that Jesus asked over 300 questions in the Gospels!
3. Many of Christ’s conversations were very short and to the point, such as with the Rich Young Ruler ( 19, Mark 10, Luke 18); the Canaanite woman ( Matt. 15, Mark 7); Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7); the conversation at the Gates of Hell in Caesaria Philippi with the disciples (Matt. 1); or even with various demons.
4. Many other conversations in the gospels were relatively short but the implication was that a longer unrecorded conversation was a part of the interaction: the preteen Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2); the hopeless demoniac at the tombs (Mark5, Luke 8); Zaccheus in Jericho at his house (Luke 19); at the dinner table of Matthew with all the town’s outcasts ( 9, Mark 2, Luke 5); or even at the Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah (Matt. 17, Mark 9, Luke 9).
5. For all we know, Jesus may have had a hundred extended conversations in His travels and ministry, but in the gospels there are five recorded longer chats that deserve special mention: the devil himself on the Mt. of Temptation ( 4, Mark 1, Luke 4); Nicodemus (John 3); the woman at the well (John 4); Pilate (John 18-19 ); and Peter on the beach after breakfast (John 21).

Those five extended conversations of Christ mentioned above occurred with an almost preposterous variety of individuals. It is those conversations in particular that we will unpack in this section of the blog.