Comparing Jesus In The Gospels Of Mark And John

Although the stories in the Gospels of Mark and John have similar plots, the functions of Jesus’s healings in both gospels are different because their authors portrayed two versions of Jesus with distinct characteristics through depicting Jesus’s emotions and behaviors during healings. In Mark, Jesus appears to be a man who cares a lot for people who have faith, including all of them into the city of God by removing both their physical and spiritual sins through healings; while in John, Jesus aims for showing his supernatural power through his miraculous healings, attracting more believers and glorifying himself. The two images of Jesus in Mark and John are results of different functions of Jesus’s healings. First of all, Jesus in Mark wants
Jesus in John wants to show his power of healing to everyone, trying to confirm people that he is the son of God. When Jesus in John plans to raise the dead Lazarus from the tomb, Jesus allows the Jews, who not only doubt Jesus, but also plot to kill him, to enter Lazarus’s tomb with him. Jesus says in front of the crowd: “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 41-42). Jesus directly states that he wants to convince the non-believers of his glory, which is very different from Jesus’s rejection of the faithless people during healings in Mark. Just like what Jesus wishes, “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.” after Jesus raises Lazarus from death (John 11.45). As we can see, through showing his power of healing, Jesus in John accomplishes his goal of converting more people into his believers, which is one of the main functions of his healings in John. The case of the sick man in John 5 further demonstrates this idea. While Jesus in Mark wants to hide from the public, Jesus in John never chooses a place with few people when healing. When Jesus in John is going to heal the sick man, the occasion he chooses is a festival of the Jews. He offers healings in front of “many invalids --- blind, lame and paralyzed” (John 5.3). After Jesus heals the sick man, he appears to the Jews who don’t believe in him again, saying “My father is still working, and I also am working.”, and “I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.” (John 5.17,24). Jesus in John never hides his purpose of getting more believers. He says directly to people that he is the son of God and he is the glory, wanting them to believe in him