Death In The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, And John

The common belief for many Christians is that the death of Jesus was one undisputed event where Jesus was tried by the Sanhedrin, sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be killed, and then crucified on the cross by the Romans. There are four writers of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who all wrote about the death of Jesus. Most Christians think of the gospels as one story, however each of the accounts is very different. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all lived in different times and in different locations, preaching to different audiences. These discrepancies in point of view are what cause each of the gospel writers to have a different message when they tell the story of Jesus’s death. Mark wrote his gospel at around 70 AD, as a Roman man
Finally, John was the latest of the gospel writers, composing his book at around 100 AD. John’s gospel is disputed because he chose to leave the book anonymous, though it is believed that John was the youngest of the twelve disciples and was writing to a broad audience with the goal of showing Jesus’s glory and power. The four gospel writers all present Jesus’s death differently in order to convey a specific message to their audience. Matthew’s audience is crucial to the understanding of his message. He was a dutiful follower of Jesus and was telling Jesus’s story to the Jews. The goal of his writing was to prove to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah that they were waiting for. His message was that if the Jews bear through their hardships until Jesus’s death, they would be saved by the Messiah. The Old Testament contains a prophecy predicting a supreme power, the “Messiah,” would come one
This is evident in Matthew’s writings, as he deliberately makes an effort to prove that Jesus is in fact the Son of God and has come to liberate them. Matthew’s efforts come out when Jesus is being taunted by the Romans and even the robbers being crucified next to him. “‘If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross…He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.’’ (Matthew 27.40-44). In this section, when Jesus is being harassed by the Romans and the robbers, Matthew chooses to make their insults specified towards Jesus really being the Son of God. They mock his names of “Son of God” and “King of Israel,” doubting him to his face, daring him to prove them wrong. For Jews, the Messiah would have supreme power, and like the hecklers said, if Jesus really was the savior, he would not allow this brutality to happen to him. Next, just before Jesus can’t take the pain anymore, he calls out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27.46). Different from the gospels of