The Three Synoptic Gospels

The Bible contains three synoptic gospels which tell various stories from Jesus’s life from fairly similar perspectives. The gospel of Mark was written first, therefore it contains a sort of basis for the authors of Matthew and Luke to follow. Each author, however adds their own details, writing styles, and literary elements to emphasize a particular point. For example, Matthew intentionally refers to Jesus as the Son of David in a variety of ways, ranging from calculated subtle references to making it glaringly obvious, to demonstrate that Jesus fulfils the prophecy as a descendant of David. In addition to the gospel of Matthew, the author of Luke includes several pointed narratives which direct the audience to consider the poor and the marginalized.
Of these parables ten are specifically unique to the gospel of Luke, all of which point to a character in need. Beginning with the Good Samaritan, one of the best known parables, Jesus tells the story of a man who is beaten and left for dead. Two men walked along the road where the man’s body had been left, they noticed him and continued walking, a little time after, a Samaritan found the man and took care of him. Jesus follows the story by asking, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (Luke 10:36). Just prior to this Jesus had told an expert of the law that he was correct in stating that “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” is what it requires to inherit eternal life. Jesus’s parable points to the proper representation of who a neighbor is. The Samaritan serves the one who is weak, he sacrifices his time and money to tend to the man who was beaten and downcast. Furthermore, Jesus tells the parable of the friend at midnight who responds one’s needs similar to the way God responds to our needs (Luke 11:5-13). Jesus’s parables continue with the parable of the lost coin, He describes a scene where a woman has lost a coin within her home, she grabs a lamp to crawl on the dirt floor of her home in search
Possibly one of the obvious examples of this comes from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Found in Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a rich man who every day walks past a begging Lazarus to a spread of food on his table. When the rich man dies, he goes to hell and begs Abraham to let Lazarus come and relieve him of his agony. Abraham responds reminding him of the abundance he had in life and did not share with Lazarus. This story further points to the audience’s duty to care for the poor and that those who are rich have a responsibility to those in need. Lastly, Jesus tells the story of the rich fool who stores up his possessions for himself so that he might be able to relax and not worry about life. However, God’s response to this is “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21). In total there are ten parables specific to Luke which point to the