Matthew, Mark, Luke & John go to Yankees Stadium

I've learned that Josh's obsession with the Yankees can provide a fun backdrop for learning more spiritual things. For example, I've had him memorize some mastery scriptures by using the jersey numbers of players to remember the references. ("Alma A-Rod, Jeter" would be Alma 13:2, as an example).

I came up with another application the other night when tucking him in and he asked about the Gospels in the New Testament. He asked why there are four books that essentially tell the same story.

I explained to him about Matthew, Mark and Luke being the synoptic gospels, meaning those three books contain a lot of very similar material, whereas John has a lot of unique material.

I then said: "Imagine that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John went to Yankees Stadium to see a game. Matthew, Mark and Luke all sat together in the upper deck where we normally sit. Then, they each had to write a report for school."

"For analogy purposes only, pretend that Matthew thinks pitching and defense are the most important elements of the game. And pretend that Mark thinks hits represent all the highlights of the game. And let's say that Luke is a big fan of Jeter and A-Rod. Their reports are all going to say the same thing -- that the Yankees won 6 to 4 -- but they'll focus on different details with the game. Matthew will explain the pitching match-ups, Mark will talk about the home runs and doubles, and Luke will focus on the stats of Jeter and A-Rod. But in the end, their message was the same: The Yankees won."

To explain why some of the three include some elements and others skipped it, I suggested that you imagine each writer went out for a hot dog at different points during the game and each missed a half inning or so.

And what about John, who gives a much better eye-witness account? He was sitting in the dug-out for the game!

The analogies could be taken further, based on real content within the scriptures. For example, Luke covers more early stuff like the birth of Jesus, whereas Mark doesn't. So it could be said that Luke got to the stadium for batting practice whereas Mark didn't arrive until after the National Anthem.

Or, based on stories of the resurrection and such, it could be said that one writer went to the post-game press conferences and locker room interviews, while the others listened to those reports on the car radio on the way home.

This isn't anything earth shattering, but I thought this is kind of clever and fun, and worth passing along. Teaching our kids is all about customizing it to their frame of reference.