Why are there 4 Gospels?

If there was only one Jesus, why don't we just have one story about Jesus' life that has the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

One reason is because they have different perspectives.  When there is a big event happening, it's interesting to hear about it from different perspectives.  The local, St. Louis news will cover a story differently than the national news, or a foreign news agency like BBC.  It is not that one of those stories is telling the truth and the others are lying.  Rather, they are all targeting different audiences, explaining things in a way that is helpful to different groups of people.

One great way to see the differences in the four Gospels is to see how they all treat the Christmas story - the story of when Jesus was born.  It might surprise you that not all of them have all the parts that you remember.

The typical Christmas story that you hear most often is Luke 2 with the shepherds and angels.  Only Matthew has the magi with their gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh.  Mark has no story of Jesus' birth.  John is rather odd at first, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..."

John is the most symbolic Gospel.  There is more symbolism and poetic features in his Gospel.  The other three, sometimes call the synoptic Gospels because of their similarity, follow a more consistent pattern, but John blazes his trail with seven big miracles that echo the history of God's people, and many confusing statements like Jesus saying "I am the bread of life."  John was writing in response to the Gnostics - a first century religion/philosophy that valued spiritual things above the physical.  John's one-verse Christmas story would have been surprising to them - that the Word took on Flesh!  God became a person.  He moved into our community.

Mark is a very fast paced Gospel with lots of action.  He had a message to get out to people about who Jesus was, and he wanted people to get it soon!  The Christmas story might have been delightful, but there are more crucial things he needed to get to.

Luke emphasizes the outcasts.  It is often said that Luke wrote for the Gentiles, and he probably did as the only non-Jewish author in the Bible.  But he also wrote for the poor, the sinners, and the women (women were considered to have a lower status than men).  While Matthew's story and genealogy connect to Joseph, Luke's Christmas story is from Mary's perspective.  Luke doesn't have the gospel message proclaimed to the important wise men from the east, but rather to lowly shepherds.

Matthew was written to a Jewish audience.  He spends more time showing how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the promises that God had made about a Messiah, a Savior.

God's blessings to you as you see how God's message of love to you is unique and yet the same in each of the Gospels!

Jesus' Temptations, and Also Ours

Jesus faces temptations from the devil in Matthew chapter 4.  While we may not have the same literal temptations, we often have similar temptations as redeemed children of God.

Mosaic from San Marco Basilica in Venice, Italy

We may not have the temptation to turn rocks into hamburgers, but we do have the temptation to use the power and influence we have as followers of Christ for our own good.  Unfortunate extreme examples of this would include the list of televangelists who have run into trouble with the law for using their power and influence for themselves.

We may not have the temptation to jump off the roof of tall buildings, but we do have the temptation to twist the words of the Bible to fit our needs instead of trying to understand what God is trying to tell us.   It is important to be careful to listen to what God is trying to say to us and separate out what we would want to hear.  Sometimes it is the same, but not always.

We may not face the temptation of controlling the whole earth, but we do face the temptation of losing track of God's intentions and following our own earthly desires instead.  Later in Matthew, Jesus questions his followers if it is really helpful to gain the whole world while losing your soul.  

Matthew 16

Jesus' response to the devil was to quote God's Word.  It may be that Jesus learned verses so that he had an answer for the devil, but it would probably be more accurate to say that Jesus spent so much time in God's Word that it influenced the way that he thought.  The temptations of the devil immediately triggered a response from Jesus since it conflicted with something in Scripture that he already knew was true.  Even the short quotations would have referenced a larger passage, such as Deuteronomy 6:13-16.

 13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah.

Once again, we can see how the incarnation fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament.  Isaiah had many powerful descriptions of what the Messiah would be like, including the promise of his birth that we see in chapter 9.  

Isaiah 9:6-7

6 For to us a child is born, 
   to us a son is given, 
   and the government will be on his shoulders. 
And he will be called 
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace 
   there will be no end. 
He will reign on David’s throne 
   and over his kingdom, 
establishing and upholding it 
   with justice and righteousness 
   from that time on and forever. 
The zeal of the LORD Almighty 
   will accomplish this.

May the love and peace of God surround you so that nothing leads you into temptation and you are delivered from the evil one. Amen.

A Voice in the Desert

John the Baptist was a strange man: preaching in the desert, clothes of camel's hair, leather belt, eating locusts and wild honey, washing people in the river, calling for repentance.

However, the Old Testament ends with a strange prophecy - last verses of the last chapter of the last book: Malachi 4:5-6

"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.  He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

At the time of Malachi, the famous prophet Elijah had already been dead for several hundred years.  Would God  bring back this prophet from the dead?  What does that verse mean?  An interesting bit of trivia - at the Passover, Jewish families would always set one extra place setting, just in case Elijah would show up.  They still do this today!  Jesus tells us that John the Baptist was the Elijah that was promised.  Matthew 17:10-13

Isaiah gives more information about what this "voice in the desert" was supposed to do.

Isaiah 40:3-5
 3 A voice of one calling: 
“In the wilderness prepare 
   the way for the LORD; 
make straight in the desert 
   a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up, 
   every mountain and hill made low; 
the rough ground shall become level, 
   the rugged places a plain. 
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, 
   and all people will see it together. 
            For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

His work was to prepare the hearts of the people for the Messiah, for the glory of God is going to be revealed in the person of Jesus.

John got to be quite famous because of his radical message - the Holy Spirit was working in him and allowing the hearts of others to be softened to hear what God was saying to them.  He kept a humble perspective, though.  He did not want people to look at him - he pointed others to Christ.  He told them:

Matthew 3:11
I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

To 'baptize' simply means to wash.  His 'washings' in the Jordan River were symbolic of the repentance that he was encouraging, the changing of lifestyle.  'Repent' literally means to turn around.  Stop walking the wrong way - turn, and move toward God!  However, Jesus was going to bring a more powerful washing that would work on the inside of a person through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The fire foreshadows the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost - Acts 2.

Da Vinci's depiction of John the Baptist,

pointing to the Cross of Christ

John was not wanting people to focus on him, but rather see past himself to see Jesus.  If he wanted people to look at him, it was only to see him pointing toward Jesus.  It is a blessing to be around Christians who, like John, have lives that point to Jesus.  May God bless you as you are such people!

It Points To Jesus

Matthew's Gospel contains many references to events and promises found in the Old Testament.  This makes sense since he primarily wrote to a Jewish audience who was familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures promising a Messiah.  Two significant promises found Genesis speak about Jesus:

Genesis 3:15 

And I will put enmity 
   between you and the woman, 
   and between your offspring and hers; 
he will crush your head, 
   and you will strike his heel

This is also called the protoevangelium or "first gospel," the first time we heard the 'good news' about Jesus coming as the promised Messiah.  It seems a little cryptic, but the emphasis is how one of Eve's offspring would crush the devil's head while the devil would strike at his heel.  On the cross it looked like Satan had won (strikes Jesus' heel), but by doing so he really defeated death and the devil (crushes Satan's head).

God's promise to Abraham is also really powerful - a promise to bless all nations (not just Israel) through him.

Genesis 12:1-3

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

 2 “I will make you into a great nation,
   and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
   and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
   and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
   will be blessed through you.”

How were all nations blessed through Abraham?  Because one of his descendants, Jesus, saved the world.  These two verses stand as two of the four major promises of a Savior in the Old Testament.  The other two would be a promise that David's throne would last forever (through Jesus) and that God is making a new covenant with his people through the prophet Jeremiah.  The whole Old Testament is littered with promises of the Messiah, but these four would be the highest peaks in the mountain range of passages pointing to Jesus.

So, the whole Old Testament points forward to Jesus

And the whole New Testament points back to Jesus

The whole Bible points to Jesus!