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!

Where is David?

Genealogies are usually not the most exciting parts of the Bible.  The first dozen chapters of First Chronicles in the Old Testament is rather dry.  Matthew starts his Gospel with one of these lists, but it's rather exciting when the reader takes a minute to see what Matthew is really trying to say.

Matthew 1:1 - "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the Son of Abraham."

Rather odd verse.  Neither of those are literally true statements.  However, Matthew is telling us that it is really important that Jesus came from the line of David since God promised a savior would come through David's family (2 Samuel 7:16) and through Abraham since God promised a savior would come through Abraham's offspring (Genesis 12:3).  God was fulfilling both this promises, and Matthew wanted people to make the connection.

Genealogies are lists which can get repetitive, but the writer is trying to get people's attention when there is a break in the list.   Look for the breaks in Matthew 1 and spend some time finding out why those breaks are significant.


How many times do you see David in the first chapter of Matthew?  More than you might expect!  Matthew was writing to a primarily Jewish audience, and all the good Jews knew that the messiah was coming from the David's line.  So where does Matthew mention David?

Matthew 1:1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham
Matthew 1:6 and Jesse the father of King David.  David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Matthew 1:17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
Matthew 1:20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Six times - pretty good, yeah?  Well, it turns out that there is another place you see David, though it is hidden from us English speakers.

In the Hebrew language, the symbols for the letters were used for numbers, too.  This made it easy for people to assign a number value to Hebrew words.  If this would be done in English, the letter 'a' would still be the letter 'a,'  but if it has a dot over the letter 'a' it would be the number '1.'

The first letters of the alphabet would be:

We could find out how much 'dad' is worth by adding the letters.

        

In Hebrew it looks more like this:

And the name 'David' would be:

(In Hebrew the vowels are not used, so it is just d-v-d)

David would then be equal to:

Why is that important?  Because now you can see David a few more times!

Matthew 1:17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

So why do we have the Bible?  What is so important about what has been written down by a bunch of guys two to three thousand years ago?  The author and apostle, John, was willing to acknowledge the fact that there were a lot of things that happened, even during his own lifetime, that were not written down and recorded for people, but he wanted to give the reason that any of it has been shared.  It's not only the purpose of his book, but I believe it is the purpose of the entire Bible:

John 20:31 "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name."

Dangerous Healer

http://www.freefoto.com/preview/01-28-3/Lion

In the book, The Horse and His Boy written by C.S. Lewis as part of the Chronicles of Narnia, a young man is talking to Aslan, the great lion who represents Jesus in this series.  The boy recounts a time when another lion, a wild and ferocious lion, was chasing him through a forest while he was on his horse, even landing a blow with his claws on the boy's horse.  The boy asked Aslan if he knew this other lion.  Aslan replies that there is no other lion.  In shock, the boy asks why Aslan had been chasing him, so the great lion describes the imminent danger he was in, explaining why such actions were required.

The same perplexed feeling that the boy felt may fill the readers of Hosea 6:1:

Hosea 6:1

Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
    but he will heal us;
he has injured us
    but he will bind up our wounds. 

It is strange to 'return' to the one who has 'torn us to pieces,' the one who has 'injured us.'  He, however, is also the one who heals us and binds up our wounds.  It is hard to see someone suffering in hard times, but when we really trust God to be 'the God that he says he is,' it allows us to walk away from the need to rescue.  God is the only rescuer and savior that will help, and it is powerful when we come to the place of understanding that.

Hosea was speaking to a group of people who had been ignoring God for a while and bad things were coming.  The book of Hosea is a painful love story of a prophet who repeatedly loves a woman who does not deserve it, mirroring a God who repeatedly loves a people who do not deserve it.  This undeserved love flows beyond the book of Hosea into our lives, as well, so that we, too, may rejoice with the psalmist:

Psalm 31:19

How abundant are the good things
    that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all,
    on those who take refuge in you. 

Pointing To Jesus

Solomon has been dubbed the wisest person to have ever lived.  He was able to demonstrate this wisdom to foreign diplomats like the Queen of Sheba, to his own subjects through wise judgments, and to all those around through the great prosperity that the nation of Israel experienced during his reign as King of Israel.  God has promised a dynasty for David,

2 Samuel 7:16
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

And this was coming true in the person of Solomon.

1 Kings 8:15
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David.

But Solomon had his weaknesses, as well.  He loved foreign women and was enticed by their gods and pagan rituals.  Soon Israel was struggling, again.

http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-4272995222

God had a plan.  He had a plan from the very beginning.  2 Samuel 7:16 is one of the four great promises of the Old Testament.  God made many covenants or promises with his people throughout the centuries, but four of them stand high above the rest, similar to four great mountain peaks reaching high above the multitude:

• Genesis 3:15 Eve's offspring would crush Satan's head
• Genesis 12:1-3 Abraham was called to be a blessing to all people of the earth
• 2 Samuel 7:16 David's throne would last forever
• Jeremiah 31:31-34 The days are coming when God will make a new covenant with Israel

God's plan was not Solomon or any other hero of the faith - everything points to Jesus.  The offspring that would crush Satan's head was Jesus.  Jesus' atoning sacrifice through the lineage of Abraham would be a blessing to all people of the earth.  David's descendant, Jesus, would reign on the eternal throne.  That new covenant, which was whispered since the days of Adam and Eve, would be through Jesus.  Jesus was the answer to all four of the great promises, for the whole Bible points to him.

When we are able to step back and see how the Bible continually points to the person of Jesus, it reminds us that our lives should reflect the same reality.  Like a fleet of ships sailing across the ocean, we are able to avoid the problem of running into each other when we are all pointed toward the same destination, when are lives are all pointed toward Jesus.

Great things point to Jesus.  It stands to reason that we should be oriented toward him, as well.