Keeping Us Face To Face With The Human Jesus

A question asked long ago, and often repeated is as to why we have four Gospels. The answer to that enquiry was given by Origen when he said, There are not four Gospels, but a four-fold Gospel. This means that to an understanding of the Person and mission of our Lord, each evangelist, inspired of the Holy Spirit, has given one phase of revelation. This being so we cannot compare them in the sense of discriminating between their values. Each has its own distinctive revelation.

Nevertheless, there is a common and justifiable consciousness that in the Gospel according to John we arrive at an ultimate unveiling. Dr. Arthur T. Pierson once suggested that the four Gospels in the order in which we now have them, follow the line of the old Hebrew encampment. Matthew surveys the Theocracy in its entirety. In other words, the whole camp is seen surrounding the King. In Mark, we find ourselves in the outer court, in the place of service and sacrifice. In Luke we have passed into the Holy Place, where stood the seven-branched candlestick of witness, and the table of shewbread, or communion. In John we enter within the veil, into the Holiest of all. If this warranted figure of speech be allowed, it at once becomes evident that any approach to this Gospel must be that of reverence and awe.

It is very arresting that John uses that name for our Lord more than any other writer. In the Revised Version we find that Mark calls our Lord, ” Jesus ” only thirteen times. Luke calls Him ” Jesus ” eighty-eight times. Matthew calls Him ” Jesus” one hundred and fifty-one times. John calls Him ” Jesus ” two hundred and forty-seven times.

That is quite mechanical, but it is revealing. In other words, all through this Gospel, John is keeping us face to face with the human Jesus, Jesus as He was known. His eyes were ever on Jesus as known in the days of His flesh. This is admittedly the Gospel of our Lord’s Deity, and yet this Gospel keeps me close to His humanity more than either of the other Gospels does. Matthew? I am in the presence of government all the way through. I am impressed with authority. Mark? I am in the presence of the suffering Servant stripped of His dignity. Luke? I am in the presence of Man in an ideal perfection that almost frightens me. But in John I feel I can handle Him, and get close to the human. He never lets me get away from the human. But in Him there was more than the human. (Excerpt taken from The commentary on Book of John by Morgan G Campbell)

Matthew 1 begins with description of genealogy and birth of Jesus Christ

Mark 1 begins with Jesus’s baptism, temptation and ministry of Jesus Christ

Luke 1 begins with genealogy of Jesus along with birth incident of predecessor John the baptist.

John 1 begins with the eternal genealogy of Jesus Christ. John first explains that Jesus existed in the beginning before going into detail about Jesus’ relationship with the Father God. Jesus was the one who created everything. John started the book by presenting an unveiled understanding about Jesus as seen from the Most Holy Place. In the Most Holy Place, he got the below points

1) His understanding was opened to the eternal existence of Jesus Christ.

2) He got a Most Holy Place understanding about Jesus.

3) He understood the relation between Jesus and the Father.

4) He got a glimpse of fleshly lamb of God.

John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

The opening verses of John is an bottomless deepest mine. The length/breadth of the mine spans from eternity past to eternity future.

Crossing the veil/barrier, John entered the Most Holy Place, the Holiest of all. His eyes were fascinated to see Jesus as the Word. John began with the highest revelation of Jesus i.e. Jesus existed in the beginning, Jesus was a member of the Trinity, and Jesus was God. John was a person whose eyes were opened. This revelation has a lot of different facets.

1) In the beginning was the Word – God might have taken John to the beginning (Eternity past) to witness the creation of the universe and see Jesus as the Word. Prophets predicted that Jesus would return to save humanity, but they never spoke of the eternal existence of Jesus. John was the first in Old and New Testament to refer that Jesus was at the beginning – i.e. beginning of Universe. Where did John obtain this level of understanding about Jesus? It was a really profound understanding of Jesus, one that transcends all human understanding. A person had to practise and allow the revealed word to be applied on them in order to write even one line in the Bible. It’s possible that John had this revelation fulfilled in his life. It’s difficult to contain this much knowledge about Jesus in aa human body. As a result, he was unable to contain this heavy knowledge of Jesus and began the book by stating that “In the beginning was the Word”.