July 27, 2008
Background Scripture: Matthew 16:13-23
Devotional Reading: Isaiah 43:1-7

A man once asked me, “Why do we have four gospels instead of just one and, if we have to have four, why aren’t they in closer agreement?” Those are both good questions.

Although we usually refer to them as “Matthew,” “Mark,” “Luke” and “John,” the Bibles most of us read include the words, “The Gospel According to …” Gospel or evangel can be rendered as “glad tidings” or “good news,” a reference to God’s plan and act to offer us salvation in and through Jesus Christ. So each gospel is really the Good News of Jesus Christ – according to one of the four evangelists.

Note, none of the gospels are designated as “According to Jesus Christ.” God brings us this good news through four witnesses. As we might expect, these four evangelists tell their stories through the filter of their own perceptions and experiences. All of them are witnessing to the same Christ, but these may vary to some degree.
That should neither surprise nor trouble us because, although we may use common terms in speaking of Jesus, our understandings of those terms are never precisely the same. It is like seeing Jesus in four dimensions instead of just one, and for me, the four gospels are more authoritative for that reason.

Why four?

Why four gospels instead of five or six? There were other gospels, but by the second century, these four were the only ones universally accepted as authoritative. Actually, it wasn’t until the fourth century that the New Testament as we know it today was finalized.

I am reminding you of these things because the events of Matthew 16:13-23 are found also in Mark 8:27-30 and Luke 9:18-21, and are referred to topically in John 6:66-69. And there are some differences.

Asked by Jesus, “But who do you say that I am?”, Matthew has Peter answer, “You are the Christ; the Son of the living God,” while Luke’s answer is “The Christ of God.” Mark has Peter designate Jesus simply as “the Christ” and in John 6, Peter confesses Jesus as “the Holy One of God.”

For some people this is cause enough to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” But I am not among them, and I trust you are not, either.

The point I am making here is that what we call Jesus – Savior, Redeemer, Second Person of the Trinity, the Logos or Word, Emmanuel, Light of the World, Bread of Life and so forth – are simply titles, some of them translated twice over from the original languages, describing Jesus to us, but not fully defining him.
As H.G. Wells put it, “this Galilean is too much for our small hearts” – and certainly too much for our limited vocabularies.
Getting the name ‘right?’

Recently I heard a clergyperson complain that people were joining the church without even knowing “the correct titles” for our Lord. He suggested we as a church were neglecting our responsibility of teaching new Christians the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

I suspect, however, that we might more successfully bring people to personally experience Christ and help them to discover him personally as “Lord,” “Savior,” “Healer” and Christ.

When Jesus took his closest disciples with him to the largely non-Jewish region of Caesarea Philpppi, it appears he decided that they had been with him long enough so that they should have some idea of who and what he was. So, it was important for him to ask them – as well as us – “But who do you say that I am?”

When Peter answered, Jesus replies in a way no one might have expected: “Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things … and be killed. and on the third day be raised.”

Peter’s strong rebuke suggests why Jesus did not want his disciples to tell others he was the Christ, “The Anointed One” – because many would not understand or accept a Messiah who would experience what Jesus was about to experience.

Discipleship is not determined by the titles we give him, but: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (16:24).

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.