
Peter Paul Reubens, "The Adoration of the Magi"
I am grateful that we have not one, but four accounts of the life of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are magnificent works that tell us about Jesus’s teachings and actions.
I’ve often wondered why we have four. Wouldn’t one be enough? In fact, that’s what many of us think. Sometimes we think the goal is to take the four gospels, harmonize them, and compress them into one unified account.
For example, we might read the accounts of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke. Matthew tells us some wise men came bearing gifts. Luke tells us there were some shepherds that came to see Jesus.
We then think the goal is to form one complete account, where wise men and shepherds came to visit Jesus. Just take a look at most nativity scenes to see this. (Nevermind that Jesus was not really a baby anymore when these visitors came).
But that’s not the point of the gospels. We’re not trying to peel them back to reconstruct one sequence of events. That would make the four gospels convenient resources but redundant at best and unnecessary at worst. God could certainly have produced one single history book sort of account if he’d wanted to.
But instead, we have four rich accounts, each with distinct styles and goals. Matthew is careful to tell us about the wise men because Matthew wants his gospel to highlight Jesus as King and Messiah. Luke, on the other hand, wants to remind readers about the shepherds, emphasizing the lowly place of Jesus and the importance of others who find themselves on the margins (women, the poor, “tax collectors and sinners,” etc.)
I encourage you to study the gospels on their own terms, looking for ways Matthew emphasizes certain things over Luke, and vice versa.
With the gospels, we’re not on a scavenger hunt, getting bits of one story from one gospel and other bits of the same story from another gospel. Rather, we find ourselves surrounded by four great, inspired witnesses of Jesus Christ, each with their own story to tell. Make it yours.

As my previous posts have suggested, we tend to read ourselves as the good guys when we read the Bible. The problem, though, is that we’re not always the good guys. Sometimes, we have to consider the possibility that the Biblical text is calling us out rather than comforting us.
Walter Brueggemann offers this prayer entitled “Income Tax Day.”