Jesus Christ Our Passover: Part 1
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Why Four Gospels
1 Corinthians 5:7 KJV:
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Let’s begin with a quote from the end of the book Jesus Christ, Our Passover.
“We need to walk each day with a greater vision of what God has given us. We must manifest the power from on high with ever-increasing confidence and boldness. When we live the principles of God’s Word, walking by God’s gift of spirit in each of us, we are proving in the senses world that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. We are completely, completely complete in him. What a thrilling opportunity is yours and mine when we begin to appreciate the significance of the man Jesus Christ: our example, our Passover, our risen lord, and our complete savior.”1
Luke declared why he wrote it.
Luke 1:3–4 KJV:
3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first [from above], to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4 That thou mightest know the certainty [truth] of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Luke’s understanding came “from above.” God told him to write it.
2 Peter 1:21 KJV:
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The people Luke wrote the gospel to had already heard it verbally but now they would have it in writing.
Luke 1:4 ESV:
that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
Now, they would have it in a written form and could review it anytime. But why are there four of them?
Consider biographies about Abraham Lincoln. One biographer might emphasize his life as a lawyer, another might focus on him as a politician, another might emphasize his role as a husband, and yet another might zero in on just his presidency.
The four gospels are like biographies of Jesus Christ’s ministry here on earth, and each emphasizes a different perspective.
People have long been trying to understand how the four gospels fit together. The first harmony of the gospels type books that we know of (and there have been many) was written by Tatian in about 170 A.D., called the Diatessaron.
Most attempts to harmonize the gospels have fallen short. There must be a reason why God chose to have four separate gospels.
If we read one gospel as a book by itself, understanding the perspective or emphasis of that particular book, many details suddenly make sense. Here are the primary perspectives.
- Matthew: The King.
- Mark: The Servant.
- Luke: The Man.
- John: The Son of God.
Two prophetic pictures explain why there needed to be four gospels.
The word “gospel” means good tidings or good news. It was an older English word, “Godspell,” meaning good story.
In the Old Testament, we read about a spiritual being called a cherubim. The first time they appear in the Old Testament is when they are sent to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden so that Adam and Eve cannot return after they are expelled. They are also pictured over the ark of the covenant, covering the mercy seat.
1 Samuel 4:4a KJV:
So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims:
Isaiah 37:16 KJV:
O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
Ezekiel is the first one to give us a picture of what the cherubims looked like.
Ezekiel 1:4–12 KJV:
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. 6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. 8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. 9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. 12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
They didn’t have to turn to look or proceed in a new direction.
If you looked at how the tribes camped around the Tabernacle, they camped in the same order as is described in verse 10. The symbol for the tribe of Rueben was a man, Judah was a lion, Ephraim was an ox, and Dan was an eagle. Those were the four primary tribes. When they marched, these four tribes marched in the same order as the picture in verse 10.
Ezekiel 10:8–9a, 14 KJV:
8 And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man’s hand under their wings. 9 And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub…. 14 And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub [calf or ox], and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
The apostle John also had a vision of the cherubim. In John’s vision, the cherubim are always around the throne of God.
Revelation 4:6–11 KJV:
6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. 7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf [ox], and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. 9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, 10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
The cherubim surround the throne and praise God continually. John’s order—lion, calf, man, eagle—is very interesting. That is the exact order of the gospels.
- Matthew: The King (the lion).
- Mark: The Servant (the ox).
- Luke: The Man (the man).
- John: The Son of God (the eagle).
There are Old Testament prophecies about “the branch.”
Matthew: The King (the lion).
The Branch will be a king.
Jeremiah 23:5 KJV:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch [offshoot or sprout], and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
Jeremiah 33: KJV:
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
In order for the Messiah to be a king, he had to be of the lineage of David. The gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy showing that Jesus was of the lineage of David.
Zechariah 9:9–10 KJV:
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. 10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion [his kingdom over which he reigns] shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
That prophecy was fulfilled in the gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 21:4–5 KJV:
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Matthew has the royal genealogy from David. The phrase “son of David” occurs nine times in Matthew, but only six times in the other three gospels combined. Matthew talks frequently about the kingdom [reign] of heaven. Matthew has the most uses of phrases like “that it should be fulfilled” referring back to Old Testament prophecies. Often, those Old Testament quotes are about the king.
Matthew has the most sermons among the gospels.
Genesis 49:9–10 KJV:
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [he to whom it belongs] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Revelation 5:5 KJV:
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
In addition to Scripture, there are prophetic pictures in the stars about each one (king, ox, lion, eagle).
Mark: The Servant (the ox).
The Branch will be a servant.
Zechariah 3:8 KJV:
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.
“Immediately” is a keyword in Mark, indicating a servant on the move.
Mark 10:43–45 KJV:
43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: 44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. 45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
There’s no genealogy in Mark because it’s not relevant for a servant—and much more than a servant. The gospel of Mark has more miracles than any other gospel, and Jesus is called “Lord” in Mark much less frequently than in the other gospels.
Matthew has the most sermons, but Mark has the most miracles.
The suffering servant is frequently prophesied in the Old Testament, particularly in Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53:3 KJV:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
The symbol of the ox is not pleasant to look at, but it shows his life as a servant.
In Luke 7:19, John the Baptist, while in prison, appears to question whether Jesus is the Messiah or should they wait for another. The Old Testament had many prophecies about the Messiah as a king, but there were also prophecies about the Messiah as a suffering servant. By the first century, the rabbis had come up with a theory that there would be two Messiahs; first one as a servant, and then one as a king. They didn’t understand how one could be both suffering servant and king. In John 1:29 and 36, John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the servant (the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world).
So in Luke 7:19, John the Baptist was not asking if Jesus was the Messiah; he was questioning whether the teaching was correct and they had to wait for a second Messiah who was to be king, or was Jesus the one and the same Messiah who would also be king.
Questions about the Messiah as king remained, especially after the crucifixion. The disciples were confused about a Messiah as both suffering servant and king.
Luke: The Man (the man).
The Branch will be a man.
Zechariah 6:12–13 KJV:
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: 13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
Jesus Christ is a king of the line of David and is also a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek is the only person in the Old Testament who was both a king and a priest. All the other priests came from the tribe of Levi. Melchizedek’s name means king of righteousness, and he was the king of Salem before it was Jerusalem.
The emphasis on Jesus as a man in Luke is because he had to be a man to be high priest.
Luke 19:10 KJV:
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Many parables in Luke are about the lost. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the forgiving father whose son was lost.
The gospel of Luke has the most parables. Luke is the only gospel that has the whole record of His birth. His genealogy in Luke goes all the way back to Adam. Luke shows that Jesus Christ was the second (or last) Adam. He was fully man.
John: The Son of God (the eagle).
The Branch will be the Son of God.
Isaiah 4:2 KJV:
In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
John 20:31 KJV:
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
A key word in the gospel of John is “believe.”
John 3:16 KJV:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The phrase “only begotten son” occurs the most in the gospel of John. See also The Red Thread Part 2 for an explanation of the Aramaic phrase “only begotten” or “unique son” and how Isaac was the type.
There is no genealogy in the gospel of John, just as Melchizedek had no genealogy.
There are seven signs in the gospel of John proving Jesus Christ’s Messiahship. Five of those signs are not in any of the other gospels. Those miracles or signs, starting with turning water to wine at the wedding, proved that Jesus really was the Son of the Father. And He revealed God as a Father to the people.
John is interspersed with phrases that start with “I am,” which correspond to names of God.
- I am the bread of life.
- I am the light of the world.
- I am the gate, the door of the sheep.
Jesus was showing characteristics that He shared with His Father.
Each of the gospels has some unique records related to the last week of Jesus’s life.
Jesus Christ rides into Jerusalem on a colt, signifying a king. He cleanses the temple. He weeps over the city in Luke 19:41because God showed Him that Israel was not going to repent.
The gospel of John is the only one that records Jesus Christ washing the disciple’s feet. That’s a picture of the eldest son, head of the household with all the rights and privileges, laying down those rights to be a servant.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Luke records sweating like drops of blood.
Jesus’s last recorded words on the cross, in Luke, included:
- Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
- Jesus tells the malefactor that he will be with Him in paradise.
See Also
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Footnote:
- Wierwille, Victor Paul, Jesus Christ, Our Passover (New Knoxville, OH: American Christian Press, 1980), 450. ↩︎
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