Feeding the 5,000

Harmony of the Gospels

Imagine the apostle John sitting down to write His account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus near the end of the 1st century AD, well after the other 3 gospels were written. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment: what should you write about? There is so much to be said about the most fascinating, most influential life that was ever lived, so how do you decide what to include?

There are 4 gospel accounts. 4 different men wrote 4 different accounts of Jesus’s life with the hope that people like us would one day read from them, learn from them, and that their message about Jesus would inspire us to believe in Him.

This is fascinating to me, especially when I consider John in particular. Most scholars agree that he is writing his gospel account well after the accounts we have from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, within the last decade of the 1st century AD.

What I would do is write about things that Jesus did that aren’t included in the other gospel accounts. And that’s precisely what John does for the most part. Most of what you find in John’s gospel is unique, though there are several things that John includes that all other gospel accounts include as well. For instance, all 4 gospels harmonize rather swimmingly when you get to Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, and also when you get to His arrest, His trial, His crucifixion, and burial. And of course, all 4 gospels give an account of Jesus being raised from the dead.

John in particular is a fascinating case because he is writing his gospel account well after the accounts we have from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is believed that John’s gospel first came around near the end of the 1st century, close to 90 AD.

It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that John was able to read the other gospel accounts and attempt to fill in what gaps he may have seen. I feel comfortable taking that leap. But if you don’t, I know we are all very confident in saying that the Spirit of God knew the contents of all of the gospels and deliberately placed what can be found in those different gospel accounts.

I don’t think this needs any explaining. This is the crux of the good news. It’s no wonder that these things are all included in each of the 4 gospels.

So, in my mind, that begs the question, “why are these 4 gospel accounts as they are?” Now it makes sense to me that Matthew, Mark, and Luke might have a lot of overlapping information, since they are written around the same time and it is believed that Matthew and Luke relied heavily on Mark’s account. But what I

But those aren’t the only occasions that all 4 gospel acounts overlap. And remember: imagine being John looking over the other gospels and perhaps wanting to fill in any gaps that the other gospel writers didn’t include for whatever reason. And yet, he still decides to include a story about Jesus that the other 3 gospel writers included in their gospels as well.

Having said all that, there are very few accounts that all 4 gospels include. In fact,

It’s the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. It’s the only story outside of the previously mentioned ones that I can find that was so important that all 4 gospel writers included it in their accounts.

Imagine being a disciple distributing bread and fish. At first, you take a provisions that Jesus gives you and you bring its contents to the people who are there. Eventually, your resources are exhausted, so you return to the Master who miraculously refills your empty stores, and you are again sent out to do it all over again. And again, you run out. So you return to the Master, who again gives you what you are lacking. Do you see what’s going on here? I think there’s a great lesson in there for us, and I think you get it, so I won’t belabor the point.

This is such a great example for us. If you are serious about being a disciple of Jesus, you have to go back to Him constantly. All too often, I think we find ourselves getting burnt out, running out of fuel trying to serve others. And maybe it’s because we aren’t looking to Him for our sustenance.

Instead, what I would like to dive a little deeper into is...