Are four Gospels necessary?

It is amazing how the four Gospels work together to give us the full story of Jesus’ life. For example in John 18:36, Jesus said to Pilate, ‘My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were so, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my Kingdom is from another place.’ 

Yet in Matthew 26:51; Mark 14:47 and Luke 22:49, when the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested Him in the garden of Gethsemane, one of His companions drew his sword and cut off a man’s ear. Only in John 18:10 is the man identified as Peter and the victim as Malchus.

When Jesus told Pilate that His disciples would fight to prevent His arrest, why didn’t the hostile Jews who were in the garden when Peter cut off Malchus’ ear, tell Pilate that Jesus was lying? Especially the high priest had reason to accuse Jesus of lying. Remember that Malchus was the servant of the high priest (mentioned in all four the Gospels).

Their motive is exposed in Mark15:10 – Pilate knew that the chief priests wanted to have Jesus crucified out of envy! The high priest was the main antagonist who wanted Jesus killed. They tried to convince Pilate that Jesus was a dangerous criminal that should be crucified. The officials realised, if Pilate knew about Malchus and that Jesus healed his ear, it would weaken their case considerably. Pilate would accept that Jesus had no evil intent, and did not insist on establishing a visible, earthly Kingdom. His Kingdom is not of this world, so there was no reason to crucify Him.

Pilate understood something of Jesus’ position and mission. Three of the Gospels say approximately the same. The written charge against Jesus was, THE KING OF THE JEWS (Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38 and Matthew 27:8). It is John who expounds on the sign. John 19:19-21 says, ‘Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Many of the Jews read this sign… written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews’, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews” .… Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’

The moral of the story is that just as the four Gospels give the complete picture of Jesus, so the 66 individual books of Scripture work together to give a complete picture of God’s plan for man. The Gospels tell us about Jesus, the King of the Jews, but the 66 books combined tell us how Jesus will establish God’s Kingdom, not only for the Jews, but for all the people He saved from the pit.