John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I struggle with what I see as the differences between the four gospels. The Lord just reminded me that this is not about my struggles, it is about the struggles of the first century Jews and the messages they were receiving.

I begin here with “I am the way”. The Jews of that time had struggled in the world for thousands of years from the time of the drought that caused them to become captives in Egypt to the Roman occupation. That is a long history of believing in God without seeing a permanent solution to their personal struggles. Life was always a struggle.

If this one statement had been in the synoptic gospels they would have rebelled immediately and not been open to the good news. They struggled with seeing Jesus perform signs and wonders that were only hinted of in the Old Testament. That alone would have been difficult but then His words were so different from what the scribes were teaching. Adding to that a statement that they had been getting it wrong all those years would have been too much.

The closest Matthew came was Matthew 22:16 “And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.” Mark echoed some of that with Mark 12:14.

Luke 17:20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,

Luke hinted that religious observations weren’t going to get them into the Kingdom. John 14:6 was telling the Jews that they could not come to the Father without Jesus. That would have been a stumbling block too difficult for them to remove.

Most of us came from a place without generational teachings that said their birthright was the only thing that mattered. 

Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

Most of us are not from that generation and might not understand how that colored their understanding. Paul entered the synagogues and reasoned with them through the law and the prophets without challenging their heritage.

Being born again has nothing to do with heritage.

John 3

You Must Be Born Again

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Given that Nicodenus has such an important role in the third chapter of John’s gospel, it is curious that the synoptic gospels do not mention him at all, not even once.

Most scholars believe that John’s gospel was probably written at least thirty-five years after the synoptics. We might assume that God’s intention was that these very important issues should not be circulated until after Paul’s missions were well established.

The gospels and Paul’s epistles were circulated during those decades after Christ’s resurrection. It was only after the churches were established that John’s gospel made its first appearance.

The synoptic gospels lent credibility to believers because of the unity of the messages and Paul’s epistles built upon those united messages.

Now John’s message comes along and supplements those other gospels with confirming words and only heightens what was already believed. The message of being born again would make more sense relating to Paul’s messages about growing faith and maturity.

There is a sense that if John’s message had been delivered at the same time as Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s that the Jews receiving his message would have been just as confused as Nicodemus, if not more so. The timing of John’s message makes sense from that point of view.

What can we learn from the other differences between John’s gospel and the synoptics?

I am glad you asked.