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The Lion, the Ox, and the Eagle

Hello friend, I’m so glad we can start this week of broadcasts together. And I’m as excited as Connie about our new series that begins today under the title: The Four Faces of Jesus.

You’ve noticed that there’s not one, or two, or three but four Gospels in our Bibles, and each has a unique perspective. From the early centuries of the Christian era, a reasonable explanation has been given for why we have these four accounts of the life of Jesus. And it just may be that the Church Father Augustine gave us one of the best clues when he said we should look for the answer in the four Living Creatures described in the book of Revelation written by the disciple John. So let’s find out what John wrote. I’m reading the words of Revelation 4:7:

. . . around the throne, were four living creatures . . . The first . . . was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. . . . Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

At first reading that may not seem like much help. But let’s think about this for a moment. Each of these four creatures at God’s throne is a “king” in its own right. The lion is the king of the forest; the ox, the king of the field; the eagle, the king of the skies; and man, the king of all creation. And further, each of these creatures is known for a particular characteristic. The lion is known for its majesty—(and that happened long before the Disney people thought of it and popularized it!). The ox is known for its incredible strength and perseverance, as you may recall from pictures you’ve seen of oxen dragging ploughs in the field—it still happens in such countries as India and China. They are the great burden bearers in these countries. The eagle is best known for floating on air currents high in the heavens, and its uncanny ability to see what’s going on far below on the earth. And human beings have the highest level of intelligence among all creatures.

From that description of God’s throne room, we can suggest a reason why we have four Gospels, four reports, of the doing and dying and daring of our precious Lord. It’s because each has a unique perspective. And following Augustine’s suggestion, Mathew’s Jesus is royal, regal, like a lion, the king of the forest. Mark’s Jesus is fully human, completely understanding our weaknesses and our failings, as suggested by the human face. Luke’s Jesus shows us the patience and perseverance of Jesus, willing to take on Himself the sins of the world—symbolized by the burden-bearing ox.

And John’s Jesus is from another place altogether, a far away place, a heavenly place, with a view of everything in our world, and a deep concern for every part of it, and everyone in it, as suggested by the eagle, flying so effortlessly, high in the heavens.

And we can see these four contrasting aspects of the character of Jesus in the four Gospels. In His wisdom, God selected four writers that knew Jesus best to write biographies that would emphasize these complementary character traits of Jesus.

And that brings us to the writer of the first Gospel. Where did Matthew come from, what was his background, and what preparation did he have to write a biography of Jesus?

Matthew belonged to one of the few groups of people that received scathing rebukes from Jesus—publicans, as the King James Bible calls them. Which means Matthew worked for the Roman IRS. Not your favorite person. And without much regulation, these scoundrels worked more like bandits than civil servants.

How do we know Matthew’s profession before conversion? Well, he tells us! His fellow Gospel writers were gracious enough not to mention “the taxman connection.” But Matthew didn’t hold back the truth, for he knew how well it illustrates the power of Jesus to save even the most reprobate sinner.

And in Mathew’s list of the 12 apostles, Matthew alone attaches the epithet “publican” to his own name, and in the listing of the 12, Matthew places himself after doubting Thomas (10:3). What a display of beautiful humility!

But Matthew is placed first among the four Gospels in our Bibles, and this may have been because it was the first Gospel written. The Church Father Origen believed so, although there’s no way to be absolutely sure. It has been the subject of scholarly debate for centuries. But if Origen is right and Matthew’s Gospel was the first to be written, that would have been most appropriate, for Matthew has a primary goal: convincing Jews that Jesus is the Messiah, continuing the work Jesus had done.

It was in Bethlehem, just outside Jerusalem, about five miles to the south, that the promised Messiah came into the world, truly God and truly man, to live among us and to show us what God is like. And it was at Calvary, also just outside Jerusalem, probably some 250 yards northeast of the Damascus gate, that Jesus died for us when He took our sins and guilt, accepted them as if they were His own, and gave us in return His righteousness or goodness as if it were our own. And that leaves us looking absolutely perfect in God’s sight. What a miracle! Even the Roman centurion on duty at Calvary the day Jesus died, recognized Jesus’ divinity when he said, as Matthew records it,

“Surely he was the Son of God” (Matt 27:54).

And the way Matthew seeks to prove Jesus is the promised Messiah is by describing how Jesus fulfilled so many of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. Matthew shows the pattern from his opening words, where he cites a long genealogy that takes us all the way back to Abraham, whose “Descendent,” God declared, would bless all the nations of the world. And we are assured that this is King David’s line. Which gives royal blood to the human nature of Jesus!

Let me share four of the numerous prophecies or predictions about the Messiah found in Mathew. In chapter 1 verse 23 we read:

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,—which means, God with us.

Here Mathew quoted Isaiah 7:14, and affirmed the fulfillment.

A second one is in Mathew chapter 2 verse 6 we read:

But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.

Matthew was quoting the prophet Micah who wrote those words some eight centuries earlier.

Here’s a third in Matthew 2: 14 and 15. It reads:

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

The prophet Hosea also wrote those words some eight centuries before Jesus’ birth.

And here’s a fourth in Matthew 2:17. It reads,

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

This happened when King Herod ordered the execution of the babies (probably only the male children) when the wise men failed to return to tell the king what they had learned. The prophet Jeremiah wrote those words some six centuries before this event transpired.

All these prophecies were in the Old Testament. And without any subtlety, Jesus once stood up and read the words of the prophet Isaiah to the people in a synagogue and concluded with the words:

“This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).

Well, with that brief background about the reason for the four Gospels, and a little about Matthew and how he composed his biography, we’re ready to plunge into the first New Testament portrait of Jesus, and discover Mathew’s Jesus, the royal Jesus, the lion of the Tribe of Judah. And that’s where we’ll pick up the story tomorrow in our Tuesday broadcast.

Before I leave, may I urge you to take your Bible and read two chapters before this hour tomorrow. First read Revelation 4, which is the disciple John’s description of God’s throne in heaven—which he saw in vision. Then turn to Matthew chapter 4, and read the story of the temptation of Jesus by Satan, for that’s where we begin when we meet again, here on the radio, tomorrow.