Dec 28 - Fourth Day of Christmas

Legend tells us that The Twelve Days of Christmas

was a secret catechism during times of persecution.

For these twelve days let’s focus on twelve teachings:

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Four Calling Birds

 

The four calling birds are the four Gospels. The Word of God calls to us in faith. The life of Jesus calls to us and stirs our hearts.

 

The four Gospel writers are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. What do you know about them?

 

Two of them were disciples. Two were not.

 

Matthew

 

Matthew was a disciple. Also known as Levi, Matthew was once a tax collector. He knew a life of betrayal – he’d sided with the Romans, repeatedly stabbing his own people in the back. He might have been rich, but he was a hated outcast. Jesus’ love and forgiveness saved him. It saved him eternally, of course, but it also saved him from a life of loneliness and purposelessness.

 

Matthew’s Gospel is the most Jewish of the Gospels and it includes the greatest collections of Jesus’ teachings, like the Sermon of Mount.

 

John

 

John was the other of the four who were original discipleships. He was one of the first four to be called, all fishermen – Peter and Andrew, first; then James and his brother John. John was also in Jesus’ inner circle. Jesus had increasingly closer circles of influence. He ministered to crowds (5000 and more), groups (70ish), small groups (12), and an inner circle of three (Peter, James, and John).

 

He was known as the Beloved Disciple, enjoying perhaps the favor of a little brother; John was, indeed, the youngest of the twelve. Most of the Gospels are episodic – a collection of quick short episodes for Jesus’ life. John’s a story teller, telling fewer but deeper stories. They’re also more theological in character.

 

Luke

 

Luke was not one of the twelve. He was, rather, a companion of Paul on many the Apostle’s evangelistic journeys. As Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles, Luke’s Gospel is less Jewish and has more of a Gentile character, explaining the life of Jesus to peoples less familiar with the Lord’s Jewish roots.

 

Not having known Jesus personally, Luke, a physician, reveals in the first pages of his Gospel that he was the scientist and historian who researched the events of Jesus’ life thoroughly before recording them. The Gospel of Luke contains Scripture’s greatest abundance of parables.

 

Mark

 

Mark was also not one of the original twelve. Mark was known as a partner of Peter’s. Mark’s Gospel was the first written of the four; in fact, it was probably copied in large part by Matthew and Luke. No, plagiarism wasn’t a crime. Rather Matthew and Luke took Mark’s pattern, adapted it to their more Jewish or more Gentile audiences (respectively) and added more teaching and parables (respectively again).

 

Some view Mark – which is short – as simple, even simplistic. Personally, it is my favorite of the four. I see nuances that are subtle and sophisticated. Doing more than just telling a story, Mark draws the reader on a journey of faith.

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who was saved, in part,

by four calling birds