The four Gospels have been
described as so many different portraits of Christ—portraits, not biographies.
The portrait presented to us in the Gospel of John is that of Christ as Son of
God. To the intelligent reader its omissions, of which unbelief makes much for
its evil purposes, afford a striking indication of its divine authorship and of
the purpose for which it has been given.

The Apostle John is the only one
of the four evangelists who was with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration,
and yet he is the only one whose gospel makes no mention of that vision of
glory. He is the only one of the evangelists who witnessed the agony in the
garden, and yet he is the only one whose gospel is silent with respect to it.
Though he was one of the eleven disciples who were with the Lord on the Mount of Olives when He was "taken up from [them] into heaven," his book contains
never a word of direct record about the Ascension.

May not these extraordinary
omissions be explained if we remember that in the vision of the Holy Mount the
Lord appeared in His glory as Son of Man, whereas the purpose of the fourth
gospel is to reveal Him as Son of God. So also with regard to Gethsemane, we
have the Lord’s explicit words, "The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands
of sinners." Though His exaltation to the right hand of God proclaimed Him
to be the Son of God, this was beyond the scope of Matthew’s commission, for it
was of the earthly ministry that he was inspired to write.