The first superscripted word in each of the four Gospels is the Greek proposition kata.  The basic sense of this preposition is "according to..." The gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark, the gospel according to Luke, and the gospel according to John.  That this little preposition should so prominently headline each of the gospels is significant.  It indicates that what follows, in all of its personal particularity, is not an abstract or objective recitation of facts but a profoundly personal and subjective declaration of Jesus's atoning grace.

It is sometimes tempting to view the incongruous particularities of each of the gospel narratives as a kind of deficiency that needs to be corrected by correlation--but it is not.  Rather, the fact that each gospel narrative necessarily comes to us filtered through the beating heart of a particular, individual experience of God's love marks the exact point at which truth without truthfulness would show itself to be utterly inadequate to the gift Jesus wishes to give.  When it comes to the announcement of the good news, bare truth is no virtue.  The very aim of the gospel in confronting us with certain truths is to induce in us a reorientation of our subjective relation to the truth.  In order for the gift of grace to be received, we must take up the truth as our own, as something spoken truthfully with our own mouths about our own selves.  The kata that opens each of the Gospels indicates that what they give to us is not simply the truth, but their own personal experience of its truthfulness.

Adam S. Miller, Rube Goldberg Machines, pg. 117