“The disciple whom Jesus loved” (Jn. 21:7 NIV) was the apostle John’s preferred designation for himself; he chose anonymity in all his narrative writing. John wrote late in life and seems to have become a very humble man, seeking no place for himself.
A FAMILY MAN
The following four facts illustrate the importance of family in John’s life: First, He and his brother James were inseparable; they were never named separately during James’ life, and are usually identified with their father, Zebedee. Second, the brothers worked with their father in the family fishing business (Mt. 4:21-22; Mk. 1:19-20). Third, theirs is the only mother of any of the twelve whom we see involved in the lives of the apostles (Mt. 27:55-56). Fourth, James and John came to Jesus with their mother – maybe at her instigation – seeking a privileged place in His future kingdom (Mt. 20:20-21).
Fishing may have brought them together with the brothers Peter and Andrew, who became fishing partners and fast friends (Mk. 1:29; 13:3). The Zebedee boys and Peter, on three occasions, witnessed special events not shared by the rest: they were there when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter (Mk. 5:37; Lk. 8:51), at His transfiguration (Mt. 17:1-2; Mk. 9:2; Lk. 9:28-29), and in His Gethsemane anguish (Mt. 26:36-37; Mk.14:32-33).
A FIERY LOYALIST
Mark notes that when Jesus designated the twelve, He nicknamed the Zebedee brothers “Boanerges ... Sons of Thunder” (Mk. 3:17). He evidently saw the fiery streak in them which surfaced in Luke 9:51-56. Messengers sent to prepare Jesus’ arrival in a Samaritan village were refused. James and John said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” Jesus rebuked that spirit and attitude: His mission was to save lives, not take them.
In Luke 9:49-50, John told Jesus of a man they had found driving out demons in Jesus’ name. “We tried to stop him,” he said, “because he is not one of us.” Jesus rebuked the sectarian spirit: “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.” John saw the unknown exorcist as a challenge or threat. But Jesus wasn’t jealous. He is unique, supreme, and will prevail. He is secure, and our job is to love Him, bow to Him and never disgrace His name.
GROWING IN KNOWING JESUS
So, we see that John, the apostle of love, was as human and flawed as we are. The fact that he saw himself as the “disciple whom Jesus loved” shows that he knew how to value his opportunities to get to know the heart of his Savior, and to grow deeper in Him and in His love. We all have a lifetime to get to know our Savior personally. Are we always “growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18)?
John couldn’t know himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” by being self-absorbed. He knew he was the object of love, but it was the focus on Jesus, the Source, that filled him with the consciousness of that love. And so should it be for us. Our natural inclination – praised as a “virtue” today – is to be supremely self-focused, always alert to the way things affect “me” and my fulfillment. John would be known as the “disciple who was depressed” if he had followed that recipe.
John reclined next to Jesus, or “on His bosom,” not because he was self-seeking nor favored over the others. Jesus was no more available to John than he was to the others. John simply recognized his opportunity. Any one of those twelve men might have occupied that position. John’s heart, responding to the love that emanated from his Savior’s heart, drew him to the nearness of Jesus.
It seems that John’s experience, of a family tightly knit by love, set his capacity for enjoying his Savior’s love. Then he subordinated natural love to the superior divine love, so that the essential element of selfishness in merely human love, self-love, did not keep him from leaving his family to walk in the fellowship of this higher love.
Perhaps John, more readily than the others, realized and embraced the truth Jesus taught them all: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be My disciple” (Lk. 14:26). He was thrilled to be “the disciple whom Jesus loved” because he had walked away from lesser love and abandoned himself to ultimate love in Jesus, from which nothing can separate us (Rom. 8:35-39). He had been launched from the pad of a high quality earthly love into the orbit of flawless eternal love.
JESUS, A FAMILY MAN TOO
An incident in Mark 3 shows how Jesus Himself valued the family. His family heard about His hectic schedule – without even time to eat – and the crowds, and they went to rescue Him from what they thought to be mismanagement of His life of popularity (Mk. 3:20-21). They arrived where He was teaching but couldn’t get through the crowd. They sent Him word that “your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” What a shock when Jesus responded, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then, indicating those seated around Him, He said: “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is My brother and sister and mother” (Mk. 3:31-35). Luke records Jesus’ response as: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice” (Mk. 8:21).
John noted that Jesus’ earthly half-brothers had little respect for Him, and actually treated Him with cynicism and scathing ridicule (Jn. 7:1-8). How refreshed He would be, then, by those who responded to the love, warmth and kind words of his heavenly Father. Jesus had come into the world to obey His Father’s words and will (Heb. 10:5-7). That same disposition in men and women united and identified them with Him, and made them His family. The thrill of a Father’s love and of a brotherly intimacy that won John’s heart is offered to us all. Let’s be like John: Let’s choose it and grow in it.
Perhaps in acknowledgement of John’s deep personal response to Jesus’ love as well as his strong sense of family, from the cross the Savior awarded him custody of His own (presumably) widowed mother (Jn. 19:25-27). As firstborn, Jesus inherited the honor and duty of caring for her; now, rather than leave her in the care of one of His younger siblings – who perhaps still did not believe – He entrusted her to an “adoptive son” of proven love and commitment. How this tender-hearted disciple must have cared for this precious, remarkable woman! Might this also have been a way of recognizing and responding to the extravagant request of James and John for a special place in the kingdom?
THE CONSTANCY OF FAITH
On resurrection morning, Peter and John were together when Mary Magdalene excitedly reported Jesus’ body as missing from the tomb. Both ran to the tomb, but John arrived first. Peter had the greater courage and entered the tomb first and witnessed the scene Jesus had left behind. But it was John who, when he finally entered, “saw and believed” (Jn. 20:1-8). Belief was scarce that day.
Later, several apostles went fishing with Peter and again spent the night catching nothing. In the gray dawn, a stranger on the shore called out to them. John was the first to recognize Jesus, though it was the impulsive Peter who threw himself into the sea to hurry to Him (Jn. 21:1-7). When Jesus had to deal with Peter, and urge him to follow, Peter was more concerned about John, who was already simply and faithfully following the Savior, obeying his heart to do the very thing Jesus was urging on Peter. Jesus might have said, “Don’t worry about John. Just do what he is doing!” (Jn. 21:15-22)
John’s steadfast adherence to Jesus may have served to balance and moderate Peter’s impetuosity, and the two were a team in the early chapters of Acts – as in the case of the lame man they healed in Acts 3, and for which they were persecuted together in Acts 4.
John is the evangelist who clearly presents Jesus as the Son of God, yet also shows us His accessibility via his own relationship with Him. So we also can experience the most intimate relationship with the very Son of the Most High God who became man in order to bow under the wrath of the Almighty and absorb our eternal punishment in His body!
This is the gospel according to John, the apostle of love, whose concise yet profound expressions of the gospel we know so well: “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16); “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn. 15:12); “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).
It was John’s intimate relationship and love for his Savior that got him exiled to Patmos, which resulted in his being blessed to receive the ultimate revelation of the glory of Jesus Christ:
“I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: write on a scroll what you see and send it to the ... churches.” (Rev. 1:9).
By Bill Van Ryn
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