Saturday, September 25, 2004
The Orthodox Church will celebrate the Feast of the Repose of St. John the Theologian this Sunday.
On this feast of the beloved disciple, let us focus our attention on who is the apostle, evangelist and theologian, John.
He is the author of five books of the New Testament: The fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Book of Revelation.
The Holy Scriptures, especially the four Gospels, not only John's Gospel, but the first three of Matthew, Mark and Luke give us this precious information about John:
John was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His father, Zebedee, was a prosperous fisherman of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. His mother, Salome, was one of the Galilean women who generously served Christ and his disciples. Salome was present at the Crucifixion and she was one of the myrrh-bearing women who brought sweet spices on Easter morning to anoint Christ's body.
John had a brother, James, who was also an apostle. John and James aspired to preferred positions "to sit at the right hand and left hand of the Lord Jesus in His Kingdom. John and James, apparently at least at first, were men of vehement disposition and fiery eloquence, because Mark in his Gospel tells us that the brothers John and James were nicknamed the "sons of thunder" -- probably meaning "hot-tempered" -- not at all characteristic of the portrait we see of John elsewhere and later in the New Testament. Perhaps this shows how association with Jesus Christ can reform the rougher edges of someone's personality.
Often mentioned
Before John was called by Jesus to be an apostle, he was one of the disciples of John the Baptist, and he was influenced by his master, John the Baptist, to follow Christ and to acknowledge him to be the messiah.
John was present at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, and he witnessed the first miracle of our Lord when, at the request of His mother, Jesus changed the water into wine at this wedding reception. John was considered the beloved and favored disciple of the Lord. He received special privileges and was present at the most important events in the life of our Lord Jesus.
The Gospels record specifically and mention that John witnessed the following events: The restoration to life of the daughter of Jairus; the transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor, with Peter and James; and the cure of Peter's mother-in-law.
John was one of the disciples chosen to prepare for the Last Supper, during which he sat right beside the master and reclined on Jesus' chest, as we see in so many Orthodox icons of the Last Supper. He was invited and entrusted to be with the Lord Jesus during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He was entrusted by the dying Christ on Golgatha with the care of Jesus' mother. "When Jesus saw His mother, Mary, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, Jesus said to his mother "Woman, behold your son,' and then he said to the disciple 'Behold your mother'... and from that very hour the disciple took her to his own home."
Significance
What a supreme and unique privilege for someone, that the dying incarnate Son of God on the cross entrusts his mother to the care of his special friend and beloved apostle, John.
On the morning of the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene brought to Peter and John the startling news that the Lord's body had been taken away, and the two apostles hastened to the tomb. They saw only the empty tomb and the folded burial cloths. Later, while the disciples were fishing on the Sea of Galilee, and after they had caught nothing, at daybreak, they saw a stranger on the beach who said "Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some fish." When the disciples caught such a huge catch of fish that their nets were breaking, it was John the beloved disciple who recognized this stranger on the seashore and said to the other apostles, "It is the Lord." They caught 153 fish. After the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Acts of the apostles inform us that John exercised his ministry primarily in Jerusalem and Samaria.
Near the end of this life, John was exiled to the island of Patmos, where to him were revealed by the Holy Spirit the marvelous mysteries described in the Book of Revelation.
Tradition has handed down to us important characteristics about John: He is regarded as the youngest of the apostles; he never married and is therefore a model of virginity and chastity; he was an opponent of false and heretical teachings that even in his lifetime began to infect the church; and unlike the other apostles, who shed their blood and died for the master, John alone lived to an advanced age and died a natural death on the island of Patmos.
Legends
Other picturesque legends from the early writings of the church cluster around John, some of which tell us that he was shipwrecked and floated safely to shore, he drank poison unharmed, and he was thrust into a cauldron of boiling oil, but he emerged unscathed and unharmed.
But for us, among the manifold perspectives of the four evangelists and other New Testament authors into the life and work of our savior, several of the characteristics and most noteworthy insights which distinguish the writings and theology of John include the following:
John tells us that the whole purpose of his Gospel message is that "God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." And near the conclusion of his Gospel, John tells us that these things were written "so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in his name." God offers us new life in his son Jesus.
John's Christology, his teaching about who is Jesus Christ, is very important. Jesus is the eternal son of God, who took flesh from the Virgin Mary and became a human being. Jesus existed with his father before time and creation: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the Word was God ... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory of the only begotten son of God."
The same emphasis on Jesus' divine and eternal nature appears frequently elsewhere in John's Gospel: "Amen, Amen, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" "The Father and I are one." "He who has seen me has seen the Father."
Subjects
And there is also John's sacramental theology: He speaks about baptism. In John's Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Unless you are born anew of water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." He speaks about the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion: Jesus said, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him ... Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."
In John's epistles, the theme of fraternal Christian love stands out: "Beloved, let us love one another" ... "If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. ... Little children, love one another."
And at the conclusion of Revelation, written near the end of his life, John shares with us this marvelous and ecstatic vision: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband ... then God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more."
John concludes Revelation by assuring us that Jesus says, "Surely I am coming soon." John responds to these words of our glorified Lord by saying, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha [Come Lord Jesus in Aramaic.] The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen."
John is truly a saint of the church, where the purpose of our Christian life is a day-by-day willingness to come to know our Lord Jesus Christ and to enter into deeper communion with him.
XThe Rev. Daniel Rohan is the pastor at St. Mark Orthodox Church, Liberty.