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"St Peter & St John Run to the Sepulchre" by James Tissot
Who was "the disciple whom Jesus loved"?
This phrase is used six times in The Gospel of
John. By a process of examination of the text and elimination of possible
candidates, scholars have deduced that the Apostle John was the Beloved
Disciple. A second century quote of Polycrates of Ephesus (c. 130s - 196), recorded by Eusebius in his Church History, supports the idea of John as the Beloved Disciple. In John 21:24 we
read…
This is the disciple who testifies to these things and
who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.
The Apostle John, an eyewitness to the events he
recounts, has written down for us the words and deeds of Jesus. He has written
down for us an account of what other people following Jesus looks like. In
fact, John gives us more individual portraits of the followers of Jesus than
any other Gospel. Those portraits are detailed; they provide us with much
guidance for our own journeys. Furthermore, most importantly: “We know that his
testimony is true.” Perhaps, these words were written down by a trusted friend
of the Apostle, a member of what has been called the Johannine community, a
group of disciples who gathered around John and learned from him, perhaps in
Ephesus.
What can we learn from this? I believe that as we
prayerfully read Scripture in community as a living Church today, and in the
communion and guidance of the saints down through the ages, Jesus will show
each one of us what he wants our following of him to look like.
The Gospel of John ends with an interesting note:
Jesus did many other things
as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole
world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Chapter 21 of John’s Gospel was obviously added by
a member of the Johannine community. Whoever wrote these words knew that the
Gospel of John already had a proper ending at the conclusion of chapter 20.
There we read…
Jesus did many other
miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in
this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Now the author or authors of chapter 21 begin their
conclusion in a similar way. They write that: “Jesus did many other things as
well.” Like most people telling a story, John and his community both selected
and arranged, out of all the stories they knew about Jesus, certain ones to
tell to achieve a certain purpose: that we might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we might have life in his name.
Furthermore, the author or authors of chapter 21 tell us
that if all the things Jesus said and did were written down, the world could
not contain the books. In addition to libraries that hold physical books, of
course today we have the capacity to digitize. Naturally, electronic storage
systems today have a greater capacity to hold information than our physical
libraries. Therefore, on a very literal level, if everything Jesus said and did
had been written down, the world would
have enough space to hold that information.
However, there is another way in which the world cannot
contain all the information about Jesus’ life and words. The world cannot
contain that information because it is too explosive. The stories of Jesus’
life and words are powerful. The Greek word for this is “dunamis” from which we
get our word “dynamite”. The New Testament is TNT.
While the world cannot quite handle such power, I believe God
does continue to channel that power through human beings. We receive the power
of Jesus’ life through prayerful, Holy Spirit empowered, community based,
reading of Scripture. As we receive that power to follow Jesus in our world
today, the Word that was in the beginning with God continues to manifest
himself in human flesh, our flesh.
Thanks be to God!
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