Friday 27 December 2024
After this he [Jesus] said to him, “Follow me.” (v. 19b)
Background
To be a disciple of Jesus, to follow where he leads, can be costly. Today the Church remembers John the Evangelist who with his brother James followed Jesus after they heard him speaking to the crowds by the Sea of Galilee.
John and James left their father Zebedee and their life of fishing and boats behind. Matthew 4:22b states starkly that they left “the boat and their father”. The account in the gospels of John and James is one of impulsive actions and strong feelings. When a Samaritan village failed to offer Jesus hospitality because he was travelling to Jerusalem (whose inhabitants despised Samaritans) the brothers ask Jesus if they should call down vengeance on the inhabitants (see Luke 9:54b). Jesus rebukes them for being aggressive and also for imagining themselves to have powers they did not possess!
John is often identified as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and the author of the 4th gospel (John's Gospel), the two being taken to be one and the same person. There are certainly a lot of references to him, without naming him specifically, in the 4th gospel. At the end of that gospel, John seems to imply that he would not die until Christ comes again in glory or that he would not die a martyr's death. We can be fairly confident that he did not die a martyr’s death, perhaps the only one of the apostles of whom this can be said with certainty.
John the Evangelist was a prominent figure of the Early Church and he lived to a very old age. He settled in Ephesus where a tradition handed on to Irenaus by Polycarp of Smyrna says he lived until the third year of the reign of the Emperor Trajan, who came to power in 98 AD. It is thought that John died around the age of 94 in 100 AD. In his extreme old age it is reported he would ask to be carried into worship to join his brothers and sisters in Christ – his message to the people was always, “love one another”.
To Ponder:
- John showed great commitment and courage in leaving behind the familiar to follow Jesus. Is there anything we need to leave behind (as disciples and as a Church) and let go of?
- If you were asked to distil the teaching of Jesus to just a few words, what would they be?
Bible notes author: The Revd Helen Cameron
Helen Cameron is a presbyter of the Methodist Church and currently serves as President of the Methodist Conference.