St. John the Apostle
One
John during the public ministry of Jesus
I think we could sum up Christianity as friendship with Jesus and friendship with others. And this is what characterized the life of John the Apostle.
Jesus nicknamed John and his brother James the, “Sons of Thunder," probably because they were so angry at the Samaritans who wouldn’t give them hospitality on their journey to Jerusalem that they wanted to call down fire from heaven to torch them. John, with his brother James, probably had a passionate personality, a little bit of a fiery temper, and tended to be a little rash. I can relate to that. Saints don’t usually start out as such which is a good thing for us.
Most importantly John had a deep friendship with Jesus that made his life an amazing adventure, for that is what friendship with Jesus does.
John was with Peter and James when Jesus entered the home of Peter and healed his mother-in-law. John, along with James and Peter witnessed the raising of Jairus's daughter from the dead. They were the only ones with Jesus at the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. Likewise, they alone were with Jesus during the Agony in the Garden, though they fell asleep.
Only John and Peter were sent into the city to make the preparation for the Last Supper. And at the Last Supper, John sat next to Jesus and actually rested his head upon the chest and heart of Christ while Jesus gave his last and greatest teaching and instituted the Eucharist. It was then that Jesus said to the Apostles, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.”
Two
Friendship leads to Courage
Because of his friendship with Jesus, John had the courage to follow Christ after his arrest into the Palace of the High Priest Ciaphas, where Jesus was placed on trial and sentenced to death. And John was the only Apostle to stand with Christ at the Cross.
Oh, and if you are a friend of Jesus then you will take Mary as your Mother and live a deep friendship with her as well, which is exactly what happened when Jesus looked down from the Cross at Mary and John and said, “Woman, behold your son.” Then to John, “Behold your mother.”
Why did John have such a deep friendship with Jesus? Let’s not overthink this. John spent time with Jesus, lots of time. But isn’t that what friendship takes?
There’s no end to the things drawing our attention, but there is only one Person who can satisfy every desire of our heart and that is Jesus. Let us spend time in friendship with Jesus every day, talking to him from the heart and listening to him in silence. That is what we call - prayer!
Three
After the Ascension
After the Ascension of Jesus and the birth of the Church at Pentecost, we see John with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple. With Peter he is also thrown into prison (Acts 4:3). Again, we find him with Peter as they confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on the new converts in Samaria (Acts 8:14).
As an Apostle and Bishop, John was a Pillar of the Community in Jerusalem, celebrating the Eucharist in the Upper Room, the place of the Last Supper which became the first Catholic Church in the world.
Lucius Carinus, a disciple of John relates that John remained in Jerusalem until James the cousin of Jesus and first Bishop of Jerusalem was martyred in 62 AD. Soon after, the Christian Community, being warned of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, fled to Pella in Jordan.
At this time John went to Asia Minor (Turkey) and then to Rome, where Tertullian writes that the Roman Emperor Domitian persecuted the Christians violently and ordered John to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. However, John emerged from this ordeal without harm. Since it appeared John could not be put to death, the Emperor banished John to the Island of Patmos.
It was on this Island that John received the vision that led him to write the Book of Revelation.
On September 18th, 96 A.D., there was a coup, with the result that Domitian was overthrown and slain, and a senator by the name of Nerva became emperor and allowed John to return to Ephesus where he continued to lead people to friendship with Jesus until a very advanced age, dying around the year 100, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.
Four
Friendship with Others
Jesus personally invested in friendship with John, they spent time together and it transformed his life. So, John knew that if he was to be successful in leading people to Jesus, he wouldn’t need a program, he would need to do what Jesus did with him: genuine friendship, personal investment one-on-one, and spending time together.
Clement of Alexandria relates that after John returned from exile he personally invested in one young man in particular. However, John had to continuously travel from city to city, so he left the young man in the care of the newly appointed bishop of Smyrna. Well, the bishop lost track of him and the next thing anyone knew, the young man fell into bad company and became the leader of a gang, notorious for their violence.
When John returned he inquired about the young man. The embarrassed bishop said, “The boy is dead.”
“Dead?” asked John. “How did he die?”
Then the bishop was forced to tell him that the young man was now the leader of a gang. John let the thunderbolt of his wrath fall upon the bishop who had been so careless and despite his old age, he called for a horse and galloped off for the back country where the former convert was believed to be hiding out.
Eventually, John found the gang. Or I should say, the bandits found John, and when the young man, now head of the gang saw the Apostle, he turned and ran, “Why are you running away from me, my boy?” said John, puffing after him. “Why are you running from your own father, who is unarmed and very old? Be sorry for me, child, not afraid of me. You still have hopes of life. I will account to Christ for you. If need be, I will gladly suffer your death, as the Lord suffered death for us. To save you I will give my own life. Stop! Believe! Christ sent me!”
The young man finally gave in and stopped. The apostle moved toward him and the bandit flung his arms about him, sobbing. John led the young man back to Smyrna and, in Clement’s words, “interceded for him with many prayers, shared with him the ordeal of continuous fasting, brought his mind under control by all the enchanting power of his words, and did not leave him … till he had restored him to the Church.”
People come to Jesus through other people. Friendship, personal investment one-on-one, and spending time together in good conversation is the way of evangelization. That’s what Jesus did with John and what John did with others.
Will we do the same with the people in our lives?
Five
Final Years
St. Jerome tells us John wrote his Gospel while in Turkey toward the end of his life, after his return from Patmos. He wrote to refute the heretics Ebion and Cerinthus who denied that Jesus is God, saying he was a mere man.
Polycarp, a disciple of John, recounted to Irenaeus that one day he and John and some other friends entered a bathhouse and plunged into the waters. They had not been there long when the heretic Cerinthus came in as well. When John saw him he, “leapt from the spot and ran for the door,” crying to his companions, “Let’s get out of here before the place falls in, now that Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is inside.”
Many people today will admit that Jesus was a great man or a wonderful teacher but they will not accept that he is God. Why is it so important that we believe and proclaim the divinity of Jesus?
Remember, we were made for union with God. And try as we might, nothing less than union with God will satisfy because, even though we are finite we are made for the infinite. But we have cut ourselves off from God by sin and we are too small and weak to climb back to him. Now this is the great mystery of Christmas. God became man so that man could become God. The Son of God has become one of us, taking on human nature, creating a bridge for us to cross over from our side to his and to be reunited to God in Jesus. If Jesus is not God and merely just a man, a great teacher, then He is no bridge and no help to us.
To emphasize this point John begins his Gospel with these words, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…And to all who accept him, He gave power to become children of God.” John 1