Before
beginning our journey into John’s letters there is one more nuance I want to
examine. That is the author
himself. With these epistles we are
afforded an absolutely unparalleled glimpse of the entirety of one man’s life
and the journey of sanctification he traveled.
This is because, as stated previously, the epistles of John were written
toward the end of his life. And in
accompaniment to that we have a wealth of information about him in the early
stages of his life. This deposit is
found in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So in effect we have the book ends of John’s
life available to us. We have insight
into his character both as a young disciple of Jesus and an elderly and mature
believer who had spent a lifetime walking with His Lord. The contrast between these two points on
John’s personal timeline of life are nothing short of astonishing. And it is this element, this comparison,
which I would like to dig into.
Let’s begin
at the beginning, so to speak. In John
1:35-42 we read about the first two disciples who followed Jesus. Only one of them is named as Andrew, Peter’s
brother. I think the other one was none
other than John. The fact that the
second disciple is not named in this passage is consistent with John’s pattern
of not clearly identifying himself. So
the probability exists that John was one of the first two men to follow
Christ. And Jesus, being God in the
flesh, could read men’s hearts, souls, and minds as easily as you are reading
this essay right now. We find
confirmation of this truth in John 2:23-25: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many
believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting
Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to
testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. This tells us that any character assessment
Jesus made about His disciples was completely accurate. And He makes just such a statement about
James and John in Mark 3:13-19. He is
selecting the twelve who would become His apostles out of all who were
following Him. About ten of them nothing
personal is revealed. But when it comes
to the sons of Zebedee we read the following in verse 17: James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He
gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”).
This title,
“Sons of Thunder”, is quite instructive in our quest to understand John as a
young man. The literally thunderous
connotation of it immediately conjures up mental images of violence,
destruction, and bombast. Yet Peter,
arguably the loudest mouth and the most boisterous personality, doesn’t receive
a label anything like this one. I think
that implies a distinct difference in Peter’s personality as compared to
James’s and John’s personalities. So
what was it about these brothers that prompted Jesus to label them in this way? A quick study of the word boanerges (bo-an-er-ges’) is quite revealing.
It is
Aramaic in origin, and is a compound word stemming from two roots. The first is ben (bane), meaning son or
child. The second is regaz (reg-ahz),
meaning rage. Putting the two together
what we arrive at is a child of rage, or a child of wrath. This would be an unrighteous anger, focused
on self rather than God. I find this to
be nothing less than astonishing as a description of John. It takes my perception of him and flips it on
its head. There was a deep seated
corruption brewing below the surface of these two men. Although Peter was the one who typically
received the spotlight in terms of unthinking actions and putting his foot in
his mouth it would seem that he at least meant well. But when it comes to John and his brother
James there is an ugliness implied by the title Jesus gave them. And as we will see, if we study the gospel
accounts carefully this dark side to the sons of Zebedee rises into view and
becomes apparent.
I want to
begin with the crowning achievement of John’s raging obsession with
self-exaltation. This is really the
high, or we could say the low point of his career. It is found in both Matthew 20:20-23 and Mark
10:35-40. Mark’s account begins as
follows: James and John, the two sons of
Zebedee, came up to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever
we ask of You.” Now let’s stop right
there a moment. Consider the nerve of
these men. As we will see in a few
minutes, they have had ample evidence to this point of the power of Jesus. They have seen repeated examples of His
miracle working power. They have already
witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
They have been privy to the spectacle of Jesus’s transfiguration. Their brother disciple, Peter, has spoken for
the group proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.
So there should have been no doubt in their minds that Jesus was God
Himself. I say should because, with the
example of Philip later in the ministry and as recorded in John 14:9, it is
clear that the apostles still didn’t completely understand the magnitude of
what they were dealing with.
Nevertheless, they all should have known better, and especially James
and John, having been witness to the transfiguration as I mentioned above. With that in mind it strikes me as incredibly
brazen for them to come up to their master and tell Him they want Him to do
whatever they want. And to make matters
worse, combining Matthew’s account with Mark’s, we discover that the brothers
actually went so far as to bring their mother with them: Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons,
bowing down and making a request of Him.
I can’t imagine any reason for them to do this unless it was because
they thought it would win them some points or sway things in their favor.
And what was
their request? Mark 10:37 reads: They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit,
one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.” I think the nature of the request, pertaining
as it does to Christ’s eventual glorification, reveals their perhaps more
complete understanding of His standing than what Philip had. And that makes it all the more onerous of
them to be so bold, selfish, and short sighted.
They probably anticipated the kingdom of God to be established in a
short time and they wanted in on the ground floor. They wanted power and glory and wealth for
themselves. These sons of rage
completely missed the point of the first beatitude, to be poor in spirit, back
in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5.
On top of
the already condemning evidence against their motives, the ignorance that James
and John displayed is nothing short of bewildering. Continuing the scene in Mark 10:38: But Jesus said to them, “You do not know
what you are asking. Are you able to
drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am
baptized?” They said to Him, “We are
able.” This is a bit like a seven
year old child ridiculing their parents for lacking the money to buy them a new
toy, completely oblivious to the tremendous financial pressures and obligations
their mother and father are under every day.
It is the very definition of being naïve. These spiritual children didn’t have the
first clue about what was coming in a few short months.
Everything
so far is bad enough for our opinion of John’s character at this point in his
life. But unfortunately it gets
worse. Scattered across the gospel
records is compelling evidence that John knew better than to think Jesus was
going to cut him a break because of the presence of his mother and in addition he
had been repeatedly warned and rebuked very specifically by Jesus for his
overweening arrogance, callous zeal, and unrighteous partiality. This makes the request that he joined his
brother in both a form of familial idolatry in placing his biological family
before his spiritual one and bald faced disobedience and disregard for the
teachings of Christ.
Let’s take
the family angle first. There is ample proof
that Jesus’s biological family struggled to both understand and come to terms
with His purpose. As far back as His
childhood even Joseph and Mary were guilty of allowing their attention to be
focused on earthly concerns rather than heavenly ones. Luke describes their visit to Jerusalem in
chapter 2 verses 41 to 51. When they
left to go back home Jesus stayed behind in the temple. After frantically looking for Him for three
days they scolded Him for His conduct.
The boy Jesus’s response in verse 49 is enlightening: And He said to them, “Why is it that you
were looking for Me? Did you not know
that I had to be in My Father’s house?”
Now in any normal human child I would classify such a response as
disrespectful. But this is not any
normal human child. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ whom we know from 2nd Corinthians 5:21 was sinless and
perfect. Therefore, His answer must have
been genuinely right and appropriate.
This has the effect of pointing the finger of doubt, worry, and
selfishness straight at Joseph and Mary.
Mary
surfaces once again in John chapter 2 at the wedding in Cana. This time she treats Her divine son as if He
is a parlor magician. Verse 3 reads: When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus
said to Him, “They have no wine.” And
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” In other words, “this is not the purpose of
My ministry, to wow people with magic tricks and amaze them with My power. You are misunderstanding the reason for My
incarnation.”
Then in Mark
3:20-21 we find that the Lord’s family members actually thought He was crazy: And He came home, and the crowd gathered
again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went
out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” The phrase in the NASB which is translated as
“His own people” can best be understood to be referring to His family. In fact, most of our modern English
translations render this sentence as “His family”. It seems clear that their focus was not on the
things of God but rather on the things of man.
It was not
just Christ’s parents who were guilty of being small minded. In John 7:3-8 the Jewish Feast of Booths is
approaching. This was a national holiday
which would have swelled the population of Jerusalem. Starting in verse 3 Jesus’s brothers thought
it was a great opportunity for their “glory seeking brother” to get some
notoriety: Therefore His brothers said
to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your
works which You are doing. For no one
does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the
world.” For not even His brothers were
believing in Him. The Lord’s
brothers thought of Him as an attention hog who was pulling publicity stunts to
make a name for Himself. In their minds
they reduced His ministry to the lowest possible common denominator and made it
out to be a petty and ugly thing instead of the glorious revelation of the
character and nature of God that it was.
All of these
threads in the life of Christ culminate in what at first glance appears to be
an insensitive and uncaring treatment of His family members but which in
reality was perfectly appropriate and necessary, given their demonstrated lack
of support for God’s purpose in sending Jesus to earth. The account is given in Matthew 12:46-50,
Mark 3:31-35, and Luke 8:19-21. I will
give just Mark’s version here: Then His mother and His brothers arrived,
and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said
to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for
You.” Answering them, He said, “Who are
My mother and My brothers?” Looking
about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My
brothers! For whoever does the will of
God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
Family
relations are irrelevant if and when they come before the will of God. This is exactly what makes John’s attempt to
use his own mother to gain favor so perplexing.
To say he should have known better is an understatement. He had seen firsthand Jesus’s opinion of the
importance of biological family compared to the work of His father. When we combine that knowledge with the repeated
rebukes John received for misplaced zeal that we are about to see it just adds
insult to injury.
As mentioned
before Peter, James, and John were the privileged three who witnessed the
transfiguration of Jesus. There is no
question this experience impacted them tremendously. Matthew records that Christ’s face shone like
the sun and His garments became as white as light in Matthew 17:1-8. Mark’s take on it by way of Peter, in Mark
9:2-8, was that the clothing was whiter than any launderer on earth could make
them. Mark adds the rather obvious
detail that the apostles were terrified.
This experience should have revealed to them the glory and majesty that
was yet to come to their master. It
should have motivated them to great heights of dedication to the cause of
Christ. And perhaps on some level it
did. But it seems clear that in John’s
case the transfiguration he witnessed went to his head in a very wrong
way. Because soon after that there are
three recorded instances where John tried to throw the weight and authority he
thought he had around in a very ungodly manner.
Just a few
verses after the transfiguration, in verse 38, we find John’s selfishness and
pride on display: John said to Him,
“Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to
prevent him because he was not following us.” John’s concern here was not that the name of
Christ was being misused. He was upset
because this person casting out demons was not “in the club” with he and the
other eleven. It was a form of
partiality that John was displaying. And
Jesus quickly corrects him regarding his error.
He tells John that if the reputation and honor of Christ is increased by
what someone is doing it is a good thing.
He further clarifies that John ought not to be looking for opponents
among those who are accurately proclaiming the name of Jesus. Paul echoes these sentiments in Philippians
1:18: What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or
in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.
Now if this
was John’s only offense in this area, he was corrected by Jesus, and he learned
his lesson, we could perhaps be more forgiving.
But John very clearly did not listen to the teaching of his master very
well. Luke 9:49-50 contains the parallel
account of the incident we just discussed, along with a shortened form of the
rebuke Jesus gave. And in the very next
passage we find John and his brother so overcome with their own supposed greatness
and authority that they are prepared to kill in the name of Christ. The setting is Samaria. Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem. The disciples attempt to enlist aid from the
Samaritans living in one of the villages.
But their request is rebuffed by the villagers. In rage, James and John decide these people need
to be taught a lesson in verse 54: When
His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Talk about a “crusader” mentality! The obtuseness of the disciples here is
nothing short of staggering. They just
completely missed the lessons of humility and compassion that Jesus was trying
to teach them.
And then
comes strike three, so to speak. Back
once again in Mark we find yet another incident of callous failure to show
compassion and love. Chapter 10 verse 13
paints the ugly picture for us: And they
were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples
rebuked them. There are only a few
incidents in the gospels where Jesus is portrayed as being upset. This is one of them. Verse 14 says that He became indignant. And He blasts His disciples for their actions
by confirming that the attitude of a child is a treasure because it is this
same demeanor one must have in order to be saved and enter the kingdom of
God. Now to be fair, the verse doesn’t
specify that it was the apostles doing this.
But by this point in Jesus’s ministry most of the false disciples had
fallen away, so it is likely that the apostles were in on the rebuking of
children, if not leading the charge.
Furthermore, we have no evidence that John himself was a part of
this. But based on his conduct so far as
well as the selfish request for extra honor that we looked at before and which
is coming up at the end of this same chapter, I think it’s reasonable to
conclude that John was probably involved somehow.
So getting
back to that faux pas with his brother James and his mother, by now it should
be abundantly obvious that John wasn’t just incorrect in his actions. He was stubbornly disobedient. He knew perfectly well what Jesus thought of
elevating family over the will and work of God.
And he had been very carefully and explicitly instructed in the crucial
necessity of love and compassion even while speaking the truth. Yet he threw all that aside and bulled right
on ahead with the ridiculous idea of asking to sit at Christ’s side in His
glory. Sons of Thunder or Children of
Rage indeed!
It is this
propensity toward self that makes the letters penned by the elder John so
striking. Now he is on the teacher’s
side of the classroom. He is the one
doing the instructing. And he has
finally learned his master’s lessons well.
Rather than rage, John’s focus has become love. In 1st John alone agape and its
related forms appear 55 times by my count.
That’s over 10 occurrences per chapter.
John preaches a message of fellowship that we will look at next week. He warns against being proven to be liars;
seemingly strong language. But he does
so in the context of addressing his audience as little children. This is clearly not meant to insult
them. Rather, it is a term of
endearment. He encourages his readers
that they do know the truth and gently reminds them to practice it. He stresses the need to love one another and
points to the source of such a practice as nothing less than the character of
God Himself. And even when he does need
to call someone out for wrongdoing, as he does with Diotrephes in 3rd
John, I get the distinct impression based on his choice of wording, that there
is no ill will or animosity present in the apostle. It seems that John has taken very much to
heart one of the last commands Jesus gave them, in John 13:35: A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
This amazing
change from rage to love that we see in the heart of John leads me to three
conclusions. The first is that God is a
God who is gentle and tender. He is
wrathful yes, but these two disparate elements are not disparate at all in the
personality of the Lord. They are
perfectly balanced one against the other.
Because He is this way He expects those who bear His image and carry the
torch of His reputation to be that way as well.
This is the point of Paul’s teaching in Galatians 6:1: Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any
trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness;
each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. In other words, we are more than capable
of entering a social situation with the quite noble intention of defeating sin,
but then in our hubris corrupting the attempt with a self-righteous and callous
zeal that is devoid of the compassion and tenderness that Jesus repeatedly
emphasized with His disciples.
The second
point that I see here is that the Christian life is an absolutely delightful
journey of transformative joy. Just
imagine how gratified John must have felt at the end of his life as he looked
back and considered the amazing work God had done in and through him. Those of you who have walked with the Lord
for a while don’t have to imagine. You
have experienced this yourself. And it
is a truly wonderful gift from the Lord.
It is real joy to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is even an aspect of modeling Christ,
as Hebrews 12:1-2 points out: Therefore,
since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay
aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God. It is the epitome of
satisfaction and contentment to be able to look forward to the reward in heaven
that is promised to those who pursue godliness and prioritize the reputation of
Jesus.
Lastly, I
think it is an inescapable conclusion from the life of John that people are more
impacted by examples than words. Jesus
taught these men until he was proverbially blue in the face. Yet they still demonstrated over and over
that they just weren’t getting the picture.
It wasn’t until Jesus visibly and demonstrably humbled Himself to wash
their feet and then walked knowingly and willingly into the jaws of the enemy
and the arms of certain torture and death, all for the sake of others, that the
lessons He had been preaching for three years finally sunk in. And if even the words of Christ were to some
degree ineffective at producing real heart change with the twelve, what power
do we think we have that will enable us to force change in people’s lives
through the spoken word alone? No, it is
the spoken word combined with the visible example of action that the Holy
Spirit takes and uses to produce change in a person’s heart. This is the point Paul stressed with Titus in
chapter 2 verses 1 to 8 of the book that bears his name. We are told to “encourage the young” and “to
be an example of good deeds”. This
is the means by which we are to be engaged in “teaching what is good”.
If we
Christians spent less time talking about the faults and failures of others and
more time focusing on the joy of our sanctification as well as demonstrating to
people the Christ-like character qualities that we wish they had we would be
much more effective at training people in godliness. Then when the time comes to use words to
communicate truth not only will those words be more readily and firmly heeded
by our audience but our own compassion and gentleness will be amplified because
we have spent the time and effort necessary to think the process through
carefully and considerately. This isn’t
supposition or hypothesis. It’s what the
Bible clearly teaches. We would do well
to heed it.
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