Part 15 (1/2)

With what intense interest John must have listened to the conversation between his friend and their Lord. Was he not as ready as Peter to say, ”Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee”? In the end John fulfilled the commission, ”Feed My lambs,” better than either Peter or any of the other Apostles. Of them all he had the most of the child-like spirit. He may fittingly be called the Apostle of Childhood.

Peter was told by the Lord something about his own future,--how in faithful service for his Master he would be persecuted, and ”by what manner of death he should glorify G.o.d.” By this his crucifixion is apparently meant. As John listened, perhaps he wondered what his own future would be. He was ready to share in service with Peter. Was he not also ready to share in his fate, whatever it might be?

”Follow Me,” said Jesus to Peter. They seem to have started together away from the group. John felt that he must not be thus separated from his friend and his Lord. Though he had not been invited to join them, he started to do so, as if the command to Peter had been also for himself.

”Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned back on His breast at the supper, and said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth Thee?” As Peter at the supper beckoned unto John to ask that question concerning Judas, is it not possible that John now beckoned to Peter to ask Christ concerning himself? However this may be, ”Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do?” or, as it is interpreted, ”Lord--and this man, what?” It is as if he had said, ”Will John also die a martyr's death, as you have said I shall die?” It is not strange that he wanted to know the future of his friend.

But he did not receive the answer he sought, for ”Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”

These words may mean that John would live to old age and escape martyrdom, which became true. But this was not the meaning which Christians of his day put into them. They had the mistaken idea that Christ, having ascended to Heaven, would soon come again. They also believed that John would live until Christ's second coming. ”This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die.” John was unwilling to have this mistake concerning Christ's words repeated over and over wherever he was known. So he determined to correct the false report by adding what is the twenty-first chapter of His Gospel, telling just what Christ did say, and the circ.u.mstances in which He uttered the words to Peter concerning John. His testimony is this:--”Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.”

Peter became the suffering; John the waiting disciple, ”tarrying” a long time, even after his friend was crucified, and all his fellow-Apostles had died, probably by martyrdom.

But after all that John wrote to correct the mistaken report concerning His death, tradition would not let him die. It affirmed that although he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil at Rome, and though he was compelled to drink hemlock, he was unharmed; and that though he was buried, the earth above his grave heaved with his breathing, as if, still living, he was tarrying until Christ should return.

”What shall this man”--John--”do?” asked Peter. He found partial answer in what they did together for the early Christian Church, until John saw ”by what manner of death Peter should glorify G.o.d.” And then that church found yet fuller answer in John's labors for it while alone he ”tarried”

long among them.

When John tells us that Peter turned and saw him following, we recall the hour when Andrew and he timidly walked along the Jordan banks, and ”Jesus turned and saw them following,” and welcomed their approach and encouraged them in familiar conversation. How changed is all now! John does not ask as before, ”Where dwellest Thou?” Nor does Jesus bid him ”Come and see.” He who has become the favored disciple is now better prepared than then to serve his Master, following in the path they had trod together, and having an abiding sense of the blessed though unseen Presence, until his Lord shall bid him, ”Come and see” My heavenly abode, and evermore ”be with Me where I am,” and share at last, without unholy ambition, the glory of My Throne.”

_CHAPTER x.x.x_

_St. John a Pillar-Apostle in the Early Christian Church_

”James and Cephas and John, they who are reputed to be pillars.”--_Paul. Gal._ ii. 9.

”They went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding; both Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip, ...”--_Acts_ i. 13.

”When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.”--_Acts_ ii. 1.

”An angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them out.”--_Acts_ v. 19.

”Now when the Apostles which were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of the Lord, they sent unto them Peter and John.”--_Acts_ viii. 14.

”He (Herod) killed James the brother of John with the sword.”--_Acts_ xii. 2.

The next place where we may think of John with his Lord was on a mountain in Galilee. At least once before His death, and twice after His resurrection, He directed His Disciples to meet Him there. For what purpose? Evidently to receive His final commission.

”Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in Heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

But the disciples were not yet prepared to fulfil this commission. So He appointed another meeting, to be held in Jerusalem, where He met them, ”speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of G.o.d.” Here the command on the mountain was limited by another--not to depart from Jerusalem immediately. ”Wait” said He, ”for the promise of the Father which you heard from Me.” That promise we find in John's record:--”I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” ”The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, shall teach you all things.” ”He shall testify of Me.” In the fulfilment of that promise, the disciples were to find the preparation to ”go” and ”preach.” For that preparation they were to ”wait.”

Jesus then reminds them of the a.s.surance given by John the Baptist concerning Himself:--”He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” Once more John is carried back to the Jordan, and reminded of the time when he and Jesus had been baptized. All those former scenes must have been recalled when Jesus at the final meeting in Jerusalem declared, ”John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”

These words revived in the disciples the hope which had died in them when Jesus died upon the cross. So, with yet mistaken ideas, they asked, ”Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” John and the rest of the Bethsaidan band, who had heard the Baptist say that the kingdom of G.o.d was at hand, hoped that ”at this time” it would appear. But, as when Jesus gave no direct answer to the two pairs of brothers on Olivet concerning the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, or to Peter's question concerning John's future, so now He avoided a direct answer to this last question. He reminded them of something more important for them than knowledge of the future: that was their own duty,--not to reign, but to be witnesses for Him, first in Jerusalem, then throughout Judaea, then in Samaria, then ”unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Yet this could not be until they had ”received power after that the Holy Ghost had come upon them.” This was promised them: they did not clearly understand what was meant: they were waiting to see.

”He led them out until they were over against Bethany,”--well-remembered Bethany. From there Jesus had made His triumphal entry into the City of the Great King: from there He would make a more glorious entry into the New Jerusalem. John was not His herald now. He, with the other ten, was ”led” by Him to witness His departure.

As He ascended Olivet the last time, did He not give a parting glance down the slope into the village below, His eye resting on the home of those He loved, made radiant for us by the search-light thrown upon it by the loved disciple at His side? In thought did He not say, ”Lazarus, Martha, Mary, farewell.”