St. John the Evangelist was privileged to have a very special friendship with Jesus Christ. From the beginning, his vocation, like his brother James’s, is found simply but powerfully stated in the Gospels. Their response is indicated by their belief and love in Jesus Christ. James and John “were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21-22).
These brothers lived on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The brother of Saint John, Saint James, was considerably older. In fact, the former fishermen — Peter, James and John — were honored to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in the garden in Gethsemane. However, John’s special relationship is even more unique as tradition assigns him as the author of the Fourth Gospel.
In John’s Gospel, the author refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2). John apparently followed his new master to Galilee and was with him at the marriage feast of Cana, journeyed with him to Capernaum and therefore never left him, except when sent on the missionary expedition with another invested with the power of healing. Saint John is the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom Jesus gave the task of caring for his mother as John stood beneath the cross — “Woman, behold your son . . . Behold, your mother”(John 19:26, 27). Due to the depth of this Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring into higher regions that the other writers did not enter.
However, John was very human. Jesus gave James and John the nickname of “sons of thunder.” This name refers to two incidents in the life of John and James. In the first, Matthew tells us how their mother asked that they might sit in the places of honor in Jesus’s kingdom, one on his right and one on his left. When Jesus asked them if they could drink the cup he would drink and be baptized with his baptism of pain, they answered, “We can!” Jesus said that they would surely share his cup, but that sitting at his right hand and left was not his to give. It was to those to whom it had been reserved by the Father. The other apostles were angry and indignant at the ambition of these brothers. So, Jesus took the occasion to teach them all the true nature of authority, “Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”(Matthew 20:27-28). The other occasion is when the “sons of thunder” asked Jesus if they could call down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans, who would not welcome Jesus. However, Jesus “turned and rebuked them”(Luke 9:51-55). The two brothers were fellow workers in the first step of the Church’s growth. Later, the wrath of John at the unbelief of the Samaritans was changed so strongly that John was the first to receive the Samaritans as brethren (Acts 8:14).
On Easter, Mary Magdalene “ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him’”(John 20:2). In his Gospel John writes that he and Peter ran side by side, but “the other disciple ran father than Peter and arrived at the tomb first” (John 20:4). He did not enter, but waited for Peter. Then, “the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).
John was again with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection occurred — the cure of the man crippled from birth. The two then spent the night in jail together. The experience of the Resurrection is captured in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they were amazed and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus”(Acts 4:13).
The Apostle John is traditionally considered the author of three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account by John about his relationship with Jesus and also the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus in his life and in the world. The Gospel of John is described as the Gospel of Jesus’ glory. In his old age, St. John was carried into the church in Ephesus and his sole exhortation was, “Little children, love God and one another.” His feast day is December 27th. St. John the Evangelist, pray for us!
