The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young, Vol. 4 / And His Life Depicted in a Gallery of Eighty Paintings

by Richard Newton

ST. JOHN AND ST. PAUL

In the original plan of this work, it was intended to have a separate chapter for each of these two noble workers in the cause of Christ. But room for this fails. All that can be done is to give a brief sketch of each in this closing chapter.

We have now to speak of the apostle John. Most of the pictures that have been made of this apostle, represent him as looking more like a woman than a man. But we shall find that there was no authority for this when we come to see what his real character was.

He is supposed to have been born in Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. This town was situated on the western shore of the sea of Galilee, or the lake of Tiberias, at the upper part of the lake. His father’s name was Zebedee, and his mother’s, Salome. We know nothing more of Zebedee than that he was a fisherman, the husband of Salome, and the father of James and John. Salome, the mother of John, we often read of afterwards, as one of those good women who followed our Lord through the different scenes of his ministry, and were a great help and comfort to him. John is supposed to have been younger than his brother James, who is generally mentioned first when they are spoken of together. They are referred to, as “James and John, the sons of Zebedee.” John was probably the youngest of all the apostles. It is said, that he was younger than the Saviour himself, having been born in the year four, Anno Domini, or when Jesus was four years old.

The family of this apostle is supposed to have been better off in regard to property than any of the other apostles. This is evident from several things mentioned about him and his family. One thing which shows this is that when John and his brother James were called from their business as fishermen, to follow Christ, we are told that “they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants.” St. Mark i: 20. Andrew and Peter were too poor to have hired servants. They had to do all their own work. But Zebedee could afford to hire help for himself and sons. And then, at the time of our Saviour’s trial, the servants who kept the door of the judgment hall, in which the trial took place, allowed John to enter the hall, because they knew he was acquainted with the high priest. St. John xviii: 16. And then when Jesus left his mother in the charge of John, while hanging on the cross, we are told, that from that day, “he took her to his own home.” St. John xix: 27. John had a home of his own at Jerusalem. From all this, it seems clear that the family of this apostle were better off in worldly things than were the families of the other apostles.

Now we may just glance at what John’s character was by nature, or before he was a Christian; and what it was by grace, or after he became a Christian.

From what we read of this apostle in the gospel history, we see that there were three things in John’s natural character which show that he was not the weak, womanly sort of man he is represented to have been in most of the pictures that have been made of him.

For one thing, it is clear that John was naturally an ambitious man. This is evident from the request to Jesus by John and his brother James, through their mother, that they might have the highest places in his kingdom. St. Matt. xx: 20-23. Their mother made the request. But she probably consulted them about it first. And if they had not agreed in it, she would not be likely to have done it. This shows that they were all ambitious together. And so we are right in saying that John was ambitious. He wanted the best place in Christ’s kingdom for himself, without thinking whether others might not be better fitted for it. Our Saviour’s reply shows that he was wrong in giving way to this ambitious feeling. But then this shows that there was a good deal of strength in John’s natural character. He was ambitious.

And then he was narrow-minded, as well as ambitious in his natural character.

Persons of this character are accustomed to think that all those who think, or feel, or act differently from what they do, must certainly be wrong. And this was the way John felt when he first became a disciple of Christ. He came to Jesus one day and said, “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not us.” Jesus rebuked him for giving way to his narrow-mindedness, or bigotry, or uncharitableness. It was wrong for him to think that no one could be doing good, or be serving God acceptably, unless it was done in just the same way in which he was doing it. This was a wrong feeling to have, but it shows there was a good deal of decision and strength about John’s natural character.

And then another thing about John before he became a Christian, was that he was an angry, or passionate man. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem on one occasion, in the company of his disciples, they came to a Samaritan village.

When the Samaritans in the village found that he was going to Jerusalem, it stirred up all their prejudice against the Jews, and they refused to receive him. They would not let him stop for rest or refreshment. This made the disciples very angry, and John and his brother James showed their anger by saying, “Lord, wilt thou that we call down fire from heaven, to consume them, as Elias did?” St. Luke ix: 51-57. But Jesus rebuked them, and showed them that this was not the right spirit for his disciples to have.

These traits of John’s natural character, although they are not to be approved or admired, yet show that he was a man of a good deal of force of character, and very different from what his pictures represent him to have been. But when we turn from considering what he was by nature, or before he became a Christian, and think of what he was by grace, or after he became a Christian, we see a wonderful change. The apostle Paul tells us, “that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, and all things have become new.” And it was so with this apostle. When he learned to know and love Christ, the old things about his character passed away, and all things became new. After this we see no more of his ambition, of his narrow-mindedness, or of his passion.

The one thing that marked his character as a Christian was love. He seemed to get nearer to Jesus than any of the other disciples. And it is always the case, that the nearer we get to Jesus and the more we learn to know him, the more we shall love him. John’s love to Christ seemed to take entire possession of him. It filled his whole soul. And so we think of him as the apostle of love. He is spoken of particularly as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” It was he who sat nearest to his Lord and leaned on his bosom at the last Passover. Peter was great for his readiness in serving Christ; Paul was great for the learning and the labor with which he served his Master; but John was great in the love for that Master, which ran through all he did. And this great love made him useful both in his life and in his writings.

It made him useful in his life. There is nothing that will lead to such earnest and devoted labor as this principle of love. We know but little of the life of this loving apostle after the ascension of Christ. We have no report of his missionary journeys, as we have in the case of the apostles Peter and Paul. But we know he was so earnest in the cause of his Master that he was sent a prisoner to the island of Patmos to stop his labor, but in vain. He was willing to be an exile, a prisoner, and, as some say, a laborer in the mines, but he was not willing to give up working for his Master. Tradition tells us that he had to take his choice between stopping his work for Jesus and being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. He could not cease from his work. He was thrown into the boiling oil; but came out uninjured and kept on with that work which his love constrained him to do. He lived the longest of all the apostles, and was the only one of them who died a natural death. And in the closing days of his life, when too feeble to do anything else, we are told that he used to be carried into the church at Ephesus, where his latest labors had been performed, and, standing up in the midst of the congregation, would stretch forth his trembling hands and say, “Little children, love one another.” What a beautiful close to the life of this loving apostle! Truly his love made him useful in his life.

And then it made him useful in his writings, too. Think of the gospel of St. John. How different it is from all the others! John’s love for Jesus seemed to bring him nearer to his great heart of love than the rest of the brethren. We are not surprised, therefore, to see that love speaking out more clearly and fully in his writings than it does anywhere else. It is only John who gives us that wondrous statement, that glorious, golden epitome of the gospel which is found in the sixteenth verse of his third chapter—“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And then think of the marvellous discourses of our Saviour found in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of this gospel; and of that most sublime and wonderful prayer of Jesus, for all his people, found in the seventeenth chapter. O, no one can tell what an unspeakable loss the Church of Christ would have sustained if this loving apostle had not written his precious gospel!

And then how useful he has been in his epistles, too, as well as in his gospel! Love is the golden thread that runs through them all. Look at the opening words of the third chapter of his first epistle. How the very heart of the loving disciple seems to be speaking out when he exclaims: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” It is remarkable that the two shortest verses in the whole Bible, and yet two among those that most melt, and stir our hearts, were written by this apostle. One of these is in his gospel and contains only two words—“Jesus wept.” The other is in one of his epistles and contains only three words—“God is love.” If he had never written anything else than these two verses, how well it might be said that he was useful in his writings!

And then think of that marvellous book with which the Bible closes. We call it “The Revelation of St. John the Divine.” For, although it is true that there is much in this book that we cannot understand, yet its opening and closing chapters have been an unspeakable blessing to the Church in all ages. When St. John closes the Bible with those last two chapters of the Revelations, it seems as if he had been permitted to leave the gates of heaven ajar on purpose that we might gaze through them in wondering awe. Those jewelled walls; those pearly gates; those golden streets; that river of the water of life, clear as crystal; and all the sparkling imagery employed by this loving apostle in what he here tells us about heaven, how can we sufficiently thank God for permitting his servant John to write such glorious things for us? Truly we may say that his love made him useful in his life and useful in his writings!

I know not how better to close this brief sketch of the life of St. John the Evangelist than by quoting here the words of that beautiful Collect which our Church uses on the day with which his memory is connected:

“Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy church, that it, being instructed by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist, St. John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

“Praise, for the loved disciple, exile on Patmos’ shore;

Praise for the faithful record he to thy Godhead bore;

Praise for the mystic vision, through him to us revealed;

May we, in patience waiting, with thine elect be sealed.”