John, the Beloved Disciple
Drama
From My Point Of View
Ten Dialogues On The Passion
Narrator: John, sometimes described as Jesus' beloved disciple, never attained the prominence of Peter, or perhaps even that of Judas, with the millions of Christians across the centuries. While he offered a courageous and open witness to the faith, his enduring contribution was made as Jesus' confidant, a thoughtful advisor to the early Church -- and most prominently -- as the mind, if not the writer, of the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John 1, 2, and 3, and the book of Revelation.
His Gospel written for the Greek or Western mind is often cited by many modern-day Westerners as the Gospel of choice. Its thought patterns seem to mesh so easily with ours. While we may not have as sharp an image of John as we do of Peter, we highly value his written word.
John and his brother James were the sons of Zebedee, a well-established man of the fishing industry. In fact, John and James quite literally left their boats and net-mending to follow Jesus one day. We can imagine that Zebedee was dismayed that his sons "walked off the job" to follow an itinerate teacher with no discernible means of support. Their mother, however, took a keen interest in Jesus and busied herself to promote her sons' ranking with Jesus, a move that angered the other disciples. Even so, Jesus still included John and James with Peter as the men he wanted for his inner circle.
John: Almost from the beginning of our venture, Jesus selected Peter, my brother James, and me to witness a most unusual event. I often wondered why he chose us, but never quite found the appropriate time or the courage to ask him. Well, this day he took us up the mountain and he was transfigured -- made luminous -- before our very eyes, was visited by Elijah and Moses, and finally was blessed by a heavenly voice that said, "This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him!" (Mark 9:2-8). We dropped to the ground in fear. How could we stand in the presence of such an event? Jesus saw that we were frightened and overwhelmed, so he encouraged, nay ordered, us to get up and not be afraid. We knew our Master to be unusual and unique, but we had no idea at this point of his standing with our Heavenly Father. Of course we wanted to tell others what we saw and heard, but he forbad us to tell anyone until after his resurrection. We could only guess that, for the time being, this event was just for the four of us. Did he want us to be certain that he was who he said he was? I wondered more than ever why I had been included in that intimate circle. What could I contribute? Believe me, I wanted to hold up my end responsibly.
Jesus also selected the three of us to go with him when he went to heal Simon's mother-in-law. Again he had us accompany him when he was invited to the synagogue leader's home to heal his daughter. The people there thought he had come too late. When he tried to allay their fears by saying the daughter was only asleep, they laughed. Jesus was not deterred in the least. He simply called to her, "Little girl, get up," and immediately she got up (Mark 5:41).
The Master was so confident and certain of who he was and what he could do.
One day he sat the three of us down to talk about "end times." Later it was Peter and I he chose to prepare a place for the Last Supper, and finally he selected all three of us to accompany him to the Garden of Gethsemane. While we stood by him on other occasions, that night we failed him. We didn't listen to his word; we literally fell asleep.
Narrator: John never spoke of Gethsemane; I think it shamed him deeply. He always thought of enemies as being outside himself. Therefore, why would Jesus need him to stay awake? Jesus was safe enough in the Garden. But Jesus' enemy was to emerge from within and would bring him to a moment of great sorrow. John would not know of this until it was too late.
He was, however, ready for the outside enemy. Once he saw a man casting out demons in Jesus' name. He thought he was usurping Jesus' power and would have stopped him, but Jesus intervened in the man's behalf.
Another time a Samaritan village did not welcome the disciples, so John asked Jesus if he should bring down fire to consume them. Jesus once more intervened. There was nothing very subtle about the way John wanted to handle a perceived enemy.
John was ambitious. Once John and James, called the "sons of thunder," came to Jesus and announced, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you" (Mark 10:35-45). Prompted, perhaps by their mother's coaching, we find nothing delicate about their approach. Jesus was not ready to say, "Well, sure, men, whatever you want." Rather he wanted to know what it was they wanted. Perhaps we can admire their blunt honesty, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
Startled, Jesus said, "You don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized as I?"
Quite assured, they responded, "We are able" (Mark 10:37, 38).
Then Jesus concluded that they would drink the cup and be baptized as was he, but he informed them that the positions they sought were not his to give. The other disciples were angry at their brazen approach -- their open attempt to become the greatest in the kingdom. Jesus then taught them the necessity of becoming a slave or a servant of all.
Perhaps John's last effort as a man-in-charge came on the night of Jesus' arrest in the Garden. Peter and an unidentified man followed Jesus and the soldiers to Caiaphas' mansion. That unknown man scholars have since concluded was John. John went right through Caiaphas' gate into the courtyard and no one questioned him. When he saw Peter standing outside, he arranged with the maid to allow him to come in. Was he known there? Did he have influence there?
Obviously John was not a simple man. It's not possible to wrap him up in a nice, neat package. However, as his life moved along, he became more focused and revealed a gentler John that resulted in his being called the beloved disciple.
John: I suppose you noticed that my name doesn't appear in the Gospel or in the letters that claim me as author. It seems a little strange to me, now, for as I look at your New Testament I see my name in the other Gospels, Acts, Galatians, and Revelation.
It was my intention to highlight Jesus as the Christ. I wanted no one to be in error. He was the Messiah, the Savior, the Risen One. He was the light and the Word of God. Therefore, I determined to keep myself out of view as much as possible. The most obvious way was to keep my name out of the manuscript. I didn't write down every word; my aides assisted me frequently. They insisted that I couldn't be totally omitted, for I played such a key role in the life of Christ and in the establishment of the Church. They are the ones who came up with the "beloved disciple" phrase to identify me in a hidden kind of way.
Now I'm glad that you know that Peter and I were the ones who arranged the details for the Last Supper, that Jesus selected me to care for his mother, and I'm especially pleased that you know that I beat Peter in our foot race to the empty tomb. He was so often out ahead of the rest of us, it felt good once to get the best of him. Following the resurrection, Jesus waited on the seashore one morning, looking for us who were coming in from fishing. I was the first one to recognize him in his resurrected body.
Narrator: That incident of John, so quickly recognizing Jesus at a distance, suggests how well he knew the Master. What was it that allowed John to identify him before the others? Was it Jesus' stance? Was it the sun picking up the unusual highlights of Jesus' hair? Or was the Master in a pose much like other men, but with that subtle difference that immediately informed John who he was? Two people separated as far as human is from divine, yet so close that they could trust each other's word without question. The Messiah and the fisherman. The upfront teacher and the behind-the-scenes thinker, the peacemaker and the competitor, the proclaimer and the believer.
John: Shortly after Jesus' ascension into heaven, Peter and I found ourselves thrust to the forefront, for Peter this was familiar territory. Once it was familiar territory for me, but on this day it was a strange and forbidding place. You see, the two of us were on our way to the Temple to pray when we encountered a lame man who asked us for coins. Peter immediately explained that we had no silver or gold, but that we would gladly share with him what we did have. I gulped, what did Peter think we had -- and why didn't he just pass by? There were always more maimed people begging than we had alms. Then Peter said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk" (Acts 3:6). Whereupon Peter took the man's hand and helped him to his feet, and almost instantly the man began to walk and leap. He made quite a stir, for people coming here every day remembered his former condition. Peter was so quick to take advantage of whatever opportunity presented itself. So when a crowd gathered to see what happened, Peter seized the moment to preach.
I must say Peter was forthright, but sometimes I wished he was a little more diplomatic. The authorities were upset about Peter's preaching and moved quickly to arrest us and put us in jail for the night. If only Peter would have toned down his message a little, "You rejected the holy and righteous one ... you killed the author of life." If only he had softened his accusations, "And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3:14-17). Perhaps we could have gone unnoticed.
The next day we were brought before the rulers, scribes, elders, and even Annas and Caiaphas, the former and present high priests. We were questioned about the healing of the beggar: "By what power or by what name did you do this?" (Acts 4:17). Again Peter spoke plainly, very plainly. I dreaded to think of what might become of us. The authorities then dismissed us temporarily and huddled together. Finally they called us to them and ordered us not to speak in the name of Jesus again. Then, and I could hardly believe it, I found my voice accompanying Peter's.
"Whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19, 20). I was astounded at my wagging tongue. After threatening us again, they let us go. They might have beaten us, but they were put off by the people who had seen the healing who didn't want to see us imprisoned or harmed.
Narrator: Word came to these early Christians that some citizens of Samaria had become believers, so the community sent Peter and John to see if they were true believers. The two men had been elevated to high positions by their brethren. They met with the Samaritans and found them to be true believers indeed.
Later when Paul, who had been a persecutor of the Christians, was searching for approval that he might preach and witness to the faith, he met with various believers. But at last his "credentials" were established only after he was given the right hand of fellowship by none other than Peter, James, and John. Paul referred to them as "the acknowledged pillars." They were the new wave of leadership.
John: Soon our Christian community was engulfed with all kinds of challenges, such as spreading the word, caring for widows, raising money for the poor, creating an organization, establishing a moral code, handling of funds, assigning who was to preach and teach, where and when, etc. We almost drowned in a sea of details. In the meantime a more insidious enemy, Gnosticism, was emerging that could corrupt the very basic beliefs of our fellowship. I was alarmed that our faith could grow an offshoot that would threaten the main body of our faith. More importantly, we needed to tell the story of salvation so that it would make sense to the Greek world -- the Gentiles. Finally we needed to make clear that Jesus was the Christ and make no mistake about it!
Narrator: To this day a debate continues as to the authorship of the Gospel of John, the epistles of John, and the book of Revelation, which is also attributed to him. Perhaps it's a moot point, for a number of scholars agree if John didn't literally write or dictate these words, then the person/persons who did were so imbued with his thought that their words truly represent John's beliefs.
The other Gospel writers wanted to set down the story of Jesus -- an historical record. John's story of Jesus was also a record, but further it was a correction of a misbelief (Gnosticism) and a preparation for the future. He had set his sights on tomorrow and on the world beyond Israel. He wanted to set forth a proclamation of the faith that would endure in the midst of very different and unknown cultures. To this day his thought provides a steady hand as we attempt to understand how Jesus was both human and divine.
John: My brother James was the first martyr of that earliest Christian community. Some scholars have thought I was martyred. Others tell you I went to Ephesus and oversaw the work of the Western Church from that great city.
It is enough for me to know that you would read the books attributed to me, especially the Gospel account. I cannot tell you how excited, thrilled, scared, determined, hopeful, and assured we disciples felt in those three years we accompanied Jesus in Galilee and Judea. You see, we had life, truth, and love right in our midst. He was also the resurrection and the giver of eternal life. Could any journey in life be filled with more meaning and joy!
He still lives. Here. His power and hope have not diminished. It still is a matter of belief and faithfulness. The events that unfold will be different, but the inherent possibilities within them are still in his hands.
His Gospel written for the Greek or Western mind is often cited by many modern-day Westerners as the Gospel of choice. Its thought patterns seem to mesh so easily with ours. While we may not have as sharp an image of John as we do of Peter, we highly value his written word.
John and his brother James were the sons of Zebedee, a well-established man of the fishing industry. In fact, John and James quite literally left their boats and net-mending to follow Jesus one day. We can imagine that Zebedee was dismayed that his sons "walked off the job" to follow an itinerate teacher with no discernible means of support. Their mother, however, took a keen interest in Jesus and busied herself to promote her sons' ranking with Jesus, a move that angered the other disciples. Even so, Jesus still included John and James with Peter as the men he wanted for his inner circle.
John: Almost from the beginning of our venture, Jesus selected Peter, my brother James, and me to witness a most unusual event. I often wondered why he chose us, but never quite found the appropriate time or the courage to ask him. Well, this day he took us up the mountain and he was transfigured -- made luminous -- before our very eyes, was visited by Elijah and Moses, and finally was blessed by a heavenly voice that said, "This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him!" (Mark 9:2-8). We dropped to the ground in fear. How could we stand in the presence of such an event? Jesus saw that we were frightened and overwhelmed, so he encouraged, nay ordered, us to get up and not be afraid. We knew our Master to be unusual and unique, but we had no idea at this point of his standing with our Heavenly Father. Of course we wanted to tell others what we saw and heard, but he forbad us to tell anyone until after his resurrection. We could only guess that, for the time being, this event was just for the four of us. Did he want us to be certain that he was who he said he was? I wondered more than ever why I had been included in that intimate circle. What could I contribute? Believe me, I wanted to hold up my end responsibly.
Jesus also selected the three of us to go with him when he went to heal Simon's mother-in-law. Again he had us accompany him when he was invited to the synagogue leader's home to heal his daughter. The people there thought he had come too late. When he tried to allay their fears by saying the daughter was only asleep, they laughed. Jesus was not deterred in the least. He simply called to her, "Little girl, get up," and immediately she got up (Mark 5:41).
The Master was so confident and certain of who he was and what he could do.
One day he sat the three of us down to talk about "end times." Later it was Peter and I he chose to prepare a place for the Last Supper, and finally he selected all three of us to accompany him to the Garden of Gethsemane. While we stood by him on other occasions, that night we failed him. We didn't listen to his word; we literally fell asleep.
Narrator: John never spoke of Gethsemane; I think it shamed him deeply. He always thought of enemies as being outside himself. Therefore, why would Jesus need him to stay awake? Jesus was safe enough in the Garden. But Jesus' enemy was to emerge from within and would bring him to a moment of great sorrow. John would not know of this until it was too late.
He was, however, ready for the outside enemy. Once he saw a man casting out demons in Jesus' name. He thought he was usurping Jesus' power and would have stopped him, but Jesus intervened in the man's behalf.
Another time a Samaritan village did not welcome the disciples, so John asked Jesus if he should bring down fire to consume them. Jesus once more intervened. There was nothing very subtle about the way John wanted to handle a perceived enemy.
John was ambitious. Once John and James, called the "sons of thunder," came to Jesus and announced, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you" (Mark 10:35-45). Prompted, perhaps by their mother's coaching, we find nothing delicate about their approach. Jesus was not ready to say, "Well, sure, men, whatever you want." Rather he wanted to know what it was they wanted. Perhaps we can admire their blunt honesty, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
Startled, Jesus said, "You don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized as I?"
Quite assured, they responded, "We are able" (Mark 10:37, 38).
Then Jesus concluded that they would drink the cup and be baptized as was he, but he informed them that the positions they sought were not his to give. The other disciples were angry at their brazen approach -- their open attempt to become the greatest in the kingdom. Jesus then taught them the necessity of becoming a slave or a servant of all.
Perhaps John's last effort as a man-in-charge came on the night of Jesus' arrest in the Garden. Peter and an unidentified man followed Jesus and the soldiers to Caiaphas' mansion. That unknown man scholars have since concluded was John. John went right through Caiaphas' gate into the courtyard and no one questioned him. When he saw Peter standing outside, he arranged with the maid to allow him to come in. Was he known there? Did he have influence there?
Obviously John was not a simple man. It's not possible to wrap him up in a nice, neat package. However, as his life moved along, he became more focused and revealed a gentler John that resulted in his being called the beloved disciple.
John: I suppose you noticed that my name doesn't appear in the Gospel or in the letters that claim me as author. It seems a little strange to me, now, for as I look at your New Testament I see my name in the other Gospels, Acts, Galatians, and Revelation.
It was my intention to highlight Jesus as the Christ. I wanted no one to be in error. He was the Messiah, the Savior, the Risen One. He was the light and the Word of God. Therefore, I determined to keep myself out of view as much as possible. The most obvious way was to keep my name out of the manuscript. I didn't write down every word; my aides assisted me frequently. They insisted that I couldn't be totally omitted, for I played such a key role in the life of Christ and in the establishment of the Church. They are the ones who came up with the "beloved disciple" phrase to identify me in a hidden kind of way.
Now I'm glad that you know that Peter and I were the ones who arranged the details for the Last Supper, that Jesus selected me to care for his mother, and I'm especially pleased that you know that I beat Peter in our foot race to the empty tomb. He was so often out ahead of the rest of us, it felt good once to get the best of him. Following the resurrection, Jesus waited on the seashore one morning, looking for us who were coming in from fishing. I was the first one to recognize him in his resurrected body.
Narrator: That incident of John, so quickly recognizing Jesus at a distance, suggests how well he knew the Master. What was it that allowed John to identify him before the others? Was it Jesus' stance? Was it the sun picking up the unusual highlights of Jesus' hair? Or was the Master in a pose much like other men, but with that subtle difference that immediately informed John who he was? Two people separated as far as human is from divine, yet so close that they could trust each other's word without question. The Messiah and the fisherman. The upfront teacher and the behind-the-scenes thinker, the peacemaker and the competitor, the proclaimer and the believer.
John: Shortly after Jesus' ascension into heaven, Peter and I found ourselves thrust to the forefront, for Peter this was familiar territory. Once it was familiar territory for me, but on this day it was a strange and forbidding place. You see, the two of us were on our way to the Temple to pray when we encountered a lame man who asked us for coins. Peter immediately explained that we had no silver or gold, but that we would gladly share with him what we did have. I gulped, what did Peter think we had -- and why didn't he just pass by? There were always more maimed people begging than we had alms. Then Peter said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk" (Acts 3:6). Whereupon Peter took the man's hand and helped him to his feet, and almost instantly the man began to walk and leap. He made quite a stir, for people coming here every day remembered his former condition. Peter was so quick to take advantage of whatever opportunity presented itself. So when a crowd gathered to see what happened, Peter seized the moment to preach.
I must say Peter was forthright, but sometimes I wished he was a little more diplomatic. The authorities were upset about Peter's preaching and moved quickly to arrest us and put us in jail for the night. If only Peter would have toned down his message a little, "You rejected the holy and righteous one ... you killed the author of life." If only he had softened his accusations, "And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3:14-17). Perhaps we could have gone unnoticed.
The next day we were brought before the rulers, scribes, elders, and even Annas and Caiaphas, the former and present high priests. We were questioned about the healing of the beggar: "By what power or by what name did you do this?" (Acts 4:17). Again Peter spoke plainly, very plainly. I dreaded to think of what might become of us. The authorities then dismissed us temporarily and huddled together. Finally they called us to them and ordered us not to speak in the name of Jesus again. Then, and I could hardly believe it, I found my voice accompanying Peter's.
"Whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19, 20). I was astounded at my wagging tongue. After threatening us again, they let us go. They might have beaten us, but they were put off by the people who had seen the healing who didn't want to see us imprisoned or harmed.
Narrator: Word came to these early Christians that some citizens of Samaria had become believers, so the community sent Peter and John to see if they were true believers. The two men had been elevated to high positions by their brethren. They met with the Samaritans and found them to be true believers indeed.
Later when Paul, who had been a persecutor of the Christians, was searching for approval that he might preach and witness to the faith, he met with various believers. But at last his "credentials" were established only after he was given the right hand of fellowship by none other than Peter, James, and John. Paul referred to them as "the acknowledged pillars." They were the new wave of leadership.
John: Soon our Christian community was engulfed with all kinds of challenges, such as spreading the word, caring for widows, raising money for the poor, creating an organization, establishing a moral code, handling of funds, assigning who was to preach and teach, where and when, etc. We almost drowned in a sea of details. In the meantime a more insidious enemy, Gnosticism, was emerging that could corrupt the very basic beliefs of our fellowship. I was alarmed that our faith could grow an offshoot that would threaten the main body of our faith. More importantly, we needed to tell the story of salvation so that it would make sense to the Greek world -- the Gentiles. Finally we needed to make clear that Jesus was the Christ and make no mistake about it!
Narrator: To this day a debate continues as to the authorship of the Gospel of John, the epistles of John, and the book of Revelation, which is also attributed to him. Perhaps it's a moot point, for a number of scholars agree if John didn't literally write or dictate these words, then the person/persons who did were so imbued with his thought that their words truly represent John's beliefs.
The other Gospel writers wanted to set down the story of Jesus -- an historical record. John's story of Jesus was also a record, but further it was a correction of a misbelief (Gnosticism) and a preparation for the future. He had set his sights on tomorrow and on the world beyond Israel. He wanted to set forth a proclamation of the faith that would endure in the midst of very different and unknown cultures. To this day his thought provides a steady hand as we attempt to understand how Jesus was both human and divine.
John: My brother James was the first martyr of that earliest Christian community. Some scholars have thought I was martyred. Others tell you I went to Ephesus and oversaw the work of the Western Church from that great city.
It is enough for me to know that you would read the books attributed to me, especially the Gospel account. I cannot tell you how excited, thrilled, scared, determined, hopeful, and assured we disciples felt in those three years we accompanied Jesus in Galilee and Judea. You see, we had life, truth, and love right in our midst. He was also the resurrection and the giver of eternal life. Could any journey in life be filled with more meaning and joy!
He still lives. Here. His power and hope have not diminished. It still is a matter of belief and faithfulness. The events that unfold will be different, but the inherent possibilities within them are still in his hands.
