“WITH JOHN, YOU ARE THE DISCIPLES THAT JESUS LOVES”
Saint John 21: 19-24
Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist: 27 December Anno Domini 2020
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The God of Gods, Light of Lights, Who is indeed Trinitarian and Immanent in His real and bodily Presence is not concept, idea, proposition. He is certainly no mere social construct that brough thousand, maybe millions, together last Thursday night—more around families, customs, traditions, and hopes for some normality in a darker than ever fallen world. Last Thursday Eve and the following Friday’s celebration of God’s Nativity (Immanuel) should have been for the Holy and Blessed Mass; the Feast of Eucharist wherein God the giver feeds, forgives, and fortifies His flock: PEOPLE…always people and all of you. This is the way God loves the world.
There is family. There is also warfare. There is always sin and thus there will always be struggle. Jesus is Born, Goodwill toward men indeed. Jesus is Crucified, dead, and buried. Your warfare is accomplished, you work has been done by Jesus. He is your Law keeper. Your sins have been cleaned away. He is your Atoning Sacrifice. By His stripes you are healed and His Blood is your drink and His Body the Bread of your life. Jesus lives, the victory’s won, death no longer can appall you. But what about Saint Stephen? Jesus died for him. He had Peter and James and Matthew as friends and one was his Bishop. He was murdered in a horrible way by a mob of Christ haters. But what about the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem? Herod had the male children two years and younger slaughtered. They were not given sedatives or anesthesia before being hacked to death. The Great Feast of Our Lord’s Nativity is followed by St. Stephen’s Day (yesterday, the 26th) and Holy Innocents (tomorrow, the 28th) So much blood during the Christmas Season. Blood as road markers, landing strip lights, leading straight from the Creche to the Crucifix. Keep Christ in Christmas, yes. Keep the Mass in Christmas, yes. But keep The Nativity in The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Emmanuel, oh yes!
Our Lord, on the Sea of Galilee, told Saint Peter, in clear, but typological language, that the Fisherman, Prince of the Apostles, would one day too be martyred. Peter was; crucified upside-down blood draining down to cover his head—as Jesus had covered his head in Holy + Washing. But then there was Saint John: Apostle and Evangelist; the Disciple whom Jesus loved; The Divine and The Theologian as Christians have so called him for 2,000 years.
John, besides being many (maybe most) Christians “favorite” Disciple, is indeed the Disciple of Love and the one Whom Jesus loved. He was the one, given by The Holy Spirit, who recorded “God so loved the world” [John 3.16] and “God is love” [1 Jn.]. He was the one that Jesus permitted to lean his head on God’s own real and solid chest during The Last Supper.
Peter perhaps speaking for all fallen Christians who do not like the idea of greater glory for greater Saints, or for rankings in earthly merit. Not merit for forgiveness, but merit for laud and honor amongst the entire family of faith. “What shall this man do?” says Peter. “But what about him, will he too be martyred, will he have an easier way than I will? What about fairness. Am I not his senior? Why my family came over with Walther. Why my family has been LCMS forever. Even some jealousy between the Lord’s called and ordained “12.”
The Lord’s will is done, and always will be done. If Christ keeps some of His Saints from contracting cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and other chronic diseases; so be it. We are all clay pots. We are all imperfect and marred. But we all are filled with the same Spirit. All Jesus’ disciples are given life by the same Food; the same Atoning Word of absolution.
And what if Saint John was not martyred? Scripture actually does not say that he wouldn’t be killed; or that he would. We last see The Theologian on the Isle of Patmos soaring in the visions of the Resurrected Messias higher in the heavens than the namesake Eagle that is his Gospel symbol.
Is this text Law? To be sure. God’s will be done. The providential preservation of predestined Saints is in His hands; His blood stained and pierced hands. You are to tarry until He returns, being the good and faithful servant and the watchman on the wall. You will die or not. And in the words of hymnist/theologian Martin + Franzman “what of that, what of that.” By His Holy Spirit we pattern not Saint Martha, concerned about what others are doing or not doing. We pattern not the Disciples that became indignant when James, and John, once had their mother ask about sitting on special thrones; quibbling about “who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Is this good news (Gospel)? To be sure…to be sure to death, Final Advent, and Judgment! You have a Saint, greatest of the “12” as your author and guide. That’s good. But it isn’t the author’s biography that saves you it’s the story, the content, and the physical message that encounters you that redeems the day, the age, and the gathered flock. Saint Mary of Bethany sat at Christ’s feet and listened—The Word worked. James and Peter fell on their faces at the Transfiguration and listened to the Words from the dark cloud—The Word worked. They both remained faithful till their bloody martyrdoms. The last of the Apostles? He wrote and preached and was Bishop and pastor. He was steward of the mysteries for his parish and he wrote for future Christian pastors and their Saintly parishioners: YOU!
He who stood comforting The Virgin at the foot of the Cross as Immanuel, no longer infant tender, was exalted and enthroned to be The Lamb of God—taking away your sins and the trespasses of the world; He saw the blood and water, the spear pierced side into the heart of God; He testifies of these things, your Salvation, Forgiveness, and Life. And you know his testimony is true. You have Jesus’ Word on it. You have The Lord’s same Body and Blood for you and in you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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