Just when do we first find John, the future teenage apostle?
And why isn't he at home, fishing on the lake with his father and brother?Did he run away from home?
Taken chronologically, John son of Zebedee first appears in the Bible as an anonymous disciple of John son of Zacharias, popularly known as John the Baptist (John 1:35). He is in the company of Andrew son of Jonas, evidently a close friend. A little background is useful here, to reveal some information we won't be exposed to until we wade farther into the chronological story of Jesus and his apostles.
Fathers Zebedee and Jonas are partners in a commercial fishing business at the Sea of Galilee. They each have two sons. Zebedee's sons are James the elder and John the younger. Jonas's sons are Simon the elder and Andrew the younger. As the youngest members of this co-op, it is natural that John and Andrew would hang out with one another and become friends.
Church tradition very solidly identifies John as the youngest apostle, which is even more likely since we find this apostle still writing Bible material near the very end of the First Century. As a simple guess, it is likely that Andrew is also a teenager here, or at least a young adult. As John himself writes the story, he never reveals his personal name, although he does describe his personal relationship with Jesus.
Young John has solid employment prospects in the fishing business, and a very protective mother to keep him on the straight and narrow. But at this juncture he appears to be alone with his best friend Andrew, many miles south of his home in Bethsaida, which is far to the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
What happened? Did he have a fight with his dad or his brother? Did he dislike the fishing business? Was his mother overbearing? Did he have a strong independence streak?
Well, a few verses later we find out that these young men are not actually alone. More on that later, but first we will look at what John as Gospel-writer reveals to us in his story.
JOHN 1:1-5 - THE NATURE OF JESUS THE MESSIAH.
John begins his Gospel many years later with the most explosive theological concept since the creation of the universe: "The Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not comprehended it." No teenager could have written this. The apostle John had lived 40 more years before he was ready to share this news. But this concept is for another blog on another day.
JOHN 1:6-18 - THE NATURE OF THE BAPTIST AND HIS MESSAGE.
John continues his Gospel with a general description of who John the Baptist is, and what he is preaching. This is a general summary of the Baptist, not an historical "event."
JOHN 1:19-28 - FIRST DAY: THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
The Baptist has been preaching and baptizing long enough to attract the attention of the Pharisees and the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. They have sent priests and Levites to grill him on who he claims to be and what he is doing and why. His testimony: "I am a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord.' I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. He comes after me."
This is an historical event, and young John is an eye-witness to it and describes it. But the Baptist said, "among you stands..." a more important person. Well, maybe the person is standing right there in the crowd, but our intrepid teenager has no idea which man the Baptist is talking about.
JOHN 1:29-34 - SECOND DAY: THE BAPTIST IDENTIFIES THE LAMB OF GOD.
The next day the Baptist sees the man coming and says, "BEHOLD the Lamb of God. This is the man I was talking about. He will baptize in the Holy Spirit. I saw the Spirit descend like a dove and remain on him. This is the Son of God!"
Teenage John is an eye-witness again and describes the scene. But he takes no other action. Is he too slow on the uptake? Is Andrew not with him? We don't know, But the man continues his passage through the throng and disappears up the path.
JOHN 1:35-42 - THIRD DAY: THE BAPTIST IDENTIFIES THE LAMB OF GOD AGAIN.
Jesus is walking, passing by without stopping. But both John and Andrew were there to hear the Baptist speak, and they immediately began following the man. The man turned and asked them, "What do you seek?" Together they said, "Teacher, where are you staying?" The man answered, "Come, and you will see."
The two followed him to where he was staying, and evidently talked with Jesus there. Andrew then went to find his brother Simon (who is nearby, evidently), saying, "We have found the Messiah!" Andrew brought Simon to Jesus and Jesus gave him a new name, Peter. ('Peter' is Greek, 'Cephas' is Aramaic.) It was about 4pm, so they stayed with Jesus that night. Was Simon Peter's wife also with them? We don't know, but it is quite possible that even if she were, the Gospel-writer would not have mentioned her. First century customs were all about the men, and the women often got little notice.
And what about John's older brother "Big" James? If he were there, wouldn't John the Gospel-writer have mentioned him? Or, contrary-wise, perhaps there was bad feelings between the brothers? We can't make too much of this, because even though John's Gospel mentions "The Twelve" four times, he only mentions 7 out of the 12 apostles by name, not including his brother. It seems John's Gospel only mentions a name if John has a specific incident attributed to that name. See "Judas (not Iscariot)" for example, at John 14:22.
JOHN 1:43-51 - FOURTH DAY: TWO MORE DISCIPLES, DEPARTURE FOR CANA.
Jesus "finds Philip," an acquaintance of John, and says "Follow Me." John and Philip both live in Bethsaida. Then Philip "found Nathanael." Nathanael is from Cana, miles to the west of the Sea of Galilee. Philip told Nathanael they had found the man forecast by the prophet, and brought him to Jesus. Jesus and Nathanael have an interesting conversation, which will be the subject of a coming blog post. Then Jesus with his retinue of Andrew, John, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael depart for Cana, where they have been invited to a wedding, where Jesus' mother will be assisting (still another coming blog post).
JOHN 2:1 - THE SIXTH DAY: JESUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS ARRIVE IN CANA.
Stay tuned: Lots of fascinating human-interest stuff goes on in Cana.
