The One Jesus Loves

Today is the Feast Day of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist.

Preachers and scholars sometimes tease John for calling himself “the disciple Jesus loved.” They read a bit of egotism and neediness in the apposition.

But remember that this is the same John who reminds others who walk in God’s love through faith in Jesus how deeply loved they are by God. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us,” he writes in 1 John 3:19.

I think when John refers to himself as the disciple loved by Jesus, he expresses humility and awe bordering on incredulity.

Jesus gave John and his brother James the nicknames, “sons of thunder.” That may be because they once asked Jesus if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that wanted nothing to do with Jesus. Or, it may be because they once asked Jesus if they could be his right- and left-hand men when He became King, confidently assuring Jesus they could take any adversity Jesus might experience.

I imagine John shaking his head at memories like these, memories of his sinful arrogance and condescending judgment toward others, and thinking, “But Jesus still loves me. He still gives me forgiveness and eternal life.”

John understood that the God revealed to all the world in Jesus loves and wants us to be with Him now and always despite our sin. He spent a lifetime trying to wrap his mind around the fact that the world loved by God included him.

It includes you too, friends.

We have that from Jesus Himself, in words noted by John in the third chapter of his gospel. There Jesus says:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Sinners though we are, those, prompted by God’s Spirit to daily turn away from sin and death to believe in Jesus, Who brings forgiveness and life, will have the same sense of awe and incredulity in describing themselves as disciples loved by Jesus.

May you walk each day in that blessed mystery.

[For a beautiful consideration of Saint John by Chad Bird, see here.]