St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
Although for much of the world Christmas is over and trees are making their way to the curbs, we in the Church are just at the very beginning of our Christmas celebrations. For the Church, Christmas is a 12 day celebration and today we are at day three. We are at the day of the three French hens, according to the Christmas carol, which served as a catechetical song to teach the faith during a time of persecution in England. The three French hens are supposed to represent the three virtues of faith, hope and love.
But there is also more—on the three days after Christmas Day, the Church also remembers some saints. On the day after Christmas, the 26th, the Church remembers St. Stephen—that’s the feast day when good king Wenceslaus looked out and saw the snow deep and crisp and even. St. Stephen was the first one killed for his faith in Jesus. His martyrdom is recorded in the book of Acts. Tomorrow is the Feast of the Holy Innocents—those are the boy babies in and around Bethlehem that King Herod had killed in his attempt to kill the Baby Jesus. The Day of the Holy Innocents is also an opportune time to reflect and mourn over the thousands of babies killed each day in our country through abortion. And of course, today we remember the holy apostle and evangelist, St. John, who although was not killed for his faith in Jesus suffered for it.
So what gives? Right on the heels of this most glorious and joyful day of the celebration of Jesus’ birth, of celebrating God becoming man to be our Savior, of heaven and earth uniting in Jesus we have remembrances of suffering and death! But this too points us to the greatness of Christmas. –If something vital did not happen that first Christmas, it would have gone by unnoticed; it would have gone by unnoticed by the devil and his allies. But these remembrances right after Christmas, remembrances involving suffering and even the shedding of blood remind us of the great event that happened that day: with God becoming also true man and entering the world being born that day, everything changed. The whole order of the world was being changed—the devil who was holding control of the world/ was the prince of this world was about to be overthrown by Jesus who had just come. In the background of this joyous Christmas season are all the devil’s attempts to try to stop this overthrow be it by the trying to kill Jesus by killing the innocents of Bethlehem; be it by the killing of Christians beginning with St. Stephen and down through the ages; be it by various other sufferings like exiles, like St. John suffered, and persecutions to try to stop his power and kingdom from being overthrown. So when Jesus comes that first Christmas to create something new—the old order of things fights against it and continues to fight against it even though Jesus won the battle as He died and rose again and is coming again in power on the Last Day.
Really Christmas is not about sentimentality and nostalgia. It is really about something new—Jesus ushering in a new order. And that battle against Jesus is still being fought against Him—and we, His dear Christians, are in the midst of it.
That’s what we see in our text today. At Christmas as we reflect on Who was born and what He would do, we again hear Jesus saying to us what He said to St. Peter: “You follow Me!” So what does this following Jesus look like? As we examine our text we will see that following Jesus is both different for everybody and the same for everybody. Peter…said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”
The events of our text take place sometime after Easter. Jesus had just restored St. Peter to apostleship, who on early Good Friday morning had denied Jesus but later repented. And then after restoring Peter to apostleship, Jesus told him: Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” And then St. John, who far outlived St. Peter and certainly knew of his end explains this: This [Jesus] spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when [Jesus] had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.” St. Peter would die a martyr’s death, according to tradition in Rome by crucifixion during Nero’s persecutions. And certainly St. Peter also understood that Jesus was speaking about his death and the way he would die; and certainly St. Peter had a great joy to glorify God by martyrdom and that’s why our text begins as it does: Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” Peter seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Here St. Peter heard that he would glorify Jesus by being killed on account of His confession and faith. And he was filled with such love for St. John that he was hoping John could share in the same that he did. His question boiled down to: shall dear John have less than me? Here was truly following Jesus—following Him even into crucifixion. But what was Jesus’ answer? Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” In other words, following Jesus will be different for everybody. Not even all the apostles died a martyr’s death. St. John followed and glorified Jesus in different ways. He did not die a martyr’s death. Instead, the Holy Spirit used St. John to write the Gospel and letters to churches—three of which He saw fit to preserve in the NT; and St. John was blessed by the Lord with a glimpse into heaven and a view of Church History, which St. John describes in Revelation. We read about some of John’s teaching and work early in the book of Acts. According to traditions in the Church St. John lived in the city of Ephesus. In about 90 AD during the persecutions by the Roman Emperor Domitian, John suffered for Christ and was exiled to the island of Patmos where he saw and wrote the Revelation. He returned from exile and died of a ripe old age in the early 2nd century while Trajan was Roman emperor. St. John glorified Jesus while contemplating and waiting and although he suffered exile, he died without wounds or torment. John writes in our text about himself: This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. Notice: St. John glorifies Jesus by being an eyewitness: he testifies of these things; by being a writer: he wrote these things; and whose life becomes a witness: we know that his testimony is true. Very different from St. Peter—but guess what? Both were following Jesus!
All this means that following Jesus is not a “one size fits all” or that there is a “cookie-cutter” Christian. The Lord calls us all to follow Him but we follow Him in all sorts of different ways. We dare not compare ourselves to other Christians—either to run ourselves down or to look down on others. The Lord uses us all in different ways but to glorify Him! The vital thing for us is to follow Jesus where He leads us. We follow Him in faith as we live out our lives where He has called us to serve Him and living a life of good works flowing from faith.
What great peace and comfort we can have! Jesus is leading the way for us and we follow Him. The future can seem very ominous to us. And the Lord in His mercy will withhold the knowledge of the future from us. If we knew all the upcoming events, how much more worry and fretting we would suffer! Just think of all the worry we would have endured going into 2020 if we knew what would happen! And now with 2021 right before us—who knows what will happen? But again, what a great peace we have when the future looks ominous! We have Jesus’ command: You follow Me. Don’t ask questions—simply follow Jesus where He is leading. He will take care of it.
In other words, we walk by faith—faith in that Baby that was born that first Christmas to be our Savior and lead us to heaven. We may not like, for the moment, the way/ path the Lord is leading us on but we know that He loves us—that’s what Christmas shows us, not to mention Good Friday and Easter—and He will work everything for our spiritual and eternal good. By faith, we have a simple trust in the wisdom of the Lord’s guidance. Jesus says You follow Me and faith says “yes and amen.” Just like the Lord led Sts. Peters and John in very different ways but in ways that glorified Him, so too the Lord leads each of us in ways to glorify Him. To each of us Jesus says You follow Me and walking by faith we have great joy in the Lord even in great suffering and trial because we know we are going where Jesus is leading us!
Although following Jesus is different for everybody, it is also the same for everybody. You follow Me! Following Jesus means that all who follow Him have a single-minded devotion to Him. What does this mean? It means that our lives are not all about us; we are not the center and focus of our lives but the Lord is. Our lives do not revolve around us, otherwise it would not be You follow Me but You follow yourself! If each were to follow him/herself, each would only be looking out for their own interest, serving only their own desires, wants and appetites. As we follow Jesus, it means that we all—wherever the Lord has placed us/ whatever our situation—strive to do the Lord’s will. Following Jesus means to turn away from our sin and our desires; it means repenting of our sin and following Jesus in all holiness; it means confessing our sin receiving Jesus’ holiness and forgiveness.
When we make ourselves—our desires—the center of our life, we keep turning in on ourselves; we never progress; we spiral more and more downward into sin and emptiness. When we look up and out and follow Jesus, having Him at the center of our lives, then our lives are rightly ordered; then the emptiness we so often feel is gone because the things of this world—money, power, pleasure, etc.—can never and do never satisfy; the sin and guilt that plague us are gone and forgiven. When we follow Jesus, He is glorified in our lives and we have great joy.
You follow Me. As we follow Jesus, what is also the same for all people is that we all stay faithful to our Lord’s word and teaching. Again notice: the Lord, not self, is the center of our life. How vital the Lord’s word is in following Him, St. John writes in our text: And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. We only have a partial knowledge of all that Jesus said and did, but we have all that we need to know. To follow Jesus we hold to His word; we continually study, meditate, and apply it to ourselves, for here He speaks to us and gives us His Holy Spirit. That’s why we daily read and study God’s word at home; that’s why we gather together here in church. We cannot be the same after being in contact with the word. Through it, our Lord Himself comes to us and strengthens our faith to hear His command You follow Me. Here Jesus strengthens us to follow Him—wherever and however He leads us—in the full joy and confidence that He is leading us safely to heaven. In the visible word of the Sacrament we taste and see Jesus coming and uniting bodily/ physically with us in the bread and wine. United with Him, we follow Him. United with Him, we will go where He has gone—heaven! What a gracious command/invitation: You follow Me. Dear Christian, like St. John, whom we remember today, did, let us follow Jesus. INJ