A Life of St. John for the Young Part 6

Once more we find the two pair of brothers on the sh.o.r.e of Gennesaret, not together, but within hailing distance. All night long they have toiled at fishing without any reward. The morning has dawned. Wearied and with the marks of labor on their persons and their garments, their empty boats drawn upon the beach, they are mending their nets which have been torn by the waves, and cleansing them from the sand which has been gathered instead of the fishes they sought.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JACOB'S WELL _From Photograph_ Page 91]

Meanwhile a mult.i.tude of people in the neighboring field is listening to the Master. The fishermen may hear His voice, but their nets must not be left in disorder; they must be put in readiness for another trial, which, though they know it not, will be most abundantly rewarded.

They cannot go to Him, but He comes to them with a greeting and a command, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men."

The time had come for Him to gather His first disciples more closely about Him for instruction and preparation and service in His kingdom.

They had seen proofs of His Messiahship. They had been with Him long enough to know something of His work and teachings, and what was included in His call to follow Him. They understood it meant leaving their boats and nets by which they had earned their daily bread, and even leaving their homes, and going with Him wherever He went, trusting Him for support, ready to do anything to which all this would lead them.

Their belief in Him, and their love for Him, were enough to secure immediate obedience to the new command.

In their faithfulness in their duties in their former life, in the carefulness in mending their nets, in the patience and perseverance during the nights of fruitless toil, in their thoughtfulness, skill and experience in catching fish--in such things Christ found likeness of what He would make them to become--fishers of men. From their old business He would teach them lessons about the new,--of His power, the abundance of His store, and the great things they were to do for Him and their fellow-men. Before they leave it, He makes Himself a kind of partner with them. Having used Simon's boat for a pulpit for teaching, He tells him to launch out into the deep and to let down his net. It encloses a mult.i.tude of fishes. Andrew and James with their brothers whom they had called to Jesus, the first company to follow Him from the Jordan, are the first to do so in a new and fuller sense from the sh.o.r.es of Gennesaret, where they first learned of Him.

There is something touching in the special reference to the call of the sons of Salome, whose relation to Mary first interested us in them. It is said of Jesus, "He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother and He called them. And they immediately left their father in the ship with the hired servants. They forsook all and followed Him."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES _Old Engraving_ Page 94]

What reminders do we here have of the past! James and John, true brothers in childhood, united in business in early life, now hand in hand commence life anew. Having become the help, and much more the companions of their father they must leave him to the companionship of hired servants. But in this hour of sundering family ties, the loving father and loving sons rejoice in Jesus as their Master whom they all willingly obey.

He chose twelve whom He called Apostles. Such was the glorious company, composed of young men, the most honored in all earthly history, to be His closest companions, His missionary family. During the remainder of His life He would train them; and when leaving the world trust their faithfulness and devotion in extending His kingdom. The two pair of brothers and their early friend Philip are the first named of the Apostles. The early Bethsaidan group composed almost one-half of the apostolic company. But within that circle there was another. Three of the twelve were chosen by the Lord for closer intimacy. They were to be special witnesses of His greatest power, His most radiant glory, and His deepest sorrow upon earth. They were Peter, James and John. Two of the three, Peter and John, were to be united in special service for their Lord while He was with them, and so continue after He was gone. But of the twelve Jesus drew one closest to Himself, most loved and the most glorious of them all: it was John.

In seeking a reason for Christ's fixing the number of His disciples, some have found a fancied one in the twelve precious stones of Aaron's breastplate. The most precious stone would represent John, the chosen one of the Great High Priest. In his own vision of the new Jerusalem "the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones." "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb." It was that Lamb of G.o.d to which he had been pointed on the Jordan, and to which he points us as he beholds Him by the "gla.s.sy sea." As John read those names did he not recall the day when Jesus chose twelve whom "He named Apostles"?

_CHAPTER XV_

_John in the Home of Jairus_

"He suffered no man to follow with Him, save Peter, and James, and John. And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue."

"And taking the child by the hand, He saith unto her, Talitha c.u.mi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel I say unto thee, Arise. And straightway the damsel rose up, and walked."--_Mark_ v. 37, 38, 41, 42.

The first scene in which we find John as one of the favored three is in the house of mourning. It was the home of Jairus in Capernaum. He was a ruler of the synagogue. "He had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying." He hastened to Jesus, fell at His feet, worshiped Him, and besought Him saying, "Come and lay Thy hands on her that she may be healed; and she shall live."

Did he not have in mind Peter's wife's mother, living in the same town, and how Jesus "came and took her by the hand and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her"? Jesus started for the house, followed by a throng, some doubtless full of tender sympathy for their townsman, and some curious to see what the wonder-worker would do.

A messenger from Jairus' home met him saying, "Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master." But the father's faith in Jesus was not limited to the power to heal. Could not the hand that had already touched the bier of the widow's only son, be laid on his only daughter, with life-restoring power? Could not the command spoken in Nain "I say unto thee, arise," be repeated in Capernaum, and in like manner be obeyed?

Without heeding the messenger's question about troubling the Master, he cried out yet more earnestly, "My daughter is even now dead; but lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live." But the father's entreaty was unnecessary, for Jesus was already responding to the messenger's words as, turning to Jairus, He said, "Fear not, only believe."

How eagerly the curious crowd hastened toward the ruler's home, because of a possible miracle, even raising the dead. But they were not to be witnesses of such display of Divine power. Yet even if the throng be excluded, might not the Twelve, following close to Jairus and Jesus, expect admission to the home? What was the surprise and disappointment of nine of them to be forbidden admission by Him whom they were following. But so it was. "When He came to the house He suffered not any man to enter in with Him, save Peter, and John and James, and the father of the maiden, and her mother."

[Ill.u.s.tration: RAISING THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS _H. Hofmann_ Page 99]

This is the first we know of this distinction in the apostolic band. We almost hear the nine saying, "Why is this?" Can it be that, in that hour, at the door of this house of mourning, there was awakened the feeling of jealousy which afterward appeared? Did it inspire in the three a sense of superiority, and ambition to be higher in position than the rest in the kingdom of their Lord? Did James and John especially hope for promotion above the nine, and even the ten including Peter? So it will appear. But all this was to pa.s.s away when the band better understood the nature of their Lord's kingdom, and possessed more of His spirit.

The death-chamber was too sacred a place for numbers, even for the nine, whose admittance would be more fitting than that of the hired mourners whom Jesus excluded with them. He had His own wise reasons for the choice of the three. We do not wonder that John was one of them. With all his manifest failings--which he at last overcame--he was the most like his Master. In that death-chamber the Lord was to show His "gentleness and delicacy of feeling and action" such as John could understand, and with which he could sympathize.

"And taking the child by the hand, He saith unto her, Talitha, c.u.mi." We are glad that Mark has preserved for us the very words that must have thrilled the heart of John. They had been interpreted, "My little lamb, my pet lamb, rise up." In them was a lesson for John. They were a revelation of his Master's tenderness toward childhood. It was a needed lesson, which he finally learned.

As John and Peter saw the returning life of the little maid, and heard their Master's command "that something should be given her to eat," they thought not of the time when they should stand together again near the same spot with the same Master, Himself risen from the dead, and hear Him utter another command, "Feed My lambs."

As they with James followed their Lord out from the death-chamber--such no longer--and heard His charge "that no man should know" what had happened, the very secrecy drew more distinctly the line of the inner circle about the three. It was not to be erased during the Lord's earthly sojourn with the twelve.

_CHAPTER XVI_

_John a Beholder of Christ's Glory_

"We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father."--_St. John_ i. 14.

"We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from G.o.d the Father honor and glory ... when we were with Him in the holy mount."--2 _Peter_ i. 16-18.

"As brightest sun, His face is bright; His raiment, as the light, is white, Yea, whiter than the whitest snow.

Moses, Elias, spake with Him.

Of deepest things, of terrors grim, Of boundless bliss, and boundless woe, Of pangs that none but Christ may know.

"A voice sublime I panting hear, A voice that conquers grief and fear, Revealing all eternity; Revealing G.o.d's beloved Son, Born to redeem a world undone; Filled with G.o.d's fulness from on high, To gain G.o.d's n.o.blest victory."

--_Trans. Kingo of Denmark._

We may think of the twelve as Christ's family with whom He often prayed apart from the mult.i.tude. One such occasion was in Caesarea Philippi. The prayer was followed by two earnest and solemn questions. "He asked the disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

How strange these sayings must have sounded to St. John and his Jordan companions, who had been directed by the Baptist to their Messiah. Three of them were soon to witness Elijah's tribute to Him, as being more than the "Son of Man." Such already had He become to them. He was more interested in the opinions of the disciples than in those of the mult.i.tude. So He asked with emphasis, "But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living G.o.d. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven."

But in the mind of Jesus even this blessed revelation was not enough for His believing yet frail disciples. Even the three, the most enlightened of the twelve, needed a clearer vision of Him and His kingdom, and strength for trials they were to endure. So they needed His prayers.

"From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, ... and be killed." He needed prayer also for Himself. So "Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James and John, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves."

The favored three, who had witnessed His power in the raising of Jairus'

daughter, were to be witnesses of his glory. Luke says He "went up into the mountain to pray." Not Tabor,--for which mistaken tradition has claimed the honor--but Hermon was doubtless the "high mountain." This kingly height of the Lebanon range was a fitting place for Jesus the King. The glittering splendor of its snows is a fitting emblem of His character. It was the highest earthly spot on which He stood. From it He had His most extensive views. Here He had His most exalted earthly experience. Peter rightly named it "the Holy Mount" because of its "glory that excelleth" all other mountains.

We do not know the thoughts or feelings or words of the nine when Jesus "taketh with Him the three." We wonder whether their wonder was at all mixed with jealousy. As they saw the three "apart by themselves," their lessening forms ascending Hermon, and at last hidden from their view by the evening shades, can it be that the dispute began which cast a gloom over their Lord when He descended from that mountain of glory?

And the three themselves--what were their emotions as they looked down upon their companions in the plain below, and upward to the height whither their Master was bringing them. Did they whisper together concerning the word He had just spoken--that He must die. They must have had such mingling of feelings as they never had before.

It was the evening after a Sabbath. At the close of the weary summer day, after the long and steep ascent of the mountain, and in the strong mountain air, it is no wonder that the three disciples were "weighted with sleep."

Luke not only tells us that Jesus went up "to pray" but also that "He prayed." Would that John had recorded that prayer, as he did those supplications in the Upper Room and in Gethsemane. "As we understand it," says Edersheim, "the prayer with them had ceased, or merged into silent prayer of each, or Jesus now prayed alone and apart."

On the banks of the Jordan, where Jesus and the three had met, while He "was praying, the heavens were opened," and the dove-like form descended upon Him, and His Father's voice was heard. And now "as He prayed,"

there came an answer, immediate and glorious: "He was transfigured before them."

The disciples though "weighted with sleep," "having remained awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him." It was many years after this vision that John, speaking for the three, testified, "We saw His glory."