“Rend your hearts and not your garments.” (Joel 2:13) In John’s Gospel there is a figure that is presented as having embraced the challenge of Joel’s call to conversion. This figure is known as the ‘Beloved Disciple’. This peculiar and somewhat mysterious disciple is portrayed as the model example of faith in Christ. Throughout the course of the Church’s history there has been much speculation as to the exact identity of this figure. Being content to leave this speculation to the work of scholars and theologians it will be my hope to examine this beloved disciple as he is presented in the fourth gospel and what he has to offer those who seek to draw close to the heart of the master, Jesus Christ, in faith and love.
What exactly is it that the Beloved Disciple has to offer us as those aspiring to draw close to Christ? Before answering this question directly I think it would be important to point out the ways in which he is present in the Gospel. The Beloved Disciple first appears at the last supper, where he is presented as being the one who held the place of honor, namely, near the heart of Christ. From there he is seen to be in the courtyard of the high priest as a result of being known unto the high priest. After this he is situated at the foot of the cross with Mary who is referred to as the ‘mother of Jesus’. He is seen to have ventured to the empty tomb with Peter whom he outruns. Afterward when Peter decides to go fishing and some of the disciple go with him, the Beloved Disciple is shown to be present as the one who points out the presence of the Lord to Peter. Finally, we hear of the disciple whom Jesus loved when Jesus invites Peter to follow him in love for the sake of his sheep.
One of the major reasons why the Beloved Disciple is of importance to those seeking to be effective disciples of the Lord is seen in the fact that: “The only one of the disciples who had not seen but had believed was the beloved disciple, founder figure of the Johannine faith community/tradition. He was unique in that he alone of the original disciples has come to faith without seeing the Lord.” (Mullins 409) This is highly relevant in terms of discipleship seeing that throughout the course of the Gospel Jesus is portrayed as inviting faith that is not based solely upon signs and wonders.
Another major reason the Beloved Disciple is relevant to the aspiring follower of Christ is without a doubt to be found in his love. “This historical Beloved disciple (whose identity is still a mystery) is the model for all Jesus’ followers who become loving believers in the risen Jesus.” (Schneider 239) This example of love sets an example of what true disciple should look like and what it is capable of in terms of being the optic through which the invisible can be seen in the heart. It is because of his great love for Christ that he is able to give birth to resurrection faith simply by witnessing the empty tomb.
The faith and love of this Beloved disciple has already given life to a community that has taken its strength from his witness. Raymond Brown points out: “The beloved disciple, the hero of the community, is singled out as the peculiar object of Jesus’ love and is the only male disciple never to have abandoned Jesus.” (Brown 89) This strong witness not only gained the admiration of the community that gathered around his example but it has also won the admiration of countless Christians throughout the past two thousand years of the Church’s history. It is this disciple’s love that is the most important contribution that we can seek to emulate in living out our call to discipleship. This disciple’s love knew what it was like to faithful in trying times. We see this in the gospel account when we are told that after “having reclined on his bosom at the last supper and shared his confidence about the identity of the betrayer, the Beloved Disciple’s love for Jesus was tested when, far from denying him, he remained with him at the cross, and as representative of all disciples, received the Holy Spirit as Jesus bowed his head and handed over the Spirit.” (Mullins 414) This disciple’s love led him to stand at the foot of the cross, a move that could have cost him his own life for choosing to associate himself with someone who was regarded as a possible threat to both Jewish and Roman authorities.
It is the Beloved Disciple’s love that is most characteristic of what it means to be an authentic disciple according to the writer of John’s Gospel. For the sake of illustrating this characteristic of love and highlighting it in terms of discipleship, the gospel of John often compares Peter and the Beloved Disciple. The reason that the writer of the Gospel makes use of Peter to illustrate his point on the necessity of love in discipleship is that Peter was the one who was entrusted with the task of ‘feeding the sheep’ of Christ in Christ’s place. Raymond Brown in pointing to the resurrection account says, “Peter is not the special hero of the Johannine writer. The Beloved disciple has that role; and the writer takes special interest in showing the beloved disciple’s ‘primacy of love,’ a superiority that does not exclude Peter’s possessing another type of primacy. As for the incidents in 20:3-10, the two disciples’ running to the tomb is expressive of their concern upon hearing Magdalene’s report; such concern touches upon love, so naturally the Beloved Disciple outdistances Peter-he loves Jesus more. We cannot exclude the possibility that there was some deference to the memory of Peter (presumably dead when the Gospel was written) in allowing him to enter the tomb first; but more likely the writer wanted to arrange the scene dramatically by delaying the entrance of the beloved disciple so that his seeing and believing would come as a climax. We see no basis for all the polemic and symbolic interpretations; the writer is simply telling us that the disciple who was bound closest to Jesus in love was the quickest to look for him and the first to believe in him.” (Brown 1007)
This point seems to highlight for us the point that the greater the depth of love one has for the Lord the more eager they will have in accepting the challenges he puts before them and the belief they should have in his unseen invitations to encounter him in ways that we cannot understand. It would be fair to claim that the same love that drove the Beloved Disciple to outrun Peter to the empty tomb was the same love that helped him come to belief in the resurrection.
Once again Raymond Brown points out that “the beloved disciple was led to belief by seeing Jesus’ burial wrappings lying where the corpse had been and the piece of cloth that had covered the head, not lying with the wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.” (Brown 1007) It could very easily be asked, however, why such love would lead to belief in the resurrection on account of simple burial cloths? What was it that stirred this disciple’s love to recognize the imprint of resurrection faith, after all Peter had seen the same burial cloths? We are told that even though Peter saw the same burial cloths he did not come to faith as a result of them, “but when the Beloved Disciple was introduced into the story, the Johannine writer capitalized on the presence of the burial garments as the explanation of what led the disciple to believe.” (Brown 1008) What could the presence of these garments signify for the heart that was set ablaze with love for Christ? The following could be a possible answer to such a question: This Beloved Disciple had spent a number of years with Jesus, eating, drinking and sleeping in close proximity to him before Christ’s death and subsequent resurrection. It could be possible that Jesus like all other human beings was accustomed to having personal habits that people would come to know as habits that expressed his personality. Within this world of habits, it is only those who are closest to us who will recognize the minute details of our daily living. As Jesus and his band of followers journeyed around Israel preaching and teaching they often slept outside. Given that pillows were not a part of the equation at that time people must have used something whether it was a tunic or some piece of material upon which to rest their heads. Jesus may have had the habit of using a tunic as a pillow that when he rose from sleep he folded in a certain way, a habit that could have been glossed over by many but not to the beloved who was aware of even those things considered minute to others. Even though this is conjecture, it is possible when one considers the knowledge conveyed through intimacy and that Jesus might have rolled up the burial garments in such a fashion that it was recognizable to the one who viewed Jesus through a keen-eyed optic of love. Though this is just a thought about why the Beloved Disciple came to faith in the resurrection on account of burial garments that did not stir Peter to belief is still a testimony to the fact that love is in some strange way able to penetrate the obvious and discover the newness of Christ’s love.
In speaking about the passage of John’s Gospel in which Jesus appears to the disciples as they were fishing Sandra M. Schneiders says: “In this pericope we are told specifically that Jesus manifested or revealed himself to the disciples, just as he had promised before his death that he would manifest himself to those who loved him and kept his word. It is the beloved disciple who recognizes him with perfect clarity and proclaims him authoritatively. Simon Peter’s recognition of and coming to Jesus is a response to that proclamation which, in this sense, grounds his pastoral leadership.” (227) Once again we are able to see that it is through the Beloved Disciple’s love that he is able to recognize Jesus when those around him are not able. This particular passage reveals two things to us: the first, is the necessity of allowing love to guide one’s experience of discipleship especially in the struggle to find meaning in a task that could simply be regarded as having no meaning as was the case with the disciples who had spent the night fishing but to no avail; the second, is the revelatory nature of one’s love not only for oneself but also for others as is seen from the impact that the Beloved disciple’s words have upon Peter. Raymond Brown says the same thing in these words: “When Jesus stands on the shore of the sea of Tiberias, the Beloved disciple is the first to recognize him, and it is he who informs Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ The lesson for the reader is that love for Jesus gives one the insight to detect his presence. The Beloved disciple, here as elsewhere, the ideal follower of Jesus, sets an example for all others who would follow.” (Brown 1005)
The Gospel of John presents the Beloved Disciple’s witness to love as being a further revelation in this world of the work and mission of Christ. It is after all the mission of the Church and all disciples everywhere to make known the saving message of the kingdom of God, which is perfect fellowship in the life of the Trinity by the power of the Holy Spirit. “The beloved disciple, who rested on the bosom of Jesus, is the fourth Gospel’s paradigmatic embodiment of contemplative openness to the revelation of Jesus, just as the Word made flesh who dwelt in the bosom of God was the incarnation of God’s self revelation to the world.” (Schneiders 227) This quote on the interconnectedness of the Beloved Disciple’s revealing the mystery of Christ just as Christ revealed the Father is a deeply profound statement of the intimacy that this disciple enjoyed with Christ. To make this claim is a very telling statement of how much emphasis the author of John’s Gospel placed on the incarnational dimension of discipleship. The Gospel writer describes this dimension of discipleship through the optic of the Spirit’s presence, which enables the disciple to continue the very revelation of Christ into every time and space. For the aspiring disciple of Christ the Beloved Disciple presents not only a witness to love that is committed but also to the power of the Holy Spirit working within him to continue revealing Christ to others. The discipleship of the Beloved Disciple is essential to the Church’s mandate and the more that we recognize that “contemplative receptivity to the life-giving revelation in Jesus is the source of the church’s proclamation, which grounds both the faith of the disciples and the church’s mission to the world,” the better we as disciples will be able to discern the will of God for an often times hurting world that is in need of a message of hope that is rooted in signs of Christ’s presence. (Schneiders 227) This presence requires that we be in tune with the workings of Christ’s heart of love if we are to perceive it personally and be able to guide others to it. The Beloved Disciple reminds us that to be a disciple of Christ is to be intimate with him and this is achieved through obedience to his commandments, the real sign of our love for him, which also guarantees us of his abiding presence.
His faithfulness in following Christ even to Calvary illustrates another important factor to be considered in discipleship. This important factor could be stated as taking on Mary as one’s own mother and therefore through the gift of the Spirit handed over from the cross all disciples become brothers and sisters of Christ through the motherhood of Mary. The Beloved Disciple is also a sign of the Church, those who are gathered around Jesus as brothers and sisters through the gift of the Spirit with Mary as their mother. The aspiring disciple cannot fail to recognize the important of taking Mary on as mother who is a symbol of the Church from which disciples receive their birth in the sacrament of baptism symbolized by the water flowing from the opened side of Christ. Standing by the cross the Beloved Disciple “witnessed the blood and water from Jesus’ side, symbolizing the sacramental and Spirit filled life of the newborn Church. He received the gift of Jesus’ Mother and was constituted her son in Jesus’ place.” (Mullins 414)
The many attributes of the Beloved Disciple that we find in John’s Gospel are worthy of emulating. Some may be inclined to ask how one can be in touch with these attributes of the Beloved Disciple so as to emulate them? The problem for many would be found in making the claim that it was easy for the Beloved Disciple because he has had a unique encounter with Christ. The argument made by the community behind this Beloved Disciple is however that “the beloved disciple was not given specifically privileged access to a unique ‘sight’ that made his belief superior to those who would never be able to match such an experience.” (Moloney 520) Rather his community who sought to follow his witness saw his testimony or “the Johannine narrative as being itself ‘scripture’. A later generation may not be able to penetrate the tomb and see the cloths but it will have the scripture, especially the Johannine story, and in every way match the faith experience of the Beloved Disciple.” (Moloney 520) The earliest faith community to be inspired by the witness and example of the Beloved Disciple is what scholars call the Johannine community. This community, which did not enjoy the particular experience of the Beloved Disciple at the last supper or at the cross or at the empty tomb shared in his joy because for them his testimony became Scripture for them. For the Johannine community and for all who want to emulate the Beloved Disciple’s witness it will suffice to draw forth inspiration from the Scripture that is his testimony. “Faith motivated by the Scriptures, especially the Johannine version of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, matches the faith of the Beloved Disciple. Those living in the absence of Jesus but in the presence of the Paraclete have evidence that Jesus must rise from the dead.” (Moloney 521)
All in all, it is possible to live out the example of discipleship given us by the Beloved Disciple in John’s Gospel. His example is one of intimate love that is refined by the experience of the cross and this love leads him to recognize the presence of Christ in ways not easily perceived by others. His discipleship is characterized by an ecclesial mark that is established at the foot of the cross when Jesus hands over the Spirit to him and therefore makes him a son of the same mother and a child of the same Father who is able to call upon God as “Abba, Father”.
Bibliography
Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John, XIII-XXI. New York, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1970
Moloney, Francis J. Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of John. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998
Mullins, Michael The Gospel of John: A Commentary. Blackrock, Co Dublin: The Columbia Press, 2003
Schnackenburg, Rudolf. The Gospel According to St. John, vol.3. New York, New York: he Crossroad Publishing Company Inc., 1982
Schneiders, Sandra M. Written That You May Believe. New York, New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2003
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