Sermon - Feast of St. John, Apostle 2020 - John 21:20-25

 Merry Christmas! Today is the feast of St. John, the apostle and evangelist. Of all the apostles, John is likely the one we most wish to be like. Of course we like Peter as well, but John is referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John was the apostle at the foot of the cross and to him was given the charge to care for the mother of our dying Lord. At every meal, John is there at Jesus’ side, sitting next to the Lord.

It’s good to desire to be like St. John, we want to be the beloved disciple. We want that special relationship with Christ. We want to be beside our Lord and Savior. Those are good desires, therefore we should imitate St. John, by humbly being at our Lord’s side constantly, learning from Him.

So what was St. John like? How do we imitate him so as to be beloved by Jesus? Generally the way John is pictured is as a young soft effeminate man. For example, Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper painting depicts John submissively looking down with hands folded, while the others are looking Jesus in the eyes expressing with their hands. He’s portrayed as a young man, without facial hair unlike all the rest, with long golden locks framing his face.

But frankly that depiction of John is wrong because that’s not how John is described in the Bible. For one thing, he, like other apostles, was a Galilean fisherman. This doesn’t mean he just sat on a lake holding a rod and reel drinking beer all day, but think of those fishermen you see in TV shows like Deadliest Catch. There ain’t so sissy effeminate men on those boats! You gotta be tough and thick skinned to be a fisherman. That’s John.

Another thing, Jesus gave His apostles nicknames. Peter was The Rock because of his strong confession. James and John were called the Sons of Thunder! They were bold, loud, boisterous men! To illustrate this, on one occasion when some Samaritans refused Jesus and the apostles lodging in their town, John and James asked Jesus “Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?” Well, Jesus rebuked them and they spent the night somewhere else. But, this does give us a glimpse into John’s personality and character, he was a strong, fierce, fisherman.

However, John wasn’t perfect, and that’s not why Jesus loved him. John wasn’t just bold, but he was also selfish and conceited at times. We this for example when Jesus told His apostles that they would be seated on thrones in heaven, John and James weren’t contented with that, but they wanted to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in heaven. John was still a sinner with a bad character flaw of being selfish and conceited at the expense of others. Jesus didn’t love John because of those vices.

So what is it then that we should learn from John today? Even if you’re a son of thunder or a timid person, very selfish or very humble and generous, what we ought to learn from John is his desire to be near Jesus in order to receive His instruction. That is why Jesus loved John so greatly, and it’s also why Jesus loves you this day so greatly.

John had serious flaws and sins which plagued him, but since he was so near the Christ, Jesus rooted out those sins from him and remade John in His fashion. This is why John glorifies Jesus saying that He “loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.” This is why he says that “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 

The same is true for us, especially during this season of Christmas: God has come to us in the flesh in order to be near us. John was always at Jesus’ side, so too can we always be at Jesus’ side. John was always listening to Jesus, so when we listen to Christ through His Word we’re near Jesus as well. Like John, when we listen to Christ it’s as if we’re at the foot of the cross, and Jesus’ blood covers our sins.

When we do sin, when we continue to fail, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” It is in Him that we have hope and He makes us righteous just as He is righteous. John was so close to Jesus not because John was perfect, but because he had obvious faults and knew that Jesus was his advocate. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When we read John’s writings, you can see that Jesus changed John. Here’s this fierce, bold, selfish, and ambitious man, yet the words he writes in his old age focus not on himself, but on the Christ. Consider the last narrative John writes in the Gospel: Peter asks Jesus about John and what’s going to happen with him, and Jesus says, more or less, don’t worry about what happens to him, just “You follow me!” John ends his Gospel by directing his hearers not to follow St. John, but to follow Jesus. 

So here on this day when we commemorate St. John, a couple days after Christmas Day, we do well to meditate on what this means for us and our lives. What does the coming of Christ on Christmas have to do with me? What does St. John and his example of faithfulness teach me today?

What we can learn from all this is that Jesus desires to be near us. He wants to be in our lives and hold sway over our minds and actions. He wouldn’t have come as a baby to be held in Mary’s arms if He didn’t want us to hold Him close to our hearts as well. The command is strictly and lovingly given to each and every one of us: You follow me! Our lives are always to be a following after of Christ. 

When you’re near Jesus by hearing His voice, something we need to learn from St. John is how to listen and actually change our lives to be fashioned after those words. It’s really easy to listen to the Bible, and then go about your week as if Sunday morning never happened. But Jesus intends for us to both listen to His voice, and then learn from Him and apply those teachings to our lives. 

For instance, John’s first epistle teaches us that we ought to go to confession and absolution. For many generations this was the norm and the expectation, that you would go to individual confession and absolution with your pastor on a regular basis. Martin Luther lamented the fact that some had stopped going to confession during the time of the reformation, and so he included it in the catechism in order to urge people to go to confession.

Likewise, today, confession is largely forgotten among us and many have never done it because it’s unfamiliar to us. However, St. John admonishes us to go to confession, and with his words encourages us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Just as St. John was open to instruction, to listen to the voice of Jesus and follow Him, so too are we blessed when we draw near to Jesus and follow Him.

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

Merry Christmas!