18 May 2024 John 21:20-25
“What is that to you? Follow Me!” John 21:22
There is a great deal about Jesus we would like to know that we don’t. For instance, what about His entire childhood and early adulthood? Between His birth and the commencement of His public ministry at around age 30, there is only one event that is described, viz., the time when he was around twelve and He got separated from His family during Passover, and they couldn’t find Him for three days, finally catching up with Him at the Temple where He was dazzling the old scholars with His questions and understanding (Luke 2:41-51). We would love to know something more about all the so-called “silent years” of Jesus.
And what about Mary and Joseph? They surely had insights into who Jesus was, and what it was like to be around Him for all those years. Not a single word of Joseph was ever recorded, and after the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, there are no recorded words of Mary. These two arguably spent more time with Jesus than anyone else, but we know almost nothing about either of them.
And the seven weeks after the Resurrection, when Jesus was with the disciples, explaining to them what his Passion and Rising really meant – didn’t anyone think to write any of that down? Why aren’t there any discourses about that? Why do all the discourses underscore how much the disciples didn’t understand?
In the fifth century St. Augustine writes that there were those who speculated that when Jesus said about John, “If it is my will that he remain until I come…” that meant that John was still alive. That would explain, they thought, why the dirt over John’s grave always appeared to be disturbed, like someone underground was breathing and heaving it up. Augustine did not approve of such speculations. Even if that were true, he said, what difference would it make to what we have to do now?
John himself writes that there is plenty that Jesus said and did that was never written down, so much that “if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Jesus rather impatiently brushes all of that aside: “What is that to you?”
Of course there is information we would like to have that we cannot have, and likely never will. There is, however, a great deal of information that we do have, information that Jesus said repeatedly is necessary for salvation. “Follow Me,” He said (21:25). Focus on that.
In the gospels, for instance, the word “Amen” is used 101 times, all but one of those times by Jesus alone (the only other is in Mark 16:8). When Jesus says “Amen” it is not at the end of a saying, but at the start, indicating the deep truth of what He is saying. Jesus does this 25 times in John’s Gospel alone, and each time it is a teaching of critical importance:
You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
I am the Bread of Life.
Before Abraham was, I Am.
If all we did was focus on the “Amen, Amen” sayings of Jesus and mine them for the things necessary for salvation, that alone is the work of years, maybe even lifetimes. Focus on that.
Of course there is much more that we would like to know, and perhaps in heaven we will. None of that, however, is necessary for getting to heaven. The information about reaching heaven is available now, and has been for a long time. Focus on that.
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