The “Beloved Disciple” Is Each of Us
The beloved disciple looked down into the grave, he saw the
folded grave cloths, and he believed. Mary Magdalene heard her name, recognized
the voice of Jesus, and she believed. Jesus appeared that night to the
disciples, and they were overjoyed. Thomas touched the wounds on Jesus’ hands
and side, and he believed.
That beloved disciple seems rather pesky at times. How is he—probably
he—always
in the right place at the right time? How can one disciple be so favored over
all the others? It is not fair!
For the first several decades of my life, I mistakenly believed
that men were more favored by Jesus. After all, as I was frequently reminded, only
men were chosen as the twelve. There was an inner circle, and then all the rest
of us who could only aspire to being camp followers. It seemed Jesus had formed
yet another boys-only club around him— no different from the rest of the world.
I would always be on the outside looking in; being content to receive fragments
of left-over faith after the men had digested it.
Then I discovered the beloved disciple. This person is elusive: reclining
on Jesus’ breast (John 13:23); at the cross (18:15-16); recognizing Jesus on the
shore (21:7); the source of information for the Gospel (21:20-24). Who would not
want to be this disciple? I researched the possibilities of who this
person could be— which resulted in a lot of theories and interesting reading—but
no convincing identity.
Then it occurred to me, this disciple could be any one of us! The
identity of this person is stubbornly disguised for a reason. Therefore, any
one of us can identify with the place of the beloved disciple. This extra
disciple can be any believer —I personally do not think one of the twelve would
be tolerated as “beloved” above the rest (Matt 20:20-28). It could be you or
me, female or male, Jewish or gentile, poor, influential, or whoever finds
herself or himself otherwise excluded.
That beloved disciple is there for all of us. We do not have
to be male, Jewish, Galilean fishermen—one a traitor—to be in the inner circle.
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