Finally, when He entrusted His sheep to Peter, who loved Him and had confessed his love three times, He says that this same John may, by His will, remain until His coming (Jn 21:15-25). In my judgment, by this He taught us a lofty mystery.
The evangelical ministry of John carries him away to the purest light of the Word. There the unity and immutability of the Trinity are set before the eye of the mind. This ministry greatly distinguishes him from the others as the man in whose understanding the Word became flesh.
Yet that ministry can be known precisely only when the Lord Himself appears. Therefore John will so remain until He appears. He will remain in the faith of believers, and afterward he will appear for face-to-face contemplation, when our Life comes and we appear with Him in glory.
There is a very important question. Why, when the Lord appeared to His disciples for the third time, did He say to the Apostle Peter, “Follow Me” (Jn 21:19), while concerning the Apostle John He said, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” (cf. Jn 21:22).
To discuss and examine this question, as far as the Lord permits, we devote the final part of this work.
When the Lord had foretold to Peter by what death he would glorify God, He said to him, “Follow Me.” Peter, turning, saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved. This was the one who had leaned on His breast at supper and said, “Lord, who is it that betrays You?”
Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” So the saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die.
Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die. He said, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” (Jn 21:19-22).
See how far this question is drawn out in this Gospel. By its depth it compels the mind of the inquirer to be tense and attentive.
Why was Peter told, “Follow Me,” while this was not said to the others who were with him? Besides, the disciples were already following Him as their Teacher. If this must be understood with reference to suffering, was Peter the only one who suffered for Christian truth?
Was there not among the seven another son of Zebedee, John’s brother, who, as is known, was killed by Herod after the Lord’s Ascension (cf. Acts 12:2)?
Someone may say that James was not crucified. Therefore it was fitting that Peter should be told, “Follow Me,” since he endured not simply death, but death on a cross, like Christ. Let this stand, if no other and more suitable explanation can be found.
Why, then, was it said of John, “If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” Why was it repeated, “You follow Me,” as though John were not to follow, because He wished him to remain until He Himself came?
Who can doubt that something else was meant, and not what the brothers living at that time believed? They believed that this disciple would certainly not die, but would remain in this life until Jesus came.
Yet John himself refuted this opinion, showing that the Lord had spoken in a wholly different sense. Why did he add, “Jesus did not say to him that he would not die,” except so that what was false might not take root in human hearts?
But if anyone wishes, let him still argue. Let him say that John’s statement is true, because the Lord did not say that this disciple would not die, but explained the meaning of the words He had spoken.
Let him assert that the Apostle John is alive. Let him declare that in his tomb at Ephesus he sleeps rather than lies dead. Let him add to his arguments that the earth there, as they say, moves a little and slowly rises up. Let him stubbornly and continually claim that this happens from John’s measured breathing.
There can be no lack of those who believe this, if there is no lack of those who assert that Moses too is alive. For it is written that his tomb is unknown (cf. Deut 34:6), and that he appeared with the Lord on the mountain, where Elijah also was (cf. Mt 17:3). We read that Elijah did not die, but was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire (cf. 4 Kgs 2:11).
As though the body of Moses could not have been hidden somewhere, so that men did not know at all where it was. From there it could have been raised for a time by divine power, when he and Elijah appeared with Christ before their eyes.
In the same way many bodies of the saints rose for a time when Christ suffered. After His Resurrection they appeared to many, as Scripture says, in the holy city (cf. Mt 27:52-53).
Yet, as I began to say, some deny that Moses is dead, though Scripture itself plainly says he is dead, even while saying that no one knows his tomb. All the more can they believe that John did not die, but sleeps beneath the earth, because of the words in which the Lord said, “If I will that he remain until I come.”
It is also reported in certain writings, though they are apocryphal, that when John ordered a tomb to be made for himself, he was in full health. When it had been dug and carefully prepared, he lay down in it as though in a bed, and at once died.
Those who understand the Lord’s words in this way think that he did not die, but lay as if dead. Since he was thought dead, he was buried sleeping and remains so until Christ comes. They think he shows that he lives by the movement of the earth, which the sleeper raises by his breathing from the depth to the surface of the burial mound.
I think it useless to dispute such an opinion. Those who know the place can see for themselves whether anything of the sort happens there, and whether the earth experiences what is reported. To be truthful, we too have heard this from persons not wholly unworthy of trust.
Still, let us leave aside this judgment, which we cannot refute by any evident proofs. Otherwise another question may be put to us: “Why does the earth itself over a dead man seem to live and breathe?”
Yet does this solve the more important question, namely, that a living body could lie in deep sleep under the earth for so long, until the end of the age, by a great miracle such as the Almighty can perform?
Rather, a far greater and more difficult question arises. Why did Jesus grant to the disciple whom He loved more than the others, who was counted worthy to recline on His breast, the great gift of long sleep in the body?
Meanwhile He released Peter from the burden of the body through the great glory of martyrdom. He granted him what the Apostle Paul called his own desire when he wrote, “I desire to depart and be with Christ” (Phil 1:23).
If it is better to believe what Saint John said, then the Lord did not literally say that he would not die. Rather, He explained the meaning He placed in the words He had spoken before. If we believe that John’s lifeless body rests in his tomb, as do the bodies of other dead men, the following remains.
If what rumor reports about the earth is true, that it sometimes sinks and rises again, then this occurs either to emphasize the preciousness of his death, since it was not adorned with martyrdom, for no persecutor killed him for Christ’s faith, or for some other reason hidden from us.
Still the question remains: why did the Lord say of a man who would die, “If I will that he remain until I come”?
Another question to be considered concerns the two apostles, Peter and John. Why did the Lord love John more, though Peter loved the Lord more?
Whenever John mentions himself, so that he may be understood without naming himself, he adds that Jesus loved him. He speaks as though Jesus loved him alone, so that by this indication he may distinguish himself from the others, whom He certainly loved.
Why did he do this, unless to show, by saying it, that Jesus loved him more? He could not have spoken falsely.
What greater proof of His greater love for him could Jesus give than that this man, while sharing such great salvation with the other fellow disciples, alone reclined on the breast of the Savior Himself?
As for the Apostle Peter loving Christ more than the others, many proofs could be brought forward. Yet, to avoid speaking of the other testimonies, this is quite evident from the preceding passage, where the third appearance of the Lord was mentioned.
There He asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” Of course He knew the answer. Nevertheless He asked, so that we who read the Gospel might learn Peter’s love for the Lord from both His question and the apostle’s answer.
When Peter answered, “I love You,” he did not add, “more than these.” He answered what he knew about himself. For he could not know how much another loved Him, since he could not look into another’s heart.
Yet shortly before, when he said, “Yes, Lord; You know” (Jn 21:16), by these words he sufficiently indicated that the Lord asked knowing what he would answer. The Lord knew not only that Peter loved Him, but also that he loved Him more than those disciples did.
Still, if we try to determine which of the two is better, the one who loves Christ more or the one who loves Him less, who would not answer that the one who loves more is better?
Likewise, if we ask which of the two is better, the one whom Christ loves less or the one whom He loves more, without doubt we shall answer that the one more loved by Christ is better.
According to the first comparison I used, Peter is placed before John. According to the other, John is placed before Peter.
Therefore let us try a third question. Which of the two disciples is better: the one who loves Christ less than his fellow disciple and is loved by Christ more than his fellow disciple, or the one whom Christ loves less than his fellow disciple, while he himself loves Christ more than his fellow disciple?
The answer here is plainly uncertain, and the question only becomes more difficult. Yet, as far as I understand, it would be easier for me to answer that the one who loves Christ is better, while the one whom Christ loves more is happier.
But to do this I must know how to defend the justice of our Liberator, iustitiam Liberatoris nostri, who loves less the one by whom He is more loved, and loves more the one by whom He is less loved.
Therefore, relying on the mercy of Him whose justice is hidden, I shall try, according to the strength He has given me, to reason about so difficult a question. Until now it has only been posed, not explained.
At the beginning of this discussion, let us remember that in this corruptible body, which weighs down the soul (cf. Wis 9:15), we live a miserable life. Yet we, already redeemed by the Mediator and having received the Holy Spirit as pledge, possess blessed life in hope, though we do not yet possess it in reality.
“For hope that is seen is not hope. For if one sees, why does he still hope? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:24-25). Patience is necessary in the miseries one endures, not in the goods one enjoys.
Man is compelled to endure this life, of which it is written, “Is not the life of man upon earth a trial?” (cf. Job 7:1). In it we cry daily to the Lord, “Deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:13), even when sins are forgiven.
The cause of his entrance into this miserable life was the first sin. The punishment lasts longer than the guilt, lest the guilt be thought small if the punishment ended with it.
Therefore, either to show what misery we deserved, or to correct our passing life, or to train us in necessary patience, punishment does not for a time leave man. This is so even when guilt no longer lies on him as one condemned to eternal damnation.
This is truly a lamentable but unavoidable condition of the miserable days we spend in this mortal state, though we prefer to see these days as good. It comes from the righteous wrath of God, of which Scripture says, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of wrath” (cf. Job 14:1).
Yet wrath in God is not like wrath in man. It is not the disturbance of an irritated spirit, but the calm execution of a just penalty.
THEOSIS