From Max Lucado and his book “No Wonder They Called Him the Savior”:
I’ve always perceived John as a fellow who viewed life simply. “Right is right and wrong is wrong, and things aren’t nearly as complicated as we make them out to be.”
For example Jesus would be challenging to the best of writers, but John handles the task with casual analogy. The Messiah, in a word, was “the Word.” A walking message. A love letter. Be it a fiery verb or a tender adjective, he was, quite simply, a word.
And life? Well, life is divided into two sections, light and darkness. If you are in one, you are not in the other and vice versa. Next question?
“The devil is the father of lies and the Messiah is the father of truth. God is love and you are in his corner if you love too. In fact, most problems are solved by loving one another.”
And sometimes, when the theology gets a bit thick, John pauses long enough to offer a word of explanation. Because of his patient storytelling, we have a classic commentary, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”
But I like John most for the way he loved Jesus. His relationship with Jesus was, again, rather simple. To John, Jesus was a good friend with a good heart and a good idea. A once-upon-a-time storyteller with a somewhere-over-the-rainbow promise. One gets the impression that to John, Jesus was above all a loyal companion. Messiah? Yes. Son of God? indeed. Miracle worker? That too. But more than anything, Jesus was a pal. Someone you could go camping with, or bowling with or count the stars with.
Simple. To John, Jesus wasn’t a treatise of social activism, nor was he a license for blowing up abortion clinics or living in a desert. Jesus was a friend.
Now what do you do with a friend? (Well, that’s rather simple too.) You stick by him. Maybe that is why John was the only one of the twelve who was at the cross. He came to say good-bye. By his own admission he hadn’t quite put the pieces together yet. But that didn’t really matter. As far as he was concerned, his closest friend was in trouble and he came to help. “Can you take care of my mother?” Of course, that’s what friends are for.
John teaches us that the strongest relationship with Christ may not necessarily be a complicated one. He teaches us that the greatest webs of loyalty are spun, not with air tight theologies, or foolproof philosophies, but with friendships; stubborn, selfless, joyful friendships.
After witnessing this stubborn love, we are left with a burning desire to have one like it. We are left that if we could have been in anyone’s sandals that day, we would have been in young John’s and would have been the one to offer a smile of loyalty to his dear Lord. ~Max Lucado, No Wonder They Called Him the Savior (Originally published: Sisters, Or. “Multnomah Books, 1996.) p. 63-64
(Posts preceded with a pre-amble asterisk are for a more general audience, not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
