How Jesus mentored John and James

When a man or a woman denies themselves, takes up their cross and follows him, Mark 8:34, Jesus commits to causing that person to become all that the Father planned them to be. The leading example is the fisherman Peter – Jesus made him his apostle to the Jews, and he made Paul his apostle to the Gentiles.

Look at how Jesus ‘mentored’ the brothers James and John.

First, he appointed them to be part of the leading group of four apostles (along with Peter and Andrew).

Second, He publicly rebuked them for wanting to ‘fire-bomb’ a village of Samaritans that rejected Jesus and the kingdom movement; Luke 9:51-65. (Which meant that, along with Peter, three of these four leading apostles were publicly rebuked by Jesus.)

But we see Jesus’ humour and wisdom in what he does next – he teases them! He nick-names them ‘sons of thunder’, Mark 3:17. One of the best ways of undermining harsh conservative Pharisaism in a person is to very gently keep teasing them – ‘pulling their legs’ – so they keep remembering that ‘fire-bombing’ isn’t exactly very appropriate in the kingdom that is built on love!

But Jesus never gave up on these ‘sons of thunder’. He invited them into the best training opportunities: the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration, and Gethsemane.

And look at what happens to John. Not only does he become one of Jesus’ closest friends, but he also becomes the apostle most associated with Jesus’ command to love one another. Look at all Jesus’ teaching on love in John’s gospel, look at its focus in the three Johannine letters, look at the tradition of his death, in very old age, they would carry him into the meeting, and all he would say was, ‘little children love one another’.

When Jesus Christ gets hold of a man or woman, he transforms even their most serious mistakes into the gold of heaven.

And the Lord of all creation is set to do exactly that in you and me, along with all the other apprentices in his family business of the kingdom.