Day 98: Matthew 4:18–22

Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets (v. 21).

The people we will come to know together in this book were Jews at a time when Judaism had perhaps never been more Jewish. By this expression I mean that although they were under Roman rule, they enjoyed significant freedom to live out their culture. They were firmly established in their land and had their temple. Every sect of religious life was functioning at full throttle: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the teachers of the law, to name only a few.

Life in the Galilean villages of Capernaum and Bethsaida must have seemed light-years away from the hub of religious life and Herod’s temple in Jerusalem, but one thing varied little from Hebrew to Hebrew: YHWH was life. Provider, Sustainer, Sovereign Creator of all things. (YHWH is the divine name of God, never pronounced by the Jews; in English it is often referred to as Yahweh or Jehovah.) To them, to have little thought of God was to have little thought at all.

Our John the apostle came from the rural land to the north. If the more sophisticated Jew in the Holy City thought the simple settlers on the Sea of Galilee envied him, he was sorely mistaken. Neither was without the inevitable troubles that make living part of life. Each had his preferences. Each had a point of view. One awakened to the brilliance of the sun dancing off the gleaming walls of the temple. The other saw the sun strolling on the surface of the lake. A fisherman would have been hard to convince that the glory of God dwelled more powerfully in a building made of stone than in a bright pink and purple sunset over the Sea of Galilee. I know this for a fact. I live with a fisherman.

Two pairs of sons grew up not far from each other on the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. Four pairs of feet earned their calluses on the pebbles of a familiar shore. From the time their sons were knee-high to them, Zebedee and Jonah were responsible not only for making sure their rambunctious offspring didn’t drown but also for harnessing their insatiable curiosity with their trades. The fathers were the walking day-care centers for their sons, and their sons’ mothers would be expecting them home in one piece before dusk or after a long night of fishing.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They were trees planted by streams of water being raised to bring forth their own fruit in season (Ps. 1:3). If those fathers had only known what would become of their sons, I wonder if they would have raised them any differently. Come to think of it, I doubt it. They were simple men with one simple goal: to teach their sons all they knew.

Our task is to piece together what John’s life might have been like in childhood and youth before a Lamb came and turned it upside down. We first meet John on the pages of the New Testament in Matthew 4:21. There we read that the fishing boat contained “James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John” (hcsb). Scholars are almost unanimous in their assumption that John was the younger brother of James. In the earlier references, he is listed after his brother, James, which was often an indication of birth order in Scripture and other ancient Eastern literature.

In their world, if any name existed more common than James (a hellenized form of Iakob or Jacob), it was John. Since the family used the Hebrew language, they actually called him Jehohanan. It may sound a little fancier, but the name was as common as could be. I don’t get the feeling James and John were the kinds of boys about whom the neighbors mused, “I can’t wait to see what they’ll turn out to be. Mark my word. They’ll be something special!” Those who watched them grow up assumed the sons of Zebedee would be fisherman. Just like their father.

If we’re right and James was the older brother, he held the coveted position in the family birth order. Special rights and privileges belonged to him as well as a birthright that assured him a double portion of his father’s estate. The firstborn was a leader in the family, commanding a certain amount of respect for a position he did nothing to earn. John? He was just the little brother.

Most of us have experienced the ambiguity of being known by little more than our relationship to someone else. I can remember feeling lost in a whole line of siblings growing up. I have fond memories of my mother calling me every name in our big family but mine. I often grinned while she scrambled for the right one and then, exasperated, finally would say, “If I’m looking at you, I’m talking to you!” I’d giggle, “Yes, ma’am!” and run off while she was still doing her best to remember what my name was.

Some things about parenting must be universal. Surely Zebedee looked straight at Jehohanan and accidentally called him Iakob at times. If so, would young John have been the type to let it go unnoticed, or might he have said, “Abba! I am Jehohanan!” These are thoughts I love to explore imaginatively when studying a character.

Either way John was no doubt accustomed to being Zebedee’s other son and James’s little brother. However common his name, the meaning was extraordinary: “God has been gracious.”27 Growing up on the shore of Jesus’ favorite sea, John had no idea at this point just how gracious God had been. He would soon get a glimpse.