James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 3:17 - 3:17

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James Nisbet Commentary - Mark 3:17 - 3:17


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BOANERGES’

‘And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and He surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The son of thunder.’

Mar_3:17

St. James and John were together in desiring to rival the fiery and avenging miracle of Elijah, and to partake of the profound baptism and bitter cup of Christ.

I. The two brothers.—It is remarkable that St. James, he whom Christ bade to share His distinctive title with another, should not once be named as having acted or spoken by himself. With a fire like that of St. Peter, but no such power of initiative and of chieftainship, how natural it is that his appointed task was martyrdom! Is it objected that his brother also, the great Apostle John, received only a share in that divided title? But the family trait is quite as palpable in him. The deeds of John were seldom wrought upon his own responsibility; never, if we except the bringing of St. Peter into the palace of the high priest. He is a keen observer and a deep thinker, but he cannot, like his Master, combine the quality of leader with those of student and sage.

II. John a follower, not a leader.—In company with St. Andrew he found the Messiah. St. James led him for a time. It was in obedience to a sign from St. Peter that he asked who was the traitor. With St. Peter, when Jesus was arrested, he followed afar off. It is very characteristic that he shrank from entering the sepulchre until St. Peter, coming up behind, went in first, although it was John who thereupon ‘saw and believed.’ With like discernment he was the first to recognise Jesus beside the lake. St. Peter, when Jesus drew him aside, turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, with the same gentle, silent, and sociable affection, which had so recently found him with the saddest and tenderest of all companions underneath the Cross.

III. John and St. Peter.—John was again with St. Peter at the Beautiful Gate; and although it was not he who healed the cripple, yet his co-operation is implied in the words, ‘Peter fastened his eyes on him, with John.’ And when the council would fain have silenced them, the boldness which spoke in St. Peter’s reply was ‘the boldness of Peter and John.’ Could any series of events justify more perfectly a title which implied much zeal, yet zeal that did not demand a specific unshared epithet? Add to this the keenness and deliberation which so much of his story exhibits, which at the beginning rendered no hasty homage, but followed Jesus to examine and to learn, which saw the meaning of the orderly arrangement of the grave clothes in the empty tomb, which was the first to recognise the Lord upon the beach—and we have the very qualities required to supplement those of St. Peter without being discordant or uncongenial. And therefore it is with St. Peter, even more than with his brother, that we have seen John associated.

Bishop G. A. Chadwick.