Unwritten Pains
by Chadwick Brewer
“And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets” (Mark 1:19).
In Scripture, there is not much exploration of the bond between James and John. That is not to say that nothing is implied or understood from human nature. We first met James and John, who worked side by side in the family business. They are both called, and they both leave everything to follow. After this point in the Gospels, you hardly ever see one without the other.
They are together throughout Jesus’s ministry, as were the other apostles. But more than that, they were together on the mount of transfiguration. Together, they came and asked to sit at Jesus’s right hand and his left. Together, they were drawn further into the garden on the night of the betrayal – brothers in the flesh, brothers in the Spirit.
What a shock, then, to learn of James’s martyrdom early in the growth of the church. What an equal shock to learn of John’s imprisonment and eventual death of old age. These two brothers, inseparable in the Gospels, became resigned to separation for the gospel – one becoming the first apostolic martyr and the other the last to pass away. What pain this must have caused! Yet their sorrow was dulled by the knowledge that their separation was only temporary, for the One they served had stolen the victory of death and removed its sting!
