I have. It’s probably been a lonely job. If you take the words of the Gospel writers seriously–and I do–then what conclusions do you draw from these last few verses of the Gospel of John?
John 21: 20. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
21. Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
22. Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.
23. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
24. This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.
Some scholars confess that John was probably the last disciple to die; they just don’t know when or where. But, that’s scholars for you: a few letters behind their names often telegraph that faith is a finicky thing, as far as they are concerned. As for me, a gullible guy, I guess, I like to think that for the last two thousand years or so, John has been a “poor, wayfaring man of grief,” wandering here and there, rescuing souls, answering prayers and just going about doing good. Isn’t that what someone who was called “The Beloved” would do? (What I find a bit endearing about John “The Beloved” is that he gives this title to himself. Don’t you think Jesus loved ALL His disciples? Most children believe that in their family, Mom and Dad loved them the most! So, it was with John, “The Beloved,” I think.)
In that light, I leveraged some literary license and lit up otherwise lackluster scenes in my book by imagining what John–the Beloved may have been up to since the year AD 34 or so. I hope you can forgive me for that!
For example, I admit it: John IS the mysterious man on the beach who appears in the first scene in Chapter One who gives Jonathan Blum (pronounced BLOOM) his Invitation. And, yes, he is the same John who snatches Joey’s truck from him and then shows up on the Pacific Highway in southern California, finds Joey and the homeless man and then ends up walking away from Joey on the mountain highway above Reno, Nevada, leaving Joey practically in tears begging him not to leave him all alone.
That’s the thing about fantasies, you can make daydreams come true. The Invitation to the Shining City is a Christian fantasy, and as such, that’s what I’ve tried to do in my novel. I bring President Calvin Coolidge back to life to remind us what most politicians today do not do, namely, remind us that our Constitutional Republic was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and is totally unsuited for an unbelieving, vulgar and materialistic population. If there were a wagon train or a ship bound for a “shining city on the hill,” I, for one, would do all I could to book passage for me and my loved ones. That’s the hope for all of us in this bleak world (and exactly why I wrote my novel of “faith and hope.”)
There’s one more verse in John 21 to read—the last one. It gives me the courage to use my faith and my imagination “to fill in the blanks:”
25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
So that’s what I did: I imagined what good deeds the loneliest of Jesus’ apostles might have been doing since the year AD34. Read it and see what you think.
GM JARRARD
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