John 21:20-25 English Standard Version
Jesus and the Beloved Apostle
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers[fellow believers] that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Recently studies on our new life in Christ had an opportunity to wonder what had happened to Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea but the bible leaves no clues as to what might have become of those renown men of the Jewish community. We can only speculate about what might have happened to them. As I sought information these passages came to mind because of this one line; “What is that to you? You follow me!”
In the gospel of John he continuously referred to this disciple Jesus loved. Didn’t Jesus love everyone? Why not just admit it was John himself that he is writing about?
The answer for me is keeping the focus on Jesus and the witness and not John. In John 21:24 John finally admits that he was talking about himself.
We all have a witness but is our telling about us or what God has done?