Open The Word | Fungua Neno

⏱️ 4 minutes.

Hello children of the Almighty,

Today, let’s take a look at another set of disciples who were called by Jesus—the sons of Zebedee:

“and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, ‘Sons of Thunder’);”
— Mark 3:17

Here, we see Jesus calling the brothers, the sons of Zebedee. They were often referred to in this way, as they were usually together.

James was the first apostle to be martyred after Judas Iscariot. He died in AD 44, and we see the account of his death in the book of Acts:

“And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword.”
— Acts 12:2

James was the son of Zebedee and Salome. Salome was a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which made James the Great a cousin of Jesus.

Then we have James’ brother, John. This is the apostle John, known for writing the Gospel of John, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation. Church history tells us he was exiled to the island of Patmos and died there.

Mark tells us that Jesus called James and John Boanerges, which meant “Sons of Thunder.” One commentator notes:

“It was a very usual thing among the Jews to give surnames that signified some particular quality or excellence to their rabbis. See several instances in Schoettgen.”
— Adam Clarke

The Bible does not explicitly tell us why Jesus gave them this name. Some believe it was because of their temperament, such as the time they suggested calling fire down on the Samaritans for refusing to accept and host Jesus:

“But they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But He turned and rebuked them, [and said,’You do not know what kind of spirit you are of.’”
— Luke 9:53-55

Others suggest they were called this because of their fiery preaching whenever they went out to share the gospel.

In these accounts, we see three disciples who were in Jesus’ inner circle—Simon (Peter), James, and John. These three were present during significant events, such as the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration, and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is interesting to note because it gives us insight into the way Jesus structured His leadership. Jesus had 12 apostles, and He often spent time with all of them. Yet, we see that He poured extra time and attention into these three, who later became instrumental in leading the other apostles.

From this, we can learn valuable lessons about leadership and discipleship. Rather than spreading ourselves too thin, with limited time and resources, a better approach would be to identify a few potential leaders, disciple them, and equip them to disciple others.

We see that this was the case for Jesus’ core group. After Jesus was taken up to heaven, Peter took on a leadership role, guiding the other apostles and discipling new followers, such as John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, who wrote the Gospel of Mark under Peter’s leadership. We also see this type of relationship between Paul and Timothy, among other examples in the Bible.

The challenge for us as believers is to ask: Who is discipling us, and who are we discipling? Just as Jesus made disciples, we are called to do the same. At the same time, we need to be under the care of an elder or more mature Christian who can counsel and disciple us, as the proverb says:

“Where there is no guidance the people fall,
But in abundance of counselors there is salvation.”
— Proverbs 11:14

I pray that this insight into the sons of Zebedee will challenge us to reflect on who we are discipling and who is discipling us.

May you grow into the full knowledge of the truth.