No, St. John Didn’t Brag About Beating St. Peter in a Foot Race
This passage shows that the Christian heart must be filled with and fueled by an ardent love for Christ, which will impel us to seek Him and dwell permanently in His presence.
Every year at the celebration of Jesus Christ’s paschal victory over sin and death, well-meaning Christians post memes and messages turning the Gospel into a joke.
They are discussing St. John 20:3-4: “Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.”
Some go so far as to call it “the most low key petty verse in the Bible” or “a Gospel diss” that proves “these were ordinary people, for who[m] God did extraordinary things.”
Alas, these sentiments are not confined to random anonymous accounts on the internet. Some of the most popular evangelical Christian teachers in America engage in this memelord exegesis.
Perhaps the most respected evangelical teacher in recent years, John MacArthur, claimed, “John wants us to know that he was faster than Peter. Since he’s the author of this gospel he puts it in—twice.” R.C. Sproul, Sr., cracked, “I guess John felt that as long as he didn't name himself, he was being appropriately humble.” Alistair Begg said, “For whatever reason, John wants us to know that he can run faster than Peter ... For those of you who like to do, you know, hundred-yard sprints, there’s a little intrigue in here.” (He later said, more respectfully, that he believed the apostle recorded the details for accuracy’s sake.)
Some evangelicals accuse the elderly apostle of clinging to past glory, a first-century version of Uncle Rico. Philip Miller, D.Min., the pastor of the 3,500-member Moody Church, told his parishioners it was “hilarious” that “an old man” like the Apostle John waxed nostalgic about his former athletic prowess:
This is the third time by the way, that John has mentioned that he outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Do you notice this? This is hilarious to me. When he’s writing, when John’s writing, he’s an old man. He’s an old man and he’s writing this, and he’s like, “Listen, I want to make sure for all of time everyone knows I beat Peter, so I’m going to put it in the Bible.” (laughs) How hilarious is that?
Perhaps banal interpretations of scripture have become so widespread because, without recourse to Church tradition which elevates our minds to Heaven, we drag down the Bible to our earthly understanding. How easy it is to create a hermeneutic out of our own egotism, vainglory, and pride. But those repeating the evangelicals’ tradition-of-men about the apostles “foot race” seem unaware that it induces others to take a condescending view of the disciples, the scriptures, and, by extension, their ultimate Author.
The key to understanding this passage comes from the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection: the Myrrh-Bearing Women. These saints, whom the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates two weeks after Pascha (Easter), include:
• The Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
• St. Mary Magdalene
• St. Mary, the wife of Cleopas
• St. Joanna
• St. Susanna
• St. Salome, mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee
• Sts. Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus
Why were they at Christ’s empty tomb before anyone else, “very early in the morning”? What compelled them? Pope St. Gregory the Great (the Dialogist) explained their love for the Savior drove them to be with Him, even if they expected to find only His corpse:
You have heard, most beloved brethren, that the holy women who had followed the Lord came to the tomb with spices, and to Him Whom they had loved while living, they render service with devoted care even when dead. But this deed signifies something to be done in holy Church. ... [I]f we seek the Lord filled with the fragrance of virtues and with a reputation for good works, we indeed come to His tomb with spices. Those women see angels who came with spices, because those souls who set out toward the Lord with the fragrance of virtues through holy desires behold the heavenly citizens. (Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 21)
In his next homily, Pope St. Gregory writes of the apostles that “those ran before the others who loved more than the others, namely Peter and John”:
Why did the Apostle John—the youngest, most innocent, most monastic and virginal apostle, and the only one of the remaining Eleven to stand steadfastly at the foot of the Cross without denial—arrive first? He loved the most. To excel even his fellow apostles puts him in the rarest of company. (ibid., Homily 22)
Yet the Apostle John did not intend this text to serve as proof of his sanctity. Indeed, St. John Chrysostom detects an air of humility in recording the Apostle Peter’s greater fervor in entering the sepulchre:
Observe too here again the absence of boastfulness in the Evangelist ... For he himself having gotten [there] before Peter, and having seen the linen clothes, enquired not farther, but withdrew; but that fervent one passing farther in, looked at everything carefully, and saw somewhat more, and then the other too was summoned to the sight. For he entering after Peter, saw the grave-clothes lying, and separate. (Homilies on John, no. 85)
In the same vain, St. Gregory the Theologian said the Apostle John immortalized how the Apostle Peter won “the victory of zeal” (Oration 45).
Far from bragging, the Gospel of St. John eagerly shows that the Myrrh-Bearing Women possessed more fervent love than either apostle:
Mary Magdalene had brought the news to His disciples, Peter and John, that the Lord was taken away from the sepulcher; and they, when they came there, found only the linen clothes ... “Then the disciples went away again unto their own” (home); that is to say, where they were dwelling, and from which they had run to the sepulchre. “But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.” For while the men returned, the weaker sex was fastened to the place by a stronger affection. (St. Augustine of Hippo. Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 121. Emphasis added.)
St. Mary Magdalene, out of whom Christ cast seven demons, loved greatly, just as Jesus explained that those forgiven much will love much (see St. Luke 7:47).
At the lead of all the women is the the Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who came to the tomb before anyone else, because she loved her divine Son first, both chronologically and by degree.
The Church sets these examples before us, because the “essence of Christianity is pure and selfless love,” wrote St. Innocent of Alaska. The Christian life consists in training our mind and heart to love God and His creation in the proper order (ordo amoris). This is vital, because “That which a man loves, to which he turns, that he will find,” as St. John of Kronstadt wrote in My Life in Christ. “If he loves earthly things, he will find earthly things, and these earthly things will abide in his heart, will communicate their earthliness to him and will find him; if he loves heavenly things, he will find heavenly things, and they will abide in his heart and give him life.”
The hidden, deeper, spiritual meaning behind the Apostle John recording that he outran St. Peter is to show that the Christian heart must be filled with and fueled by an ardent love for Jesus, which will impel us to seek Christ and dwell permanently in His presence.
That’s why the Apostle John so emphasized Christ’s new commandment: “that you love one another, as I have loved you” (St. John 13:34; 1 John 2:7-8; 2 John 1:5). The race of love—to give God’s love dominion over our hearts and extend that divine agape to our church, our families, and our communities—is the great race set before us. Sts. Peter and John and the Myrrh-Bearing Women incarnated how to make continual progress toward the goal, keeping Him always close in our thoughts and first in our hearts.
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?” the Apostle Paul asked the Corinthians. “So run, that ye may obtain.”
Rev. Benjamin Johnson is rector of Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church (OCA) in Byesville, Ohio. His views are his own. Follow him on Twitter and visit his website.
