The elder, To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 John 1:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 19, 2018): 2 John 1 & 3 John 1

When I was eight-years-old, my family made a move about 2000 miles away from family for health reasons. I remember saying goodbye to family and driving off in a three-ton truck that my father had bought for the move. On that day, everything changed. I was now miles away from grandparents, aunts, and uncles, cousins, all of whom had previously lived in a relatively small area around my house. For the last few months of my time in this sheltered environment, one set of grandparents lived just a couple of houses away, and my other set of grandparents lived only a few miles away. My mom says that the day we pulled out was one of the only times she watched her mother cry. It was a traumatic experience for all of us.

Once we arrived at our new home, I set myself to the task of writing my maternal grandparents a letter. (Actually, my paternal grandparents had made the trip at the last minute to help us get moved.) I still remember sitting down to write about everything that had happened on the week-long trip from my old home to my new one. And I remember signing the letter, Garry. I looked at the letter and wondered if my grandma would remember who I was? After all, we had been separated for almost a week, so I hastily added “Mullen” to the end of my name. Amazingly, fifty years later, tears still well up in my eyes when I think of that moment of my childhood.

John begins his second letter with some cryptic language. It is likely that the letter was written during a time of local persecution. So rather than identifying himself as the Apostle John, he identifies himself as “the elder.” This term is very unlikely to mean a clerical office or position. Elder simply reflects his age. John was likely, at this point, a man of over 90, and also “elder” is a sign of the respect that age and his teaching had naturally brought to him. The early church almost universally recognized that the writer of the letter was John. They knew the author had to be John by use of the phrase “the elder,” just as my grandmother would have recognized my first name without the necessity of me adding my last.

Likewise, although the identity of the recipient has been lost in time, those of that day within the Christian Church would have recognized who the lady would have been to whom the letter was directed. Scholars seem split between whether the lady indicated a specific church (it is highly unlikely that this letter was written to the general church) or to a specific person. But John refuses to name names because he knows that if the letter were to be intercepted, that it could mean someone’s death, including his own. And so he uses cryptic phrasing to get his point across, knowing that those who were meant to understand, would understand, and those who were to be kept in the dark would never know the mystery revealed in this simple salutation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Revelation 1