This report comes through Ibn Isḥāq, who is classed among the transmitters known for tadlīs, and here he relates it with an ʿanʿanah chain.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq also transmitted it from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab in mursal form.
I later found that Ibn ʿAsākir cited it via Abū Usāmah, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī. He likewise recorded it through Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jawzajānī, the preacher of Damascus, who said: Muḥammad ibn al-Aṣbahānī narrated to us, and Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar narrated to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said:
“There is no one who will meet Allah without some sin—except John son of Zechariah.”
He then recited, “and honorable, chaste…” (3:39), picked up something from the ground and said, “He owned nothing more than this,” and then indicated that he was slaughtered.
Along this route the report is mawqūf, and the mawqūf version is sounder than treating it as marfūʿ. Allah knows best.
Ibn ʿAsākir brought it through several other chains as well. Among them is the route of Isḥāq ibn Bishr—who is weak—through ʿUthmān ibn Sāj, from Thawr ibn Yazīd, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from Muʿādh, from the Prophet ﷺ with similar wording.
It was also narrated by Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī and others, from al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿm, from his father, from Abū Saʿīd, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Ḥasan and Ḥusayn are the lords of the youth of Paradise, except for the two cousins, John and Jesus.”
Abū Nuʿaym al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Iṣbahānī said: Ishāq ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī narrated to us; I heard Abū Sulaymān say:
“Jesus son of Mary and John son of Zechariah were once walking together when John brushed against a woman. Jesus said, ‘Cousin, today you have committed a sin that I fear will never be forgiven.’
“John asked, ‘What is it, cousin?’
“Jesus replied, ‘You brushed against a woman.’
“John said, ‘By Allah, I did not even notice her.’
“Jesus exclaimed, ‘Subḥān-Allāh! Your body is with me—where is your spirit?’
“John answered, ‘Suspended at the Throne; and if my heart were to feel at ease even with Gabriel, I would think that I had never truly known Allah for the blink of an eye.’”