John 1:30-39a
[Upon being questioned, John the Baptizer answered] ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.”
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they turned and followed Jesus.
When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means ‘Teacher’), “where are you staying?” and he said to them, “Come and see.”
Here we are, once again reading from John’s Gospel. This is most likely one of those “fill-in” readings that I mentioned last week would be scattered throughout the lectionary this year since Mark’s gospel is so short.
Next week we will move into Mark until Lent begins when we will spend Lent and Easter bouncing back and forth between readings from Mark and John.
John’s story of the life of Jesus begins, as all the gospel accounts do, with John the Baptizer preaching in the wilderness. It may come anywhere from the first chapter to the third, but he’s there in every gospel, announcing the imminent arrival of a long awaited messiah.
John’s version begins with the Baptizer preaching a message of repentance and preparation for the one who is coming. When questioned by religious officials from Jerusalem, as to who he himself is, John‘s answer is , “No” he is neither the Messiah nor Elijah but merely one sent to prepare the way.
One interesting difference in this gospel from the other three gospel accounts is that though he is known as “John, the Baptist,” we are never told that John actually baptized Jesus, although the point is emphatically made that John did see the Spirit descending from heaven and alighting on Jesus after which he knew that the one he had been announcing was now here among them. After this John could point specifically to Jesus and say, ”This is the one.”
John’s Jesus is not the somewhat tentative person sometimes depicted in the synoptics, where Jesus, at this point, often seems to be trying to figure out just why he’s here and what he is here to do. In the synoptics, once Jesus leaves the Baptist and the Jordan, he requires time alone in the wilderness, wrestling with the questions of why and what.
But in John’s version Jesus sets out immediately (without, apparently, having spoken a word so far) and starts gathering followers. When John Identifies him as “the One” to two of his own disciples, they immediately turn to question Jesus whose answer is simply, “Come and see,” and they do.
One of the two is Andrew, brother to Simon Peter. When Andrew runs to tell his brother they have found the one they’ve waited for, both men leave John and go to follow Jesus. They next day, Jesus sees Philip and calls him to follow and Philip then invites Nathanael – and so it begins -- no wilderness wrestling with demons, no hesitation. Just straight to gathering followers and on to the business of teaching how to live in God’s kingdom.
“Come and see.” This Jesus has no questions about himself or his calling. If we want to know who he is, we are welcome to follow him and see for ourselves.
That’s exactly what we will be doing over the next several weeks, but we’re not going to go any further right now with John’s gospel. We’ll be returning to it fairly soon when we enter the Lent/Easter cycle and we don’t need to be repeating ourselves so soon, but when we get there we’ll be a little more prepared to encounter a fully confident Jesus who knows exactly why he is here.
Next week we will move into Mark until Lent begins when we will spend Lent and Easter bouncing back and forth between readings from Mark and John.
John’s story of the life of Jesus begins, as all the gospel accounts do, with John the Baptizer preaching in the wilderness. It may come anywhere from the first chapter to the third, but he’s there in every gospel, announcing the imminent arrival of a long awaited messiah.
John’s version begins with the Baptizer preaching a message of repentance and preparation for the one who is coming. When questioned by religious officials from Jerusalem, as to who he himself is, John‘s answer is , “No” he is neither the Messiah nor Elijah but merely one sent to prepare the way.
One interesting difference in this gospel from the other three gospel accounts is that though he is known as “John, the Baptist,” we are never told that John actually baptized Jesus, although the point is emphatically made that John did see the Spirit descending from heaven and alighting on Jesus after which he knew that the one he had been announcing was now here among them. After this John could point specifically to Jesus and say, ”This is the one.”
John’s Jesus is not the somewhat tentative person sometimes depicted in the synoptics, where Jesus, at this point, often seems to be trying to figure out just why he’s here and what he is here to do. In the synoptics, once Jesus leaves the Baptist and the Jordan, he requires time alone in the wilderness, wrestling with the questions of why and what.
But in John’s version Jesus sets out immediately (without, apparently, having spoken a word so far) and starts gathering followers. When John Identifies him as “the One” to two of his own disciples, they immediately turn to question Jesus whose answer is simply, “Come and see,” and they do.
One of the two is Andrew, brother to Simon Peter. When Andrew runs to tell his brother they have found the one they’ve waited for, both men leave John and go to follow Jesus. They next day, Jesus sees Philip and calls him to follow and Philip then invites Nathanael – and so it begins -- no wilderness wrestling with demons, no hesitation. Just straight to gathering followers and on to the business of teaching how to live in God’s kingdom.
“Come and see.” This Jesus has no questions about himself or his calling. If we want to know who he is, we are welcome to follow him and see for ourselves.
That’s exactly what we will be doing over the next several weeks, but we’re not going to go any further right now with John’s gospel. We’ll be returning to it fairly soon when we enter the Lent/Easter cycle and we don’t need to be repeating ourselves so soon, but when we get there we’ll be a little more prepared to encounter a fully confident Jesus who knows exactly why he is here.
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