Scripture: John 1:35-42
Date: June 12, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The Logos is the strongest gravitational force in the universe. He created all things (John 1:3) and continues, even now, holding all things together (Colossians 1:17). The heavens and earth stay their course according to His word, as do all those who follow Him. Jesus draws men to Himself, He holds their lives in place, and He is the center around which every true disciple revolves.
John the Baptist pointed people to Jesus. His entire ministry turned the attention away from himself and onto Jesus. He understood that he was the one preparing the way for the Messiah and, when he saw the Messiah, he exclaimed His identity. John’s message and ministry concentrated on Jesus; Jesus was the nucleus that defined the orbit of John’s entire life.
John the apostle starts his section of signs that identify Jesus as the Messiah (1:19-12:50) with the witness of John the Baptist (1:19-42). The Baptizer testified about Jesus to the questioning priests and Levites (verses 19-28), he testified that Jesus is the prophesied One, prophesied in the Old Testament and by John himself (verses 29-34), and now he testifies to a couple of his own disciples that Jesus is the One (verses 35-42).
In this paragraph we meet Jesus’ first disciples, two who had been disciples of John. In some sense, John the Baptist finishes his work when he turned his followers to Jesus; he aimed toward that goal all along. John fades out of the scene as the spotlight turns to Jesus.
So many questions go unanswered in this account, but John the Baptist’s witness stands sure.
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. (verses 35-37)
We’re now two days after the Jerusalem delegation questioned the Baptist. The “next day” (verse 29) John identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and then the “next day” (verse 35), this day, he saw Jesus again. The evangelist doesn’t tell us why no one followed the first time John pointed out Jesus. He also doesn’t tell us what the Baptist and his disciples were doing other than “standing” around “as Jesus walked by” (verse 36).
The word “disciple” appears for the first time in the Fourth Gospel, with 79 more occurrences to follow. On one hand, I don’t want to make too much out of this. On the other hand, disciple-making is one of the least practiced but most talked about Christian topics. The Greek word is μαθητής, defined as “one who engages in learning through instruction from another” (BAGD), so a learner, a student (rather than a teacher). A disciple associated himself with a particular teacher, someone with a reputation or a particular set of views.
Our English word “disciple” comes from the Latin discipulus (used in the Vulgate to translate mathetes), a leaner or pupil. “A man is called a mathetes when he binds himself to someone else in order to acquire his practical and theoretical knowledge…One can only be a mathetes in the company of a didaskalos, a master or teacher” (NIDNTT).
Disciples might follow at various levels of commitment. John the Baptist’s disciples were close; they took their commitment seriously. They were nearby when their teacher went to prison (Matthew 11:2), they had their own form of prayer (Luke 11:1), they fasted (Mark 2:18), and they buried John’s body after his beheading (Mark 6:29). They followed John in every sense of the word.
”Two of his disciples” were with John on this day. Presumably he was teaching them at the very moment when Jesus walked by, but who knows, and who knows if he had more than two disciples at that point and, if so, where the rest of them were.
We do know that everything in John’s ministry pointed to Jesus; John’s disciples knew about the Lamb of God because the Lamb was in the lesson plans every day. The Baptist was both a forerunner and a follower of Jesus and, in a real way, those who followed John were already following Jesus, at least if they were paying attention. John exclaims the Lamb and this time the “two disciples” physically get up and follow Jesus.
The goal of disciple-making: follow Jesus. John took his ministry seriously, not himself. He was building in someone else’s kingdom, not trying to establish one for himself. But John was close enough to Jesus that when Jesus walked by, there was no mistake whose mass, whose gravity, had greater pull. There’s no hint of bitterness or disappointment from John when his disciples transfer their attention to Jesus; John’s loss is his goal.
Jesus regularly surprises, even those of us who’ve read His story a hundred times.
Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. (verses 37-39)
Why would Jesus put up even this little bit of resistance? If He knew who He was (and certainly He did), and if He knew what John testified about Him (and no doubt He did), then why wouldn’t Jesus demonstrate more eagerness with these two disciples of John? He “saw them following” and asked “What are you seeking?” In other words, “What do you guys want?”
The two disciples answer Jesus’ question with a question, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” They offer polite, if not a little awkward, small talk. “Rabbi,” which the evangelist translates for his Greek readers, “means Teacher.” It was a term of respect, a way to express honor, but not an official position at this point in the first century. Then they ask, “Where are you staying?” This seems to be more than curiosity about Jesus’ address, but it also doesn’t seem to be a much of a commitment either.
Jesus’ response blows my mind. “He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.‘” He didn’t put out a large welcome mat initially, but now He invites them to hang with Him. The eternal Logos entered time in the flesh and invites these two to share some time with Him. The invitation itself is grace, and the patience Jesus displays would have broken them if they would have realized it. He doesn’t give them grief for failing to know everything about Him. He doesn’t give them a book about Himself or stop for a lecture or wait for a larger crowd. He offers them a look-see into His life. He invites them to come along with Him.
The two disciples followed “and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.” Jews counted hours of the day from around 6:00 A.M., so the “tenth hour” would be 4:00 PM. The sun would be up only for a few more hours, and it was getting to be dinner time. You wouldn’t start large tasks or trips at this time of day if you didn’t have to, so they went with Jesus and stayed with Him for the evening rather than going and returning. Can you imagine how fast those hours flew?
These two disciples were never the same after that night with Jesus.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). (verses 40-42)
“One of the two” disciples “was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” He’s referred to in reference to his brother, whom, no doubt, was more familiar to the apostle John’s readership. Though more people knew Peter, it took someone else to introduce Peter to Jesus. I wonder why Peter wasn’t following John the Baptist but his brother was. Was Peter skeptical?
Andrew told his brother, “We have found the Messiah.” it must have been some evening with Jesus! The evangelist translates the Aramaic word, “Messiah” for his Greek readers. John is the only NT author to use Messiah, here and in John 4:25. Both “Messiah” and “Christ” refer to one who is anointed. In the Old Testament, the king was anointed, priests were anointed, and some prophets were anointed. For example, the act of anointing was instrumental in the “consecration,” the setting apart, of Aaron the priest (Ex. 29:7), David the king (1 Sa. 16:1–13), and Elisha the prophet (1 Ki. 19:16). Of course, Jesus is prophet, priest, and King.
For what it’s worth, a couple clues suggest that the other of the two disciples in this story was John, the author of the Gospel. First, the other disciple is never identified, a pattern consistent throughout John’s Gospel. Second, the time of day detail, that they want along with Jesus at “about the tenth hour,” suggests a sort of knowledge of the story that comes from someone who was there himself.
True disciples can’t help but make more disciples.
Andrew brought his brother to Jesus, introduces them, and the first thing Jesus does is rename Simon. That seems crazy. Considering what we know about Peter, we can only imagine what his reaction was. Jesus offers Peter absolutely no explanation at all. Why did Jesus rename Simon? Why didn’t He rename each disciple? The quick answer is that He can do whatever He wants. One with authority gives names, and Jesus declares His prerogative over this new disciple.
Jesus renames Simon, “Cephas,” meaning “rock” in Aramaic and translated “Peter” in Greek. Jesus gives Peter a new identity. It is sort of ironic that the impulsive one is called steady, the rash made into a rock, full of courage (though denying Christ three times).
They eventually dedicated their lives to him as true disciples and apostles when Jesus called them to permanent service after these events (see Matthew 4:18–22; 9:9; and Mark 1:16–20).
Why this paragraph? Yes, it transitions from John to Jesus, from the forerunner to the Christ. But this is more than an historical reality, it is a key moment in redemptive history. The Lamb, the Rabbi-Teacher, the Messiah-Christ has arrived. He forgives, He instructs, and reigns. Jesus stands at the center, and life of His disciples revolves around Him. Come and see Him.