John the biographer, writing around AD 90 (in red above and below), is continuing his biography of Jesus. And I’m continuing to ask you to question it…. When now John writes, “The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples…”, he is writing about a different “John”: This is John the Baptist, who was a few months older than Jesus, a relative of Jesus but no relative of John the biographer.
John the Baptist instructed those two of his own followers to look and see the man walking past them, He instructs them to identify this man as “the Lamb of God!” Watching last night’s BBC documentary on Donald Trump in the lead up to the Presidential elections next week, it was not difficult to look and see what he was claiming to be – and to do. No lamb there.
Why was Jesus merely walking by? Why didn’t he have a 20,000 strong Rally? Would you vote a lamb into the USA Presidency? A third question arises. When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God”, did the word “Lamb” mean anything special to those around?
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 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. 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, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
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From the extract immediately above, what was it that attracted these “two disciples” of John the Baptist to leave off following John the Baptist and instead to follow Jesus? What attracted them even to stay with him? What motivated them to bring others? Why did Jesus re-name “Simon son of John” as “Peter”? Did he know something about Peter’s future?
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The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
It seems that Nazareth had a bad reputation – unlike Bethsaida, which was a town in Gennesaret, the most fertile and prosperous area in Galilee. Back then, around AD 30, Bethsaida was also a showpiece new town recently rebuilt by Philip the Tetrarch in honour of the daughter of Caesar Augustus. Why on earth would four educated men (they knew all about Moses, etc.) from Bethsaida follow someone from no-good Nazareth? Why indeed?
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
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How was it that when Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus, he found out that Jesus had seen Nathaniel immediately before Philip called on him?
Is it the case that, when others point you to the “lamb of God” and you respond, Jesus would already have known you extremely well?
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Will you be one of those “ascending and descending on the Son of Man” with “heaven opened” to you? Are you a person from a place like Bethsaida? Or, under the surface, from a place like Nazareth? No matter.
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