As the Forerunner of Jesus, John not only Carries the Message About Him, But Sends Him His First Disciples.

 John 1: 35-42                           March 1, 2021

³⁵The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”  ³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). ⁴²He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

            One of the differences that will come about when considering more narrative portions of the Gospel of John is that there will be larger chunks, like three verses today.  Being more action oriented, things are quicker to interpret and consider.

            Our new section begins today with the next day again identified as the separation from what came before.  Another day will begin the next section after verse 43.  Read this, and it seems that John the baptizer was hanging out in Bethany for a few days (I still have found no indication that the action moved to Jerusalem, as I used to assume).  But this time, he is with a couple of disciples, and they are standing around.  A current equivalent might be to indicate that they were “hanging out”. 

            It seems to be a small town, because once again, Jesus goes walking by, and again, John identifies him, “Look, here is the Lamb of God.”  I do not know if this is what John has been saying to everybody who happens to be near when Jesus is around.  In this case, it seems to be for the benefit of the disciples.  In pointing out Jesus, John seems to be illustrating what discussions he might have been having ‘off page’ with those disciples.  It seems that John’s discussions ‘off page’ have been enough to entice the interest of these two disciples.  They head after Jesus. 

            A couple of observations, I never considered what it meant that John the baptizer had disciples.  I mean, I knew he had them.  They are mentioned in other passages as coming to Jesus after John’s execution.  But I have not considered John’s ministry to be one with disciples.  This may or may not be as Jesus set things up, gathering a group of disciples as he did to replicate the ministry that He was instituting.  But then these two up and followed Jesus.

            At first glance, that might seem almost rude.  ‘Thank you John, but this is the interesting guy.’  But it follows the very pattern that John has set in his relationship with Jesus.  John is the one who comes to make straight the way of the Lord.  Jesus is the one who comes after, whose sandals John the baptizer has claimed he is unworthy to untie.  This is the message John’s disciples have been hearing.  It is a natural progression that they would follow John’s words by following the one John has been talking about.

            This is not the ‘typical’ start to discipleship that I learned in Sunday School.  I learned Jesus walking on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, calling the brothers who will be fishing for people. 

            These are the first two that Jesus will begin His ministry with.

SIDEBAR

            There are distinctions in the stories told in each gospel.  John the Gospel Writer provides more information of John the baptizer and Jesus’ interactions around Jesus’ baptism than is found in the other gospels.  This is used as evidence by some who would attack the faith that the bible is contradictory.  (We will consider that more at the end of this chunk of Scripture). 

            Unfortunately, most faith-based attempts to respond to this accusation, in my experience, simply lean into the theological precept of the inerrancy and the inspiration of Scripture to roll over, or at least gloss over accusations of the bible’s self-contradiction.  I have seen a book that attempts to take the four gospels and lay them out as one, inclusive, narrative of Jesus.

            One of the most powerful lessons I took away from Westminster Seminary was, essentially, on the nature of the inspiration of Scripture.  These are the writings of human beings inspired by the Spirit of God.  What that means is that God is not dictating Scripture.  That is not how God’s revelation operates.  Rather, God works through the skills and the experiences of the authors of Scripture to unfold revelation to us. 

            What that means for me is that each Gospel writer is inspired out of their own knowledge and experiences.  And we do not have the rules and conventions for what that means.  And they have their recollections.

            There is a 1950 Japanese movie called “Rashoman”, directed by the preeminent Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (yes, this CAN get pretty obscure!).  The movie revolves around the murder of a samurai and the different ways in which the witnesses remember what happened.  It is anticipatory of the post-modernist point of view where, to grossly oversimplify, everyone’s opinion is truth because it is truth to them.  One thing I came away from in this movie is how people can remember and perceive the same event in different ways.  Yes, it is cranked up, if you will, for the movies, but it is a fundamental truth of human nature.  We are all different.

            So four gospels, four different points of view, all gathered on the single truth of Jesus.  Each one inspired by the Spirit, so the divine truth in these is why they are gathered into the canon of Scripture (and why other ones, like the Gospel of Thomas, are not).  The details are reported differently.  The order of events is not always the same.  Contradiction is presumed because the gospel is presumed to be something akin to court testimony or a historical narrative of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, when the gospel is neither.  The gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ.  God's Spirit, God's rules, which include using the 'voice' of each gospel writer to give us God's truth.  

            Now, the gospel of John is often branded as the one that makes Jesus into God.  There is a lot more discussion of that connection and interplay between God the Father and Jesus, the Son of God, the Word, as we have already seen.  But error creeps in when that declaration is made to the exclusion of the other gospels.  In other words, the thesis is that John makes Jesus all God-like while the others do not.  That is just plain wrong.  Jesus as God is a truth in all four gospels, but these are different authors, different points of view.  I happen to think that they influenced each other’s writings.  John is big on the divinity of Christ, the other gospels have different lenses for us to see the truth of Jesus. 

            That is more than enough SIDEBAR for now.

Pastor Pete