Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
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 followed Jesus. When 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?” He 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. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He 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). (John 1:35-42 – NRSV)
Introductory notes
General
“It is often said that the ‘call’ of the disciples in these verses cannot be reconciled with the Synoptic accounts (Mt. 4:18–22; 9:9; Mk. 1:16–20; 2:13–14; Lk. 5:1–11, 27–28). Traditional harmonization, which postulates that John’s account is a preliminary ‘call’, ratified by the later one reported in the Synoptic Gospels, is ruled out of court on the ground that John leaves no room for a second call. But strictly speaking Jesus does not ‘call’ his disciples at all in these verses (except possibly Philip: cf. notes on v. 43). They attach themselves to him because of the witness of the Baptist, and then because of the witness of the Baptist’s followers. Nor is this a representative abandonment of ‘other religions’ (Barrett, p. 179, referring to the work of E. Schweizer) in favour of Jesus: the first disciples are presented as rightly adhering to what the witness of John the Baptist means, not as abandoning him in favour of a new, ‘Christian’ religion. Indeed, the promptness with which the disciples, according to the Synoptic tradition, abandon their livelihood (whether the fishing business or a tax office) in response to Jesus’ explicit call, is psychologically and historically more plausible if that was not their first exposure to him or their first demonstration of fealty toward him. At this point in John, however, these fledgling disciples are still at the ‘Come and you will see’ (v. 39) stage, the ‘You shall see greater things than that’ (v. 50) stage.” (D A Carson, The Gospel according to John, Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991, 153-154.)
Specific
two of his disciples: One of those disciples, we are told, is Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Who is the other one? The simple answer is that we do not know. However, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the unidentified disciple is the writer of the Gospel – John himself. Given that John the Baptist saw himself quite explicitly as someone preparing the way for the Messiah, it seems entirely logical for these two disciples to go and have a closer look at the one John calls the Lamb of God. “In the Fourth Gospel, the verb ‘to follow’ often means ‘to follow as a disciple’ (e.g. 1:43; 8:12; 12:26; 21:19, 20, 22). But this is not invariably the case: sometimes the verb is quite neutral (e.g. 11:31). It is possible the Evangelist is playing with both meanings: at one level, these two men were ‘following’ Jesus in the most mundane of senses, but at another they were taking the first steps of genuine discipleship” (D A Carson, op cit, 154).
they followed Jesus: “This time John the Baptist’s proclamation of Jesus as the Lamb of God finds an audience as two disciples follow Jesus. The theme of ‘following’ Jesus appears in vss. 37, 38, 40, 43. This means more than walking in the same direction, for ‘follow’ is the term par excellence for the dedication of discipleship. We hear of following as a disciple in 8:12, 10:4, 27, 12:26, 13:36, 21:19, 22; and in Mark 1:18 and par. (the disciples by the Sea of Galilee). The imperative ‘Follow me’ appears in the Synoptic accounts of the call of disciples (Mark 2:14: call of Levi; Matt 8:22: call of an unnamed disciple; Matt 19:21: call of the rich young man). Thus, from the very first words John hints that the disciples of John the Baptist are about to become disciples of Jesus. Because of this, John the Baptist can now disappear from the scene and allow his disciples to take up the task of bearing witness to Jesus. ‘He [Jesus] must increase while I must decrease’ (3:30) (Raymond E Brown, The Gospel according to John (I–XII): Introduction, translation, and notes (Vol. 29), Yale University Press, 2008, 78).
what are you looking for?: “Notice that in the beginning of the process of discipleship it is Jesus who takes the initiative by turning and speaking. As John 15:16 will enunciate, ‘It is not you who chose me. No, I chose you.’ Jesus’ first words in the Fourth Gospel are a question that he addresses to everyone who would follow him, ‘What are you looking for?’ By this John implies more than a banal request about their reason for walking after him. This question touches on the basic need of man that causes him to turn to God, and the answer of the disciples must be interpreted on the same theological level. Man wishes to stay (menein: ‘dwell, abide’) with God; he is constantly seeking to escape temporality, change, and death, seeking to find something that is lasting. Jesus answers with the all-embracing challenge to faith: ‘Come and see.’ Throughout John the theme of ‘coming’ to Jesus will be used to describe faith (3:21, 5:40, 6:35, 37, 45, 7:37, etc.). Similarly, ‘seeing’ Jesus with perception is another Johannine description of faith. It is interesting that in 5:40, 6:40, 47, eternal life is promised respectively to those who come to Jesus, to those who look on him and to those who believe in him—three different ways of describing the same action. If the training of the disciples begins when they go to Jesus to see where he is staying and stay on with him, it will be completed when they see his glory and believe in him (2:11). This scene is the anticipation of what we shall hear in 12:26: “If anyone would serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be” (Raymond E Brown, op cit, 79).
where are you staying?: This question also has massive implications, though it is hard to accept that the disciples would have had any but a slight inkling of those deeper implications. The verb menō – abide, remain, stay, reside, live, rest, continue etc – gains momentum, as it were, as the Gospel story unfolds. Menō is a most significant word for John. The word has already been used twice by John. In 1:32 and 33 he has spoken of the Holy Spirit coming down to “rest” on Jesus and “remain” with him. In 15:1-17 – the image of the true vine – the same verb is used no fewer than eleven times. Perhaps the best known use of the verb is found in 8:31-32 – “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (NKJV). And so the disciples saw where he was “staying” and they “remained” with him . . .
come and see: “Throughout John the theme of ‘coming’ to Jesus will be used to describe faith (3:21, 5:40, 6:35, 37, 45, 7:37, etc.). Similarly, ‘seeing’ Jesus with perception is another Johannine description of faith. It is interesting that in 5:40, 6:40, 47, eternal life is promised respectively to those who come to Jesus, to those who look on him and to those who believe in him—three different ways of describing the same action. If the training of the disciples begins when they go to Jesus to see where he is staying and stay on with him, it will be completed when they see his glory and believe in him (2:11). This scene is the anticipation of what we shall hear in 12:26: “If anyone would serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be” (Raymond E Brown, op cit, 79).
(Andrew) brought Simon to Jesus: The text is operating at different levels. Andrew is set in motion by the Baptist – “Look, there is the Lamb of God” – then by Jesus – “Come and see”. Then he brings his brother, Simon, to meet Jesus. We should not take this to mean that Andrew has fully grasped the significance of Jesus as Messiah. Francis Moloney writes: “Once Andrew led Simon to Jesus he looked at him and spoke to him (emblepsas autǭ ho Iēsous eipen). The initiative is entirely with Jesus. He tells Simon who he is, where he comes from (son of John) and who he will be in the future (Cephas). Again the narrator adds a note, indicating a future that the reader of the Gospel may know came true: the man once called Simon son of John will become Cephas, Peter. The words to Simon are an indication to the disciples that there is more to a proper understanding of Jesus than finding in this rabbi the fulfillment of their messianic expectations” (Francis J Moloney, The Gospel of John, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998, 55).
Stay with him
In today’s Gospel – John 1:35-42 – we have a particularly beautiful and profound account of what it means to become a disciple of Jesus. Discipleship begins with an encounter. The encounter begins with a question. The way John tells the story, it seems that Jesus awaits the question and seeks the encounter.
The details given in the account suggest John was actually part of it – probably the second, unnamed disciple of the Baptist. Furthermore, the sheer intimacy – indeed vulnerability – in the telling, suggests a deep love is being born in this moment. This is no ordinary encounter.
John tells us that the Baptist is “standing with two of his disciples” when Jesus “walks by”. This seems to be a totally unremarkable, utterly ordinary moment, the kind of which we all experience many times every day. Yet, the Baptist “sees” something. He “exclaimed, ‘Look!’” “Looking” and “seeing” are so much part of John’s Gospel. For John, human existence at its deepest, is “looking” and “seeing”. The unremarkable is sacramental, the ordinary is a disguise, the one who “walks by” is Jesus.
The “two disciples” of the Baptist, are prompted to follow Jesus: “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?’ He 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.”
John uses the Greek verb menō – meaning “stay”, “abide”, “remain”, “rest” etc – three times in this brief story. Throughout his Gospel, we hear the same verb used again and again. Before this story, he has already used the word twice. In 1:32 and 33 he has spoken of the Holy Spirit coming down to “rest” on Jesus and “remain” with him. In 15:1-17 – the image of the true vine – the same verb is used no fewer than eleven times. Perhaps the best-known use of the verb is found in 8:31-32: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (NKJV).
The disciple comes to “see” the truth of Jesus, the truth of himself or herself and the truth of the world, by “staying” with him.
Being a disciple of Jesus is not a moral project, a quest for orthodoxy or an endeavor for legal rectitude. It does, of course, involve all of these in some way. But the essence, the life-giving heart of discipleship is love. Disciples are people who know they are loved. They have encountered Jesus who is love. The way to discipleship therefore is “remaining” with him, “abiding” with him. Discipleship is not earned or merited. Discipleship is a being drawn into an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus, “the Lamb of God”, the one who is always “walking by”. All we have to do is “Look!”.