John 1:35-51

January 2, 2022

John 1:35-51

Initial Thoughts

• Epiphany - the manifestation of God as human

  • epiphaneia (Gk) - from “to appear” mean “manifest” or “appearance”

  • Acknowledged by Kings - Matthew 2 (Western Church)

  • Acknowledged by God - Baptism

  • Acknowledged by humans - John the Baptist and disciples & Wedding of Cana (Eastern Church)

  • David Toole (Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary - Feasting on the Word – Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration.) - Epiphany and the following Sundays are the celebration of incarnation - birth, baptism, miracles. The baby in the manger is not enough of a case for incarnation, we need Epiphany.

    • This string of Sundays that we encounter in the lectionary as "after the Epiphany" serves to remind us that a baby in a manger is not enough to support our theological claims for the incarnation. We need more than Christmas, even if we wait patiently for the arrival of the magi. We need to see Jesus walk into the Jordan. We need to see the clouds part. We need to hear the booming voice name Jesus a beloved Son. We need to hear Jesus himself ask us, as he asks Peter and Andrew in this passage from John, "What are you looking for?" (John 1:38)

  • According to D. Mark Davis, Greek words “eido” “horao” and “blepo” all roughly mean “to see”, but much more. There is a play between “blepo” which is the most mundane of the words, and eido and horio. 

    • Throughout John’s gospel, the connection between “Seeing,” “knowing,” “witnessing,” are important. 

    • This culminates in the end of John, where it is declared that those who know without seeing are the ones who are truly blessed.

Bible Study

• Calling the Disciples?

  • Disciples of John first - not fishermen

    • The disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter, are not called by Jesus, but follow because of hearing John the Baptist’s declaration

• Jesus first words: What are you looking for? 

  • A good question for all people coming to church- what are you looking for?

  • Looking for a teacher - are we willing to be taught?

  • Perhaps we just want confirmation bias- a divine justification for our actions.

• Come and you will see

  • Future tense- no question

• Literary Context

  • Prelude: Cosmic poem about The Word

  • Day 1 (v. 19-28) Bethany across the Jordan. John the Baptist’s exchange with Pharisees

  • Day 2 (v. 29-34) John the Baptist testifies to Jesus. There is no explicit baptism. John simply “saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove.”

  • Day 3 (v. 35-42) Jesus, Andrew, unnamed disciple, and Simon (renamed Peter and also Andrew’s brother.)

  • Day 4 (v. 43-50) Jesus decides to go to Galilee. Jesus finds Philip, who gets Nathanael. (Philip, Andrew, and Peter all from Bethsaida. Nathanael is from Cana, which we find in 21:2, a Resurrection story where Jesus again tells the disciples to “follow me”).

  • Day 5 or 7 (2:1-12) Begins “On the Third Day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee…” Does this mean the third day after the Spirit descended upon Jesus, or three days later?

• First words of Jesus (not in this passage, but immediately before) are “What are you looking for?”

  • Same question he asks of soldiers who come to arrest him (18:4) and to Mary in the garden after resurrection (20:15)

  • “Holding all three of these occurrences of this phrase together points to a main issue for this Gospel, that Jesus is not a what but a who and who indicates relationship “ Karloine Lewis, John (Fortress Press Biblical Preaching Commentaries), p. 31

  • In this passage he says “Follow me.”

• Two parts of this story, the exchange with Andrew, unnamed disciple and Simon, Andrew’s brother; and the exchange between Nathaniel and Philip..

  • Andrew seems to be a disciple of John the Baptist.

    • They hear John’s testimony, and so they followed Jesus (first member poaching?)

    • Andrew and unnamed disciple go with Jesus.

      • Some guess the unnamed disciple is the “beloved one,” seems more likely that it is Philip. No way to know for sure.

    • Andrew goes to get his brother Simon

    • Jesus renames Simon “Cephas.”

      • This doesn’t happen until much later in synoptics. Again, comparing them is always tricky.

• “The next day” Jesus finds Philip. 

  • Verb “found” could also be “met” or even “bumped into,” but “found gives Jesus’ action intentionality, which fits the rest of the Fourth Gospel flavor of Jesus.

  • Then Philip finds Nathanael (just as Andrew found Simon). Was Philip the unnamed guy from before? Probably.

    • Nathanael’s response, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?” could be one of three things

      • A common colloquialism that existed before.

      • Reveals a community rivalry between Cana, where Nathanael is from, and Nazareth. These two communities were somewhat close, near the Sea of Galilee, quite a distance from Bethany, which is near Jerusalem, where this exchange seems to be taking place.

      • Reflects a greater prejudice against the area that is common.

    • Jesus calls Nathanael a “genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” No one knows why Nathaniel earned such high praise. Skeptics, and maybe Nathanael himself, would say Jesus is just trying to flatter him.

    • Jesus says that he saw Nathanael under a fig tree, which we presume he did not do with natural eyesight. If so, Nathaniel’s response is strange. In John, there other instances of Jesus knowing stuff that can’t be known by normal means (especially the Samaritan woman at the well in 4:17).  

    • Nathanael replies “Rabbi, you are God’s Son. You are the king of Israel.” (In 19:19 the inscription above the cross says “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews”). This is much more than even Philip had told him.

    • Jesus’ response is the heart of the matter, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these. I assure you that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up to heaven and down to earth on the Human One.”

      • Reference to Jacob’s ladder, with Jesus as the base.

      • The great things are about to start. The next scene is the first, and John is structured in such a way that the great things get increasingly great, culminating in raising of Lazareth.

      • Recalls also Jesus and Thomas in resurrection “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.” (John 20:29)

Thoughts and Questions

• Instead of seeing this as a call story, perhaps we can see it as an epiphany story - in this season of epiphany, it is a chance for Jesus to be revealed. Nathanael has an epiphany about who Jesus is, and Jesus offers him an even deeper experience of seeing, if he should follow. 

• The theme of accepting or rejecting Jesus is strong throughout John’s Gospel. Here we have two men that are brought to Jesus. Simon believes, and is called Cephas. Nathanael is reluctant, but is won over.  And while there are times when Jesus admonishes people for only believing because of what they have seen, that is not found here. Instead Jesus declares, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

• Nathanael’s skepticism is not condemned or admonished. In fact, Jesus praises him. In fact, Jesus seems to encourage them all to “Come and see.” When preaching to a congregation, it might be appropriate to encourage others to “come and see,” what God is doing. People are not going to just come to church because of civic duty. They want to know that church matters. If the body of Christ is active, then there will be great signs and wonders. Perhaps it is the role of the preacher to encourage others to find other to “come and see,” because after all, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM

Closing Song by Bryan Odeen