2nd Sunday After Epiphany: Follow Jesus and Discover the Kingdom of God
CONTENT
Introduction
Good morning friends. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. On this 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany we hear John the Baptist’s reflection on the baptism of Jesus, and his invitation to some of his disciples to follow Jesus. I love the question that Jesus poses to John’s disciples. He asks, “What are you looking for?” That question feels like a continual invitation from Jesus to be honest about what we are looking for in a Savior. In asking the question honestly, we start to identify our worries, doubts, insecurities, hurts, the things we want rescue from. It is an invitation to journey with Jesus so that the glory of his rule and reign grows our vision for who he is.
Looking for the Son of God is about the journey and not the destination. As we look at our Gospel text this morning, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.”
29-34 John’s commentary on Jesus’ baptism
The Gospel of John assumes we know the details of Jesus’ baptism. Unlike the other gospels, it does not give us the narrative details. Instead the emphasis is on the signs that Jesus is Messiah. John mentions this intriguing phrase “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” John’s whole baptism ministry was to the end that someone who would be baptized would be revealed as the Messiah that Israel anticipated. This whole business about John not knowing Jesus probably has to do with the fact that John’s knowledge of Jesus as Messiah had not been fully filled out until Jesus is baptized.
John knew that the Messiah would be the one to come and bring God’s justice to God’s people. The suffering part was not quite as clear. In early Judaism there were passages about the Messiah suffering on behalf of God’s people to deliver them from sin, like Isaiah 53. There were also passages that spoke about the Messiah coming like a victorious king to deliver God’s people from foreign oppression, like Micah 5:2. How these two images of the Messiah came together was a mystery during the baptism ministry of John. In fact, some teachers of Israel thought that there would be two Messiahs — one to suffer and one to reign.
John recounts that when he had baptized Jesus that he saw the vision of God revealed and the Spirit resting on Jesus in the form of a dove. He concludes and testifies that this is the Son of God. He calls him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John brings together the suffering Messiah imagery and the victorious Messiah ideas together in ways that would only make sense after Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead. This imagery is fully laid out in Revelation 5:11 where the elders and angels sing “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” John’s ministry is now coming to a close as Jesus’ begins to ramp up.
Cyril of Alexandria says it this way: “No longer does John need to “prepare the way,” since the one for whom the preparation was being made is right there before his eyes...but now he who of old was dimly pictured, the very Lamb, the spotless Sacrifice, is led to the slaughter for all, that he might drive away the sin of the world, that he might overturn the destroyer of the earth, that dying for all he might annihilate death, that he might undo the curse that is upon us...For one Lamb died for all, saving the whole flock on earth to God the Father, one for all, that he might subject all to God.”[1]
John’s ministry was beginning to come to an end. The one he hoped for had come. John would eventually be killed and he would not see the fulness of what he predicted on this side of eternity. Things did not unfold as he thought they would, but his life is a foundational testimony to the life and ministry of Jesus. His life pointed people to Jesus, not matter what this might mean. This was certainly true for his two disciples mentioned next.
35-39 “What are you looking for?”
In verses 35-39, on the “next day” after John’s baptism of Jesus, two of John’s disciples see Jesus walk by. John says “Look, the Lamb of God!” and invites these disciples to follow Jesus. One of these two disciples is identified as Andrew, Simon’s brother. The other one is left unidentified. As they begin following Jesus, Jesus poses this question to them: “What are you looking for?” In the context of the story, I wonder if they look at each other a bit bewildered. “What do you mean what are we looking for? We are looking for the Messiah, the one who is going to destroy our enemies, make God’s people upright again, the one our teacher John spoke about...” and so on.
Jesus’ question to them is included by John here as a question for us. What are you looking for? Andrew and this other disciple had to follow Jesus for some time before they really learned what they were looking for. They were looking for someone to deliver them from their disordered loves, their bondage to spiritual darkness, death, false narratives they’ve been told, and much more. It would take time for them to name these things to know what they were really looking for. Following Jesus is the beginning of asking the right questions and shaping our desires so we can ask rightly “What are we looking for?”
They ask Jesus the Rabbi where he is staying. They want to continue this conversation over dinner. Jesus answers them, saying “Come and see”. It is a genuine invitation. He wants them to come and see and expand their vision of the ministry of the Messiah.
This reminds me of following Jesus in the church. I remember beginning to attend an Anglican church and someone walked me through Holy Week. I intellectually understood what was going to happen and thought it was neat, but it wasn’t until I went through a Holy Week with the church that I really experienced the goodness of God in it. Experiencing something of the quick move from joy to rejection, the moments of darkness and silence, the joy of the fire and the resurrection. Easter made so much more sense because of both the liturgy and experiencing it in the lives of my church family. Life with Jesus is not just a mental assent to an image of the Messiah, it is an expansion of our vision of the Messiah’s work as we follow him and taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus invites us to come and see His work. He invites us because like Andrew and this other disciple, he wants us to follow him.
40-42 Peter is invited to come and see
One of these two disciples of John the Baptist is named. It is Andrew, who is the brother of Simon, whom Jesus will call Peter. Andrew is so excited about his discovery of the Messiah that he is compelled to go and invite his brother. Andrew brings Simon to Jesus to meet him. Jesus meets Simon and renames him Cephas, which is Aramaic for stone. This is instructive as we think of discipleship.
Andrew followed Jesus. He spent time listening to him and learning from him. I’m sure he asked him a lot of questions. He took it all in. He allowed his time with Jesus to reorder his world and paradigms. He was now internally convinced that this was the anointed, the Messiah of God. He wants to bring others not to an intellectual understanding, but into the same deep inner knowledge and reorienting relationship with Jesus that he himself has experienced. To do this he needed to bring Simon into Jesus’ presence and Jesus begins to reframe Simon’s reality starting with a new name.
Discipleship is ongoing, not immediate. We follow Jesus and we begin to ask him questions along the journey: “Why am I in pain? Why are people inflicting pain on others? Have I messed up this relationship beyond your ability to bring healing? Am I still doing your will if I’m not doing the same job anymore? Why has my family member caused me so much harm? Where are you right now?!” And to these Jesus has this same beautiful invitation: “Come and see — because I want you to follow me and see what the kingdom is like.” And as we grow in a knowledge of God’s love and how he rightly orders the world, we are compelled to invite others to come and meet this Jesus with us. We are not superior to others. We are fellow pilgrims discovering Jesus on the road home.
Some have speculated that the Gospel writer, who never mentions himself by name, is the other unnamed disciple of John the baptist. We can’t know for sure. But it would make sense of why there is so much Aramaic. John the Evangelist is possibly recounting these foundational first-hand moments and using the Aramaic he was accustomed to using with Jesus: “Rabbi” in Aramaic to “teacher” in Greek. “Messiah” in Aramaic to “Anointed” in Greek. “Cephas” in Aramaic to “Peter” in Greek. John is perhaps recounting these moments as he remembers them but inviting his Gentile readers into the story through translating the phrases to something more familiar for his audience. This day he is remembering was foundational for his journey with Jesus and it invites his readers, as Andrew does his brother, to come and follow Jesus, to refine their questions (and ours) in light of a relationship to this good Shepherd, to experience the kingdom of God, to discover what we are truly longing for and to expand our vision for Jesus’ ministry and the story he is telling of the kingdom of God in our lives.
Conclusion
Today’s Gospel is all about an invitation to follow Jesus, what we call becoming a disciple. John the baptist had his view expanded of Jesus’ ministry. His disciples, Andrew and the other — possibly John the apostle— had their vision of Jesus’ ministry expanded. Peter is invited to learn the ministry of the Messiah. Through all of these lives you and I are also invited to come and see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We are invited to ask “What are you looking for” and then we are invited to be surprised as Jesus walks with us in life’s complications and expands our vision for his kingdom and proves himself to be our good shepherd along difficult paths. All of us are pilgrims together learning to ask better questions of Jesus as we walk with him, listen to him, and as he reorients us as we follow Him. And as we follow Him, we are invited into a deeper experience of the love of God, to taste and see that He is good, and to invite others to journey with us as we walk with Jesus.
Let us pray:
Grant, Almighty God, that the words we have heard this day with our ears may by your grace be grafted in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of a righteous life, to the honor and praise of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[1] Cyril of Alexandria, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.
