Saturday in the Time After Christmas, January 4, 2025

John 1, 35-42

John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and 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 you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah,” which is translated Christ. Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas,” which is translated Peter.

“John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’ ”  This scene transpires the day after the first time John declared that Jesus, walking along the river bank, was “the Lamb of God”.  Andrew and John hear him and are intrigued.  This epithet, “the Lamb of God” is a very strange one.  It had never been used for another person before, and with good reason, for it strongly suggests that the person bearing it is to be sacrificed to God. 

“The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.”  How simple faith can be!  So many times we raise objections out of our pride or selfishness, or we argue because some doctrine does not fit in with our views.  But these two disciples, trusting in John the Baptist’s reliability as a teacher, right away and without question follow Jesus, whom they will follow for the rest of their lives.

“Jesus turned and saw them following him.”  The Lord shows that he knows we follow him by turning and looking at us.  He looks at us directly and sees into our hearts.  His expression is serene and it invites confidence.  He shows that he is pleased by our following him.  “What are you looking for?”  He speaks as one who would gladly help the disciples to find what they seek.  His question comes to each of us as well.  Why do we follow Jesus?  How does this benefit us?  The answer is eternal life with God.  Let us settle for nothing less.

“Rabbi, where are you staying?”  St. John Chrysostom points out that although they know nothing about Jesus and despite having learned nothing from him as yet, they call him “Rabbi”.  Simply looking into the Lord’s face they sense his great wisdom.  They ask, in answer to his question, about his lodgings, indicating that they would visit with him. 

“Come, and you will see.”  The Lord thereby invites them to visit with him.  The invitation is fashioned as an open-ended one.  He does not say they can stay only to such an hour, nor does he insist on their staying for dinner.  They can come, see where he lives, and then leave if they want.  And if they stay, they can leave at any time.  He leads them, very probably, to a small cave or a niche in the rocky hills of the place where John was baptizing.  It is not any different from the places where John and his other disciples took shelter at night.

“They stayed with him that day.”  The Fathers agree that Andrew and John stayed with him that night as well.  They came to him at about four in the afternoon, when the day was already well-spent.  This was not the time to begin but a time to wrap up.  We see here the eagerness these men had to learn about the Lord, to learn what it meant that he was the Lamb of God.  Did they sleep?  It was practically sundown already, when everyone went to bed.  But how could they sleep?  They remained awake all night, mostly listening and sometimes asking questions.  The hours flew by, unnoticed.  We might apply here words spoken by the two disciples who encounter the Risen Lord on their way to Emmaus: “Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way and opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24, 32).  Never had they met anyone like this.  We learn from this the eagerness for prayer which we should cultivate,  turning over in our minds who he is, and that he is more eager to talk with us than we are to talk to him. 

“We have found the Messiah.”  The Evangelist indicates that Andrew found his brother Peter before he did anything else.  Peter was staying in Capernaum to fish while his brother was away.  Jesus evidently went with Andrew back to the town in Galilee, for we see that soon afterwards he “found” Philip, also a Galilean.  Andrew tells Peter that they have found the “Messiah”, though neither John the Baptist nor Jesus ever used that politically-loaded term.  But what else was he to call Jesus that would begin to describe his mission?  The use of this term does remind us of how the Apostles understood him initially.  “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Peter.”  Jesus, speaking in Aramean, takes the Aramean word for “large rock” or “cliff” and adds a masculine ending to it, making it a name.  John, in his Gospel, transliterates the Aramaic name directly into Greek and then translates it into the Greek equivalent word, and adding a masculine ending to this: Petros, which we render into English as “Peter”. This line is very striking in the original Greek.  

Each of us ought to build a house of love within our hearts for the Lord to swell there, not temporarily as he did at this time near the Jordan, but permanently.  May he rest his bruised head upon our hearts.