Gospel for January 22, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 4:12-23
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Matthew’s Gospel is very aware of the connection between the Hebrew heritage of the Old Testament and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He specifically connects the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the prophecy of Isaiah:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
toward the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
 the people who sat in darkness saw a great light,
to those who sat in the region and shadow of death,
to them light has dawned.”

Matthew is crystal clear that Jesus is the great light who has come to all people who are in the darkness and shadow of death.

The context of this fulfillment of prophecy are the movements of Jesus following the arrest of John the Baptist.  Jesus departs the Jordan river valley and returns to Galilee, eventually coming to live in Capernaum — which was historically the region once occupied by the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.

Jesus begins his ministry by preaching essentially the same message that his cousin John had been preaching:

 “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

The key difference is that Jesus is not merely the messenger of the Kingdom; he is the King whose very presence inaugurates the Kingdom of Heaven!

Jesus begins to assemble his “team,” his “cabinet” who will help him in his ministry.  When we look closely at his choices as though we were seeing them for the first time, we might well be surprised.  As he walks by the sea of Galilee, Jesus invites fishermen to follow him!  Simon Peter and his brother Andrew evidently were in business together as fishermen; and James and John worked for their father Zebedee.

Jesus uses a metaphor that they would surely understand:

 “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”

We are told that in each case, the two sets of brothers immediately left their nets.  Had they met Jesus prior to this account?  We might speculate that they had met Jesus, based on the account in the Gospel of John 1:39-41.  Andrew is one of the two disciples of John the Baptist who heard John announce that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  In this account, Andrew spends time with Jesus and then seeks out his brother Simon and introduces him to Jesus.  Perhaps a network of communication had been initiated among these fishermen, and they had begun talking about this Jesus.  So when the invitation came, perhaps they were more than ready to leave everything behind and follow him.

Finally, Matthew describes the modus operandi of Jesus’ ministry — itinerant preaching and healing:

Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

APPLY:  

There is a lot going on in this passage as Jesus begins his ministry.  He has been baptized by John in the Jordan river, and has endured testing in the wilderness from the Devil.  Now he is ready to begin the process of fulfilling the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

He is the great light that pierces the darkness and shadow of death.

In the process, he shares his message, begins to assemble his ministry team, and reveals the method of his ministry.

The call to repentance — to turn away from sin, and to turn toward God — is made more poignant because Jesus is the light whose presence reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven is in their midst!  Jesus has come as the one who is capable of forgiving sin, and making true repentance possible.

The call of the disciples becomes a paradigm for all disciples of Jesus — that we are to be fishers of people no matter what our professions may be.  Even if we don’t leave our nets, our offices, our jobs, if we are disciples we are to seek to bring others into the network as followers of Jesus.

And Jesus’ itinerant ministry also provides a model for us — he goes where the “fish” are, so to speak, and teaches and preaches and heals.  We also are to go where the people are, to teach the Good News of the Kingdom, without neglecting the physical needs of people.

RESPOND: 

I am intrigued by the concept of nets and networking that this passage suggests.  We are all called to be disciples, which means we are to be fishers of people.  We become part of a network of people, that we call the church, who each play a critical role in drawing people closer to Christ.

This doesn’t mean that every disciple must be a clergyperson or a missionary in foreign lands.  It does mean that each of us are to “go fishing” in the neighborhoods and communities where we live and work.

I can recall years ago in my ministry when the man who was the chair of the church’s evangelism committee asked to address the congregation on Sunday morning.  I was surprised when he stood up and said, “I am the chair of the largest committee in this church.”  And then he explained what he meant — “Every one of you is a member of my committee.”

Evangelism — sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ — is the ministry of all of us.

Lord, your light has come into our world.  You have brought light into my own life.  I have heard your call to share your light with others.  Equip me and show me how to make people into disciples.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“That’s all they caught” by jankie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 15, 2023

“Ecce Agnus Dei” is a photograph by Lawrence OP of a Detail of a window in Chartres Cathedral which depicts today’s Gospel reading.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 1:29-42
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

We receive a glimpse into the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  This is a time of transition.  John has been preaching repentance and he has been baptizing in the Jordan River, but he has been keenly aware that his own role was preparatory.  Now, the one for whom he was preparing has come!

The day before the events in our Scripture passage, John had answered several questions from priests and Levites, who already seemed hostile.  He made it clear that he was neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet that they were expecting (these were all titles from Messianic prophecies from their Scriptures) — he was simply a messenger who was preparing the way of the Lord:

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said (John 1:23).

In our lectionary Gospel passage, a day later, he sees Jesus and announces:

 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.’  I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel.”

An entire theology of salvation is hinted at in John’s words.  Supernaturally, John understands that Jesus is the Lamb of God, i.e., he is to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, superseding the temple sacrifices that were inadequate to remove sin.  John also sees what the writer of the Gospel sees — that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, who existed before John did.

How does he know these things?

John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.  I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Although John’s Gospel doesn’t describe the baptism of Jesus, this is essentially the same description given by the Synoptic Gospels when Jesus is baptized by John (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22).  What is clear is that the Holy Spirit confirms the divine nature of Jesus, and Jesus introduces a new baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This a baptism of power, not merely water.

John continues his ministry by directing even his own disciples toward Jesus.  When he sees Jesus again the next day, he declares to two of his disciples:

“Behold, the Lamb of God!”

They take the hint.  They are no longer to follow John; they are to follow Jesus.  Immediately, they begin walking after Jesus, who turns and says to them:

What are you looking for?

They themselves seem not to understand what they are seeking — they simply blurt out:

“Rabbi” (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), “where are you staying?”

These are the first two of Jesus’ followers; his first disciples.  They haven’t responded to any miracle, or even any great teaching, that Jesus has offered. They have responded to the testimony of John.  And Jesus doesn’t offer much yet.  He simply answers:

 Come, and see.

It is seemingly an inauspicious beginning.  The two men stay with Jesus that day, beginning at about four o’clock in the afternoon, we are told.  We aren’t told what they did, or what they talked about.  But we know that one of the disciples was moved to become the second witness after John the Baptist.  Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, went looking for his brother and blurts out:

“We have found the Messiah!” (which is, being interpreted, Christ).

Again, there is an economy of words and description.  We don’t have the calling of the Big Fisherman by the Sea of Galilee, or the boats or the nets, as we have in the other Gospels (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20).  Andrew, who will become known as a disciple who brings others to Jesus, brings his big brother to Jesus.

And in a divine foreshadowing, Jesus recognizes who this Simon is (Simon the son of Jonah), and who he will become — Cephas (Cephas is Aramaic for Rock, as Peter is the Greek word for Rock).

APPLY:  

The most important thing we can do as Christians is exactly what John and Andrew do — point others toward Jesus.

Neither of them are particularly “showy” as they testify about Jesus.  John simply announces that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  John recognizes that the work of Jesus is everything, and that his task is to point others toward Jesus.  A little later, John’s disciples will grow jealous of the new Rabbi who is drawing people away from John, and will tattle to him about this new upstart.  But John knows his own role quite well. He tells his followers:

You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.  He must increase, but I must decrease (John 4:28-30).

Andrew is also not one to draw attention to himself.  He spends time with Jesus, becomes convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, and shares what he has experienced with his brother.

This is evangelism.  When we become aware that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and the Son of God, the most natural thing that we can do is to tell others what we have experienced.  If we tell no one this life-changing news, have we truly experienced it for ourselves?

RESPOND: 

Wouldn’t you have loved to be present at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?  The only concern I would have is that I might have missed it.  I might have misunderstood, like so many others did.  I might have questioned the credentials of this carpenter from Nazareth, or his crazy cousin from the desert.

I thank God that in my own time and my own context, I haven’t missed out on meeting Jesus!  I too have come to recognize that he is the Lamb of God who has taken away my sins, and given my life purpose and meaning.  And I have made it my life’s work to tell others.

May we share this truth by whatever means we can — with those who are close to us, as John did; with our family members, as Andrew did.

You come into our midst, and when we recognize you we respond in faith. We ask that you equip and empower us to tell others about you.  We aren’t all apostles, or even preachers, but we can be like Andrew and bring others with us to meet you. Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Ecce Agnus Dei” by Lawrence OP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 26, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 4:12-23
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Matthew’s Gospel is very aware of the connection between the Hebrew heritage of the Old Testament and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He specifically connects the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the prophecy of Isaiah:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
toward the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
 the people who sat in darkness saw a great light,
to those who sat in the region and shadow of death,
to them light has dawned.”

Matthew is crystal clear that Jesus is the great light who has come to all people who are in the darkness and shadow of death.

The context of this fulfillment of prophecy are the movements of Jesus following the arrest of John the Baptist.  Jesus departs the Jordan river valley and returns to Galilee, eventually coming to live in Capernaum — which was historically the region once occupied by the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.

Jesus begins his ministry by preaching essentially the same message that his cousin John had been preaching:

 “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

The key difference is that Jesus is not merely the messenger of the Kingdom; he is the King whose very presence inaugurates the Kingdom of Heaven!

Jesus begins to assemble his “team,” his “cabinet” who will help him in his ministry.  When we look closely at his choices as though we were seeing them for the first time, we might well be surprised.  As he walks by the sea of Galilee, Jesus invites fishermen to follow him!  Simon Peter and his brother Andrew evidently were in business together as fishermen; and James and John worked for their father Zebedee.

Jesus uses a metaphor that they would surely understand:

 “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”

We are told that in each case, the two sets of brothers immediately left their nets.  Had they met Jesus prior to this account?  We might speculate that they had met Jesus, based on the account in the Gospel of John 1:39-41.  Andrew is one of the two disciples of John the Baptist who heard John announce that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  In this account, Andrew spends time with Jesus and then seeks out his brother Simon and introduces him to Jesus.  Perhaps a network of communication had been initiated among these fishermen, and they had begun talking about this Jesus.  So when the invitation came,  perhaps they were more than ready to leave everything behind and follow him.

Finally, Matthew describes the modus operandi of Jesus’ ministry — itinerant preaching and healing:

Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

APPLY:  

There is a lot going on in this passage as Jesus begins his ministry.  He has been baptized by John in the Jordan river, and has endured testing in the wilderness from the Devil.  Now he is ready to begin the process of fulfilling the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

He is the great light that pierces the darkness and shadow of death.

In the process, he shares his message, begins to assemble his ministry team, and reveals the method of his ministry.

The call to repentance — to turn away from sin, and to turn toward God — is made more poignant because Jesus is the light whose presence reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven is in their midst!  Jesus has come as the one who is capable of forgiving sin, and making true repentance possible.

The call of the disciples becomes a paradigm for all disciples of Jesus — that we are to be fishers of people no matter what our professions may be.  Even if we don’t leave our nets, our offices, our jobs, if we are disciples we are to seek to bring others into the network as followers of Jesus.

And Jesus’ itinerant ministry also provides a model for us — he goes where the “fish” are, so to speak, and teaches and preaches and heals.  We also are to go where the people are, to teach the Good News of the Kingdom, without neglecting the physical needs of people.

RESPOND: 

I am intrigued by the concept of nets and networking that this passage suggests.  We are all called to be disciples, which means we are to be fishers of people.  We become part of a network of people, that we call the church, who each play a critical role in drawing people closer to Christ.

This doesn’t mean that every disciple must be a clergyperson or a missionary in foreign lands.  It does mean that each of us are to “go fishing” in the neighborhoods and communities where we live and work.

I can recall years ago in my ministry when the man who was the chair of the church’s evangelism committee asked to address the congregation on Sunday morning.  I was surprised when he stood up and said, “I am the chair of the largest committee in this church.”  And then he explained what he meant — “Every one of you is a member of my committee.”

Evangelism — sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ — is the ministry of all of us.

Lord, your light has come into our world.  You have brought light into my own life.  I have heard your call to share your light with others.  Equip me and show me how to make people into disciples.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“That’s all they caught” by jankie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 19, 2020

“Ecce Agnus Dei” is a photograph by Lawrence OP of a Detail of a window in Chartres Cathedral which depicts today’s Gospel reading.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 1:29-42
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

We receive a glimpse into the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  This is a time of transition.  John has been preaching repentance and he has been baptizing in the Jordan River, but he has been keenly aware that his own role was preparatory.  Now, the one for whom he was preparing has come!

The day before the events in our Scripture passage, John had answered several questions from priests and Levites, who already seemed hostile.  He made it clear that he was neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet that they were expecting (these were all titles from Messianic prophecies from their Scriptures) — he was simply a messenger who was preparing the way of the Lord:

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said (John 1:23).

In our lectionary Gospel passage, a day later, he sees Jesus and announces:

 “Behold,  the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.’  I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel.”

An entire theology of salvation is hinted at in John’s words.  Supernaturally, John understands that Jesus is the Lamb of God, i.e., he is to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, superseding the temple sacrifices that were inadequate to remove sin.  John also sees what the writer of the Gospel sees — that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, who existed before John did.

How does he know these things?

John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.  I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Although John’s Gospel doesn’t describe the baptism of Jesus, this is essentially the same description given by the Synoptic Gospels when Jesus is baptized by John (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22).  What is clear is that the Holy Spirit confirms the divine nature of Jesus, and Jesus introduces a new baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This a baptism of power, not merely water.

John continues his ministry by directing even his own disciples toward Jesus.  When he sees Jesus again the next day, he declares to two of his disciples:

“Behold, the Lamb of God!”

They take the hint.  They are no longer to follow John; they are to follow Jesus.  Immediately, they begin walking after Jesus, who turns and says to them:

What are you looking for?

They themselves seem not to understand what they are seeking — they simply blurt out:

“Rabbi” (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), “where are you staying?”

These are the first two of Jesus’ followers; his first disciples.  They haven’t responded to any miracle, or even any great teaching, that Jesus has offered. They have responded to the testimony of John.  And Jesus doesn’t offer much yet.  He simply answers:

 Come, and see.

It is seemingly an inauspicious beginning.  The two men stay with Jesus that day, beginning at about four o’clock in the afternoon, we are told.  We aren’t told what they did, or what they talked about.  But we know that one of the disciples was moved to become the second witness after John the Baptist.  Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, went looking for his brother and blurts out:

“We have found the Messiah!” (which is, being interpreted, Christ).

Again, there is an economy of words and description.  We don’t have the calling of the Big Fisherman by the Sea of Galilee, or the boats or the nets, as we have in the other Gospels (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20).  Andrew, who will become known as a disciple who brings others to Jesus, brings his big brother to Jesus.

And in a divine foreshadowing, Jesus recognizes who this Simon is ( Simon the son of Jonah), and who he will become  — Cephas (Cephas is Aramaic for Rock, as Peter is the Greek word for Rock).

APPLY:  

The most important thing we can do as Christians is exactly what John and Andrew do — point others toward Jesus.

Neither of them are particularly “showy” as they testify about Jesus.  John simply announces that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  John recognizes that the work of Jesus is everything, and that his task is to point others toward Jesus.  A little later, John’s disciples will grow jealous of the new Rabbi who is drawing people away from John, and will tattle to him about this new upstart.  But John knows his own role quite well. He tells his followers:

You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.  He must increase, but I must decrease (John 4:28-30).

Andrew is also not one to draw attention to himself.  He spends time with Jesus, becomes convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, and shares what he has experienced with his brother.

This is evangelism.  When we become aware that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and the Son of God, the most natural thing that we can do is to tell others what we have experienced.  If we tell no one this life-changing news, have we truly experienced it for ourselves?

RESPOND: 

Wouldn’t you have loved to be present at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?  The only concern I would have is that I might have missed it.  I might have misunderstood, like so many others did.  I might have questioned the credentials of this carpenter from Nazareth, or his crazy cousin from the desert.

I thank God that in my own time and my own context, I haven’t  missed out on meeting Jesus!  I too have come to recognize that he is the Lamb of God who has taken away my sins, and given my life purpose and meaning.  And I have made it my life’s work to tell others.

May we share this truth by whatever means we can — with those who are close to us, as John did; with our family members, as Andrew did.

You come into our midst, and when we recognize you we respond in faith. We ask that you equip and empower us to tell others about you.  We aren’t all apostles, or even preachers, but we can be like Andrew and bring others with us to meet you. Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Ecce Agnus Dei” by Lawrence OP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 22, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 4:12-23

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Matthew’s Gospel is very aware of the connection between the Hebrew heritage of the Old Testament and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He specifically connects the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with the prophecy of Isaiah:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
toward the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
 the people who sat in darkness saw a great light,
to those who sat in the region and shadow of death,
to them light has dawned.”

Matthew is crystal clear that Jesus is the great light who has come to all people who are in the darkness and shadow of death.

The context of this fulfillment of prophecy are the movements of Jesus following the arrest of John the Baptist.  Jesus departs the Jordan river valley and returns to Galilee, eventually coming to live in Capernaum — which was historically the region once occupied by the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.

Jesus begins his ministry by preaching essentially the same message that his cousin John had been preaching:

 “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

The key difference is that Jesus is not merely the messenger of the Kingdom; he is the King whose very presence inaugurates the Kingdom of Heaven!

Jesus begins to assemble his “team,” his “cabinet” who will help him in his ministry.  When we look closely at his choices as though we were seeing them for the first time, we might well be surprised.  As he walks by the sea of Galilee, Jesus invites fishermen to follow him!  Simon Peter and his brother Andrew evidently were in business together as fishermen; and James and John worked for their father Zebedee.

Jesus uses a metaphor that they would surely understand:

 “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”

We are told that in each case, the two sets of brothers immediately left their nets.  Had they met Jesus prior to this account?  We might speculate that they had met Jesus, based on the account in the Gospel of John 1:39-41.  Andrew is one of the two disciples of John the Baptist who heard John announce that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  In this account, Andrew spends time with Jesus and then seeks out his brother Simon and introduces him to Jesus.  Perhaps a network of communication had been initiated among these fishermen, and they had begun talking about this Jesus.  So when the invitation came,  perhaps they were more than ready to leave everything behind and follow him.

Finally, Matthew describes the modus operandi of Jesus’ ministry — itinerant preaching and healing:

Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

APPLY:  

There is a lot going on in this passage as Jesus begins his ministry.  He has been baptized by John in the Jordan river, and has endured testing in the wilderness from the Devil.  Now he is ready to begin the process of fulfilling the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

He is the great light that pierces the darkness and shadow of death.

In the process, he shares his message, begins to assemble his ministry team, and reveals the method of his ministry.

The call to repentance — to turn away from sin, and to turn toward God — is made more poignant because Jesus is the light whose presence reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven is in their midst!  Jesus has come as the one who is capable of forgiving sin, and making true repentance possible.

The call of the disciples becomes a paradigm for all disciples of Jesus — that we are be fishers of people no matter what our professions may be.  Even if we don’t leave our nets, our offices, our jobs, if we are disciples we are to seek to bring others into the network as followers of Jesus.

And Jesus’ itinerant ministry also provides a model for us — he goes where the “fish” are, so to speak, and teaches and preaches and heals.  We also are to go where the people are, to teach the Good News of the Kingdom, without neglecting the physical needs of people.

RESPOND: 

I am intrigued by the concept of nets and networking that this passage suggests.  We are all called to be disciples, which means we are to be fishers of people.  We become part of a network of people, that we call the church, who each play a critical role in drawing people closer to Christ.

This doesn’t mean that every disciple must be a clergyperson or a missionary in foreign lands.  It does mean that each of us are to “go fishing” in the neighborhoods and communities where we live and work.

I can recall years ago in my ministry when the man who was the chair of the church’s evangelism committee asked to address the congregation on Sunday morning.  I was surprised when he stood up and said, “I am the chair of the largest committee in this church.”  And then he explained what he meant — “Every one of you is a member of my committee.”

Evangelism — sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ — is the ministry of all of us.

Lord, your light has come into our world.  You have brought light into my own life.  I have heard your call to share your light with others.  Equip me and show me how to make people into disciples.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“That’s all they caught” by jankie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for January 15, 2017

“Ecce Agnus Dei” is a photograph by Lawrence OP of a Detail of a window in Chartres Cathedral which depicts today’s Gospel reading.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

John 1:29-42

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

We receive a glimpse into the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  This is a time of transition.  John has been preaching repentance and he has been baptizing in the Jordan River, but he has been keenly aware that his own role was preparatory.  Now, the one for whom he was preparing has come!

The day before the events in our Scripture passage, John had answered several questions from priests and Levites, who already seemed hostile.  He made it clear that he was neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet that they were expecting (these were all titles from Messianic prophecies from their Scriptures) — he was simply a messenger who was preparing the way of the Lord:

I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said (John 1:23).

In our lectionary Gospel passage, a day later, he sees Jesus and announces:

 “Behold,  the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.’  I didn’t know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel.”

An entire theology of salvation is hinted at in John’s words.  Supernaturally, John understands that Jesus is the Lamb of God, i.e., he is to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, superseding the temple sacrifices that were inadequate to remove sin.  John also sees what the writer of the Gospel sees — that Jesus is the preexistent Son of God, who existed before John did.

How does he know these things?

John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.  I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Although John’s Gospel doesn’t describe the baptism of Jesus, this is essentially the same description given by the Synoptic Gospels when Jesus is baptized by John (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22).  What is clear is that the Holy Spirit confirms the divine nature of Jesus, and Jesus introduces a new baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This a baptism of power, not merely water.

John continues his ministry by directing even his own disciples toward Jesus.  When he sees Jesus again the next day, he declares to two of his disciples:

“Behold, the Lamb of God!”

They take the hint.  They are no longer to follow John; they are to follow Jesus.  Immediately, they begin walking after Jesus, who turns and says to them:

What are you looking for?

They themselves seem not to understand what they are seeking — they simply blurt out:

“Rabbi” (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), “where are you staying?”

These are the first two of Jesus’ followers; his first disciples.  They haven’t responded to any miracle, or even any great teaching, that Jesus has offered. They have responded to the testimony of John.  And Jesus doesn’t offer much yet.  He simply answers:

 Come, and see.

It is seemingly an inauspicious beginning.  The two men stay with Jesus that day, beginning at about four o’clock in the afternoon, we are told.  We aren’t told what they did, or what they talked about.  But we know that one of the disciples was moved to become the second witness after John the Baptist.  Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, went looking for his brother and blurts out:

“We have found the Messiah!” (which is, being interpreted, Christ).

Again, there is an economy of words and description.  We don’t have the calling of the Big Fisherman by the Sea of Galilee, or the boats or the nets, as we have in the other Gospels (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20).  Andrew, who will become known as a disciple who brings others to Jesus, brings his big brother to Jesus.

And in a divine foreshadowing, Jesus recognizes who this Simon is ( Simon the son of Jonah), and who he will become  — Cephas (Cephas is Aramaic for Rock, as Peter is the Greek word for Rock).

APPLY:  

The most important thing we can do as Christians is exactly what John and Andrew do — point others toward Jesus.

Neither of them are particularly “showy” as they testify about Jesus.  John simply announces that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  John recognizes that the work of Jesus is everything, and that his task is to point others toward Jesus.  A little later, John’s disciples will grow jealous of the new Rabbi who is drawing people away from John, and will tattle to him about this new upstart.  But John knows his own role quite well. He tells his followers:

You yourselves testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before him.’  He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.  He must increase, but I must decrease (John 4:28-30).

Andrew is also not one to draw attention to himself.  He spends time with Jesus, becomes convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, and shares what he has experienced with his brother.

This is evangelism.  When we become aware that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and the Son of God, the most natural thing that we can do is to tell others what we have experienced.  If we tell no one this life-changing news, have we truly experienced it for ourselves?

RESPOND: 

Wouldn’t you have loved to be present at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry?  The only concern I would have is that I might have missed it.  I might have misunderstood, like so many others did.  I might have questioned the credentials of this carpenter from Nazareth, or his crazy cousin from the desert.

I thank God that in my own time and my own context, I haven’t  missed out on meeting Jesus!  I too have come to recognize that he is the Lamb of God who has taken away my sins, and given my life purpose and meaning.  And I have made it my life’s work to tell others.

May we share this truth by whatever means we can — with those who are close to us, as John did; with our family members, as Andrew did.

You come into our midst, and when we recognize you we respond in faith. We ask that you equip and empower us to tell others about you.  We aren’t all apostles, or even preachers, but we can be like Andrew and bring others with us to meet you. Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Ecce Agnus Dei” by Lawrence OP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.