24 Now they had been sent from the
Pharisees. 25 They asked
him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah,
nor the prophet?” 26 John answered
them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who
is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28 This took
place in Bethany across the Jordan
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward
him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of
whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before
me.’31 I myself did
not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be
revealed to Israel.”32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit
descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did
not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on
whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit.’34 And I myself have seen and have
testified that this is the Son of God.”
35 The next day John again was standing
with two of his disciples, 36 and as he
watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two
disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.38 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?”39 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. 40 One of the
two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first
found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is
translated Anointed). 42 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).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee . He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
John 1:29-43
"The God-Revealers"
I
think John the Baptist is a fascinating character in our Biblical witness—portrayed
in different ways throughout the Gospel. Matthew tells us that he is clothed in
camel’s hair and lives on wild honey, helping us to imagine that he is like a
mountain man, existing only on what he can scrounge up, probably with a long
beard and torn clothes and holey shoes. We hear that he has many followers,
constantly preaching to them about baptism and repentance for their sins.
Mark’s gospel portrays John in much the same way, but leaving out his harsh “brood
of vipers” message to the Pharisees who challenge him. Luke details John’s
story in a new, sweeter way, telling us the story of his family, his birth to
an older childless mother, his birth that signaled the way for the birth of his
cousin to a younger mother, the birth of Jesus. I love that Luke’s gospel tells
us that John leaped in his mother’s womb, was born to a father who proclaimed
him as a prophet in his infant days.
John is born to be a prophet,
to prepare the way for all of his followers, all of us--to prepare the way for
Christ who was coming into our midst. He
is born to reveal Christ for all of us. And that’s exactly where John’s gospel
starts in its description of him. The rest of the gospels have enlightened us
on John’s life, but this gospel, as it tends to do, doesn’t waste time with
description or story or narrative. It just dives in:
“Who are you?” John is asked.
“Not the Messiah.”
“Alright, then. Are you Elijah? The prophet?”
“Nope.”
“Then who the heck are you?”
“I
am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of
the Lord.”
John, of course, in his own
way, tells all those gathered there, that Jesus Christ is coming their way. He
prepares the way for the Lord, for the Lamb of God, to come into their midst.
He gets them ready. He tells them that he has baptized with water so that Jesus
Christ might be revealed to all of them, so that he might come to baptize them
with the Spirit.
There is a newer translation of
the Bible called “The Message.” It uses language that is a bit more
contemporary, and it has really helped shed some new light on this passage for
me. Verses 29-31 of our passage read this way:
The
very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out, “Here he is,
God’s Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I’ve
been talking about, the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me. I
knew nothing about who he was—only this: that my task has been to get Israel
I love the language that is
used for Christ here—that Christ the Passover Lamb, the one who is born to
forgive the sins of the world, comes to us as a God-revealer. John has been
born to reveal Christ in our midst, to help us find a way to prepare for him.
And Christ has come. He has been born into our world once again, born to be the
God-revealer for us, born to help us discover and see and celebrate God in our
midst. Verse 19 of our chapter reminds us of this when it tells us “no one has
ever seen God-it is God the Son, the Christ, who has come to make God known.”
John the Baptizer prepares the way for Christ to come into our midst, reveals
him for all of us, and Christ has been born to reveal God in our lives.
John is gathered with many
that day so many years after Christ’s birth, standing with the Pharisees, with
the disciples who have been following him, with so many others who may not even
have heard of Jesus, when Christ comes their way. “Here he is,” John says, the
Lamb of God, the one who forgives the sins of the world, the one who baptizes
with the Spirit, the one who reveals God for us all.” And then on the next day, Jesus the
God-revealer comes into their midst again. When they naturally begin to ask all
of the questions they have saved up for him for so long, Christ’s answer to
them is pretty simple: “Come and see.” Come and see. What an invitation. Christ
begins his God-revealing by giving them an invitation, an invitation to come
and see what might happen, to come and see how their lives might be transformed,
to come and see and follow him.
I think it’s really
fascinating that our passage as given in our lectionary ends with verse 42,
where Jesus gives Simon a new name—Cephas, Peter. I love the idea that Christ
renames us when we are called to him, gives us a new identity in him, gives us new
life in a way. I love that we have just celebrated the birth of Christ, who, in
the river is claimed and renamed and called as God’s beloved. Christ shares
that baptismal identity with Simon when he is renamed as Peter. The imagery of
renaming in this passage is beautiful and deep, but it is so tempting for us to
stop there, to think, “Well, I’m good to go. I’ve been renamed in Christ. I’ve
been reclaimed in Christ. I’m done.”
But that’s not enough. We’re
not done. As people who have been claimed and given a new identity in Christ,
we have so much more to do. We have to do his work, follow him, as verse 43
reminds us. Jesus makes his way to Galilee ,
finds Philip, and simply says, “Follow me.” I think it’s pretty vital verses 42
and 43 be read and heard together—Christ tells us: “You have been given a new
name, a new identity in me, so come, do my work, be my hands and feet in the
world, follow me. I have come to be a God-revealer to all of you, and now I’m
calling you to do the same for the rest of the world.” Christ has been born
into our world, and now he is foreshadowing his death—that he won’t be in the
world for much longer, that we will then have to take up his message of
forgiveness and grace, of welcoming and healing and acceptance and love. The invitation to come and see is given. But
the invitation cannot stand alone. The invitation comes with expectation—the
expectation that we are to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world, the
expectation that we are to be God-revealers to the rest of the world, especially
when Christ won’t be here to do it himself. Come and see. Follow me.
There is a beautiful prayer
attributed to Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Spanish mystic. Listen
to her words:
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
No hands but yours,
No feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through with to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.
What stunning words from a
faithful woman. Because we have been claimed in the waters of baptism, because
we have heard the stories of Christ from God-revealers of our own, we are
called to be God-revealers ourselves, to share the stories and love of Christ
in the world. One of my seminary professors and dear friends, Rodger Nishioka,
reflects on Teresa of Avila’s poem as he talks about incarnational theology. He
says, “Incarnational theology…is the idea that we are called to be Jesus Christ
to the world. At its foundation, incarnational theology reminds us all that God
became incarnate—became flesh—in Jesus Christ to embody fully God’s love for
the world. Teresa of Avila takes this incarnational theology one step further
and calls on us to incarnate Christ in our own selves and to love the world as
Jesus did.”
God has been revealed to us
in so many different ways, and God has given us a Son who was himself baptized
so that we could also be claimed in the new identity that flows over us through
the baptismal waters—and because of that new claim and identity, we ourselves
are called to be God-revealers.
But, folks, we have some work
to do. Three major surveys have come out over the last few years from the Barna
Group, the Public Religion Research Institute, and the Pew Forum on Religion
and Public Life, each concluding that younger folks are increasingly leaving
and staying away –or worse—never even darkening the doors—of our Christian
churches because they describe Christians as judgmental, hypocritical,
homophobic, out of touch, and exclusive. One response even added that we are
the antithesis of love. If we say that God is love, but as God-revealers, we’re
coming off as the antithesis of that, that’s not good at all. I’m not sure
about you, but those descriptions don’t sound very God-revealing to me.
Oftentimes it seems that the predominant voices of Christianity are reality tv
stars with really sketchy exegesis or preachers on the university concourse
screaming at students that they are going to hell. It seems that those voices
are politicians on every side of the aisle who tear others down using religion
as a weapon. At it worst, it seems that those voices come from churches who do
so little to protect the youngest and most vulnerable ones in our midst or tell
others that, because of who they are, they are sinful and disgusting and
unwelcome. Do these sound very God-revealing to you?
God’s Passover Lamb has been
born in to the world again for every single one of us, born to walk the earth
for us, born to teach us and chide us, born to challenge us and change us.
Christ is born into the world to baptize us and make us into something new,
born to claim us and redeem us. Christ has been born to die for us and proclaim
Easter resurrection for us. As God has
been revealed to us through Christ, we are called to follow and be God-revealers
ourselves. Teresa tells how to do it—to use our hands and feet, to be the eyes
through which the world sees Christ, to act with compassion, to BE compassion,
to do good in the world, to bless as we have been so greatly blessed. The Lamb
of God has been born and baptized for all of us. And we have been called to
follow. It is up to us—in everything we say, in everything we do, in every way
we are, in every way of our being—to ask ourselves this: “Am I being a
God-revealer today? Are we?” Thanks be to God.
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