35The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When 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?” 39He 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. 40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42He 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).
Translation: The next day, again John was standing, and two of his disciples. And he looked to Jesus. Walking around, he said, "Behold the lamb of God." The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following. He said to them, "What are you seeking?" They said to him, "Rabbi, (which is being interpreted, teacher), where are you abiding?" He said to them, "Come and see." Then, they came and saw where he dwelt, and alongside him they remained that day. It was about the tenth hour.
One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. He finds first his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is interpreted, Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked upon him (and) said, "You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which is interpreted Petros).
Background and situation: The lection is preceded by the opening prologue of the fourth gospel (1:1-18). Then, in 19-28, John the Baptist says he is not the Messiah (nor Elijah, nor a prophet). All four gospels insist that John is a subordinate figure to Jesus, but the fourth gospel may take the strongest position of all. Six verses into the prologue--right off the bat!--we are pointedly told that John "himself was not the light," which John himself affirms.
In 1:29-34, John (again) testifies to the higher "rank" of Jesus. He was "before me," John says, perhaps another reference to Jesus' pre-existence already stated in verse one: "In the beginning was the Word."
Lamb of God: John is lauded as a "witness" (1:7), which is high praise in the fourth gospel. To what does John "witness"? "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Israel had already heard of the "suffering servant" (Isaiah 53) who would "bear the sins of many." In the fourth gospel, the Lamb takes away the sin of the world.
The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world--note the singular. Here, sin is viewed as something of a cosmic power, a view which also appears in Paul. The Lamb defeats the enslaving power of sin. It's about cosmic victory, in other words, and not about the snarky remark you made to Aunt Freda about her new hat. Note, too, that there is no sacrificial language here, which Ray Brown also notes and, good Catholic that he is, doesn't like.
John's witness: Verses 29-34 contain the fourth gospel's narrative of the baptism of Jesus. But, no baptism! Why not? Mark says that John's baptism was a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." In my view, the author of the fourth gospel knew Mark, but rejects his language, and, indeed, the entire baptism. For the fourth gospel, it is only the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and certainly not John's baptism.
In Mark, the heavens were torn apart and the Spirit "descended like a dove" on Jesus. In the fourth gospel, the Spirit descended "out of heaven"--ek ouranou--and "abided"--emeinen--on Jesus. The root word menein--abiding, remaining--is a major concept in the fourth gospel. Jesus "abides" with his people, and his people "abide" in him.
Unlike the synoptics, there is no voice from heaven. Rather, John is a witness, as stated earlier in verse 8: "he came to testify to the light." Here he "witnesses"--martureo--that “he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”
Wes Howard-Brock notes that the Johannine community was trying to "establish its credibility" with the "emerging apostolic Christian authority" represented by people such as Peter and Paul, both of whom "saw" Jesus. The author of the fourth gospel is also a "disciple-witness," and his (or her) witness is trustworthy. "This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true (21:24)." Believing on the basis of witness is highly prized in the fourth gospel (20:29).
What are you seeking?:
The next day, again John was standing, and two of his disciples. And he looked to Jesus. Walking around, he said, "Behold the lamb of God." The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following. He said to them, "What are you seeking?" They said to him, "Rabbi, (which is being interpreted, teacher), where are you abiding?" He said to them, "Come and see." Then, they came and saw where he dwelt, and alongside him they remained that day. It was about the tenth hour.
One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. He finds first his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is interpreted, Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked upon him (and) said, "You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which is interpreted Petros).
Based on John's witness, two of John's own disciples follow Jesus. One is identified as Andrew, the other is unidentified. Some say this person is actually the Beloved Disciple and author of the book. In any case, the movement is away from John and toward Jesus. As John will later say, "He must increase, I must decrease" (3:30).
Jesus "turns" to them. In the fourth gospel, this "turn" is a sign of deepening relationship (20:16). He asks what they are "seeking"--zeteite. The word is used 23 times in the fourth gospel. Some seek the way of God, and some seek to advance their own position (7:18). Jesus asks a direct question that speaks to the heart of the human experience--"What are you seeking?"--and is not unlike God's first utterance to human beings in the book of Genesis: "Where are you?"
The two disciples call Jesus "rabbi," a term that likely was not used before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. Nevertheless, the fourth gospel tells us that "rabbi" means "teacher." The two disciples acknowledge Jesus as a spiritual leader, but want to know where he is "abiding, dwelling, staying"--menein, again. How committed is he, and in what cause?
Jesus tells them to "come and see." "Seeing" has a lot of resonance in the fourth gospel. To "see" is to trust and to follow. (See the story of the man born blind in chapter 9.) What do these two disciples "see" in this case? They "see" where Jesus is "staying"--menein--and they "stay"--menein--with him.
We are not told "where" this was. Reading the text, you look for some identifiable place, some aspect of geography. We are not given a "where," but rather a "when"--not a spatial reference, but a temporal one: "It was about the tenth hour." Odd. Jesus is already co-mingling essential categories and he's just getting started!
Andrew and Simon Peter: The first disciple in the fourth gospel--Andrew--is identified by his relationship to his more famous brother, Simon Peter. (I like to think of the orthodox church in Delta, Colorado, the formal name of which is "The Orthodox Church of Saint Andrew, the First-Called Apostle.")
Andrew refers to Jesus as "Messiah," with a helpful translation for non-Hebrew readers--"Christ". This is now the third title for Jesus in this brief lection--"Lamb of God," "rabbi," and now "Messiah"--all of them Israel-centric and none of which are spoken by Jesus himself. (Jesus will make his own self-referential identification later.) Taken together, these titles "witness" to the total fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel in Jesus.
Simon Peter is referred to five times in just two verses. He is identified, first, as Andrew's brother with the name Simon Peter. Next, "Simon Peter" is reduced to the elemental "Simon." After Jesus "looked upon him," Jesus calls him "Simon, son of John," who is then called "Cephas," then "Peter." Jesus refers to him first in terms of his familial association, that most basic old world connection, then refers to him in terms of his new name, Cephas, symbolic of his being made a new person.
Taken as a whole, we are given a complete identification of Peter. We are told who he is both in this world and the world to come. We should not be surprised. As the fourth gospel had said in the beginning, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (1:9)."
Image: Lamb of God, Jan van Eyck
whither Mark 13?
Posted by: Joe Meinhart | November 29, 2017 at 09:53 AM