Working Preacher Narrative Lectionary – Sunday, 5 January 2013

Working Preacher Narrative Lectionary – Sunday, 5 January 2013

Lectionary Scriptures:

John 1: The First Disciples of Jesus

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[a]). 42 He brought Simon[b] to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter[c]).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you,[d] you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Footnotes:

a. John 1:41 Or Christ

b. John 1:42 Gk him

c. John 1:42 From the word for rock in Aramaic (kepha) and Greek (petra), respectively

d. John 1:51 Both instances of the Greek word for you in this verse are plural

Psalm 23: The Divine Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2     He makes me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside still waters;[a]

3     he restores my soul.[b]

He leads me in right paths[c]

    for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,[d]

    I fear no evil;

for you are with me;

    your rod and your staff—

    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

    in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

    my cup overflows.

6 Surely[e] goodness and mercy[f] shall follow me

    all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

    my whole life long.[g]

Footnotes:

a. Psalm 23:2 Heb waters of rest

b. Psalm 23:3 Or life

c. Psalm 23:3 Or paths of righteousness

d. Psalm 23:4 Or the valley of the shadow of death

e. Psalm 23:6 Or Only

f. Psalm 23:6 Or kindness

g. Psalm 23:6 Heb for length of days

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Commentary on John 1:35-51 by Gilberto Ruiz

Sometimes we see a movie that wows us and we rush to tell others about it.

We want them to go see it for themselves so they may share the experience we had. This is what happens in John 1:35-51.

One disciple after another encounters Jesus and has a transformative experience that leads him to tell others, so they too will “come and see” this man from Galilee and be changed by that experience. In John, the way the community of disciples grows is more like the “sleeper hit” whose box office success results from “word of mouth” than from a well-funded advertising blitz.

While standing with two of his own disciples, John the Baptist sees Jesus walk by and signals him out as “the Lamb of God.” Because of John’s testimony in 1:29-34, the reader knows something about what this entails. But John’s disciples, absent the previous day, do not. So they leave John and “follow” Jesus to find out for themselves who Jesus is.

True to the Fourth Gospel’s penchant for using simple language that works on two levels, to “follow” connotes more than a literal walking after Jesus. It functions as a technical term for discipleship (8:12; 10:4, 27; 12:26; 13:36; 21:19, 22) and anticipates that their movement of leaving John to “follow” Jesus means they will cease being John’s disciples and become disciples of Jesus (cf. Matthew 4:22; Mark 1:18; Luke 5:11). This “decrease” in the amount of his own followers is a mark of John’s success as witness, not of his failure as preacher (cf. John 3:30).

Jesus asks these two disciples a deceptively simple question: “What are you looking for?” At one level, the question asks why they are walking after him. But fundamentally, this is the existential question asked of any potential disciple: What do you seek when you come to follow Jesus?

Their response also works on two levels. Ostensibly, they want to know where Jesus is staying because it is getting late in the day and they too need a place to stay. But since the Greek word translated as “stay” is menô, a term that in Johannine vocabulary signifies a permanent remaining or abiding (e.g., 12:46; 14:17; 15:9), their question essentially asks where Jesus does permanently abide, reflecting the innate desire of any disciple is to be in Jesus’ presence always.

The two disciples do not know this yet, but ultimately the place where Jesus resides is with his disciples, as he says in the Farewell Discourse (14:23; 15:4). In the meantime, Jesus invites them to “come and see,” an invitation that at one level means to go and look at where he is staying but at a deeper level is an invitation to approach Jesus with the openness to see him through the eyes of faith.

Spending time with Jesus transforms them, as seen in the change in titles they use to refer to him. At first they call him “rabbi,” a title of respect to be sure. But when the disciple identified as Andrew speaks of Jesus in verse 41, he refers to him by the more significant title of “Messiah.”

This is one of only two places in the New Testament (the other is in John 4:25) where the Hebrew word is transliterated in the Greek as Messias (hence John includes a note that in Greek the term means Christos, the name and title of Jesus more familiar to John’s early Christian readers). Use of the Hebrew emphasizes that Andrew has come to see Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish messianic expectations.

They have to tell others about this. Others must “come and see” what they have seen, so Andrew tells Peter and brings him to Jesus. Just as their experience of Jesus changes the first two disciples from mere followers to devotees, Peter’s experience with Jesus leads to a transformation of his identity, from Simon to Cephas/Peter, a name based on the word for “rock” (kepha in Aramaic; petra in Greek).

John’s version of Peter’s name-change omits any indication that it has to do with Peter being the “rock” of the church, as is the case in Matthew 16:17-18. Moreover, in the Synoptics it is Peter who identifies Jesus as the messiah, marking a crucial turning point in the relationship between Jesus and the disciples (Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-20).

In John, both Peter’s name-change and the disciples’ identification of Jesus as messiah occur at the beginning of their time with Jesus, and it is not Peter but Andrew who calls Jesus messiah (in fact, Peter has no dialogue in verses 40-42). In light of these differences, John’s conception of discipleship comes across as much less hierarchical. There is no one “rock” of the church among its members. Instead, discipleship entails a shared responsibility among the members of the community to bring others to Jesus and speak the truth about him.

The pattern that occurs the next day is similar. Jesus speaks first to the potential disciple, Philip, whose response of accepting Jesus’ invitation to “follow” him entails finding another potential disciple of Jesus, Nathanael.

Nathanael is skeptical, however. The difficulty for Nathanael is less that someone who fulfills the messianic expectations set by the Jewish Scriptures has emerged than it is that this person is the “son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nothing is said in the Scriptures about the messiah’s origins in the humble Galilean village of Nazareth.

Bethlehem would be a more appropriate place for his origins (Micah 5:2), as the synoptic infancy narratives maintain. The Gospel of John says nothing of Jesus’ ties to Bethlehem because in the theology of the Fourth Gospel, neither Nazareth nor Bethlehem speaks to Jesus’ true origins, which is with God in heaven (1:1, 14).

When they meet, Jesus lauds Nathanael as “truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit” because Nathanael had accepted the invitation to “come and see” without letting his own initial prejudice get in the way of seeking Jesus. This sets Nathanael apart from other descendants of Jacob -- the patriarch also named “Israel” who was famous for his deceitfulness (Genesis 27:35) -- who deny the possibility of seeing Jesus as the Messiah because he does not meet their preconceived expectations of who the Messiah is supposed to be.

Nathanael’s encounter with Jesus transforms him from skeptic to believer. While the reader of John’s Gospel knows that Jesus is not really the son of Joseph but the Son of God (1:14, 18, 34), Nathanael’s experience of Jesus’ foreknowledge and piercing ability to know him convinces Nathanael that Jesus is more than the son of a man from Nazareth, as Philip had told him. He has seen Jesus for himself, rather than take Philip’s word for it, and Jesus has wowed him.

By proclaiming Jesus “Son of God” and “King of Israel,” Nathanael confesses that Jesus truly comes from God and is Son of God, not son of Joseph from Nazareth, and that Jesus is the messianic king foretold by the Scriptures of Israel (see Psalm 2:6-7 for one passage that presents God identifying the king of Israel as “my son”). He also calls Jesus “rabbi,” encapsulating the experience of the earlier disciples who began with a lesser title for Jesus before coming to view the greater significance of his identity.

Jesus’ response to Nathanael’s confession might read like a rebuke, but it is more like a trailer for more wondrous experiences ahead. Though the disciples have already had transformative experiences of Jesus, Jesus’ glory will not be revealed to them until the wedding at Cana (2:11), and his most impressive feat -- his resurrection -- is yet to come. Jesus’ closing statement in verse 51 is addressed to all disciples, both in the narrative and among John’s readers (the “you” is plural). John 1:51 uses the image of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12) to interpret Jesus as the Son of Man who serves as the link between heaven and earth (see also John 3:13; 6:62).

Jesus’ prediction that his disciples will see God’s angels ascending and descending on him is never literally fulfilled in the narrative of the Gospel. To those of us who ask when we will have such an awesome experience of the divine in the world, the logic of 1:35-51 provides a simple answer: “come and see.”

One of the disciples receiving this invitation in verse 39 is never named. He represents us, John’s readers who, like the named disciples in this passage, are invited to see for ourselves how the divine may surprise us, transform us, and upend the prejudices and categories with which we expect to encounter God in the world.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

God of all people,

You called many by name, asking them to follow Jesus and obey. Call us by name, and help us to follow and obey. Amen.

HYMNS:

O Morning Star, how fair and bright! by Philipp Nicolai, 1556-1609; translation by Catherine Winkworth, 1827-1878

1.   O Morning Star, how fair and bright

     thou beamest forth in truth and light,

     O Sovereign meek and lowly!

     Thou Root of Jesse, David's Son,

     my Lord and Master, thou has won

     my heart to serve thee solely!

     Thou art holy,

     fair and glorious, all-victorious,

     rich in blessing,

     rule and might o'er all possessing.

2.   Thou heavenly Brightness! Light divine!

     O deep within my heart now shine,

     and make thee there an altar!

     fill me with joy and strength to be

     thy member, ever joined to thee

     in love that cannot falter;

     toward thee longing

     doth possess me; turn and bless me;

     here in sadness

     eye and heart long for thy gladness.

(Verse 3 subject to copyright)

How bright appears the morning star by Philipp Nicolai, 1597;

paraphrased in Psalmodia Germanica, 1722 and altered by William Mercer, 1855, 1859.

1. How bright appears the Morning Star,

with mercy beaming from afar;

the host of heaven rejoices;

O righteous Branch, O Jesse's Rod!

Thou Son of Man and Son of God!

We, too, will lift our voices:

Jesus, Jesus!

Holy, holy, yet most lowly,

draw thou near us;

great Emmanuel, come and hear us.

2. Though circled by the hosts on high,

he deigned to cast a pitying eye

upon his helpless creature;

the whole creation's Head and Lord,

by highest seraphim adored,

assumed our very nature;

Jesus, grant us,

through thy merit, to inherit

thy salvation;

hear, O hear our supplication.

3. Rejoice, ye heavens; thou earth, reply;

with praise, ye sinners, fill the sky,

for this his Incarnation.

Incarnate God, put forth thy power,

ride on, ride on, great Conqueror,

till all know thy salvation.

Amen, amen!

Alleluia, alleluia!

Praise be given

evermore, by earth and heaven.

All who believe and are baptized by Thomas Hansen Kingo, Translated by George Taylor Rygh

1. All who believe and is baptized

Shall see the Lord's salvation;

Baptized into the death of Christ,

They are a new creation.

Through Christ's redemption they shall stand

Among the glorious heav'nly band

Of ev'ry tribe and nation.

2. With one accord, O God, we pray:

Grant us Your Holy Spirit.

Help us in our infirmity

Through Jesus' blood and merit.

Grant us to grow in grace each day

By by this sacrament we may

Eternal life inherit.

CHORAL

O Morning Star, how fair and bright by Hugo Distler by Philipp Nicolai, 1556-1609; translation by Catherine Winkworth, 1827-1878

1.   O Morning Star, how fair and bright

     thou beamest forth in truth and light,

     O Sovereign meek and lowly!

     Thou Root of Jesse, David's Son,

     my Lord and Master, thou has won

     my heart to serve thee solely!

     Thou art holy,

     fair and glorious, all-victorious,

     rich in blessing,

     rule and might o'er all possessing.

2.   Thou heavenly Brightness! Light divine!

     O deep within my heart now shine,

     and make thee there an altar!

     fill me with joy and strength to be

     thy member, ever joined to thee

     in love that cannot falter;

     toward thee longing

     doth possess me; turn and bless me;

     here in sadness

     eye and heart long for thy gladness.

(Verse 3 subject to copyright)

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John Wesley’s Notes-Commentary:

John 1:35-51

Verse 37. They followed Jesus - They walked after him, but had not the courage to speak to him.

Verse 41. He first findeth his own brother Simon - Probably both of them sought him: Which is, being interpreted, the Christ - This the evangelist adds, as likewise those words in ver. 38, that is, being interpreted, Master.

Verse 42. Jesus said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah - As none had told our Lord these names, this could not but strike Peter. Cephas, which is Peter - Moaning the same in Syriac which Peter does in Greek, namely, a rock.

Verse 45. Jesus of Nazareth - So Philip thought, not knowing he was born in Bethlehem. Nathanael was probably the same with Bartholomew, that is, the son of Tholomew. St. Matthew joins Bartholomew with Philip, Matt. x, 3, and St. John places Nathanael in the midst of the apostles, immediately after Thomas, chap. xxi, 2, just as Bartholomew is placed, Acts i, 13.

Verse 46. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? - How cautiously should we guard against popular prejudices? When these had once possessed so honest a heart as that of Nathanael, they led him to suspect the blessed Jesus himself for an impostor, because he had been brought up at Nazareth. But his integrity prevailed over that foolish bias, and laid him open to the force of evidence, which a candid inquirer will always be glad to admit, even when it brings the most unexpected discoveries. Can any good thing - That is, have we ground from Scripture to expect the Messiah, or any eminent prophet from Nazareth? Philip saith, Come and see - The same answer which he had received himself from our Lord the day before.

Verse 48. Under the fig tree I saw thee - Perhaps at prayer.

Verse 49. Nathanael answered - Happy are they that are ready to believe, swift to receive the truth and grace of God. Thou art the Son of God - So he acknowledges now more than he had heard from Philip: The Son of God, the king of Israel - A confession both of the person and office of Christ.

Verse 51. Hereafter ye shall see - All of these, as well as thou, who believe on me now in my state of humiliation, shall hereafter see me come in my glory, and all the angels of God with me. This seems the most natural sense of the words, though they may also refer to his ascension.

Psalm 23

PS 23 David extolls the goodness of God as his shepherd, and expresses his confidence in him, ver. 1-6. A psalm of David.

Verse 2. Lie down - To repose myself at noon, as the manner was in those hot countries. Green - Where there is both delight and plenty of provisions.

Verse 3. Restoreth - Hebrew. He bringeth it back; from its errors and wandering. For - Not for any worth in me, but for the glory of his justice, and faithfulness, and goodness.

Verse 4. Thy rod and thy staff - Two words denoting the same thing, and both designing God's pastoral care over him.

Verse 5. A table - Thou furnishest me with plenty of provisions and comforts. Oil - With aromatic ointments, which were then used at great feasts; thy comforts delight my soul. Runneth over - Thou hast given me a plentiful portions, signified by the cup, given to the guests by the master of the feast.

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