From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the Ninth Week after Pentecost
John 1:29-42
The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, “Here is 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 ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 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.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 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?” 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. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 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).
Again, the writer John is taking great pains to differentiate between the ministry of Jesus and that of John the Baptist. Unlike the Synoptic accounts, here, John the Baptist actually introduces two of his own disciples to Jesus who he proclaims is the “anointed of God.” John is handing off his following to Jesus. John the Baptist refers to himself as a mere “voice in the wilderness,” to quote Isaiah, proclaiming the one “who is to come.” For John, the writer, the one who is to come is the incarnate Logos, God Godself in human form, the light of the world, the one who will restore to justice the people of Israel, and in so doing restore justice to the world. Israel’s mission, you’ll remember, is to be the light of justice for the world. God’s project for humanity, its restoration to an equilibrium of justice, in short, is embodied in the person of Jesus, and, just as importantly, embodied in the ones who follow him.
One might say that the Synoptic Gospels are narratives in search of a theology; whereas in John’s Gospel, his audacious theology is in search of a narrative. That is to say that John picks and chooses particular episodes of Jesus’ story that have been told and retold, and adapts them to his theological agenda.
The selective narrative action in John’s Gospel points to this: That the divine “reasonableness” of the universe (God) became human, and served as oracle as to the true nature of humanity; that the human community is made but for one thing: to love each other. The Greek philosophical category for such love is “befriending.” (Philios) The word is much richer than our word “friend.” To befriend is to “lay down one’s life for the good of the other.” It is the very antithesis of self-interest.
This Gospel, needless to say, was counter-cultural in its own day, and certainly it is counter-cultural in our own. Self-interest is the supreme rubric of our society. It has become our undoing. Success, achievement, and consumption are the golden calves of our age. To the contrary this Gospel stands for sacrifice for the other as our guiding principle. For John the writer, that is what God does; and God needs flesh to do it. It seems to me that the question of our age among the people of faith is: What does this sacrifice look like in the flesh? What shall we do to serve our neighbor who bears the burden of empire? I’ve got to believe that if we ask in all seriousness and urgency, we will know; and if that be true, pray for the courage to act.
A Prayer after Communion (BCP p. 365 adapted)
Eternal God, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ, the One who is to come. Amen.
