Tuesday 04 January 2011

Background

All four Gospels have accounts of Jesus gathering a group ofdisciples. But John's is quite different from the other threeGospels. For one thing, Jesus' first two recruits are disciples ofJohn the Baptist who have some inkling that the one to whom Johnthe Baptist had borne witness has now arrived. The other Gospelsmake Simon a main character and his brother, Andrew is somewhatmuch in the background. Here, it is Andrew who follows Jesus firstand then tells his brother about him. 

When John the Baptist sees Jesus walk by he says 'look, here is theLamb of God!' (verse 36). As we saw yesterday, John's main role is as a witnessto Jesus and here he clearly suggests to his own disciples thatsomeone much more important has now arrived. In effect, he issaying, 'Here is the person you've really been waiting for.' So thedisciples leave John and follow Jesus. 

There are two important things here. First, John points the way toJesus. Second, the disciples go after Jesus to find out forthemselves who he is and what they make of him. They have seenthere is something special about him, and they want to knowmore.

To Ponder

"Lamb of God" (verse 35), "light of the world"(John 8:12; 9:5) - these are just two of many titles usedof Jesus. Which title(s) do you find helpful? Why?

Have you ever been able to point someone elsetowards Jesus? What happened? What did you discover about yourselfand your faith in doing this?