John (week 2)

Ok so the almost daily thing didn't really work like I wanted it to. It wasn't all about me not doing the work. I really desired for this website to have a dialogue value that perhaps it might never have. People that seem to read either of my blogs don't seem to care about it's dialogue possibilities. Perhaps because most of these people have much more to do than spend all day in front of a computer hooked up to the internet. I appreciate your coming to read none the less. So in the Spirit of giving others a chance to speak I have moved it to an almost weekly format. That being said we'll move on.

John 1:37-51

The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus. Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, "What are you after?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?" He replied, "Come along and see for yourself." They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened.  Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John's witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, "We've found the Messiah" (that is, "Christ"). He immediately led him to Jesus. Jesus took one look up and said, "You're John's son, Simon? From now on your name is Cephas" (or Peter, which means "Rock").

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, "Come, follow me." (Philip's hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.) Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, "We've found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It's Jesus, Joseph's son, the one from Nazareth!"  Nathanael said, "Nazareth? You've got to be kidding." But Philip said, "Come, see for yourself."  When Jesus saw him coming he said, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body."  Nathanael said, "Where did you get that idea? You don't know me." Jesus answered, "One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree."  Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!"  Jesus said, "You've become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven't seen anything yet! Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and God's angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again."

As we move on we are reading about Jesus calling his first disciples. It is a bit different from how we read about it in Matthew. In Matthew we find Simon and Andrew fishing. Here we find Andrew and another (most likely the author) as disciples of John the Baptist. Andrew then leads Jesus to Simon. In any account what is interesting is the fact that Jesus calls them. In their tradition, disciples were those who had made their way through the jewish education system, proving that they were the best of the best at each new level. It was of ultimate hope that one would become a rabi. One would apply to a rabi much like one would apply to a school today. Those that could not prove themselves worthy were sent back home to learn the family trade. (This makes it prety interesting where we find Jesus' disciples in Matthew before he calls them).

Jesus was only one of two rabi's in Jewish history that called disciples. My own speculations cause me to believe that perhaps this was because of what the "professional" religious circles had built up as the answers. They seemed to know what they wanted the Messiah to look like, act like, and on what side of every argument he would fall. It seems that Jesus is proving that we just don't get it right from the start. It wasn't about being completely full of knowledge, wisdom, or spirituality that counted in the Kingdom of God, it was heart that mattered. Perhaps this is what Jesus was seeking in his disciples. In John's account, however, these people were seemingly very educated. Two were disciples of John the Baptist. We should not assume that knowledge, wisdom and spitituality count for nothing.

One last thing I want to address, when Jesus tells Nathanael "Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and God's angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again." It seems to be somewhat cryptic. However, as a Jewish person that had gone through even the most basic level of education at the time, this is one of Jesus' first references to himself as the Messiah. It is taken from a dream that Jacob had in Genesis 28. In it he saw a stairway (or ladder) reaching from the earth into heaven. On it were angels ascending and descending. It seems then that Jesus is referring to himself as the ladder. What is also interesting in that God changed Jacob's name to Israel because he struggled with God. Israelites, then, carry the name as a people who struggle with God. Perhaps, when Jesus describes himself symbolically as the ladder in Jacob's dream, he was answering that struggle. Not in a way that would relieve everyone of that struggle, but more in a way that was to lead people through him in that struggle. That is, we now struggle with God through Jesus. Jesus being the stairway to heaven... the perfect medium between humans and God.

This afternoon, I was talking with someone from my past. He voiced certain concern for his brother who was feeling more of a universalist, wondering why any religion is better than any other. He was concerned that his searching would lead him away from Christianity. I told him that I would be more concerned if his searching stopped. Even as a Christian it should be a concern for anyone to conclude that their search is over. The search never ends, the struggle with God never ends. We constantly need to seek the ways of God. The struggle always continues. We are the people who struggle with God because through Jesus we are a people of God.

These are my thoughts. How about yours?