Behold!


Our gospel reading Sunday, 15 Jan 2023 was John 1:29-42, John the Baptist acclaiming Jesus the Lamb of God, and Jesus calling his first disciples.

The first chapter of the Gospel according to John (below, scroll down) is one of my favorites for Bible study in a group. It is absolutely loaded with fascinating "points" to jot down for discussion; a flood of that thought washed through my mind this morning as we read and heard a section of it in church, and I was thinking to make enough of a blogpost of it to continue the thought. 

Retiring again, by degrees, I miss group Bible study. I miss leading, teaching, mentoring our adult Sunday school class. I miss even more leading the midweek Bible study classes we had for years at Holy Nativity and, before that, at St Thomas by the Sea. Probably most of all, I miss the EfM classes we had at Trinity, Apalachicola and years later at Holy Nativity, St Thomas by the Sea, and St Andrew's. Bible study, thinking, raising questions, voicing skepticism and doubts, sometimes shocking self and others, working out challenges, is most fun in a group of enthusiastic folks, and I miss it, but Ecclesiastes 3, and I'm decided, content, settled, and done!  
 
It's Sunday evening at the moment, I'm in 7H living room at my little table by the window looking out over the Bay as the sun sets on a chilly but lovely day that puts January halfway behind us already. A day or so ago, a dear friend wrote to me that Time flies whether we're having fun or not, and it sho' nuff does.

Anyway, here's sort of wandering through some of the jot down points to explore, that come to mind about John's gospel as I read through chapter 1.

> we have about 25 or so gospels that we can read all or parts of. I'm thankful that John is one of the four that made it into our NT canon.

> each gospel writer (evangelist) has his own story to tell, in his own way, for his own audience, with his own agenda. Gospel John is significantly different from the three synoptics.

> each of the four gospels begins differently; basically, Matthew with a genealogy and a nativity story, then Jesus' baptism; Luke with emphasis on Jerusalem begins with a long nativity story (not at all like Matthew's) and then proceeds to Jesus' baptism; Mark begins with the baptism; Gospel John begins with an elegant prologue and then proceeds to quite a different baptism scenario.

> John's prologue declaring Jesus the Word, is the basis for our doctrine and creed asserting the Son's eternal existence and for asserting the Word (Gk, Logos) as the igniting and driving force bringing creation into existence.

> the synoptics are clear that John the Baptist baptizes Jesus; Gospel John avoids saying that.

> right up front, here in chapter one, Gospel John introduces Jesus as the Lamb of God; a notion that he clarifies subtly in the ending of his gospel when Jesus is crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover, when the lambs are sacrificed for the Passover Feast. 

> beyond chapter one, but in regard to the title Lamb of God, Gospel John has Jesus crucified on the day of preparation for Passover, when the lambs were slaughtered; whereas the synoptics have Jesus eat the Passover meal as his Last Supper with his disciples, and then crucified on the Passover. 

> like the other three canonical gospels, Gospel John takes pains to have John the Baptist deny that he is the Messiah, and to declare that Jesus is the Messiah.
   
> unlike the synoptics, Gospel John presents Andrew as the first disciple, has Andrew lead his brother Simon (Peter) to Christ, and the next two disciples Jesus calls are not James and John but Philip and Nathanael. 

All these observations about Gospel John chapter one are fun points to explore in group Bible study discussion. To me, it's always well to bear in mind that, like Judaism our heritage, Christianity is a religion of stories; every writer tells his stories differently, so we can expect, and explore further, the differences. And the stories are to read and hear and enjoy and give us points of reference for teaching and learning and living: it is not necessary to do, as Christianity has done throughout its ages, and solidify stories into concrete doctrine, dogma, and creed that everyone must swear to as history. This is our Heilsgeschichte, our collection of tribal holy stories that identify who we are. 

Below (scroll down) is Gospel John chapter one, with this morning's reading (verses 29-42) set forth in different type font to identify what we read today, Sunday, 15 January 2023. 
 

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[b]

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.[e] 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who[f] is close to the Father’s heart,[g] who has made him known.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but he confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”[h] 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ ”

as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why, then, are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah,[i] nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.” 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The Lamb of God

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is (Gk. idou, Behold!) the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 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.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.”[j]

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 (Gk. idou, Behold!), 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[k]). 42 He brought Simon[l] to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas”[m](which is translated Peter[n]).

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,[o] you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

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From Bible Gateway, I copy-and-pasted a format with footnotes, but I neglected to copy and paste the footnotes, so kindly just ignore them.

RSF&PTL

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