John 1.35-39.
Honestly, the gospel of John doesn’t line up with the other gospels, which we call
John 1.35-37 KWL - 35 The next day John, and two of his students,
- were standing in that place again.
- 36 Looking at Jesus walking by,
- John said, “Look, God’s lamb!”
- 37 John’s two students heed what he says,
- and follow Jesus.
The word
Yeah, rubbish. Because any student can become huge fans of their teacher and try to mimic them in all sorts of ways. I saw it in college with my fellow students; I saw it in my own students when I became a teacher. Some students get endlessly fascinated with their teacher’s personal lives, and wanna know what makes them tick. They’re still trying to figure out their own personalities, and figure this is the guy to emulate. Sometimes they’re right. Sometimes not!
In fact, there are all kinds of student-teacher relationships. Sometimes they’re all about academics, sometimes lifestyle, and sometimes a little of both. Sometimes teachers think, “I want successors, and that’s what I’m training,” and sometimes all we’re thinking is, “They need to know this stuff,” and nothing more. Certain teachers covet eager, worshipful pupils, and are jealous of other teachers who have ’em; they wanna be worshiped. Some of these relationships are very healthy; some are sick ’n twisted.
But saying, “A disciple is different from a student,” is rubbish. They’re synonyms.
And John and Jesus’s students were seeking religious instruction. They were products of the first-century Judean culture, in which religious kids sought a master, a
And if you were particularly fortunate, your rav would also be
So when John identified Jesus as God’s lamb, you know his students immediately thought, “Well if John hears God, but John says this is the guy…” and off they went.
Who chose whom?
The gospel makes clear one of these two students was Andrew,
But since John doesn’t explicitly say the other kid is Philip, a lot of commentators figure it’s John himself. Makes him an eyewitness to these events; isn’t that handy? But there’s no evidence for it. John could’ve easily heard these stories later from Andrew, Philip, and Jesus.
Both Andrew and Philip were from Bethsaida, Galilee.
Unlike the other gospels’ stories, where Jesus told people, “Follow me!” and they did, these kids didn’t need an invitation. That’s the sort of enthusiasm a lot of us Christians lack: We’re too often waiting for God to call us to do something, instead of following him whether he calls us or not.
But their action kinda rubs certain Christians the wrong way. Y’see, way further ahead in John, Jesus states,
John 15.16 KWL - “You don’t select me, but I select you, and set you up
- so you might go out and produce fruit,
- and your fruit might last;
- so whatever you might ask the Father in my name,
- he might give you.”
Christians usually spin this to say, “You did not choose me, but I chose you,”
This passage where John’s students obviously take the initiative to follow Jesus? They don’t care for it so much. It disproves their bad theology. They much prefer the story where Jesus walks along the lakeshore and calls fishermen. This story feels way too much like Andrew and Philip had the sort of free will which they’re entirely sure depraved humans can’t have.
But isn’t this exactly what Jesus teaches? How people should take the initiative, pursue God, and never give up?
Because the initiative is all going to be for naught unless Jesus goes along with it. Let’s say Andrew and Philip pursued Jesus, and his response was to turn round and say, “Oh, piss off!” Yeah, that’s entirely unlike him, so you see my point: Nobody can follow Jesus unless he invites us to follow him, and he invites everyone to follow him. We might choose Jesus, but he chooses us too, and technically chose us first: Jesus extended his invitation at the beginning of time.
So did Jesus choose Andrew and Philip? Sure. He coulda rejected them, but he did just the opposite; he invited them home.
John 1.38-39 KWL - 38 Turning and seeing them following,
- Jesus tells them, “What are you looking for?”
- They tell him, “Ravvi” (i.e. Teacher), “where do you live?”
- 39 Jesus tells them, “Come and see.”
- So they come and see where he lives,
- and stay with him that day;
- it’s the tenth hour [about 4:30pm].
And more.
Jesus the rabbi.
As I said in
Weekdays, Israeli boys and young men went to synagogue to learn the four R’s: R’s: Reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic, and religion. Pharisees believed in a literate society, which could read the bible, not just know vaguely about it. They wanted people to follow the Law, pass it down to their descendants, and keep
Jesus was considered one of those rabbis. Because he taught in synagogue—more than once! The synagogues all belonged to Pharisees, and they wouldn’t let him teach in there unless they didn’t just consider him one of them, but considered him a master. Thing is, Jesus isn’t really a Pharisee. He teaches his interpretations of the Law, not theirs.
And Jesus did way more than merely teach bible and
Was John the baptist the same kind of teacher? More than likely. He too had students, and they too called him rabbi.
I regularly call Jesus’s students his “kids,” because that’s exactly what they were: Teenagers. Movies and art make ’em look like John and Jesus’s contemporaries, because artists and filmmakers don’t know squat about history. But read the gospels. Read how Jesus’s students behaved. Look at their petty squabbles about who’s greatest, or dense misunderstandings about basic stuff Jesus just said. They’re children. Jesus thought a lot of children; far more than his culture, or even our culture, does. Teenagers are way more valuable than we give them credit for.
At age 13, both Jews and Romans gave young people the legal status of adults. Boys cold go to war. They could now marry. Pharisees expected their young men to study under a rabbi and get themselves a basic education. If they had time and money (as Paul apparently did), they could go to
Though Luke called Jesus’s students
So when John singled out Jesus to his students, they realized John meant he’s the rabbi to follow. John may have been the best teacher in all Judea, but if you want the best teacher in the cosmos, follow the Nazarene.
