“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.” John 1:35-42
The last apostolic recollection recorded in the 1st chapter of John initiates what could correctly be called the peripatetic shape of The Fourth Gospel. From here on our Lord and his little band of disciples begin a mutual journey, one that was set in motion first with the Word of the Father being made flesh as he entered into the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and received from her our full humanity. Nine months later the Word of the Father was born, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Thirty some years passed and there he is, now being baptized by John in spite of John’s protest of its inappropriateness. And then we have this scene that spans only two days in which he is identified by the Baptist as One who pre-existed John, as the “Lamb of God,” as well as the One who has come to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Here is the central event: John stands and he points to Jesus as he is walking away. That is right. Jesus is walking away from John, walking away from the Jordan. Why is he walking away from John the Baptist? Because the ministry of the Baptist has achieved finality and there is nothing else to gain from it:
“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou? He saith unto to them, Come and see”
From here on out we will be traveling along the dusty roads of Palestine, and Samaria, and Galilee with Jesus and his little flock. Jerusalem is the hub of the journey and Jesus, always on the move, treads in and out of the City of Zion. And even in the City of Zion, even on the eve of his Passion Jesus walked from one station to the other as he, our great High Priest, consecrated himself — Priest and Victim — along the Via Dolorosa, the road of sorrows. Walking is so important that it is said from time to time in the Gospel that this or that man either began or no longer walked with Jesus, as a way of indicating either falling away or stedfast discipleship.
And note that after his resurrection Jesus no longer walks with his disciple in this manner and even his posture changes; for example recall our Lord’s first Resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene:
“And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus…” John 20:14
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” John 20:19
“after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.” John 20:26
And even in the last remembered appearance of our risen Lord, when he appeared to his disciples on the shore and even prepared a breakfast of roasted fish, the Evangelist notes this standing position:
“And when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.” John 22:4
What are we to make of all this? I want to suggest to you that his posture is not merely a skillfully conceived detail, not solely the artistry of a gifted story teller, but rather it indicates something about his mission and something about the mission of the Church he left behind. John the Baptist is said to stand in the Jordan or along side the Jordan as he identifies more fully the Person of our Lord, pointing to the One who has emerged from the Jordan and is walking away from John — and all the while the reason Jesus is walking away from the Baptist so that he may take up his cross, inaugurate, and set in motion his own mission, the mission we know to be the mission of the Logos who proceeds from the bosom of the Father. I suggest to you the sign of John’s finished work is his standing and not moving forward. And we see something very similar in our Lord’s posture, when after his bodily resurrection, rather than picking up his peripatetic ministry once again, but rather he comes to his Church and he stands. And unlike John he does not point to another person, he stands, he commissions, he blesses, and all our attention is on him; he is all we care about. Such a scene brings the Gospel of John to a close when Peter, naturally disturbed when the resurrected Christ reveals to him the manner of his death, points to young John and asked how he was to die? Jesus speaks a clarifying and encouraging word to Peter:
“Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” John 21:22
“Follow thou me,” he says and we know from the other Apostolic witness that did not mean to follow him on another preaching mission, because the next remarkable event was what the Church calls the Ascension. Jesus is taken up and vertically he goes up and back to the bosom of the Father. But that is enough. I have gotten way ahead of myself and we need to get back to chapter 1. Like the saying goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”
“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
Jesus steps away from John the Baptist, and John’s own disciples took their first steps away from the Baptist as well by following Jesus. In the narrative there are the two disciple, and one is identified as “Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.” The other of John’s disciples is not named. But what does the text tell us? These two young men upon the word of the Baptist leave John and follow Jesus. It certainly seems that historically the two follow Jesus at a little distance and without any formal introduction. They simply begin to trail behind him and in such a way that they only see his back side — his face they cannot see and they do not know where he is going. So far the Baptist has spoken but Christ has remained silent. The disciples do not intrude quickly and rush upon Jesus, but seriously, with circumspection, with modesty they venture to speak to Christ in a place that is separate from the crowd, as private and quite a place as possible. And then, this little narrative within the narrative reaches its denouement as the strands of what has preceded are drawn together:
“Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them,
What seek ye?”
Jesus turns and in his turning he completes what the Baptist has started. In the literal, historic sense this is clear enough. Jesus was walking in front of them and he seems to stop and turn about to see the two young men face to face. But his stopping and turning has a deeper meaning for us. He turns to give them confidence, hope, and to show the mercy of the gentle, harmless, Lamb of God. This is what Jesus does for all those who begin to follow him however vaguely and imperfectly. He turns so that those who seek him may see his face. “Show us your face, and we will be saved,” sings the Psalmist. And furthermore there is a sense in which in this life, before our death and before the consumption of God’s love, we see, as Paul wrote, “through a glass darkly.” Even following our Lord as his determined disciples, as long as we are in this life, it is as though we see his back as one who has departed. Yes, we see him truly in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. We do indeed “Behold the Lamb of God.” But the Church, his Bride desire more:
“Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them,
What seek ye?”
Jesus stops and shows his face to his disciples in order to infuse hope, godly confidence, and mercy. And I suggest to you that this is played out for us, for our benefit, for our well being, so we may see it in our mind’s eye and fix our hope and our life upon Christ and God’s finality for us. This is the our great desire — that we shall see God face to face. This is God’s finality for his Church, the beatific vision.
Then after turning so that the disciple could see him face to face, our Lord speaks for the first time in the Gospel of John:
“Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them,
What seek ye?”
The first word that God speaks to his disciples is a question that seeks to uncover the intentions, the desire, and the secrets of our heart. “What are you looking for?” he asked? So important is this matter that every mass begins with a prayer that God will open our interior life and prepare us for his worship:
“Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy Holy Name.”
Jesus’ question is meant to open up and clarify our interior desires. And his disciples answer his question:
“They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou?”
They are following Jesus the Messiah because they hope to be taught the way of God by him and so they call him “Rabbi.” They are saying to Jesus, “We desire to be taught by you,” the One the Baptist calls the Lamb of God, the One the Baptist says existed before he did. But then before our Lord speaks another word they ask him to where he lives. They were looking for the home of Christ. They wanted to know where he lived because they wanted to know him, not in a superficial manner, but deeply, seriously, and frequently. They wanted to be at home with Jesus which is to say that they wanted and desired far more than they knew or understood at that moment. But we know more. We know more than they did at this point. We know that Jesus’ true home is in the bosom of Father. But we also know that to get to the bosom of the Father, the natural home of the Word, we have to dwell with the Word made Flesh, in a home fashioned from the material of creation. We cannot escape to the bosom of the Father by turning our backs on the world of matter and forsaking the very flesh that the Creator himself has loved and assumed into his own divine life. It is God’s will that we make our way to the House of God, the to Home of Christ, and there to dwell with Christ as his Spouse. But we also know this, there is a surprise these disciples will learn as they walk with Jesus; a surprise that Simon whom Christ nicknamed Peter, which means stone or rock — a surprise he was destined to fully grasp. And this is the surprise: we are the material House of God, we are the Abode of Christ. Years later Simon Peter would write Church of God:
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” I Peter 2:1-5
It is our destiny to be the Temple of Christ, a habitation for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.