SERIES
Sojourn: Toward an Enduring City
2017-05-14T08:00:00-05:00
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
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 of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
They were unschooled tradesmen in the beginning, getting by in the north, near the border. They shared nothing at the start. The zealot was the sworn enemy of the tax collector, and the brothers from the fishing family jostled everyone and each other for position. Their unelected spokesman was impulsive and could be quick tempered. But they came together and traveled together and lived together; this unlikely band of unknowns. One of their number wasn't with them at the beginning. He was an intellectual "townie" from the south, and puffed up with self-righteous fury. He happily hunted and destroyed perceived enemies of his religiosity.
But something changed them. Years later one of those brothers, one of the "Sons of Thunder" would write love letters to far-away places he would have once despised. The fiery leader would implore his friends to submit to the very authorities who were murdering them. And the scholar? He continued to travel, but to teach, not terrorize. With only one sad exception, this peripatetic mob became galvanized into unified, widely dispersed couriers of eternal truth.
What made the change? They had nothing in the world to gain by forsaking their backgrounds, their homes, their prejudices. They suffered unimaginable hardships. And they spoke and wrote and lived lives of love. How did that happen? They were loved by Jesus. He called them, you see, every one of them. And He taught them and prayed for them, and right before He was crucified, He knelt in the dust and washed their filthy feet. Then He told them to love each other. Start there, He said, with each other.
The same thing happens to you and me. Called by Jesus, filled with the same Holy Spirit He told those disciples about, and basking in the breathtaking love of Christ, we begin to know what it means to love earnestly. We know because we have been loved earnestly. We begin to understand how that once murderous rabbi could write that "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude." We can understand how the "disciple that Jesus loved" could teach us, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers." And we grasp the glorious magnitude of a forgiven and restored Peter reminding the church, "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." God's love in Christ changes us.