Beginnings Tell of Endings
Beginnings Tell of Endings by Rev. L. John Gable
January 20, 2019
Kris and I do not go to nearly as many movies as we once did, but one of the things I liked about actually going to the theater, and now miss, is getting to watch the previews of up-coming features. Previews – or I guess they call them trailers now – are intended to tell enough of the story to spark the interest of the viewers, but not so much as to give the whole story line away, and I get a sense of that same intent in our Gospel lesson this morning.
Admittedly, each of the Gospel writers write from their own particular perspective, and while they often share much of the same material, certainly Matthew, Mark and Luke more so than John, they each set out to tell their own story about Jesus, and they do so for a very particular reason: to convince or persuade their readers to believe as they do, that Jesus really is the promised Messiah of God. They each are writing with the intention of persuading their readers to believe that the Messianic promise and expectation spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, such as Isaiah whose prophecy we read a portion of this morning where he speaks of the suffering servant of God by whose stripes we are healed, is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus of Nazareth. So each Gospel is in effect the trailer, the preview of things to come, in the larger story of God’s salvation history. They are written with the intention of enticing us to “read on”, for beginnings tell of endings.
If you were with us last Sunday we were introduced to John the Baptist, the prophet of preparation who announced the coming of the Messiah, with a message of his own, a message of repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Interestingly, each of the four Gospels tell stories about John, important stories, why? Because John was an important man, a prophet in his own right; in fact, many thought that he was the Messiah, so he drew large crowds out to the wilderness, down by the Jordan to be baptized by Him. But John knew differently; he knew who he was and who he was not. He knew that he was not the Messiah, but that he was the one God had called to announce the coming of the Messiah. John is such a good role model for us in this way. It is important for each of us to know who we are and who we are not, and then to be able to articulate that as we seek to use the gifts and talents God has given us to point others beyond ourselves to Jesus as did John.
It is said that the famed theologian Karl Barth had a framed picture of John the Baptist hanging on his office wall, right across from his desk. The picture showed the Baptist in the foreground pointing a long, boney finger toward Jesus hanging on the cross in the distance. That is our role as well today, nothing more and nothing less in all that we say and do, than to point others toward Jesus.
So, we continue with a story about John the Baptist in our Gospel lesson from the first chapter of John’s Gospel and in three short vignettes we start to see the transition from John’s ministry to Jesus’ ministry. In a sense we are being given a preview of things to come because beginnings tell of endings.
In the first vignette John the Baptist is with his disciples. This is the day after the lesson we looked at last week when John identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” – clearly a Messianic designation – and recounts the day Jesus came to him to be baptized. On this particular day John actually sees Jesus walking toward him on the street and repeats the same phrase to his own disciples who are with him, not “Look, here comes Jesus of Nazareth who I was just telling you about”, but “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” This is a clear witness as to who John the Baptist believes Jesus to be, and the Gospel writer John as well. Drawing on Old Testament tradition, the lamb sacrificed on the Day of Passover atoned for the sins of the people and here John the Baptist is calling Jesus “The Lamb of God, the sacrificial offering of God, who takes away, not only the sins of the few, but the sin of the world!”
Here we also get a keen insight in to John the Baptist’s character and self-awareness; again, he knows who he is and who he is not. In essence what he is saying to his own disciples is, “I am not the Messiah because He is!”, which is very consistent with his saying, “I must decrease and He (meaning Jesus) must increase!” And with that two of his disciples set out to follow Jesus. There is no sense of competition here. John clearly knows the role he is to play in God’s plan of salvation. He is not the one, but he is the one to point to the One, as are each of us.
When the two catch up with Jesus He asks them, “What are you looking for?” That is the great existential question God asks of each of us, isn’t it? What are you looking for? Where are you going to find meaning and purpose in your life? Notice also how Jesus leads with a question, not a statement or an answer, in this faith sharing conversation. We would do well to learn to do the same.
This question must have caught these two off guard because they seem to fumble with an answer. Rather than asking some profound question about the meaning of life they seem to mumble, “Uh, where are you staying?” And Jesus answers perfectly and profoundly, “Come and see!” He invites them, as He continues to invite us, simply to “Come and see” for ourselves. “Come and see” that I am the answer to your deepest questions, that “I AM the way, the truth and the life” you are seeking.
And they did, they followed Him, and stayed with Him, and they not alone. The second vignette begins about 4:00 that afternoon, when one of the two, Andrew, goes to find his brother Simon Peter. It is human nature once we have found something we enjoy or are interested in – a restaurant, a movie, a book, a park, a travel location – to want to share it with others. The same is true when we have an encounter with Jesus. We just can’t keep it to ourselves, and we needn’t, and we shouldn’t. William Barclay rightly says, “There is no such thing as secret discipleship. Either the secrecy destroys the discipleship or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.” Our sharing with others doesn’t need to be compulsive or manipulative; rather it should be as natural as Andrew’s was with Peter when he says, “We have found the Messiah!”, and apparently Peter was glad to follow, to “come and see” for himself.
Who could ever have imagined at the time, but that invitation, Andrew to Peter, one brother to another, literally changed the course of the Gospel story, hence of human history. Jesus takes one look at Peter, the fisherman Peter; likely the course-mouthed Peter; the impetuous Peter; the Peter who wants to walk on water; the Peter who will one day be the first to say that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and another day deny that he ever knew Him; the same Peter who on the day of Pentecost will stand up and give the first Christian sermon and watch as 3000 people turn to Christ in faith; the Peter who on that day of their first meeting, Jesus gives a nickname, “Cephas, the Rock”, and later will say of him, “On this rock I will build my church!” In this first encounter the Gospel writer is giving us a preview of things to come as beginnings tell of endings.
The third vignette takes place the very next day. Jesus decides to go to Galilee – His home region where He will end up doing much of His ministry – and He invites His new disciples to go along with Him. Along the way, He invites Philip to join their band, saying, “Follow Me!”, and he does; but in the same manner that Andrew first went to find his brother Peter, so Philip first sets out to find his friend Nathanael in order to tell him that “We have found Him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” This form of natural evangelism, family member telling family member and friend telling friend, reminds me of the way evangelism has been described as being like “one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.” Again, it needn’t be forced or coercive, but easy and natural, little more than “Come and see!”
But unlike any of the others we have heard about thus far, who hear the invitation and simply drop what they are doing and follow, Nathanael is something more of a skeptic; he is not so quickly enamored or easily persuaded. He’s been to Nazareth and is not overly impressed by that little backwater, “no-wheres-ville” of a town. He may also have had something of a bias against Nazareth because he was from Cana, just a few miles away, so there might have been a little community rivalry coming out here. Several years ago we had a young man visiting us here at Tab and as he was introduced to me going out the door I was told he was originally from St. Louis, as am I, so I asked him, “What high school did you go to?” He said, “Kirkwood!” I immediately said, “I am so sorry!” and without missing a beat he said, “Are you from Webster Groves?” Our two communities hold the distinction of having the longest standing high school rivalry west of the Mississippi!
So in a similar vein Nathanael says to Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” and Philip doesn’t try to convince or persuade, he simply repeats the invitation of Jesus, “Come and see”, “Come and see for yourself!” Oswald Chambers, the author of the devotional My Utmost For His Highest, writes, “If you abandon to Jesus and come when He says “Come” He will continue to say “Come” to others through you; you will go out into life reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come”. That is the result of every soul who has abandoned and come to Jesus.”
Nathanael responds to Philips invitation and Jesus welcomes his honest skepticism saying, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” For some of us faith comes very easily and for others of us not so much; Jesus welcomes us all. Good questions and honest doubts invite good and honest conversations.
This third and final vignette ends with Nathanael, being impressed that Jesus had earlier seen him sitting under a fig tree, willingly calls Him “the Son of God and King of Israel”, and Jesus must have chuckled when He said, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these, like the heavens being opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man!”, which could also be translated in the vernacular, “If that impressed you, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Yet another preview of things to come.
Friends, we are going to spend the next several weeks in John’s Gospel filling in the comma in the Apostles’ Creed between “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate.” We aren’t even out of the first chapter and already we have gotten a pretty good preview of things to come. You see, beginnings tell of endings and, I assure you, this is a story you will not want to miss hearing.