Nielsen’s Nook

My wife and I not knowing much about fine art, purchased a course on the paintings on display in the Louvre and have been amazed at all that can be found in a single painting. One famous painting, now infamous thanks to Dan Brown, that we learned about was the Mona Lisa. Up to this point, my education on the Mona Lisa was through Looney Tunes. I was stunned to see how much professor Richard Brettell was able to open my eyes to the painting I have seen all of my life: the angular and mysterious landscape beyond the young woman in the picture for example - or the smirk on her face.

You will notice in John 1:35-51 the phrase “come and see” is used three times (twice in v 39 and in v 46). A question that the Gospel of John elicits at this point in the narrative is, “What do we expect to see when we come?”

John has given us a tremendous prelude to his Gospel in John 1:1-18. The one who made all that is has come to dwell with us in the flesh, demonstrating himself to be the exegesis or explanation of the Father. John the Baptist is introduced in John 1:19-34, testifying as the forerunner to the Incarnate Word described in the previous section. He adds one more significant detail to our understanding of the Incarnate Word. This Incarnate Word is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is the second categorical bomb that we read in John. It explodes our minds and fills us with hope.

So when we come to our section (1:35-51) we find a transition between the public ministry of John the Baptist and that of Jesus of Nazareth. It is no small thing to see one as regarded as John the Baptist directing his disciples Andrew and an unnamed disciple to follow Jesus (v 37). It builds upon our sense of expectation and yet the question remains: what is it that we are expecting?

Jesus does not wait for Andrew and the unnamed disciple to ask, but asks them, “What are you seeking?” Jesus begins the dialog of faith. These first disciples, the church of two, come and stay (μενοω) with Jesus. Whatever they ’saw’ in him during their time together moved them to tell others that he was the Messiah or Christ. Shouldn’t we also be amazed at the way Peter ‘comes’ to and ’sees’ Jesus. The first apostle among equals, Peter, was not the first whom Jesus called. He came through his brother Andrew. As Calvin exhorts us, “none of us, however excellent, may refuse to be taught by an inferior”.¹ Second, Simon is given a new name. In the Old Testament names were given on the basis of what had happened in the past (compare Genesis 17). Here Simon is renamed Peter on the basis of all that the Incarnate Word would make the future to be.

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¹ John Calvin. Calvin’s Commentaries (electronic ed.;, electronic ed. Garland, TX: Galaxie Software, 2000), Jn 1:40.