On we go through this Gospel of John. It seems that we’ll
never get out of this first chapter...but this Sunday will be our last time in
chapter one. Finally...we’ll move on!
Many who preach this passage—and I’ve even preached it in the
past—focus on how people come to Jesus, come to know Jesus. This is good stuff,
without a doubt. Andrew goes and gets his brother, Simon (Peter), and brings
him to Jesus. Phillip goes and gets his brother, Nathaniel, and brings him to
Jesus. People today come to know Jesus because others whose lives have been
impacted by Jesus bring their family and friends to Jesus. When you find
something good, you tell others other about it!
However, in my reading, meditation and prayer this week,
some other things come to the forefront for me. First, when Jesus meets Simon,
he gives him a new name—Peter. Now, Simon is not such a bad name—in the Hebrew,
it means something like ‘hearer’ or ‘listener.’ So, Simon was good at
listening, perhaps. But, Jesus wanted to give this man a new name, a new
identity. This is not unheard of: Abram was renamed Abraham; Jacob became
Israel. Now, Simon the Listener has become Peter the Rock. In fact, God wants
to give us all a new name. In Rev. 2:17, we
see an indication that God wants to give us new names. Of course, for Jewish
culture, a name was more than what someone was called; it reflected, shaped or
indicated their character. Jesus was changing Peter’s character! Not just a
listener anymore; now Simon would become a rock, a foundation, a brick in this
new ‘temple’ Jesus was building that would become the Church. And, Jesus comes
to bring us new names...new character. We who may have been ‘lazy’ are now
called ‘active;’ the ‘loser’ becomes ‘valued;’ who thought themselves ‘just
here’ becomes ‘precious’ or ‘beloved.’ It may be that our character is not ‘bad.’
But, we may not be who God wants us to be. One who was ‘talkative’ may need to
become ‘Simon;’ and the one who has been a ‘Simon’ may be renamed ‘teacher’ or ‘preacher.’
Jesus comes into our lives and changes our character.
Second, we find that Jesus knows us and accepts us. We may
think that we need to be a certain way in order to come to Jesus, to step into
the family of God. But, not so. Nathaniel was seen and known before he ever
came to Jesus. He even questions Jesus’ origins—“Can anything good come from
Nazareth?” He comes as a skeptic. Yet, he is already seen and known. While my
primary text for study and preaching is the NIV (no need to comment—I’ve heard
all the arguments, but I get one Bible to preach from, and it needs to be
bilingual...and I’ve yet to find an NRSV/NVI combination....), I have decided
to keep The Message at hand as I preach through the Gospel this year. I like
the way Peterson renders this passage:
45-46 Philip
went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in
the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one
from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.”
But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”
47
When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone
in his body.”
48
Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.”
Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you
here, I saw you under the fig tree.”
That last verse—“...long before Philip called you here....”
Peterson sees something in the grammatical construct in the Greek that
indicates that Jesus sees Nate some time before this day, before the events of
this day. And, I get the idea that Jesus sees us all from afar...yet knows us in
the same way. We don’t have any surprises for Jesus. Nothing shocks Jesus. And,
when we come to Jesus, Jesus just accepts us as we are...and gives us a new
name to live into.
One more thought. Verse 51 was a verse I almost axed from the
reading (yep, I can do that if I want to!) But, after meditating on that verse,
I realized that it’s about dreams...and I’m all about dreams and hopes and
plans and expectation (sort of comes with the Christian territory....). Here,
Jesus references Jacob’s dream in Gen. 28. Jesus indicates that if these
disciples follow him, if we follow him, we’re going to see some amazing
stuff...and we’ll see dreams come true, dreams become reality. Now, let’s be
clear—not just any dreams; rather, God-given dreams will become reality. But, this
happens only if we follow Jesus, if we’re walking with Jesus.
So, in my readings this week, this passage indicates that Jesus gives us a new
name; he comes into our lives to change our character. Jesus doesn’t demand or
expect that we’re anything more than interested in order to come to him—he
knows us long before we come to him. And, if we will but come to him...walk
with him...we will see amazing things, dreams will become reality. What better way
to be walking into 2018, into this new semester of studies, into this new year, into an new job?
These are my gleanings. What are yours?
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