Appearance of Jesus

(Gospel of John 1:29 -  1:51)

On the following day John saw Jesus approaching and declared, “Look, here is the Lamb of God sent to us as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world!  This is the one I was speaking of when I said, ‘The man who succeeds me will be greater than I, because he has lived before me.’  Hitherto he was not known even to me, but that he might become known to Israel is the very reason I have been baptizing with water." 

John reported this: "I saw the divine spirit descend from the sky like a dove and light upon him.  I myself did not recognize him until then, but he who inspired me to baptize with water told me: "He upon whom you see the spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit."  I have personally witnessed this and can attest that this man is God's Chosen One."

On the following day John was in the company of two of his disciples when he saw Jesus again.  He commented as Jesus passed by, "There goes the Lamb of God!"  Hearing this, the disciples followed Jesus.

 Jesus turned to them and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Tell us, Rabbi, where are you staying?"

“Why don’t you come and see for yourselves," he answered.

They came and saw where he was living.  It was about four in the afternoon, and they remained with him for the rest of the day.  One of these two men was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.  Andrew immediately went to see his brother and announced, "We have found the Messiah!"  He then brought Simon to see Jesus.  Jesus took one look at him and declared, "You must be Simon, the son of John, -- but henceforth you will be called Peter [meaning rock]."  

The next day Jesus decided to travel to Galilee.  He found Philip and bid him, "Come with me and be my disciple."  (Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, which was where Andrew and Peter were also from.)  Philip then went to Nathanael and told him, "We have found the man Moses referred to in the Torah and whom the prophets spoke of as well.  He is Jesus, the son of Joseph of Nazareth."

"Nazareth!?” Nathanael retorted, "What good could ever come from that place?"

"Come with us and see," was Philip's challenge.

Jesus saw Nathanael approaching and observed of him, "Here indeed is a true man of Israel, one who is totally honest and sincere."

Nathanael questioned him, "How do you come to know me?"

Jesus replied, "Before Philip invited you here, I saw you ... when you were sitting under the fig tree."

Nathanael told Jesus, "Rabbi, you must indeed be the Son of God, the King of Israel!"

Jesus responded, "You believe that just because I had a vision of you sitting under a fig tree?  You'll see greater wonders than that!  I tell you truly that you will all witness the very heavens open.  Divine messengers will then come up and down to commune with the Son of Man." 

Notes
1.  In Bethany John points out to his disciples this certain Jesus, the man he has recognized as the Messiah.  The Messiah, the spiritual leader, teacher, and savior, has been long anticipated and sought for, especially by at the portion of the Jewish population to which John the Baptist and his followers belong.  At the very least they must have felt that their religion had become corrupted by unworthy leadership and that the true teachings needed to be restored by some inspired and dynamic leader, and this was he for whom they awaited.  John, however, specifically sees the Messiah as one who will bring atonement for the sins of the world, a claim that Jesus would make.  (It would not be unfair to say that the quest for the atonement of sins is an innate obsession among the Jews -- due to a keen and admirable appreciation of right and wrong that was all but unique among ancient peoples.)  John felt strongly that he had found that man, Jesus, and told his disciples so.  Jesus is identified by the others as a rabbi, a teacher of the Jewish religion.  The term was applied loosely to any religious teacher and not necessarily to one ordained by the Jewish religious establishment.

2.  John, who does not at first recognize Jesus for who he is, believes he is the Messiah because God, who has bid him to baptize, tells him that he will see the spirit descend upon the man who is the Messiah.  If Jesus were the Son of God, the divine spirit would be already within him and would not need to descend upon him.   This scenario would make sense only if Jesus were a man who is now come to be possessed by the divine spirit, and John is witnessing the act of that possession.  This is, of course, one theory of Jesus' divinity, that he was an ordinary man possessed by the divine spirit, but this is not the assertion of this Gospel's author, who believes that Jesus is the incarnation of Logos, and would have been so since birth, even conception.  On the other hand, the descent of the spirit may have been a visible manifestation of the communion, ongoing, one would think,  between Logos and Elohim, or God the Son and God the Father.

3.  The divine spirit descending upon Jesus is described by John as a dove, or like a dove.  The spirit is often described as a dove.  Is this meant literally, the spirit assuming avian form, or does the spirit manifest itself as something white and tangible and borne upon the air, giving the impression of being a dove?  It is interesting that when Joan of Arc (who called herself the Daughter of God) was burned at the stake, at the moment of her expiration, an English officer, one who was most zealous to see her burn, swore he saw a dove fly out of her body.  Was it an hallucination?  Was it seen by others?  At any rate, the officer was so distraught and dumbfounded by what he had seen his comrades had to drag him off to the nearest tavern to give him a drink or two. 

4.  The first named disciple of John is Andrew and he is among those who, accosting Jesus on the street, follow him to his home to have a long afternoon's discourse.  Andrew, impressed and convinced he must be the Messiah,  immediately tells his brother Simon about this man.  Simon is very interested and goes to see Jesus, who, for a reason not yet apparent, decides to rename him Peter (Cephas in Greek), meaning "rock."  (One is tempted to translate the name as “Rocky"!)  Peter will be Jesus's heir, the first Pope, the "rock" upon which will be built the Christian church.

5.  When Jesus goes to Galilee, miles to the north of Bethany, he picks up some more disciples, among them Philip, who was from Bethsaida, as were the brothers Andrew and Peter.  Bethsaida was a town north of the Sea of Galilee. 

6.  Philip tells Nathanael (a friend?) that Jesus is the man spoken of by Moses and the Prophets as the Messiah.  We learn from him that Jesus is the son of Joseph of Nazareth.  Nazareth was an insignificant town with no religious history and, therefore, was not highly thought of by Nathanael, who does not hesitate to say so.  Nathanael is a blunt, outspoken fellow, but Jesus likes him and admires his truthfulness and sincerity.  Nathanael, skeptical and perhaps resentful of the fact that Jesus claims to know him, is impressed when Jesus says he saw him sitting under a fig tree.  One assumes that Nathanael was out of sight when this occurred and that Jesus' perception of him was due to clairvoyant faculties that Nathanael assumes to be of divine origin. 

7.  Jesus promises Nathanael and the others that they will see visitors come down from Heaven to visit him.  This is cryptic and intriguing, a reference to “Jacob’s ladder” mentioned in Genesis.  Does Jesus mean material, human-like beings physically descending from the sky and ascending again, -- spirit beings materializing and dematerializing?  Or does he mean this figuratively?   Does the heaven refer to mean the sky or does he mean Heaven, the abode of God, which would, as we understand it, be in some other, spiritual plane.