This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. 40 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Kephas” (which is translated Peter). 

John witnessed to his two disciples who then followed Jesus. One of them, Andrew, witnessed to his brother Peter. In the vv.43-51, Jesus found Philip without a witness, but then Philip found Nathanael and witnessed to him about Jesus. Generally, a witness is needed to help others “see” Jesus. In fact, these two events may indicate that one cannot adequately follow Jesus without also extending the invitation to others.

The invitation, “Come and see,” is given twice (1:39, 46). The essence of our witness is to state what we have seen and believe and then to invite others to “come and see.” For John, faith begins by responding to the invitation to “come and see.” The same words (in English, but slightly different in Greek) are uttered by the Samaritan woman to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” (4:29)

The same combination of words is used at the end of the gospel: Mary comes and sees that the stone has been removed from the tomb (20:1). Peter and the other disciple come to the tomb and look in and see. The other disciples see and believe (20:3-8).

It was Jesus who turned and first spoke to the two disciples of John who were following him (1:38). It is Jesus who speaks first to Simon (v.42). It is Jesus who finds Philip and speaks to him (v. 43). Nathanael didn’t find Jesus. Jesus found him! It is Jesus whose words draw out Nathanael’s good confession (vv.47-49). We can never lose sight of the primacy of God’s gracious acts that evoke our response.

Image credit: Saint John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the Wilderness | Artist: Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638) | Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris | PD-US