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The Second Sunday After The Epiphany
God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that thy people, illumined by thy Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Second Sunday After The Epiphany
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Scripture citation(s): John 1
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
John 1
✛
Memorize John 1
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Christians observe Epiphany feasts because the manifestation of God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ commands our attention and adoration in worship. The scriptures we have heard in this observance bear the record that Jesus of Nazareth who is co-eternal with the Father, anticipated by the prophets, born of a Virgin, was revealed to gentiles by the leading of a star, whose unitive relationship with the Father and the Spirit is set forth at his baptism and attested to by John the Baptist, and whose power is unlike anything seen under the veil of human flesh as demonstrated in his first miracle wrought at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. If there is any doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord, it is not for want of God making the case for him consistently, clearly, and powerfully. If there is any doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord, it can only arise from the failings of the human heart as we consider the case that God makes for his own son. We either do not believe, or we will not respond. But then again, maybe we are unsure what our response ought to be.
Jesus Christ:
I refer you to the first chapter of the gospel of Saint John. Some of you know the opening chapter of this gospel very well. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
We know this prologue, don’t we? I have seen and heard worshippers quoting these passages as they are read aloud in worship. It is good to know, by heart, that the Lord has manifest forth his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. But it is only a beginning. The prologue concerns Jesus. The rest of the first chapter of the Gospel of John concerns you. So, let’s make a first effort to commit the rest of John 1 to our memory. The entire chapter can be summarized like this: Jesus Christ; John the Baptist; Andrew and Simon; Philip and Nathanael. Now that we have their names, we need to know how their encounters with Jesus begin to change their lives, so that we can understand how our encounter with the glory of Christ must begin changing ours.
John the Baptist:
Once God consents to become man, not only does he take upon human nature, he takes on a particular human identity. Jesus is not a symbolic representation of mankind, he is a man. He has a body with a face, he receives a name, a genealogy, a religion, a history. When God becomes Jesus of Nazareth there can never be any confusion about who is the Christ.
John the Baptist is a cousin of Jesus and is six months older than his Lord. As a grown man, John gains a following through his ministry of preaching and baptizing at the River Jordan. He has disciples who follow him. This ministry and following catch the attention of the Jewish clergy who confront him with a question: are you the messiah? John confesses, he does not deny saying, “No, I am not the Christ. He stands in our midst but we do not know him yet.”
But then a familiar and familial face emerges from the crowd, and John meets Jesus, and then baptizes him. As he emerges from the water the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and a voice from heaven declares that he is the son of God. John the Baptist sees the Spirit, and hears the voice, and now he does know who the Christ is. So, the next time John sees Jesus walking along the bank of the river, he can say to his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” I baptized him; I saw the Spirit; and I heard the voice from heaven tell us that man is the son of God. What John teaches his disciples (and to everyone who follows from that age to this one) is to be clear about the identity of the Lord. No other prophet, prince, philosopher or king is the savior. And because of the specificity of the incarnation, we have no excuse for confusing the messiah with some brahman, bodhisattva, tao, buddha, muhammed, sun, moon, star, or stick of wood.[1] As miraculous and portentous as John the Baptist’s own birth was, when asked if he was the Messiah, John says, “No, I am not. Jesus is.” John attests to what God has already declared at Jesus’ birth and at his baptism.
Andrew and Simon:
One of John’s disciples who heard this clear pronouncement was Andrew. When Andrew heard his master say that Jesus was the messiah, he stopped following John. If John is not the messiah, what good would it do to continue following him? And since the messiah has been explicitly pointed out to him, what good does it do him to look for another. This is instructive. Why dabble in any other religion, why chase after any other idol or false prophet, when the living God, and his witnesses on earth have told us that Jesus is the one for us to follow? And that is exactly what Andrew does. If we want to imitate him, then we must foreswear any allegiance, dalliance or flirtation with anyone or anything that seeks to stand in the place of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, having found the messiah, and Andrew being our pattern, our next response is to bring other people to Jesus. Andrew goes to get his brother Simon, and brings him into the presence of the Lord. It would be spiritually criminal, negligent homicide if you will, for Andrew to sit at the feet of Jesus while leaving his brother to sit in darkness, to remain in ignorance, to persist in error, a slave to sin, and bound by death, when Andrew had found light, knowledge, truth, righteousness, and eternal life. How can you leave your family, your friends, your colleagues, anyone you have a relationship with sitting out there with nothing, while you sit here as an heir to everything. We must be bold and zealous in our efforts to bring other people to meet Jesus.
With the expectation that it will change their lives, as we see in the first moments of Simon’s encounter with Jesus. Jesus says, “Simon, you will not be called that anymore. From now on you will be called Cephas, that is to say, a rock. Our encounter with Jesus changes our very identity as human beings. We are regenerate, and born anew. And, we are not changed into weak-minded simpletons, hand-wringing toadies, reeds shaken by every wind. No, we are strengthened, and made unmovable, and confident, we become rocks of faith, because we are with the Christ, and Christ is with us, in us, above us, in front of us, behind us, and we have bound ourselves to him.
Philip and Nathanael:
Philip does the same thing as Andrew. He goes to his brother, Nathanael, and tells him they have found the Lord and he is Jesus of Nazareth. When you invite someone to meet Jesus, sometimes they will come like Simon, and sometimes they will resist and maybe even ridicule your faith in this Jesus of Nazareth. Like Nathanael, they might say, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But you persevere, firm in your faith. Because what you and they discover in coming to know the glory of God in the face and the person of Jesus Christ, is that Jesus already knows your face and your name. “Before Philip called you,” says Jesus to Nathanael, “I knew you.” This is one of the simple yet profound beauties of being a disciple of the Lord; it is to discover that he knows you already, even better than you know yourself. And he desires such good things for you, more than you can dare ask or imagine. And he will give them to you and anyone you bring to him, because he that promised, is faithful.
John the Baptist. Andrew and Simon. Philip and Nathanael. And now, you and Jesus. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest this story. Permit the living God who has manifested forth his glory in the face of his son Jesus Christ, to manifest forth his glory in your life, and in the lives of those within your reach, and within reach of the Lord’s saving embrace.
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[1] See Isaiah 44.9-20 on the folly of idolatry.
