Daily Devotional • March 7
A Reading from John 1:35-42
35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
Meditation
There are a few things I love about this short narrative. The first is that we learn John the Baptizer really is pointing to Jesus for Jesus’s sake. There is no attempt to stop his disciples from “defecting” to Jesus. It only makes sense that anyone who has grasped John’s message would drop everything to follow Jesus once Jesus had been found. We need more Christians like this who are only too eager to encourage those learning from them to chase after Jesus, even if that means they lose a few of their own number.
Second, I love the way the disciples “answer” Jesus’ question. What are they looking for? Their answer and indicates that they’ve been looking for him and goes further: “Teacher, where are you staying?” These disciples are not satisfied with a glance. They want to learn from Jesus; they want to abide with Jesus. Now that they’ve found him, they do not want to let him go.
Finally, we meet a disciple for whom following Jesus means a new name. Peter will have to come a long way before anyone can say he deserves the name “Rock,” but that’s part of the beauty of this moment. Following Jesus means following someone who sees who we are before we do.
From all of this, we learn something of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We follow him once we’ve caught sight of him. We share him with others whenever possible, no matter the cost to ourselves. We experience that he sees and knows us, and this experience transforms us. To start, we only have to “come and see.”
Laura Howard is a writer from Dallas, TX, now based in Wheaton, IL, where she works in Student Wellness at her alma mater, Wheaton College. Laura’s portfolio of writing, teaching, and artwork can be found at letmebeheavy.substack.com.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes, Washington
The Diocese of Malabar – The Church of South India (United)
