John 1:35-51
Today we celebrate
the Feast of Saint Andrew, who is known as “the First-Called” because he was the
very first Jesus Christ called to follow Him as a disciple. He is the first link in the chain of people
across the centuries who have responded to the Lord’s commands “Come and see” and
“Follow Me.” Like his brother Simon who
came to be Saint Peter, St. Andrew was a fisherman, a simple, hardworking man
who left behind the life that he had known to follow the Lord in the ministry
of the Kingdom for which he ultimately gave his life as a martyr. Andrew had been
a follower of St. John the Baptist who had clearly identified Christ by saying
“Behold, the Lamb of God.” We do not
know how much Andrew understood about the Lord at that moment, but he obeyed
the command to “Come and see” and then told his brother Simon “We have found
the Messiah.”
Our Lord’s
disciples were Jews who underwent a radical spiritual transformation that did
not occur in an instant. Even though
they were with Him on a daily basis to receive His teaching and witness His
miracles, they did not understand what it meant for Him to be the Lamb of God
who offered Himself on the Cross until after His resurrection when “He opened
their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” (Lk. 24:45) That
is when the command to “Come and see” was fulfilled, for we know the Risen Lord
by true personal encounter, not by mere ideas.
Sight is a prominent theme in the
gospel according to St. John, which later gives us the account of the restoration
of sight to the man who had been blind from birth. The ultimate point is not physical sight, of
course, but spiritual vision. To know Christ as the Lamb of God is not
simply to accept abstract truths about Him, but to have the spiritually clarity
to behold His glory and to participate personally in His life by grace.
There is
remarkable level of interest in the Orthodox Church today with far more visitors,
inquirers, and catechumens coming to our parishes than ever before. No matter how experienced we are in Orthodoxy,
this wonderful development should remind us that we all remain in the process
of conversion, for the calling to “Come and see” is truly an eternal vocation that
none of us may claim to have fulfilled. Whether
we are just being exposed to Orthodox Christianity for the first time or have
been in the Church our entire lives, there is often a temptation to set our sights
too low in the Christian life. Nathaniel
was so impressed that Christ saw him sitting under a fig tree that he exclaimed
“You are the Son of God. You are the
king of Israel!” But the Lord responded,
“You shall see greater things than these…you will see heaven opened, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Our calling is nothing less than to become
those of whom the Lord said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.” (Matt. 5:8) Regardless of what
initially sparked our interest in the Church or how we have experienced it so
far, we must focus on coming to “the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:13)
The God-Man shares His restoration
and healing of the human person with us by grace so that we may “be perfect as
your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) Let us never think that the fullness
of our vocation as Orthodox Christians is anything less than that infinite
goal.
St. Andrew’s immediate reaction to
his encounter with the Lord was to share the good news with his brother, saying
“We have found the Messiah.” From the
very origins of our faith, there is a genuine evangelistic impulse to share
with others the blessing and joy that we have found in Jesus Christ. Just think how important it was that Andrew
told his brother Peter about the Lord, for Peter went on to become the head
disciple and the first bishop of both Antioch and Rome. Likewise, to this day, we never know what God
has in store for anyone in working out His purposes for the salvation of the
world. Simon Peter was surely an
unlikely character for such an exalted role.
The Lord had said “Get behind me, Satan!” to Peter when he refused to accept the Savior’s
prophecy of the Cross. (Matt. 16:23) Then he denied Christ three times after
His arrest and abandoned Him at His crucifixion. Nonetheless, the Risen Lord restored Peter and
empowered him with the Holy Spirit to preach and minister with boldness as recorded
in the Acts of the Apostles.
Whether we are taking
the first steps in learning about the Church or have been Orthodox our entire
lives, we must not allow our preconceived notions about religion or anything
else to keep us from obeying the command to “Come and see.” Peter found it impossibly hard to accept that
the Messiah would not be a righteous military hero like King David who would
deliver Israel from Roman occupation. We
may find it impossibly hard to accept that the way of Christ is not identical
with our preferred cultural or political agendas. Like Peter and the rest of the disciples, we
may have confused our desires for a particular type of earthly realm with hope
for Christ’s Kingdom, which remains “not of this world.” (Jn. 18:36) Truly
taking up our crosses is never easy and forces us to confront our weaknesses,
turn away from idolatry in all its forms, and pursue ongoing repentance as we struggle
to acquire the purity of heart necessary to see God. When we fall flat on our faces in doing so,
as did our Lord’s first disciples with some frequency, we must do the hard work
of humbly accepting the truth about our darkened spiritual vision and get back
on the path of obeying the command to “Come and see.”
Today’s gospel passage
about the calling of St. Andrew presents profound spiritual truth that speaks
directly to us all. Perhaps that is because the same matters are at stake in
every generation, in all times and places, when Christ calls broken and
confused human beings to follow Him. We
must not despair when our weakness becomes apparent, for the same Holy Spirit
Who empowered the apostles on the day of Pentecost dwells in us and continues
to bring us into the holiness of God. Like
Peter after his denial, Christ still calls us to follow and serve Him. He is still the Lamb of God Who opens the
eyes of human souls to heavenly glory beyond our expectations. He calls and enables us to follow Him as He
did for the very first disciples. He
calls the entire world to be transfigured by His grace, to be illumined by His
holiness, and even to become participants in the heavenly Kingdom.
If, like St.
Andrew, we want to play our unique role in the salvation of the world, we must
embrace the spiritual disciplines of this season of preparation for Christmas with
faith, humility, and repentance. In
order to obey the command to “Come and see” and gain the strength to invite
others to receive the healing of Christ, we must become credible living icons
of His salvation. We must be healed and
transformed in holiness as the unique people we are in relationship to the particular
persons God has placed in our lives. Andrew
told his brother Simon Peter about Jesus Christ and Philip did the same with
Nathaniel. Who knows if anyone else could
have done that so effectively? And who
knows today whether anyone else can fulfill the particular vocations that God
intends for us in our specific circumstances?
These questions are beyond our ability to answer rationally, but their
practical implications are clear. We
must be faithful in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, “work[ing] out
your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who
works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
(Philipp. 2:12-13)
Let us use these blessed weeks of the Nativity
Fast to pray, fast, give to the needy, and confess and repent of our sins so
that we will be prepared for a transformative personal encounter with the Lamb
of God, born the Babe of Bethlehem. He
calls us, no less than St. Andrew and the first disciples, to “Come and see” so
that we may become participants by grace in His divine glory. He is born at Christmas so that we “will see
heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
man.” Let us settle for nothing less in
the weeks to come.
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