Jesus’ First Disciples

Oh, last week we left off with John Bearing Witness to who Jesus was.   Today in John 1:35-42 we’ll see the first disciples of Jesus come. 

³⁵ The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). ⁴² He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas”(which means Peter).

Jesus has been baptized, and now John the baptizer is standing with two of his disciples when Jesus walks by.  John calls out “Behold, The Lamb of God!”  This exclamation was heard by those two disciples and they followed after Jesus. 

I read those words and my heart smiles.  I don’t know why. But I’m just sitting here picturing John and those disciple chatting away and John notices Jesus and makes his exclamation and those disciples turn away from John and start following after Jesus… I know.. I know, I”m repeating myself.. but I smile because John has obviously done his job well. He has been expounding to his followers that Jesus was coming, how Jesus is better than he is. So when Jesus comes by, the disciples turned and followed Jesus instead.  My heart smiles.

Anyways, Jesus sees them following and turns to talk to them.  It seems to me an odd question “where are you staying?” Jesus doesn’t put them down though, he just invites them to come along and see.  They came along and stayed with him.

You know what? After Andrew stayed the day with Jesus he went and found his brother Simon Peter and brought him along to see Jesus

Now we know that Andrew and Simon Peter (now called Cephas) were Jesus’ first disciples. Don’t you find it interesting that Jesus’ first comment to Peter was “you are Simon the son of John.  You shall be called Cephas”.  Not just hey Peter, glad to meet you.  But simply that he was shortening Simon Peter’s name to Peter.   Makes me wonder if Peter felt like Jesus saw through to the core of who he was.  We can’t know…it just, tonight makes me wonder cause it’s seems like an odd greeting.

I also kinda wonder who the other disciple was, but we aren’t told here.