³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.
³⁶ and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God."
³⁷ The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
³⁸ Jesus turned and saw them following him and 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 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 "the anointed one").
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").

• From the Synoptic Gospels, we have come to know John the Baptizer as the one who prepared the way for Christ. In the Fourth Gospel, however, he is assigned a different role: "he came for testimony" (1:7a). John's Gospel offers no account of Christ's baptism, as the Synoptic Gospels do, but chooses to describe the encounter between John and Jesus in a different way.
• With each passing scene, the figure of Jesus grows more prominent. First, Jesus is simply described as "one among you whom you do not recognize" (1:26). In the next scene, John sees Jesus "coming toward him" (1:29). In today's scene, Jesus actually "walk by" (1:36) and starts calling the first disciples to follow him.
• Although the disciples "follow" him, they are not yet his "followers". They simply no longer "follow" John. It is the action of Jesus, turning to them, questioning them, and finally inviting them to "stay" with him, that makes them begin to be his followers.
• The vividness of the account, the detail of giving the exact time and John's tendency to remain anonymous (19:26, 20:2, 21:7,20), seem to confirm that John the evangelist is the second disciple.
• (v.42) Changing a name indicates a changed person. This is a moment of great significance for Peter. "Kephas" is the Greek transcription of an Aramaic word meaning stone, rock. It is not a proper name, but Jesus gave it to Simon to indicate his role as his vicar, which he will later on reveal (Mt 16:16-18): Simon was destined to be the stone, the rock of the Church. We might say today he was to become a "pillar" or "cornerstone".

John the Baptizer came "so that all might believe through him." (1:7b) Through him, the first believers came to Christ.

1. What is the role of John the Baptizer in the Fourth Gospel? What does it teach us about our role as Christ's followers?
2. Who told us about Christ? Whom have we told? What enthusiasm do we bring to our appreciation of the gift of faith?
3. What have I found in Christ?, and what action has that discovery led me to?

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A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community