35 The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. 36 When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” 37 John’s two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.
38 When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, “What do you want?”
They answered, “Rabbi, where do you live?” The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “Teacher.”
39 Jesus replied, “Come and see!” It was already about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.
40 One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.”
42 Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter.”
43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”
45 Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
46 Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Philip answered, “Come and see.”
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
49 Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. 51 I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”
Read John 1:35-51 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In the details surrounding Jesus’ first disciples coming to follow Him, we see an interesting question, and a fascinating answer. Jesus happens to walk by where John the Baptist is preaching, and John directs the people’s attention to Jesus. This prompts two of John’s followers to leave him and instead follow Jesus.
In a slightly humorous fashion, Jesus happens to see to people following Him when up to that point, He was use to traveling alone, and He turns to them an asks, “What do you want?” (v. 38)
We could understand this as a question saying “Why are you following Me? Or “What do you need?”.
Perhaps they had their answer ready, or perhaps Jesus’ abrupt statement caught them off guard, but they respond in typical Jewish fashion with another question instead of an answer. Instead of saying that John pointed them to Him, these disciples answer Jesus’ question by asking, “Rabbi, where do you live?”
In this question, these disciples pay respect to Jesus by using the term “rabbi” which means “teacher”, and it also implies their desire to follow and learn from Him.
In Jesus’ question, the disciples counter-question, and Jesus’ “Come and see” response, we have the beginning conversation of what would ultimately become the movement known as Christianity. In this event, we see that the first stages for anyone wanting to follow Jesus are simply choosing to follow Him and be open to learning what He wants to teach. The choice to follow is ours.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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