Pause for Thought: “Come and See”

In John’s gospel, John the Baptist declares to the Jewish authorities, “among you stands one whom you do not know” (John 1:26). He then goes on to testify to the Jewish authority and to his disciples that Jesus is “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29; 36). John the Baptist’s disciples subsequently follow Jesus and are invited by him to “come and see” (John 1:39). They come to know and believe in Jesus. Andrew declares to Simon “we have found the Messiah” (John 1:41) and brings Simon to Jesus (John 1:42) and Philip declares to Nathanael “we have found him about whom the law and the prophets also wrote” (John 1:45) and asks Nathanael to “come and see” Jesus (John 1:46), who come to know and believe in Jesus as he declares, “you are the Son of God, the King of Israel” (John 1:49)

Moving recently to Cardiff, I learnt that less than 1% of the population of Wales attends church on a Sunday and speaking lately to Simon Lloyd (Chief Executive of the Church in Wales), I heard about the Evangelism Fund and the important work the Representative Body is doing in an effort to re-evanglise Wales. Reflecting on this the first chapter of John’s gospel came to mind. At this time, we as disciples need to be saying “come and see”. As disciples, like Jesus’ first disciples, we have come and seen, we know and believe in Jesus, but just like John the Baptist we are surrounded by many who do not know Jesus. John the Baptist, Andrew and Philip testifies about Jesus, and Philip asked Nathanael to “come and see”, and Nathanael comes to know and believe in Jesus. So, we as disciples of Jesus now must testify about Jesus and asks others to “come and see” so that they too might come to know and believe in Jesus.

Dr Elizabeth Corsar

*Picture by Lina Volkmann on Unsplash