Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany Come and See
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ! In today’s Gospel, Philip says to Nathanael, “Come and see.” Dear Christian friends, Today’s Gospel is a very sweet, very touching Gospel. Today’s Gospel has the power to make you feel happy and thankful toward God, even if you have had a lousy week. Even if it should not attract your attention in any other way, today’s Gospel at least announces to you this one strange and remarkable fact: our dear Lord Jesus is more than able to use each of us in drawing others to the Christian faith, despite who we are and how easily we mess things up. Jesus shows us a picture of us in today’s Gospel by showing us a picture of Philip, His dear disciple. The common ground you and I have with Philip is this: Philip stays focused upon himself, just like you and I, despite our best efforts, invariably and repeatedly focus our own attention upon ourselves. Please try not to be insulted when I say that you are self-absorbed. I am self-absorbed, too. Every human being conceived in the history of the world—every human being, that is, except for our Lord Jesus Christ—every human is and was self-absorbed. We should not deny what we cannot escape. That brash, narcissistic person who loves himself too much? He is essentially the same as the person who so hates himself so much that he is willing to harm himself. Both of those people—the self-lover and the self-loather—are incurved upon themselves. Both of those people focus too much upon their own bellybuttons. Both of those people—the self-lover and the self-loather—both of those people form two extremes and you and I each live somewhere in between. Far better Christians than you or me have failed to escape their self-absorption. Not even Philip, one of God’s hand-selected apostles, can escape his self-absorption. Lord Jesus tolerates and overlooks it nevertheless! That is why today’s Gospel is such a blessing for us, and why we each can feel genuinely happy and thankful to God on account of what we have heard: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” … Philip found Nathanael and said to Him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Did you catch Philip’s self-absorption? Like you, like me—for that matter, like everyone who has ever decided to follow Jesus—Philip takes the credit for himself. “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. HE FOUND PHILIP.” But what does Philip say to Nathanael, concerning Jesus? “We have found Him.” Philip was subtle. He was outside of Jesus’ earshot and Nathanael certainly did no know any better. Why shouldn’t Philip gain an advantage for himself? Why not make himself seem as though he had great spiritual insight and wisdom, as if Philip could see things that no one else could see? “We found… Jesus of Nazareth,” says Philip, but in truth, Jesus of Nazareth had found him! It has been written, “HE FOUND PHILIP.” You have heard more than your share of people talk about how they “found Jesus” or “asked Him into their heart” or “committed themselves to following Him.” Today’s Gospel suggests that, when people talk that way, they are really talking more about themselves than they are about Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Today’s Gospel might even make fun of such claims as “I have decided to follow Jesus.” After all, before Philip talked about finding Jesus, Jesus first found Philip! But even more than that, today’s Gospel shows us how we are all together in the same boat. Because of our good and godly practice if infant Baptism, where God Himself acts first instead of us, you and I do not usually talk about having “found Jesus” or “committing ourselves to Him.” Just because we do not talk that way, it does not mean we are not guilty of own forms of self-absorption! You and I simply prefer to be self-absorbed in different ways, not all of them subtle! Philip was self-absorbed before us. “We found Him!” But look at the sweet, precious portrait of Jesus that Philip’s self-absorption has painted of us: 1. Jesus “found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow Me.’” Stated another way, Jesus made Philip a Christian and He gave Philip the gift of eternal life, all while knowing how Philip would remain self-absorbed! Jesus carries to His cross all the sins of entire world—including those persistent, devilish sins that remain imbedded under our skin and entwined around our self-centered hearts even after His Word has begun a good thing in us. If Jesus can see all the way through that other guy in today’s Gospel—Nathanael sitting under the fig tree—than Jesus can also see through Philip. Jesus sees Philip, in whom there is guile, and He nevertheless says to Philip, “Follow Me.” This is good news for you and good news for me. Each of us has been baptized into Christ, and at our Baptisms, Jesus said to each of us, as He said to Philip before us, “Follow Me.” As Jesus can see through Nathanael and Philip, so He can also see through you and me. Despite what Jesus saw in Philip, He nevertheless said, “Follow Me.” Despite what Jesus sees inside you and me, He likewise and miraculously has also said, “Follow Me.” 2. Another blessing: when Philip falls into his sin of “we found Jesus,” Jesus looks the other way. Jesus could have rebuked. He could have lectured on the finer points of Christocentric theology. He could have asked for more respectful and thankful for the eternal gift He had given. That is not what happened. Philip sinned and Jesus looked the other way. Philip’s sin had already been laid upon Jesus and Jesus knows exactly what to do with it. Wouldn’t this same blind eye serve us and our neighbor equally well? While He looks beyond Philip’s sin, acting as if there were no sin even present, Jesus is doing two wonderful things for us in this Gospel: · First, Jesus is teaching us that we should likewise look past many of sinful and foolish things our fellow Christians do, likewise regarding such sins as fully forgiven and removed. If Jesus does not notice the little details, why should we? Of course there are times when we must speak and rebuke—Jesus had those times, too. Many more times, we would probably do well just to keep our mouth shut, as did our Lord before us. · Beyond that, Jesus is also assuring us that He treats ours sins in the same way! You are so completely forgiven by Jesus—and this same Jesus loves you so deeply and so dearly—that He does not even notice the foolish, self-absorbed things you do! That is why today’s Gospel is such a blessing for us, and why we each can feel genuinely happy and thankful to God on account of what we have heard here. Were all of this not enough, today’s Gospel grows even sweeter! In addition to all the gifts Jesus has already given to us here, Jesus also shows us in this Gospel what is the best way for us to gather our friends and neighbors, loved ones and family members, who do not believe. Rather than argue, rather than complain, rather than try to reason with those who do not love Jesus, simply repeat Jesus’ own Words to them. That is precisely what Philip ended up doing. After foolishly taking the credit for himself with his “We found Jesus,” Philip ended up simply repeating to Nathanael the Words that Philip had first heard from Jesus. Philip merely said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” According to St. John the Evangelist—the guy who wrote the book from which we get today’s Gospel—our Lord Jesus’ first sermon after His Baptism was, “Come and see.” Here is how Jesus’ first sermon took place: The next day [after Jesus was baptized]… John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard [John] say this, and they followed Jesus. 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?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” There is Jesus’ first sermon: “Come and you will see.” Philip had heard that sermon. Here in today’s Gospel, Philip merely copies and repeats those same words from Jesus, saying to Nathanael, “Come and see.” These are good words also for us, Christians. Even if you do not know what else you might say, you have heard the Words of Jesus. Unlike your words or my words, the Words of Jesus have great, miracle-producing power. The Words of Jesus, “Come and see,” even could move a skeptic like Nathanael. Who knows what wonders these same Words make work among us also? “Come and see” keeps the focus on Jesus. “Come and see” helps us sidestep our own self-absorption. “Come and see” are the Words of eternal life. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
