by Kevin Maschhoff
John 1:35-42
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).
There are several accounts of Jesus calling his disciples found in the Gospels. What strikes me about this account in John’s Gospel is that there is a bit of a back-story provided for the call of Andrew and then Peter. We are told that Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist-which suggests that Andrew was already a Seeker; already out in the wilderness, listening to John preach his message of the coming Messiah. Jesus asks them, “what do you seek?” Andrew tells his brother of whom they have found—so evidently, Peter was a Seeker too. To hear our call from God, we need to be seeking, and listening for it.