The Gospel According to John 1:19-34 [NLTse]
35 The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. 36 As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” 37 When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.
38 Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked them.
They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are You staying?”
39 “Come and see,” He said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with Him to the place where He was staying, and they remained with Him the rest of the day.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. 41 Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).
42 Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow Me.”44 Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.
45 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”
48 “How do You know about me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”
49 Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then He said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see Heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the One Who is the stairway between Heaven and Earth.”
In our reading from John’s Gospel today we read about the gathering of Jesus’ first disciples: John the Baptist sends two of his disciples off to begin following Jesus; one is Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, who immediately goes to find his brother Simon to tell him about Jesus; and once back in Galilee Jesus calls a fellow named Phillip to follow Him, who immediately goes and tells his friend, Nathanael.
When Andrew brings his brother, Simon, to Jesus something significant happens: The Bible tells us, “Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, ‘Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas’ (which means ‘Peter’).” [A rock.]
The word translated “looking intently” is the Greek word emblepsos, which most literally means to look upon (in the sense of “taking it all in”) but also to look into in the spiritual sense of Jesus truly knowing someone: Their secret thoughts, their heart, the very depths of their soul…
We don’t get to know whether or not Simon likes being called “rock”, but then we do get to see Jesus’ meeting with Nathanael, where the Lord Jesus says, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”
Likewise in other passages we know that Jesus called the brothers James and John “Boanerges”, sons of thunder, and another Simon among the apostles was called “the zealot”. I’ve heard sermons relating what hotheads and troublemakers James and John must have been for Jesus to call them that. (Though they don’t come across that way in any of the Gospels.) And I’ve heard lectures telling how this other Simon must have been part of the anti-Roman group called the Zealots to have been named that. But what if James and John were relatively quiet, never rocking-the-boat kind of men? (The Bible shows us they had a domineering and pushy mom, and I can imagine sons with such mothers growing up to be that way.) What if Jesus named James and John “sons of thunder” because when He looked into them that is what He knew they truly were and would be? What if Simon was called “the zealot” not because of some political group he had been affiliated with, but because once Simon was in Christ and Christ was in him that he would be known for his zeal, “the zealot”?
The Bible shows us that Simon Peter was a people-pleaser: Telling Jesus he would die with Him, but then telling a servant-girl and bystanders three times that he’d never known the Lord; He ate forbidden foods with Gentile believers in Antioch, but then followers of the Torah-Law came to Antioch he started doing what they taught was right and wouldn’t even sit with the Gentile believers any longer. But Jesus said Simon would be called a rock!
And although Nathanael comes across as kind of a cynical and mocking sort, Jesus says, “No, that’s no longer you; you’re a man of absolute integrity.”
I pledged a fraternity my freshman year in college. During one of our “activities” one of the seniors in the fraternity was giving telling us what he thought of each of us. When he came to me he told me he thought I was “Indomitable”. (It means “impossible to subdue or defeat”.) He said to me something like, “When we make people a part of this fraternity our hazing and other activities are intended to break you down and make you to be just like us. And you go along, Willis: You do our pushups and situps and go through the nasty hoops we make you jump through. But I don’t think we’re breaking you down like the rest. And that might be good for you, or that might not…”
It’s funny that that name became kind of important to me across those years, a name I rallied around when times were especially difficult; a name that helped me hold onto who I was when my understanding of who I was began getting blurry.
To the Church in Pergamum, in The Revelation to John, the Lord Jesus writes, “To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in Heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.”
What does the Lord Jesus see when He looks into you? Don’t be distracted by what a retched sinner you think you are and so be thinking that that’s all He can see in you. Jesus came to save sinners. Jesus loves you. He loves sinners. Your sin doesn’t impress Him. He’s died for it and satisfied God’s justice against it on the cross. And don’t be distracted by your own sense of self-importance, if that blinds you. No one who is anybody is anything apart from Jesus Christ: Apart from Him we can do nothing.
What does the Lord see when He looks into you? I believe He has a new name for us all, a name that describes who we truly are born anew in Him…
The Lord Jesus knows you inside and out, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the shameful. And He loves you. And a part of His knowing you, a part of His looking at you intently in love to-save-you-and-rescue-you-and-make-you-new is this new name – a new identity, a new character – that He has for you, that is who you truly are now that you are in Him and He is in you! Who are you? What is your name?
Today and these days I encourage us to ask Jesus to tell you what your new name is. When you hear this name from Him in prayer or your readings, write it down. Study what it means. Share it with a wise, Christian confidant. Is it really your new name? If not, keep asking Him and waiting. If it is, rally around that name, meditate on your name, let it define you when the lines of who you are seem to be getting blurry, and when you have opportunities to make new choices that will show you and those around you the new kind of person Christ has re-made you to be.
In Jesus Christ the old has gone the new has come.