The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church. February 26, 2023. The Bible verses used are John 1:29-42.
We all know there are twelve disciples, right? How
many of them can you name?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to call on anybody. But
think about it. How many of the names of the disciples do you know?
Some of you probably know them all. You maybe had to
learn them in Sunday school class, or in confirmation, or something like that,
and you still remember them. Until a few years ago, my Mom could have
rattled off all their names. In all honesty, I cannot. I never had
to memorize them, and I’ve never bothered to.
There are some we could all think of. Peter.
James and John. Judas, of course. But after that, well, it gets a
little tougher. We might be able to come up with Philip. Maybe
Thomas--we remember Doubting Thomas. And then, after some thought, maybe
we could come up with one more. Andrew.
Andrew is kind of an unsung hero among the disciples.
He’s mentioned only twelve times in the Bible. Four of them are just
lists of the names of the disciples. Two of them are when he’s called by
Jesus to follow and become a disciple. Twice he’s just mentioned in
passing, and really has nothing to do with what’s going on.
But the other four times are
all something really significant. Andrew may not do much, but what he
does always leads to something that turns out to be really important.
One of them is in the story of Jesus feeding the five
thousand. Andrew is the one who finds the boy who has five loaves and two
fish, and he’s the one who brings that boy to Jesus. And of course, Jesus
then uses those five loaves and two fish to feed all those people. If not
for Andrew--well, Jesus might have found a way to feed them anyway, but the
story certainly would have been different. Andrew’s part in that story is
small, but it’s crucial to how the story plays out.
Another time, there are some Greeks who want to talk to Jesus.
They tell Philip, but for some reason Philip does not want to tell Jesus about
it. He tells Andrew instead, and Andrew tells Jesus about these people
who want to see him. And this leads Jesus to tell Andrew, and all the
rest of the disciples, that his death is going to come very soon. Again,
Jesus might well have found another occasion to tell them about his death, but
the fact is that as it turned out, it was Andrew going to Jesus that prompted
him to do it. Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s
crucial to how things go.
Yet another time, Jesus tells the disciples about a time
when the temple will be destroyed. Andrew is the one who asks Jesus when
this is going to happen, and what the sign will be that it’s going to
happen. That’s what prompts Jesus to tell them about the end times, about
families turning against each other, about false messiahs that will come, and
that only the father knows when this will happen. That’s a whole other sermon,
but the point here is that Andrew is the one who asked the question that
prompted all this. Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but
crucial.
And it’s the same in our reading for today. This is
just after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, which we talked about last
week. Andrew, at this point, is following John. But then Jesus
walks by, and John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” And Andrew starts
following Jesus instead.
Now that’s pretty good in and of itself. But then
we’re told, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell
him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought
him to Jesus.” Jesus, of course, changes Simon’s name to Peter, which
means rock. And in Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that Peter is the rock
on which Jesus will build his church. And of course, Peter not only
becomes the leader of the disciples, he becomes the leader of the church in the
immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Now, maybe Jesus would have
eventually found Peter anyway. Or, maybe Jesus would’ve found someone
else instead. But the fact is that Andrew is the one who brought Peter to
Jesus. If not for Andrew, the entire story would have been different.
Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial.
We know about Peter, James, and John because they’re among
the Bible heroes. They get a lot of publicity and acclaim, and rightly
so. They were Jesus’ closest friends while he was on earth. In the
years after Jesus left, they were instrumental in forming the early Christian
church. They did great, awesome, heroic things for God.
But while we respect Peter, James, and John for that, and
maybe even revere them for it, it also makes it harder for us to relate to
them. Because the fact is that most of us are not going to be heroes for
God, at least not in the world’s eyes. Most of us are not going to do
great and awesome things. We’re not going to preach to huge crowds.
We’re not going to spread the gospel to large groups of people who’ve never
heard it before. We’re not going to bring thousands of people to
Christ. And so, while we consider Peter, James, and John to be heroes, we
also kind of think of them as being on a different level from us. We
admire them, but we don’t really think we could be like them. And so, a
lot of times, we don’t try.
But
Andrew is someone we can relate to. Andrew did not do great, awesome,
heroic things for God, or if he did the Bible does not tell us about
them. Andrew did small things. But they were crucial things.
Andrew may not have brought thousands of people to Christ. In fact, other
than Peter, we don’t know if Andrew ever brought anyone to Christ. But
there are lots of people who would not have been brought to Christ if not for
the things Andrew did. Andrew may not have been the final step for
anyone. But he was part of the process. He was a link in the chain.
That is something that you and I can do. We can be
like Andrew. We can do small things, but things that are crucial.
We may not be able to be great heroes. But we can be part of the
process. We might never be the final step for anyone. But we can be
a link in the chain.
And here’s the thing. I suspect the chances are that
when Andrew did the things he did, he did not do it with any grand plan in
mind. He probably never thought, “I’m going to be a part of the process
of bringing lots of people to Christ!” He simply did what he could
do. He did what needed to be done. He said what needed to be
said. He asked the questions that needed to be asked. The questions
he asked were sometimes obvious questions, and the things he did were sometimes
obvious things, but nobody else would ask them or do them. Andrew had the
courage to ask and to do. He took advantage of the chances that presented
themselves in his time with Christ.
When Jesus talks about the temple being destroyed, Andrew
asks the obvious question, but one nobody else wanted to ask: when’s this
going to happen, and what will the signs be? When some Greeks want to
talk to Jesus, Philip is afraid to tell Jesus about it. But Andrew knew
someone needed to tell him, so Andrew did it. When they’re looking for
food for the five thousand, Andrew finds some food. It’s not much, and
he’s not sure what good it’ll do, but he still tells Jesus about it. And
when Andrew finds Jesus, and knows he’s the Messiah, he goes and finds his
brother, so they can both follow Christ. And whenever Andrew did these
things, something happened. Something changed. Sometimes in a big
way. You can make the argument that the entire course of Christianity
changed because of the things Andrew did and said.
God may have called you to do something big and heroic--God
does that sometimes. But that’s not how it works for most of us.
Most of us will not be a Peter, or a John, or a James. But we can all be
an Andrew. We can do what needs to be done. We can say what needs
to be said. We can ask the questions that need to be asked. When no
one else has the courage to do things, or to say things, we can do them and say
them. And in doing that, we can follow Christ, just like Andrew did.
You and I might bring people to Christ, or we might
not. But we can all be part of the process. We can all be a link in
the chain. And when we step up and have the courage to do our part, who
knows what may happen? Something may happen. Something may change.
Maybe something will change in a big way. Maybe we’ll change someone’s
life for the better. And maybe, just maybe, that person we change will
change the world.