Saturday, January 14, 2023

The Holy Breath of Love Epiphany 2A

 The Holy Breath of Love                                                                                          

Simon and I had heard about a man named John who was baptizing people in the River Jordan near Bethany, an eastern suburb of Jerusalem along the road to Jericho. I went to see what the buzz was all about. While I was there, a deputation of officials was sent from Jerusalem to ascertain who John was. Are you the Messiah, they asked? No, said John. Are you Elijah? No, said John. Are you the prophet? No, said John. Then who on earth are you?

 

“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’” Even his inquisitors knew that hundreds of years ago the prophet Isaiah had written this regarding the Exile in Babylon. “If you are not the messiah, not Elijah and not the prophet – if you are a ‘voice’ – then why are you baptizing all these people from all over Judea?”

 

“I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.” [i]  With this, and John’s earlier enigmatic response, the inquisitors returned to Jerusalem empty handed, uncertain as to who John is or from where he had come. I, Andrew, witnessed all of this and immediately went home to find my brother Simon. I said, “Simon, we have found the messiah, what the Greeks call christos, the anointed, the one we have been praying God would send to lift us up and deliver us from this Roman occupation. [ii]

 

The next day, as a young man approached him John said. “Here is the lamb of Elohim, the one lifting the sin of the world, the cosmos, the beautiful world! I did not know him, but here I am baptizing so others can come to know him. Just the other day I saw the spirit-breath coming down from the sky. It remained on him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to purify in water, that one said to me, ‘Upon whom you should see the breath coming down and remaining on him, this is the one who purifies with holy breath.’ I have seen; I give testimony: This one is the son of Elohim.”[iii]

 

The day after that John saw Jesus walking around and again he said, “Look: the lamb of Elohim!” When Simon and I heard this, we left John to follow Jesus. When Jesus saw he was being followed, he turned and asked us, “What are you seeking?” We asked, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” He responded, “Come and see.” Simon and I followed him. It was about four in the afternoon.

 

When we got to the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany where he was staying, we sat down on the floor. Martha brought us some tea. Mary sat with us. Jesus said he had no idea what John meant calling him “the lamb of Elohim.” The lamb of God. And he wanted to know why we had followed John, and why we were now following him. “I have no place to lead you,” he said. We asked him about the holy breath and what that was like. He said, “I cannot explain it except that when it came upon me I felt a new kind of love. Let me tell you a story.  

A young man asked a Pharisee, and expert in torah, “Is there an end to the study of Torah – God’s commandments? How do we know when our study has been sufficient? How do we know that we understand what has been written and handed down?” 

The Pharisee replied, “You will have studied enough when you know exactly what torah says.”

“But you are the teacher. Can’t you tell us what it says?”

The Pharisee replied, “It is so simple I could tell it to you while standing on one foot!”

“Do that! Stand on one foot and tell us!”

“If I told you, you would still not know. You must find it yourself, in your own study.”

“Can we find it in torah?

“Your life serving others will lead you to it while studying torah” [iv]

 

Then Jesus looked at Simon and said, “Simon, you are a son of Jonah the fisherman. You will be called Kephas [Kay-pas], that is Rock, Petra, or Peter. You will help me fish for people!” Neither of us knew at the time what he meant. What we do know is that our lives were never the same since that afternoon in Bethany. The world has not been the same.

 

You have to understand, we were simple fishermen. We repaired nets. We took fish to market. We paid the road taxes to and from the market. Suddenly, after a year of following Jesus, we were telling stories and teaching torah. More importantly, we learned how to live torah – to touch the lives of others, those who were in need. Just as we had seen him do. We tried to tell his story, to help others know who Jesus was. And yet, even we could not fully explain to people just who he was, and all that he said and did that year of our following. Peter and I still cannot believe that when we asked him where he was staying that he actually took us to the home of Martha, Mary and their brother, Lazarus, his home away from home.

 

And that is the strange thing, isn’t it. Wherever he is, wherever you follow, that becomes home. How do we say: he who had no home was at home wherever he was. Whoever hosted him and the rest of us who followed would come to know that he was the host of us all. Everyone.

 

We remembered, John had called him the lamb of Elohim, the lamb of God. Lambs were not sacrificed for sins or anything else at the Temple. Only sheep and goats and cattle. Lambs were sacrificed to remember – to remember our deliverance from Egypt by the hand of God and the leadership of Moses. John called him the Passover lamb because he came to lift us up and deliver us not from our sins, but from the sin of the world. A world he had made, and yet remains alienated from him. He lifts us up out of this world into his world and his Father’s world. He lifts us away from darkness and closer to the light. So close, that the last time we saw him he breathed on us. We felt the love of his holy breath ourselves. We still do![v]

 

There is so much more to say about all of this. The world cannot hold the number of books it would take to tell the whole story. But if like Peter and me you want to follow him as we did, you will find yourself – your true self – when he invites you to, “Come and see.” His spirit-breath will come to rest upon you, and suddenly, all shall be well. All shall be well. All manner of thing shall be well. Look! One day you will see him. Do what we did. Follow him and ask him where he is staying. He will say “Come and see”. And you will feel the holy breath. And when you do, you will know where he stays: he stays in your heart. Now. Forever. And ever. Amen.



[i] John 1:26-27

[ii] John 1:41

[iii] John 1:32-34, translated by Richard W. Swanson, Provoking the Gospel of John (The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland (2010) p.324

[iv] Carse, James, The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple (Harper San Francisco:1997) p. 39-40

[v] John 20:21

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