Andrew's Story - John 1:25-39

It was exciting being one of John’s team.  The crowds used to call him the Baptiser.  That’s how he got his reputation – by encouraging people to get baptised as an indication that they knew they had gone wrong.  Baptising them was John’s way of saying that God forgave them.  We used to joke that it was always wet around John.  Certainly he was never happier than when he was in the river with people trooping in to be ducked under and claiming God’s forgiveness.  We were a bit like John’s bouncers.  We used to keep order – make sure he didn’t get rushed.  We also used to watch out for troublemakers, both the religious-toff-kind and the let’s-have-a-laugh-by-causing-trouble-kind.

They were good times.  We got on well.  You knew where you were with John.  We couldn’t imagine him not wanting us around.  Then, one day, he pointed out his cousin.  Jesus just happened to be walking by.  John didn’t miss a beat.  He just told us that if we wanted to get to know someone really special we ought to take a look at Jesus.  He said that Jesus was the one who God had marked out for something quite unique.  He called him the ‘Lamb of God’.  That seemed a bit strange.  Sheep are smelly, dirty creatures best left out on the hills.  Normally we only came across lambs when they were on our dinner plate, smothered in gravy and with a few nice vegetables.  That didn’t happen very often.  It was too expensive.  The only other place for lambs was as a sacrifice.

But John was clearly suggesting that we ought to check in with Jesus.  We hesitated for a moment in case John was just trying to get rid of us – but it quickly became obvious: not so.  John wanted us to have this new experience which was more than he could offer.

Well, of course I didn’t want Simon to miss out, so I rushed off to find him first.  Then it was all systems go on following Jesus.

At the beginning we just hung around to see what was happening.  Jesus noticed what was going on and asked us what we were looking for.  We didn’t know how to answer that, so we just asked him where he was staying.

He invited us to go and see, so we did and, as you know, the rest is now history.

Written at St. Beuno’s, 5/7/11.