Open The Gospel – 18 January – The Second Sunday of Epiphany, John 1.29-42

18 January – The Second Sunday of Epiphany, John 1.29-42

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ³¹I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ ³²And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” ³⁴And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ ³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸When 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?’ ³⁹He 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. ⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). ⁴²He 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).

Things to think about with the child at the centre:

Activities

Lots of Googly Eyes and pictures (from magazines perhaps) to stick them on

Response

Everyone is looking for something.

Some of us are looking for a friend.
Some of us are looking for more time to play video games.
Some of us are looking for a way to be better at our schoolwork or at sports.
Some of us are looking for a safe place where people will be kind to us.

It could be anything. But Jesus looks at us and wants to know exactly who we are right now. He wants to know what makes us happy and what makes us sad. He wants to know what we are grateful for and what we are longing for.

Once he knows who we are right now, Jesus wants to help us become all that God created us to be.

When Jesus asked Andrew and his friend that question, they said they were looking to find out where he was going. They wanted to spend time with him.

So Jesus gave them an invitation:

Come and see!” he said.

That is what Jesus says to you and me as well. Whatever we are looking for right now, he invites us to come along with him.

Come and See!” he says to us.

Jesus invites us to look and see what he is doing in the world.

When Andrew and his friend went with Jesus they saw so many amazing things.