"Come and see." Jesus spoke those words to two of the disciples of John the Baptist (John 1:39). Scholars have learned that the author of the fourth gospel often loads words with meanings that go far beyond what they might mean on the surface. That must certainly be true of this statement.

John tells the story of the calling of the disciples a little differently from the way the other gospel writers tell it. John tells us that soon after Jesus was baptized, John was talking with some of his own followers and he looked up and saw Jesus passing by. John said, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" (v. 36). The disciples heard John call Jesus "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." I can imagine the disciples thinking, "I wonder what in the world he meant by that."

Two of the disc…