Introduction: Avoiding Next Week’s Nets
This Sunday always lives in a bit of liturgical tension. We hear the first disciples begin to follow Jesus, but without the drama of nets dropped or boats abandoned. That moment belongs to next week in Matthew’s Gospel. If we rush too quickly toward “calling” this week, we risk stepping on that story’s toes and flattening what John is actually doing here.
John’s Gospel is not interested in vocational urgency just yet. No commands are issued. No sacrifices are demanded. Instead, this text lingers in recognition, testimony, and encounter. It is less about being called and more about coming to know. The movement is slower, quieter, and arguably more honest to how faith often unfolds in real life.
If next week is about following, this week is about seeing.
Narrative Context
John the Baptist says something twice in this passage that could strike us as odd:
“I myself did not know him.”
This is not false humility. This is some theological precision from the Gospel author and John the Baptist.
John knows about the one who is to come. He knows the promises. He knows the sign he has been told to watch for. He knows what the sign will mean. He even knows his own role in the story. And yet, “I did not know him.”
What John’s Gospel refuses to do is equate revelation with personal familiarity. Hearing God speak does not automatically equal relationship. John tells us explicitly that “the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me…” So yes, John has heard God’s voice. And yet, even that is not enough.
From the very beginning of the Gospel, we have been told that “no one has ever seen God; it is God the only Son… who has made him known.” John the Baptist’s testimony is shaped by this theology. Even having heard God speak, John can still say, “I did not know him,” because in John’s Gospel, God is not truly known apart from the Son. Divine speech alone does not grant intimacy; it is only through encounter with Jesus that God becomes known. Revelation, in this Gospel, is not information delivered from heaven, but relationship made flesh.
And so, John’s recognition of Jesus cannot come through information alone, but through attentiveness and relationship. Watching the Spirit descend and remain. That word “remain” (μένον) is important. It’s the same word that will be translated as “abide” throughout much of the farewell discourse. It signals enduring presence, and relationship. This is not a fleeting spiritual moment, but something that dwells within. Only after witnessing that abiding does John testify. Only then does knowledge become recognition. Only then does knowing about Jesus begin to turn into knowing Jesus.
This matters deeply for the life of faith. John is not portrayed as spiritually deficient for needing time. He is faithful precisely because he waits, watches, and names what he has truly seen.
Knowing About Jesus vs. Knowing Jesus
Former Metro DC Bishop Leila Ortiz often spoke about the difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. She would remind people that the church is very good at teaching information (stories, doctrines, traditions) but that information alone does not guarantee relationship.
To know about Jesus is to know the language, the rhythms, the expectations.
To know Jesus is to be shaped by presence, encounter, and trust.
That distinction fits this text seamlessly. John the Baptist stands as someone deeply immersed in the religious life of his people, faithfully performing his calling, fluent in the promises of God, and still honest enough to say, “I did not know him.”
Bishop Ortiz’s insight helps us name what John’s Gospel is doing without judgment or shame. Knowing about Jesus is not a failure. It is often the necessary ground from which knowing Jesus can grow. But John’s Gospel does not allow us to stop there. Again and again, it presses beyond information toward relationship, beyond testimony toward encounter. This Gospel calls us not merely to learn about Jesus, but to know him. To abide with him, to remain near him, and through him, to come to know God. What begins as knowledge is meant to become communion.
Preaching Possibility
Encounter Is Not a One-Time Event
This text opens a gracious door for congregations living at many different places along the faith spectrum.
Some will hear themselves in John the Baptist, faithful, committed, active, and still longing for deeper recognition. Others will hear themselves in Andrew, curious, following at a distance, not yet able to articulate belief but willing to stay awhile. Still others may recognize that they have known about Jesus for a long time, but quietly hunger for something more personal, more alive.
John’s Gospel proclaims that encountering Christ is not reserved for beginners. It is not something we outgrow. Nor is it something we complete. We can encounter Christ anew after years in the church, after seasons of dryness, or after certainty has given way to questions.
This text reassures us that God does not rush recognition. Jesus does not scold the disciples for their vague question. He does not demand clarity before offering presence. He simply says, “Come and see.”
And in the staying, in the remaining, in abiding love, encounter begins to reshape understanding and, in time, ourselves.
We need not pressure people into dramatic decisions or public declarations this week (we’ll save leaving our professions and becoming wandering travelers for next week). Instead, we can honor the slow, relational work of faith. We can proclaim that knowing Jesus is not about having the right answers, but about being willing to stay close enough for recognition to grow.
Micah Krey 
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