We know far less about Andrew than Peter, James and John, although he is often listed along with these three in the gospels. Andrew and Peter were brothers, as were James and John, working in the same fishing village in Galilee when they are called to be followers of Jesus. But all four seem to have been looking for the coming of the Messiah, as we see from reading John 1.
When John the Baptist was still baptizing in the Jordan, Andrew is following him. They encounter the Lord and John the Baptist announce that Jesus is the Messiah. In John’s gospel, this is the third day, usually significant in the Bible! The witness of John starts a “chain reaction” as Jesus is followed by Andrew and another disciple of John the Baptist (1:35-39).
John declares that Jesus is the lamb of God, this time some of his disciples begin to follow Jesus, in effect transferring from John’s ministry to Jesus’. Andrew is one of the disciples simply mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels. In John he figures significantly in several stories. In each story, he is described as bringing someone or something to Jesus. This other disciple may be the “disciple whom Jesus loved” in the second half of the gospel. Andrew declares that Jesus is a teacher and Messiah, and bring Simon, Cephas (Peter) to Jesus.
The next day (the fourth over all), Andrew invites his brother Simon to follow Jesus (John 1:40-42). Andrew confesses to Simon that they have found the Messiah. This is a unique occurrence of the word Messiah rather than the common Greek translation, “Christ.” It is significant that Peter’s brother makes this confession early on, later Peter will make the same statement in 6:68, although he uses the title, “holy one of God,” something of a higher Christological statement than Andrew. Andrew is therefore the first disciple to actually call Jesus the Messiah in John’s gospel, although we are not at all sure to what extent he understood the term.
The second time Andrew appears in the story of John’s gospel is at the Feeding of the 5000 (John 6:1-14). John contrasts two disciples, Phil and Andrew. Philip, we are told, was tested and his response is a bit flat. Perhaps Andrew too was tested, although I wonder if his response is a great deal better. Obviously he sees the same problem as Philip, it is going to be impossible to feed all of these people. But rather than state the impossibility of the situation, he begins to find a solution. He made a start at the impossible task, even though it looks a bit weak to the other disciples.
Jesus honors Andrew’s offering, weak as it was, and uses the five loaves and two fish to not only do a great miracle, but also to demonstrate something very important about himself – he is the bread of Life, just as Israel had manna in the wilderness, so too Jesus gives food in the wilderness. This is an extremely important connection, given that this is around the time of Passover.
Andrew therefore did the right thing, although it seemed fairly insignificant at the time.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Andrew seems like the underdog of the disciples, the one whom people may look over, but exhibits great faith. It’s interesting to look at how Jesus uses him, even though it seems like Andrew doesn’t fully understand Him. We are so like Andrew in this regards though, Jesus uses us even though we do not fully understand who He is. Yes we understand that He’s the Messiah, Savior of the world, but how do we display this in our lives? Andrew demonstrated His faith in Jesus through drawing others to Him, seen through His bringing Peter and by seeking out a means of food for the people. Did Andrew know that God would multiply the food? Perhaps, but either way Andrew still did something about an “impossible” situation. Andrew seems to be the activist among the disciples, along with the underdog. Although not written yet, Andrew’s motto could have been James 2:17, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” The impact that Jesus had through Andrew is astounding–the miracle alone with the fish and bread would have been enough for me to marvel at Andrew’s faith, but think of the impact Peter has on the early church. Would Peter have had this impact if Andrew had not led him to Jesus? God only knows the answer to that, but we have a lot of thank Andrew for and a lot to learn from Andrew’s example!
As I read this blog post, I realized how little is mentioned about Andrew in the gospels. As I am sure there are many significant stories the other disciples could tell, this interaction between Jesus, Philip, and Andrew during the message to the 5,000 seems even more significant. Philip seemed to take the more logical perspective when it came to feeding 5,000 people, as he suggested to pay for enough bread with denarii. On the other hand, Andrew acknowledged Jesus’ miracle working and suggested the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish that one child had, to feed the 5,000 people. I am sure that Philip knew that Jesus performed miracles, but it seems as though Andrew valued His miracles more. It is mentioned in the blog post that Andrew was following John the Baptist before he even followed Jesus. With this in mind, it makes sense that Andrew would have witnessed the early ministry of Jesus, allowing him to have more of an appreciation for the works done by Him. Regardless of the early appreciation on Andrew’s behalf, the faith that this man demonstrates is definitely something that Christians can learn from today. Of course the denarii could have covered the cost for bread, but Jesus is the ultimate provider. There is the off-chance that the price of bread increased and the denarii would not have covered the cost and then caused frustration between the disciples and the 5,000 people. However, with having faith in Jesus’ provision, a potential situation like that would never even have to be thought or worried about. One other thought that this blog post provoked is when it mentions that Andrew led Peter to Jesus. Would Peter have ever been linked to Jesus’ ministry if Andrew was not connected to John the Baptist? The previous responder mentioned the same thought, but ultimately I think that this is just another piece of evidence showing us that God has a plan and purpose for every one of us. Andrew is a great example, not only as a disciple, but more specifically as a man of true faith.
Its no secret that John, focuses on more of Jesus’s disciples than the other gospel writers. Instead of following solely the typically featured trio of disciples that the other writers focused on John chose to highlight other disciples such as Andrew (Kostenberger, p.6). Kostenberger suggests that John wrote his gospel without crediting it to his own name, as an act of humility so as to not steal away attention from Jesus (Kostenberger, p.6). Perhaps, John being aware of the other gospels (Kostenberger, p.23), and in a demonstration of his own humility, chose to focus on less spoken of disciples of Jesus (such as Andrew) in his gospel to further prevent attention going to himself instead of Jesus?