Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
“Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” Those are the only words we receive from John's angelic guide in our first reading today. After that we receive a gorgeous description of the heavenly Jerusalem with the final detail telling us that, “The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” The significance of why these lines are quoted will be clear in a moment.
Before we get there, come with me to the gospel. This is a dialogue rich reading with a powerful declaration of faith from Nathanael when he says, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” This line jumped out at me as soon as I sat down with the readings. I believe its prominence is revealed when he hold Nathanael's proclamation alongside the lines from Revelation.
What we see is a powerful and compelling reality of our Lord that I believe we take for granted. The reality that He is both King and Lamb. Nathanael, one of the twelve apostles, begins his discipleship by declaring that Christ is the King of Israel. In the end, Nathanael's name will be on a foundation stone as an Apostle of the Lamb. In looking at this progression, I believe it is essential for any disciple of any time to real allow this dual reality of Lamb and King to infiltrate his/her heart.
For many or us, we begin our journey with Christ by recognizing His Lordship and His magnificence. Certainly, we continue in that recognition, for Christ never ceases to be Lord, but as we encounter Him more and more, especially as the reality of the fact that He is God sinks in more and more; we need to encounter His meekness. We need to begin meditating on how meek, lowly, and humble He is. Now often we hear meek and think weak, but we can't fall into that trap. It is clearly not the case with Christ. The more we get to know Him, what He has done, is doing, and will do for us the more apparent His strength becomes. This is the start of our knowledge.
As Christian disciples, we know that to learn from and about Him is only the beginning. We know that the next step is to be sent out, to be His disciples in the world. It is then that we need to see that being his disciples calls us to a humility and meekness like His.
So, beyond the semantics of Lamb vs King, what does all of this mean for us? It means that like Nathanael, let us recognize our teacher and our king. Let us follow Him with our lives. Like true children of Israel, let us declare Him as king & lord without duplicity or guile. And like the lambs He has shown us to be, let us also declare Him as Lord without arrogance. But let our willingness to humbly serve and lay our life down for others “make known … the glorious splendor of [His] Kingdom.”
- Spencer Hargadon