Isaiah 49:1-7 • Psalm 40:1-11 • 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 • John 1:29-42
[John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I 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.' And 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, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When 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?" He 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. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). He 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).
What is it you are looking for? What is it you are seeking? This question is how Jesus begins his public ministry in the Gospel of John. A question. In Mark, Jesus opens with a mighty command to silence a demon. In Matthew, Jesus opens with a command to disciples in a fishing boat to follow him. In Luke, Jesus begins with a public proclamation in the synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” (3:18) But in John, Jesus begins with a question that has little to do with Jesus caring for the poor, little to do with Jesus healing the sick, little to do with fishermen. In John, Jesus begins with a question that has everything to do with who Jesus is: “What are you seeking?” (1:38)
Just as each of Jesus’ first public appearances in the synoptic Gospels reveals the essential nature about the character of Jesus’ witness in that account, Jesus’ question reveals something that we see over and over again in John’s Gospel. John’s Gospel is not concerned with upending the Roman social order, not concerned with setting off a peasant revolution. John’s Gospel witnesses to Jesus’ divinity, to Jesus who is the Messiah of the world…the Savior of the world. “What are you seeking?” Andrew and Simon do not know it but Jesus knows…that what these disciples of John the Baptist are looking for is the One that John has been testifying to in the wilderness…they are looking for a Christ, a Messiah. It’s as if Jesus, and John’s Gospel itself, with this very question, “What are you seeking?” is asking us, “Where is it you can put your trust?” And the answer…is the Lamb of God, the Savior of the World, God’s Beloved…it’s all about Jesus.
So what is it we are looking for? What motivates us? What drives us in our day to day lives? What are we seeking at the core of our being? The disciples’ response to Jesus’ question reveals one thing we are looking for: something permanent. They want to know where Jesus is staying…they see that he is what they are looking for and want to remain with him where he is staying as long as they can. So a sense of belonging, meaning and rootedness drives us. What else? In a culture that worships continual upward economic mobility and accumulation, the drive for “more stuff”, and bigger places to put our “stuff”, drives us. The need to fill our lives with activity can drive us into a continual addiction to a life without balance.
While these are all basic human needs and concerns, there is one ultimate driving concern that Jesus comes for: to put us in contact with God, to fill us with the eternal life of Christ that is not just for the after-life but for our life here and now. Unlike anything else we are searching for, Jesus offers us life-sustaining nourishment at the deepest possible level imaginable…the level of our souls. Jesus comes and takes on the weight of perfectionism, the weight of earning God’s love, the weight of the whole world that can seem like it’s on just our shoulders…and brings us what we’ve been looking for…which is not a thing, or a place, or a product…but a saving relationship with the ever-abiding presence of God in Jesus.
Jesus is the one thing we come to experience here at United Lutheran that the world cannot offer us. Coffee and coffee cake? Starbucks down the street can give you that. Social time with your friends? The Lions Club, the local restaurant or interest group can give you that. Good music? You can’t hear all of what you hear here elsewhere, but much of it, could go and be heard at Symphony Center. But what does the church have to offer the world that cannot be found anywhere else? Jesus Christ: the abiding, living, breathing message of God’s redemption made real in a story that’s intimately woven into each and every one of our lives. Jesus Christ…it is his love for the whole world that the church has been called to proclaim.
To the first disciples who seek Jesus in John’s Gospel, who long to be in Jesus’ presence, to abide with where he is staying, Jesus’ response is simple: “Come and see.” (1:39) It’s three words that can work superbly as a model for evangelism. “Come and see.” Evangelism? Did I detect some shudders in the room? Lutherans don’t always like to talk about evangelism…even though it’s a part of our denomination’s name, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We could honestly say that the Lutheran strategy for evangelism over the years has been in the bedroom, or to gather other ethnic Lutherans from a particular geographic area. We’ve not always been the best at reproducing ourselves outside of our own walls, outside of our own families, of our own ethnic cultures, to share the good news.
But “come and see”, three short words, could be the most important words we say to someone besides three of the other most important words out there, “I love you.” “Come and see” is Jesus’ invitation to his own disciples to find what they have been looking for. It’s his invitation to abide in his overflowing love for the world…and it can be our invitation to others to experience a relationship with Jesus. “Come and see” is not about filling the seats in church. It’s not a threat. It’s not, “Have you given your heart to Jesus?” “Come and see” is not manipulative or offensive; it’s not “Do you know where you will spend eternity?” Jesus’ sharing of the good news is by simple, hospitable invitation, “Come and see.” Jesus himself invites us not to make a decision, but to draw us into contact and relationship with him, and with the God who sent him.
I wonder if we really believe we have a message we feel we have to offer the world. I wonder if we believe the salvation of this church lies in the community, or if this church believes it has a saving message of Jesus’ good news to share with this community. I wonder if we were on a service project or a servant trip and we were asked “why are you here?”, if we would say “I wanted to feel better by helping others” or if we could truly say “Jesus sent me.” Sometimes I wonder if we Lutherans have lost touch with whose we are at our core and why it is we are here.
So we’re going to practice this evangelism this morning. We’re going to collectively say the word that means life, the word that means grace, the word that reveals we have found who it is we are looking for—the word that names who the disciple Andrew says he has found. These words of invitation do not bring shame, but that confesses to new life.
If you want to know the word made flesh? Come and see Jesus. If you want to know what love is like? Come and see Jesus. If you want to experience God's glory? Come and see Jesus. If you want to be filled with bread that never perishes? Come and see Jesus. If you want to quench your thirst with living waters? Come and see Jesus. If you want to be born again? Come and see Jesus. If you want to abide in love? Come and see Jesus? If you want to behold the light of the world, to experience the way, the truth, and the life, to enter into life everlasting? Come and see Jesus. And if you want to know God: come and see Jesus. (See Dr. Audrey West commentary on John 1:29-42 at www.workingpreacher.org, 2008)
“What are we looking for?” Jesus asks us. He is what we’re looking for. We’re looking for Jesus. Come and see.
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