What Are You Looking For?

Pop quiz:  what are the first words spoken by Jesus in the gospels?    Each gives a different account:  Mark has Jesus proclaim the kingdom of God has come near, Matthew has him reassure John the Baptist that he must be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, and Luke has 12 year old Jesus calm his parents down when he goes missing in his father’s house, the temple.  But what about the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel According to John?  This past Sunday we heard Jesus' first words in that gospel, and, as is normally the case, John's account is pretty different.  Here Jesus' first words are in the form of a question.  And it is a doozy of a question.  

As Jesus is walking by John the Baptist points to him and says to two of his own disciples, “Look!  Here is the Lamb of God!  Here is the one who takes away the sins of the world!”  And those two disciples, one of whom is Simon Peter's brother Andrew, are so excited that they run after Jesus.  Then they get to him, and they don’t know what to say.  They’re awestruck.  And then Jesus gives his first line of the Gospel:  “What are you looking for?”

An artist's depiction of Jesus' encounter with the two disciples.

What are you looking for?  Sometimes the words of Scripture are so limited to their own time and place that it hardly feels like they’re speaking to us at all.  This ain't one of those times!  These words are for us.  Here and now.  Imagine it.  Picture it.  You’re walking along the street.  You see Jesus.  You run up to him the way you’d run up to your favorite ballplayer or movie star.  Then he turns and he looks at you, calls you by name, and he asks, “What are you looking for?”  How in the world do you respond?!

Even the disciples who followed after him don't  know exactly what to say.  They ask where are you staying, which isn’t really an appropriate translation.  The Greek verb used here is memo , which means abide, remain, endure, continue.  Where are you abiding, Jesus?  Where are you remaining, enduring, continuing?  They are not so much asking what’s Jesus’ physical address, but they want to know about the abiding, remaining, enduring, and continuing dwelling place of this one that John has just exclaimed is the Lamb of God.  Where are you staying?  Where can we find you?  Where will we go to be with you, to receive what you have to offer?   In short, what they want to know is how, when, where, and in what manner they may know and be with Jesus.  And his response, a simple invitation:  “Come and see.”

Brothers and sisters, we may all be better off if every now and again we were to put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and hear the voice of Jesus asking us:  what are you looking for?  What am I looking for?  In my day-to-day life?  In my job?  In my relationships?  What am I looking for out of this whole 'being a Christian' thing?! What’s my goal, my aim?  In a culture dominated by the acquisition of things, where the search for meaning has been thwarted by the search for stuff, the exchange of questions between Jesus and these disciples—even the exchange of questions between Jesus and ourselves—provides an alternative.  What are we looking for as we gather in our places of worship week after week?  Some are looking for a place of belonging.  Some a place where their prayers can be heard, if not answered.  Some come to offer their praise and thanks for the positive things that have happened each to them this week.  Some come with physical or emotional pain, hoping to be made well.  Some come for the songs.  Some for the Sacrament.  Some even for the sermon.  Deep down I suspect we are all want to be in the place where Jesus abides.  We want to know how, when, where, and in what manner we may know and be with Jesus, just like those disciples.  What are we looking for?  Simply put we are looking for Jesus.  Well, his response to us is the same as it was to those disciples.  Come and see, he tells us.  Come and see.

Come to any number of places, including the Church of the Good Shepherd, where I serve, and  you will see him.  You'll see him glorified in prayer and in song.  You'll meet him at the holy table where those who are looking to be made well can taste him in the medicine of immortality.  Indeed, my brothers and sisters, Good Shepherd and places like it are where we know the Lord Jesus abides.  We know that he can ask us that question—what are you looking for—and we know that we can seek the answers in such places.  Together.  Because it is Christ himself who invites us to meet him there. 

A great many of us Christians, regardless of what label we give ourselves, are members of our local congregations because in one way, shape or form, Jesus invited us to be there.  Maybe Jesus spoke to you directly and compelled you to join a church.  Maybe Jesus worked through a family member, or a friend, or a dog, and invited you in for worship.  The point is we all, at one point, were invited into a relationship with the Lord Jesus.  We had questions that needed answers and wounds that needed healing, but Jesus invited us, nonetheless.  Many of us mainline Christians may not like to talk about evangelism, but that is exactly what invitation is about!

There is a world out there that is full of questions, full of wounds.  There are folks who feel that Jesus has turned his back on them, or that he could never love them.  There are folks whom Jesus still asks—what are you looking for—but who are too afraid of judgment and ridicule to be honest enough to give their answer.  This is where we come in, those of us who have struggled to answer that question ourselves.  We know what it is like to be confused, to be lost, to be hurt.  But Jesus said to us once, “Come and see.” and so we came and we have seen healing, we have seen salvation, and we have seen resurrection in those places that we call OUR church.  It is up to us to offer that same invitation that Jesus offered to us; after all, Jesus has no hands, no feet, no heart, and no voice but ours, brothers and sisters, we who are the body of Christ.  As he invited those two disciples into a relationship that changed their lives he has invited all of us, and so we too must be bold enough to invite others into that relationship.  It is the kind of relationship that brings healing and wholeness to a world in so much pain, and it can make this world a little more like that kingdom he talked about. 

It began with a simple question that he asked those two disciples long ago, that he continues to ask us daily, and that we are called to ask the world.  What are you looking for?  Are you looking for hope?  For healing?  For acceptance?  For love?  You will find all this and more in a relationship with Jesus Christ, but it is up to us who are already in that relationship to reach out to others and invite them in. When we reach out to others and ask them, 'What are you looking for?' we open ourselves up to conversation, and then we can offer that invitation to 'Come and see.'  When we do that our lives are changed, and we behold the goodness of the Lord.