I love the Gospel of John. Primarily because it was written in the style of a Greek drama. And you all know how much I love drama… as an art form.
In today’s modern age, I can almost picture how this first chapter of the Gospel of John would go. This great, awesome expanse of the universe, with some deep, James Earl Jones or Cecil B. DeMille voice going “In the beginning was the Word…”
And then have it kind of narrow down …to planet earth - where the Word dwelt among humans - until you get to this opening scene. Of people crowded around John the Baptist – wanting to know whether he is the messiah or not, and John having to explain that no – he’s not the Messiah, but he tells them all about the one who IS the messiah, the light of the world.
Finally, Jesus walks by and John points away from himself and points to Jesus: HERE is the one you’re looking for. Here’s the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And that is where our story now focuses… and the tension of the story begins. Because now that we’ve been introduced to who the lamb of God is… the question is… was that what the people were looking for? Were they looking for the lamb of God? Did they even WANT the lamb of God?
Jewish tradition had always utilized the image of a lion to represent the messiah, because the tribe of Judah’s symbol was the lion. The messiah was thus figured and spoken of as the kingly and fierce Lion of Judah.
So one would have expected John to say, “Behold! Here is the lion of Judah who has come to lead the Israelites!” Instead, he says, “here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
So when John’s disciples leave and walk over to Jesus… Jesus’ first question is… “what are you looking for?” Because the disciples had been pounding John full of all kinds of questions in the preceding verses to this one. Are you the messiah? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet? They never asked if he was the lamb.
So it’s a great question Jesus asks. Are you looking for the lion? Are you looking for the king?
Or are you looking for… a lamb? What is your expectation regarding God and his Messiah? A ruler, a king, something powerful and mighty… or something that is self-sacrificing?
Now the people’s reaction is just as interesting. Instead of giving a long discourse and telling us what they’re looking for, they answer Jesus’ question with a question of their own.
“Where are you staying?” Where can we go to be with you?
It’s a question I think we still are asking today—where can we go to be with Jesus? Where is he staying? Where do we find him?
And Jesus’ answer isn’t, “Well, I’m staying over at Simon Peter’s, the third house on the left…”
Instead, he offers an invitation. “Come, and see.” The only way they’re going to find anything out is to follow him. At this juncture, they know hardly anything about him. He hasn’t answered any questions yet. They’ve only heard “this is the lamb of God” and have been invited to follow. Invited to “Come and see.”
Because the coming and the seeing is far more powerful – after all you’ve heard a picture is worth a thousand words. And then you’ve also heard that pictures don’t do the thing that is being photographed justice. To come and see and experience for yourself usually has a far greater impact.
And something strange happens when these people go with Jesus, spend some time with him… they suddenly announce after spending the day with him, “We’ve found the Messiah!”
Now this to me always seemed bizarre. I mean, these people had questions they wanted Jesus to answer for them. The biggest question of course being whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. John had said he was, but is Jesus going to affirm that?
But here’s the thing – you never hear Jesus actually say “Yes, I’m the messiah. I’m the one you’re looking for.”
Rather, in the course of the invitation, of inviting these people to go with him, to “come and see” who he is and what he does, their primary question is answered.
Their question is answered once they go WITH Jesus… not before. All those questions they were bombarding John the Baptist with aren’t answered until they accept the invitation and follow Him. Faith emerges through the invitation to “Come and see…” and bring your questions with you. The answers to your questions are revealed through the course of relationship with Christ, not in isolation or ahead of time.
Many times today people have questions – lots of questions – and they want answers to those questions before they’re willing to believe, or willing to enter into a faith community. And a lot of us are quick to try and explain or given an explanation to something related to issues of faith. Maybe if I read a book about it or something I can have all my questions about this Jesus guy answered. And I’m one of those who’s very guilty of trying to use those kinds of tools to get people to understand who and what Jesus is rather than simply inviting them into the faith community.
While helpful tools for digging deeper into our understanding, the problem is that to try and answer all the questions before you develop the relationship… probably won’t work that well if one wants to more fully understand the depth and breadth of a relationship with God unless you are actually engaged in that relationship.
So Jesus asks the disciples, and asks us…
“What are you looking for?”
What you’re searching for may not be what I have to offer. What you think you want to know may not be the answer I’m going to give.
What is it that we are searching for? Security? Love? Acceptance? For the iphone to be compatible with Verizon? To have our questions answered the way want them to be answered and addressed?
Because if you’re looking for security, most of us tend to look to our government, our bank accounts, our 401k’s… thinking maybe those things will grant us the security we need in our lives.
When we look for love… as the saying goes, we tend to look in all the wrong places.
Acceptance – we look to other people wanting them to like us. Wanting them to acknowledge us, to be part of the "in" or popular crowd.
Or are we looking to be with Jesus? To be with the one who carries our sorrows, who carries our sin, who promises new life out of the old? To be with the one who gives us all those things – security, love and acceptance.
Secure in the knowledge of eternal life through faith in the lamb.
Love from a God who loves us so much he became the sacrificial lamb.
Acceptance from a God who accepts us as beloved children of God.
Walking with Christ, being with Christ is what begins the process of having those questions answered – of finding what we seek, even if it is in forms that we do not always expect.
John testified to Jesus – he pointed to Jesus. John was even able to say, “hey – there he is!” And we, too, have lots of things that point us to Jesus, that steer us in his direction. We have a cloud of witnesses, through scripture and other Christians. We’ve got books like the “Case for Christ,” and all those other things.
But ultimately it comes down to the fact that Jesus offers us the same invitation – come and see, to follow Him and experience His abounding love, and what it’s like to be in relationship with the lamb of God. By following and seeing and experiencing and doing… we learn.
And part of what we learn is what it means for Jesus to be the lamb of God. To be the sacrificial lamb that lays down his life in order to take away the sin of the world. To know and experience through our relationship with God – what it means to be forgiven. You only know and truly experience the forgiveness of God by following the one who offers it to you.
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