I’ve been asking myself this week, what where they looking for? While we don’t know for sure, they had to be looking for something more than self reflection and forgiveness because that is what John had given them. As followers of John they had engaged in confession and repentance and they had been baptized by John, so what were they looking for? My sense is that they were looking to experience for themselves and live out day to day the new life with God that John had talked about. I think Andrew and John were looking for a life that was intimately connected to the power of God. They were looking for a life that was infused with God’s passions and values and meaning. They were looking for something that was going to fill them up and never leave them hungry again. They were looking for the very same thing many of us are still looking for today and that is a deeper connection to the living God.
It’s important for us to see here that while Andrew and John do turn to follow Jesus, it is Jesus who initiates the conversation with Andrew and John. I think this is symbolic of how God works in all our lives. God knows that we are looking for something more and as soon as we acknowledge this in some way, God is willing to reach out and help us in our search. If we want to know more about Jesus or if we want to experience more of God, God doesn’t hide from us, God reveals himself. In fact, God is willing to come to us and take the first step in developing a deeper relationship with us. Jesus tells the story of a young man who asks his father for his share of the inheritance early and then he goes off and squanders that money on wild living. When all of his money is gone the young son decides to return home to his father and see if he can just become a servant in his home because he doesn’t deserve to be a son anymore. Jesus tells this story in Luke 15:20-21.
Now why is it that the Father saw his son while he was still far off? I like to think it was because every day: morning noon and night, the Father stopped what he was doing and took the time to look for his son hoping that he would return. God is always looking for us to turn toward him. God is waiting, even wanting us to search for him and when we make that turn, like these 2 disciples, when we make that turn to God – God not only turns toward but God reaches out to us. Jesus is the first to reach out here and he is the one begins the conversation with the question, what are you looking for?
It is interesting that the first recorded words of Jesus in the gospel of John is a question that is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. Today we are all still looking for something and that is made clear by the popularity of websites like google. Did you know that every day google alone get’s hundreds of millions of hits and every year google worldwide does billions of searches? But google is just one search engine, there are hundreds of other search engines in over 20 different categories and each one will help you look for whatever it is you want. From Blogs to Business, Maps to Medical to Multi-media, News, People, Real Estate, Schools and Shopping there are specific search engines to help you look for information, inspiration, entertainment even friends and relationships, whatever you are looking for you can search for it online and every day millions of people are looking for something. So the question Jesus asks Andrew and John 2000 years ago is still relevant today, what are you looking for? Not what are you searching for online but what are you searching for in life?
If Jesus were here today, sitting in front of you and he suddenly turned around as asked you that question, what would you say? I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I would have a good answer because sometimes when it comes to God and my relationship with Jesus Christ, I don’t know what I’m looking for, I just know I want something more. I think that is exactly where Andrew and John are when Jesus asked them. They don’t know what they want, I’m not even sure they knew why they turned to follow Jesus, they just know they wanted something more, so they end up saying to Jesus, Where are you staying?
Now I don’t think the exact location of where Jesus is staying or who he is staying with is really what they want to know, but I don’t think they know what else to say. They aren’t sure what they want they just know that after confession, repentance, forgiveness and baptism they are still searching for something, something that will change and fill their lives. Does that sound familiar? I believe that in all of us there is simply a hunger and longing for more of God but many times we can’t name it. We are looking for power or purpose, security or safety, we want deeper relationships, deeper insight into the world, answers for why things are they way they are. We are looking for a lot and while we may not be able to articulate things perfectly, or ask the right questions, how wonderful that God doesn’t wait for us to get the words right. Instead of laughing at these two for asking such an absurd question, Jesus understands their deeper needs and knows what they are longing for and so reaches out to them again with a simple invitation, come and see.
Come and See. Again, I don’t think Jesus is inviting them to come and see where he is staying, I think he is inviting them to come with him, to literally go with him in life and in ministry and begin to find in Jesus all that they are looking for. I believe that this invitation still stands. No matter what we may be looking for today, I believe that we can begin to find some answers or direction if we are willing to go with Jesus and open ourselves up to what he has to offer. So let’s look at what it means for us to come and see.
When Jesus says to Andrew and John to come he literally wants them to go with him. Jesus is inviting them to walk with him, travel with him and to go to the places where he is going. Too many times when we are looking for God’s will or purpose in our lives or when we are searching for more of God’s power and presence we just stay put and expect God to come to us. The author Mike Slaughter has said, Being a Christian isn’t taking Jesus into our lives and asking Jesus to go with us - it’s going with Jesus into his life and adopting his lifestyle. While God does meet us where we are, the answers to what we are looking for in life begin to be found when we are willing to go with Him.
So when Jesus invites us to come it is an invitation for us to move. We have to be willing to move out of our routines, leave behind what is comfortable and easy and go where Jesus goes. Think of what this invitation meant for Andrew and John. They had to leave their jobs and their families to be able to travel with Jesus. They had to leave John the Baptist and their circle of friends and begin to develop relationships with people I’m sure they never had thought about associating with before, people like tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans and all kinds of sinners. They literally had to walk new roads, reach out to new people and be willing to do new things with Jesus. To find whatever it is we are looking for also means that we have to be willing to move.
God, and the life he offers, can not be found by simply sitting at home and doing a google search for Jesus. You can do that and let me tell you, it is fascinating what you will find, but all that you will find will be information about Jesus and while some of what you will find might be entertaining, much of it will not even be accurate. We are used to being able to search and do just about everything at home and find all that we want from the comfort, safety and security of sitting behind our computers, but if we never move beyond that – we will never really find what we are looking because the real life God offers isn’t found online it is found in the world. God is more than information and God is more than inspiration, God is life and relationship. God is alive and moving in our world. God is where people are hurting and hungry and happy and hopeful. God is where people are working and worshipping, where people are building relationship and building homes, sharing food and sharing faith. God is never going to be found unless we are willing to go where God is most visible and most powerfully at work and that is in the world.
Jesus said that we will see him when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit those who are in need so Jesus is out there in the world and if we want to find answers in life - we need to go where he is and we need to begin to do what he is doing, and that is the second part of this invitation. When Jesus says come and see, I don’t think he is inviting Andrew and John to just follow and observe. This is a call for them to get invovled. Travelling with Jesus means we began to do what he did.
One of the most amazing miracles Jesus performed he did through the hands of his disciples, in fact, Andrew himself experienced this power of God. In John 6 we find Jesus and his disciples in a very remote place with thousands of people surrounding them. They have been listening to Jesus teach and preach all day and while the disciples want Jesus to send everyone home to eat, Jesus tells them, no you feed them. It is Andrew who brings to Jesus a boy with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish and gives the food to Jesus. Jesus then blessed the food and gave it to the disciples to distribute among the people. Can you imagine the fear and anxiety among the disciples as they think about trying to feed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish? I’m thinking that they started passing out very small pieces of bread, but then as they kept having more and more food to give, they gave out larger and larger pieces and with more and more excitement. Andrew didn’t just see this miracle take place – he was part of it and when Jesus performed miracles his disciples were often part of them and that experience changed their lives.
When Jesus calls us to come and see it is not to passively observe it is a call to do what he is doing and be actively involved. One of my greatest fears is that too many of us follow Jesus but from a distance. We observe instead of getting involved and what happens is that we not only miss experiencing the power of God for ourselves, but we never really find what we are looking for because the things that will meet our deepest needs and give us the greatest direction in life are only found when we are willing to get involved and experience the life Jesus offers.
I know I have shared this before, but when I first made the decision to attend seminary I didn’t know what I was looking for. I was like Andrew, I felt that Jesus held the answer but I didn’t even know what the question was. My first year in seminary, I was an observer. I went to class, I read books, I took tests, I wrote papers and I learned a lot about God but I still didn’t have a sense of direction or purpose and I still didn’t know what I wanted or needed in life. My second year of seminary I began work as a student associate pastor of a church in Graham NC, and as I actually got involved in the work of God, from teaching third grade Sunday school to helping with weddings, funerals and worship, and as I got more deeply involved in the lives of people on a spiritual level, I began to experience God’s power and the life God had for me. I didn’t get direction for my life and the answer to my questions from a book or a lecture or a class project, I got it by going to where God was at work and working with God and his people.
I still believe that we find what we are looking for in life when we respond to Jesus invitation to Come and See and I believe that it is this invitation that Jesus offers us today. Today we can turn and go to those places where we sense God is at work and today we can make the decision to get involved in the work God is doing which means that today we can begin to actual find what we are looking for.
Next Steps:
What are you looking for?
Make a list of the things you are looking for from God.
- Share this list with God in prayer.
- Share this list with a friend.
In response to our searching, Jesus invites us to Come and See.
- What will it mean for you to Go with Jesus?
- Where do you sense Jesus working in our community?
- What would it look like for you to go there and spend time with Jesus?
What will it mean for you to See Jesus?
- What work is God calling you to in the life His church?
- What work is God calling you to in the community? World?
