Text: John 1:29-42
The Gospel of John is like a cloth, woven in complex patterns from a few simple threads. Light and darkness, love and truth, belief, revelation. These threads cross over and under each other, creating for John a convincing image of the Word of God incarnate, dwelling here with us. The divinity of Jesus, and the notion that he has existed for all time and will for all time to come, is strongest in John of all the Gospels. For John, everything Jesus does is a pointer and witness to this man’s divine DNA.
Two of these threads in John’s theological colors appear strongly in the reading we just heard. Where do you live, asks the disciples of Jesus. Come and see, Jesus responds. Where Jesus lives and what he sees, and where as a result we live and what we see are important to John.
The word in John for “live” also appears in the Bible as reside, remain, abide, stay, dwell. The disciples ask Jesus, where are you staying? Do they mean: where do you bunk down for the night? Do they mean: where do your journeys take you? Do they mean: what is your stance on important issues of the day, like the politics of Rome and prospects for the coming Messiah?
The disciples expect an answer that will help them to know Jesus. It makes a difference whether Jesus is staying in a big fancy hotel, or with some friends in the bad part of town, or with his parents, or on the street. Or whether he is just passing through. Where you live tells people about you. What do you want? Jesus has asked them. They are not sure what to answer, because they are not sure what they can ask of Jesus until they know more about him. But Jesus does not say.
John the Baptist has told these disciples of his: That’s the guy I was telling you about. They were John’s disciples then, not yet the disciples of Jesus. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. As if they knew what that meant. He ranks ahead of me, John tells them, because he came before me. Does that help? There’s more: the Spirit descended on him and lives—remain, abides, dwells; it’s that word again—in him. Is that enough? They’d like to know for certain before they commit.
How much about Jesus do we need to know? What does it mean, as we are taught, that he is both divine and human? What does it mean that he comes to save the world? That he is the Messiah, not king of Israel but ruler of this earthly kingdom of God? Where is Jesus at? Can anyone tell us in words, by clever persuasion, by forceful argument, by coercion, by scripture, by personal story, for certain who Jesus is? We wish to do due diligence before we join up, invest, and give up our hearts and wills to this man.
Where do you stand, ask John’s disciples and potential disciples of Jesus. And Jesus in response says this: Come and see.
This is a declaration of fact: If you want to know what’s going on with me, you must come and see. And also a test of purpose: if I call you, do you have the heart to follow? But most of all it is an invitation: join your life with mine. Let me lead you, guide you. Teach you. Spend some time listening to me.
Come and see. Seeing is the second theological thread in this passage. Words for sight and seeing appear more in the Gospel of John than in the whole rest of the New Testament combined. In today’s passage they appear ten times. There is no blind faith in the Gospel of John. Faith comes from sight. Behold—see—says John the Baptist. I saw the Spirit. What are you looking for? Jesus is revealed to—is seen by—Israel. Some of these words mean seen in an instant—recognized. Some mean seen over time—revealed.
For some, the important part is what is seen. Watch Jesus, see what he does in the world, whom he meets with, how he heals. But for others, the important part is who is doing the seeing. Come see not what Jesus does, but come see as Jesus sees. Come and see the injustice, see the hypocrisy, see the suffering, see the hunger. Come and see the love of God, the healing of God, the compassion of God for all people. See with the eyes of Jesus. We are called not only to watch Jesus, even as passionate believing spectators. We are called to see the world in a new way, the way Jesus sees it.
The disciples ask for Jesus’ position and what they get is an invitation to be transformed. Come and see is an invitation to live a different kind of life because we see the world differently. That is why “come and see” is a good answer to “where are you staying?” Jesus is not evading the question. He is answering in the most direct way possible: I live in a world that I see in a certain way, and you can too. The disciples follow Jesus, I’m convinced, not because they want to wander around with this man, but because they want to see the world that will be revealed to them in a new true way.
It is common to think of evangelism as an activity of explaining. If I only explain things to you in the right way, you’ll believe as I do. But evangelism is more like a calling card, an address card, an online profile. It is a statement about you. Here is where I live, here is how I see the world. It is not persuasion. It is not even an invitation. It is an announcement about yourself. It is Christian evangelism when part of the announcement includes Jesus. Not symbols and signs of Jesus everywhere on your body and in your life, but in the way you are. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, once said “you cannot know me unless you understand how I stand with Jesus.” Being Christian means that the way you see things is affected by Jesus. The evangelism part is that when people understand how you see things, they will then know something about Jesus.
Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth century mystic, once wrote that “Christ has no body now on earth but yours. … Yours are the hands with which he is to bless [people] now.” Meaning that we are to be Christ in the world. But we are not Christ. Christ abides in us, says John the Gospel writer, and we in him. This mutual abiding, Christ in us and we in Christ, is key to Luther’s view of forgiveness and the power of Holy Communion.
Where does Christ live? When we see as Christ does, then Christ lives in us. When we see as Christ does, then Christ lives in the world.
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