Silly Questions

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John 1.29-42 Sunday, January 20, 2008 Shelton, WA

SILLY QUESTIONS

These verses serve as a sort of transition for John and his gospel. They shift our focus off of John the Baptist on to Jesus. They quickly move us from John’s testimony about Jesus—who he is, what he brings, what he will do—and they start to fix our attention on the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. For this reason alone these verses are hugely significant.

But, of course, there are other reasons as well.

There’s the whole Passover/Pascal image John is so quick to evoke

—“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

There’s the whole deal about being baptized by the Holy Spirit—John says he baptizes with water, but the Messiah, when he comes, will baptize with the Spirit. There’s the whole expression “Son of God,” with all its many intricate and nuanced meanings. All these themes, and more, are packed away in these first few verses of John’s gospel. And they all seem to point to one thing: John the Baptist’s role as the forerunner… as the one who has come to point the way to another.

John makes that clear. The Baptist came for one purpose: to reveal God’s

Messiah to Israel. And that’s just what he did. Now it was time for him to quietly fade out of the picture—time for Jesus to take center stage. And

John Grant Page 1 5/20/2018 0d00da37746fb73b72e7849e52860fcc.doc Page 2 of 10 the way John does that—the way he shows how this whole shift takes place—is rather unique.

John the Baptist is standing there with two of his disciples, chatting— maybe about the kingdom of God… maybe about John’s ministry… maybe about locus and wild honey. Who knows! But you know, I think what they were talking about was John’s strange pronouncement the day before about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That’s what I think. No doubt they puzzled over that enigmatic statement all night long. You see, it really didn’t fit in with their whole image of the

Messiah. The Messiah was king and conqueror, liberator and deliverer.

Not a lamb. Lambs were for sacrifices. Lambs were for altars, not thrones.

That’s when Jesus walks by. John points to him. Maybe by way of explanation, maybe out of exasperation, or maybe it’s just because that’s what Prophets do—they point people to God. John points to Jesus and says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” And without so much as a “thank you very much” those two disciples gather up their stuff, leave John standing there, and walk after this one called the “Lamb of God”—Jesus.

What happens next, though… now that’s what I think is really interesting… and important. We need to really see and understand this.

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When Jesus turns around and notices that these two guys who were talking with John just a second ago are now following him, he pauses and asks them what seems to be a rather silly question: “What are you looking for?” Sounds silly to our ears.

Sometimes, though, silly questions are the hardest ones to answer.

Sometimes it’s the silly question that really makes a person pause and think. Sometimes it’s the silly questions that are the really good questions. I read somewhere that you can always tell a good question because the question itself is more important than any answer we can ever give. This was a good question—a really good question.

What are you looking for?

Now we can take that question at a couple of different levels. On the surface it’s pretty benign. For instance, it’s become something of a routine at our house anymore. Nearly every weekday morning, at about 6:45, here comes Andrew. You can tell he needs something. You can tell he’s starting to get worked up about not being able to find it. The bus will be here soon, and he’s still got wet hair and a towel wrapped around his waist. So we ask the obvious question: “Andrew, what are you looking for?” Usually it’s clean clothes. Sometimes it’s a paper he needs, or a misplaced homework assignment, or sometimes money; but usually, more times than not, it is clean clothes.

Well, I’m sure the two disciples who were following Jesus weren’t looking for clean clothes—or for that matter any sort of thing or object that could be searched for and located. But they were looking for something. And so Jesus turns to them and asks, “What are you looking for?”

Maybe they were still looking for an answer to their question to John about what he meant by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Maybe they were hoping Jesus could answer that puzzling question for them. Or maybe they were looking for something else: an answer to another question. No doubt John and his preaching stirred up lots of questions—probably far more questions than answers. Maybe that’s it. Maybe they were looking for answers to questions about God, about the kingdom of heaven, about the Messiah.

Now, of course, searching for answers to questions like these is much deeper than merely looking for clean clothes in the morning. But still, they are essentially the same sort of thing. Both are very objective. Both seek to bring us to some sort of resolution—finding clean britches before the bus gets here, or finding an answer that satisfies the question. They both tend to bring an end to the search.

“What are you looking for?” in this sense is a question that leads to closure. It is a question that is answered, and then we move on to something else. It is a question that only touches us on the surface.

But there is another sense, a much deeper sense—one that is a different sort of thing all together. In this sense the question, “What are you looking for?” brings, not closure, but a kind of openness… a kind of reflective quality that goes down much deeper than just skimming along the surface. It probes the heart. This is the sense I think Jesus was using when he asked these two disciples, “What are you looking for?”

You see, Jesus isn’t asking them about a thing that can be found. He’s asking about a quality of being. He’s asking about that thing that sits at the very heart of their existence that provides meaning to their life. He’s probing their hopes and their expectations. He’s opening up their dreams and their fears. He’s asking them to examine just what it is that is important to them; what brings them satisfaction. Basically, Jesus is asking them, “What is it that you are looking for that you believe will bring fullness and richness and ultimate meaning to your life?”

It’s a good question. Not because of any answer we can give, but because it stops us dead in our tracks. It’s a good question. Not because it demands a good answer, but because it challenges most of the good answer we can think of. It’s a good question. Not because it’s an easy one to answer, but because it is so difficult that it defies all the overly simplistic platitudes we like to throw around trying to answer it. It’s a good question, because it calls into question everything we value.

And there’s little doubt these two disciples understood Jesus’ question in this way. After all, the only answer they could come up with was to ask a silly question of their own. “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Duhh!

Didn’t they read Matthew: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”1? Where do they think he’s staying—Best Western, Jerusalem?

Silly question, guys… but then again, silly questions are sometimes more than they seem. And like Jesus’ silly question before, this one is deeper than we might think. Actually, it is a pretty good question in and of itself.

The key to understanding it is the word “staying.” That word is packed with meaning. It is a cognate of the same word Jesus uses in John 15 in talking about the vine and the branches. The Greek word is μένω, which is translated in John 15 as “abide.” The idea is about much more than just a physical location (or which hotel a person is staying at).

To understand this better, we need to look behind some of the hopes and expectations of first century Palestine. These hopes and expectations were rooted in various rabbinic traditions and schools of thought. They grew out of an assortment of readings and interpretations of Scripture. These different hopes and expectations, though, had one thing in common: they were all planted firmly in the coming of the Messiah.

1 Matthew 8.20 NRSV

This Messianic hope was the very center of Israel’s life. It was this expectation that gave meaning to everything. It sustained them in adversity. It carried them through trials. It allowed them to overcome centuries of occupation and foreign domination.

These hopes and expectations, though universal in one sense, were also very diverse. Different Rabbis put a slightly different spin on things. A good analogy might be the different denominations we have within the

Church today. We all hold to the same core beliefs as outlined in the creeds. But we also have our differences and distinctives. We abide in different theological schools of thought, so to speak.

To ask a Rabbi where they were staying—or perhaps better: where do they abide—is similar to asking someone now-a-days where they stand on an issue. We’re not asking for a physical location, but rather an ethical/moral conviction.

When these two disciples asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?” what they had in mind was more along the lines of, “What are you abiding in?”

“What is the center of your life?” “From which source—which teaching, which tradition—are you drawing meaning and purpose and fulfillment?”

Perhaps they still had in mind John’s words from earlier: “Here is the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” They couldn’t see

John Grant Page 7 5/20/2018 0d00da37746fb73b72e7849e52860fcc.doc Page 8 of 10 how this fit in with any of the various branches of thought taught by the teachers of the day. So they come to Jesus and want to know which school, which line of teaching, which one of the rabbinic traditions did he belong to. “Where do you abide?”

Jesus asks these two disciples what they were looking for to bring fullness and meaning to life; and they answer Jesus by asking him what was the center of his life—where was he abiding that offered meaning and purpose and fullness. That’s what they were looking for. Like I said, it’s a pretty good question. And I think Jesus thought it was a pretty good question as well. That’s why I think he invites them to come and see where he abides.

It’s not an invitation to check out his room, or his cot at the homeless shelter, or anything like that. It’s an invitation to examine his life. Jesus invites these two disciples to come and watch him, observe him, see into his heart. Watch how he orders his day.

You know, a lot can be discovered about a person’s values by observing how they order their day. A lot can be discovered about a person’s priorities by watching how they structure their schedules. A lot can be discovered about what is at the center of a person’s life by looking at how they spend their time. A lot can be discovered about where a person abides by watching how they live.

Now here’s the really cool part. After spending only one afternoon with

Jesus—probably only a couple of hours—these two disciples saw something that caused Andrew to chase down his brother, Peter, and tell him, “We have found the Messiah.”

Now we have no idea what they did together. We have no idea what

Jesus did or what he said. We have no idea what they talked about. But, you know, I have a feeling it was really nothing special, nothing spectacular or miraculous, nothing out of the ordinary. I have a feeling that they just hung out together. But that was enough—enough for them to see into the center of Jesus and recognize something that made them see that he was indeed the Messiah—Israel’s hope… the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Let me draw two quick applications. First, Jesus still invites people to come and see. If you want to know if the claims of Christianity are true or not it’s not a matter of becoming convinced of facts or formulas. It’s a matter of just hanging out with Jesus for a while. Read the gospels:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Hang out with Jesus, let his life convince you.

The second application kind of has two sides to it. On one side, Jesus’ invitation for us to come and see should be our invitation to the world for them to come and see. We should be inviting all those around us to come

John Grant Page 9 5/20/2018 0d00da37746fb73b72e7849e52860fcc.doc Page 10 of 10 and observe where we abide. Look into our lives, see where our center is, see how we order our days, watch how we structure or schedules.

The other side is a question. If they do, if the world does take a close look at where we abide, what will they see? How will our lives point to God’s redemptive work in the world? How will the structure of our schedules point to the kingdom of God being made manifest on earth? How will the way we order our days reveal the Messiah to those who are watching?

What are you looking for?

Where are you staying?

Come and see.

Almighty God and Father: Help us. In so many ways we have become too much like the world around us. In so many ways we have scheduled our lives around the priorities of our culture. In so many ways our lives point to so many things other than you. Help us we pray. We want to be people who abide fully in you.

We want to be people who reflect your love and grace. We want to be people whose lives reveal you and your truth to all who look at us. We want to be people worthy of your name. Help us, Lord, to be Christian not in name alone, but to be truly Christian in every aspect of our lives. And we ask this through the name of

Christ—The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.

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