Text: John 1:29-42
Theme: "Two More Really Great, Short
Questions!"
2nd
Sunday after the Epiphany
January
19, 2014
First
Presbyterian Church
Denton,
Texas
Rev.
Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
29 The next day John saw Jesus
coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world! 30 This
is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me
because he was before me.’ 31 I
myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he
might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this
testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on
him. 33 And
I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with
water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is
the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I
testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”[f]
35 The next day John was
there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the
Lamb of God!”37 When
the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus
saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”They said,
“Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”39 “Come,” he
replied, “and you will see.”So they went and saw where he was staying, and
they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s
brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed
Jesus.41 The
first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have
found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Earlier this week, I tried
to look up the longest question ever recorded. Answer.com reported back: "Don't you have anything better to do
than sit at your desk asking questions like that?" Perhaps the folks at Answer.com have a point
-- because long questions really don't do any good in the broader scheme of
things. Short questions are much, much
better. My grandson, Noah, might as well
be a Harvard Ph.D. He has an inquisitive
mind, and he asks the shortest question of them all quite regularly: "Why?" From why it's mashed potatoes instead of
French fries to the reason why we're not going to the toy aisles at Target, the
question is always:
"Why?" There was a
period of time when I thought that this was the only word that came out of his
lips! But at 4 1/2 yrs of age, it's a
doggone good question to ask. He's not
afraid to ask it -- and, in the process, he's learning and putting all these
things together in his head. And, as
grandparents, I can say that my wife and I treat him much better than the folks
at Ask.com treated me!
"Why?" It's a
really great -- and short! -- question.
In the Bible, the first question
God asks to a human being is a really great, short question. So we turn to the story of Adam and Eve. Our pick-up point is Genesis chapter
three. Here we go: "Then the man and his wife heard the
sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the Garden." It must have been a lovely day in paradise
lost! Perhaps this was the first time
the game of "hide and seek" was ever played; I don't know. "But the Lord God called to the
man: 'Where are you?'" Game over.
"Where are
you?" Three words. Actually, in the Hebrew language, it's only
one word: ayeka. "Where are
you?" In the Sunday School and
Confirmation classes of my childhood, we were regularly presented with the
attributes of God as demonstrated in the Bible.
One of them was omniscience,
and that means "all-knowing".
God is all knowing. So one has to
wonder: if God is all-knowing, why does
He even have to ask questions -- and even really great, short questions? Obviously, almighty God didn't ask the
question for His own sake. He already
knew everything. He must have asked it
for the sake of Adam and the sake of Eve. It's as if God is saying: "I know where you're at, you're hiding
-- which is, of course, patently ridiculous and an exercise in futility. But I want to hear why you're hiding from
your mouths. I ask the question for your
sake."
We take leave from Genesis
and turn to today: the 2nd Sunday in the
Epiphany season, the season of making things known, the season that dispels the
darkness, the season of light! It's that
time in the church year when we think about how to share the light of Christ
with others.
In today's reading from the
Gospel of John, John the Baptist shares the light. Pointing to Jesus, he says: "Look, the lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world." He then
proceeds to give his "testimony".
When we 21st century believers think of "testimony", we
picture a person standing up in public to speak. He or she tells his or her story -- a story
-- with variations here and there -- of
how awful life was before Jesus, how incredible it was when they "accepted
Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior" (or words to that effect), and
how hunky-dory life has now become because Jesus is in it. And, of course, your
life can be just dandy and hunky-dory too if you really, fully, and completely
give your heart to Jesus. Do you see the
difference between this kind of modern testimony and John's? John was wasn't wanting people to have a life
like his. It wasn't about him. All he wanted, in keeping with his call, was
to point people to Jesus. It's at the
Jesus point, not the John point, where lasting change can begin to happen.
John, because of his
testimony, lost two of his followers.
Aren't you supposed to gain followers with some sort of testimony? John, pointing to Jesus, said "Look, the
lamb of God!" Two of John's
followers then flipped and became followers of Jesus.
Now, here's John 1:38: "Turning around, Jesus saw them
following... ." It is at this point
-- this point! -- when we hear another one of those really great, short questions. Jesus asks His new followers: "What do you want?"
We are followers of
Jesus. We may not be 100% sure of what,
exactly, that means. But we're here --
here on the receiving end of Jesus' words.
What if Jesus asked that really great, short question of us: "What do you want?"
Before we could even
answer, we'd be shocked, stunned, and tongue-tied. We'd look around to see if anyone else was
listening to how we might answer. But
the question is the question, and this question is unique because it's Jesus,
the Lamb of God, who is asking you:
"What do you want?" He almost sounds like an "Alladin"
kind of Jesus -- you know, the genie-in-the-bottle sort of thing.
Well, since you asked: I want to be able to never see another
Careflite helicopter landed in the middle of University Drive like I did this
past week. I want cancer to be cured, period. End of discussion. I want a world where people do not slip and
fall during an ice storm and end up in a coma.
I want fear and depression and addiction to be stripped from the human
experience. I want family ties
strengthened and relationships restored.
I want politics civil. And I
don't want another American boy and girl to come back from Afghanistan or Iraq
missing an arm or a leg. I don't want to hide from you or from anyone
anymore. You remember that bit about
paradise lost? Remove the "lost"
part. You'd best sit down, Jesus. Grab yourself a cup of coffee or a bottle of
water in the fridge. You asked. And I'm answering. My list is long, and I'm only just getting
started; I've barely scratched the surface.
"What do you
want?" asks Jesus. It's a really great, short question.
Amazingly, those two new
followers of John returned the favor.
They offered a really great, short question of their own. They ask
Jesus: "Where are you
staying?" "Come and see,"
says Jesus. We are told that the two of
them went on to spend the day with Him.
That's what they wanted: to spend
time with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The time spent with Jesus
was not in vain. It bore fruit. The
epiphany of Jesus, the disclosure of Jesus, the afternoon hours spent with him
that day, prompted one of them, Andrew, to go off and find his brother, Simon
Peter. "We have found the Messiah," he tells Simon. There was no
telling Peter about how wonderful and "transformed" his life had
become since spending time with Jesus.
That wasn't so important. What was important was bringing him to
Jesus.
"You are Simon son of
John," says Jesus. Jesus knows us
even before we know Him.
There are times when it is
tough to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus -- in a world where
Careflite helicopters land in the neighborhood and cancers rips its way,
randomly, through life. When it's tough, the really great and short questions
can provide their unique help: "Where
are you?" "What do you want?"
Carry on and go where Jesus
is staying. "Wherever two or there
are gathered in my Name, there am I in this midst of them. And lo, I am with you always -- even to the
end of the age."
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment