In the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says to John the Baptist who is reluctant to baptize him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”[i] These are the first words he speaks in that Gospel. You read that and you know that for Matthew, the fulfillment of righteousness is key to knowing who Jesus is.
In Mark, Jesus’ first words are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”[ii] To Mark, that is the core of the message of Jesus and of the church.
In Luke, Mary and Joseph have been searching desperately for their boy for three days, and when they finally find him in the Temple, he says to them with astonishing adolescent innocence, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”[iii] To Luke, Jesus’ deep connection to the Temple is an essential part of the gospel.
Now, if you were to write the good news of Jesus according to yourself, what would be the first thing Jesus says? From all the sayings of Jesus you remember and perhaps jotted down in your journal, which one would you choose? Wouldn’t you want to find one that would signal what matters most, one that would draw your readers into the story that changed everything?
In the gospel according to John, Jesus’ baptism isn’t even mentioned, and he doesn’t talk back to his mom until the wedding in Cana in chapter 2. His first words are a question, “What are you looking for?” In this opening scene, he asks two unnamed disciples of John who just began to follow him, after John had watched him walk by and exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
It is notoriously difficult to know what John might have had in mind when he referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God, both the John we know as the Baptist, and the John who composed the fourth Gospel. Was he thinking about the Passover lamb? Possibly. Could he have been thinking about the Suffering Servant in Isaiah who was oppressed and afflicted, and, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, did not open his mouth? Maybe. It’s like John wants to tell us something important about who Jesus is, while also teaching us that his testimony is meant to generate more than a single meaning, and that he wants us to find our own answer.
On the story level, Jesus asks his two new followers, “What are you looking for?” But with the same question he also addresses you and me who have just begun to hear John’s testimony about Jesus, “What are you looking for?” Jesus begins a dialogue not just with his first two disciples, but with every reader, “What are you looking for?”
If this were your realtor, the answer would be easy; you’d start talking about bedrooms, baths, and school zones. If this were your school counselor, you’d talk about your dreams of campus life and about financial aid. And if this were the person in HR whom you sent your resume, you’d talk about career opportunities, job satisfaction, and salary expectations. But this is Jesus asking you, “What are you looking for?”
You don’t have to keep reading, you know, you can sit with that question for a moment. Think about your life. The dreams you once had, and the ones that still energize you. Think about the world, the kids, the damn war, the floods, the hopes you cling to with every fiber of your being. What are you looking for? Think about your curiosity about Jesus, why you find yourself returning to the book of testimonies, what it is that brings you back to the community of believers. What if you started an actual list of things you are looking for in your life, just to help you get to the bottom of your longing and searching?
In a breathtaking prologue, John has introduced Jesus as the light that shines in the darkness, the true light that enlightens everyone, the Word who became flesh and lived among us. Now we hear of two of John’s disciples who are with him when Jesus walks by and their master exclaims, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” They don’t know any better than you and me what that might mean, but they follow Jesus anyway. Why? Not because they trust Jesus, but because they trust John and his testimony about Jesus. Rowan Williams reminds us that “Faith has a lot to do with the simple fact that there are trustworthy lives to be seen, that we can see in some believing people a world we’d like to live in.”[iv] The journey of discipleship doesn’t begin with six impossible things to believe before breakfast; it begins with a very good question and the trustworthy life of a witness who points to Jesus.
The trustworthy life of a witness who points to Jesus. Tomorrow the nation takes a day to honor the life and witness of Dr. King, whose dream of a world no longer burdened by racism, poverty, and war didn’t end when he was assassinated. Richard Lischer writes,
Long after King himself began to doubt the goodness of the “white brother” and the tainted principles of civil religion, his expression of hope in the kinship of races endures, as the Sermon on the Mount endures, as a mark to aim at in a sinfully divided society. The more pessimistic he grew with regard to humanity, the more optimistic he became about God. Even in the darkest period of his own discouragement, he continued to say to African Americans, “Go ahead! God can be trusted.”
After King’s death, his old mentor Pius Barbour said, “Martin was a great believer in this, the attitude of Jesus: He believed spiritual power could down any power. Can it?” Lischer says it’s a measure of Dr. King’s abiding influence in our lives that we still ask the question and want to answer, Yes.[v] That we want to affirm with our own lives, with our little courage and our spotty faithfulness, that God’s commitment to the redemption of the world is unshakable.
Several years ago, the results of a study on what Americans think about Christianity were published. The research showed that among late teens to early 30-somethings, Christians were best known for what they are against. They were perceived as being judgmental, antihomosexual, hypocritical, too political, insensitive to others, and clueless about real life.[vi] According to the authors of the study, these negative views of Christians weren’t just superficial stereotypes with no basis in reality. Nor were the critics people without previous exposure to churches or Christians. No, they looked at the lives of Christians and they didn’t find those lives trustworthy. One of the authors remembered his first look at the data:
I’ll never forget sitting in Starbucks, poring through the research results on my laptop. As I soaked it in, I glanced at the people around me and was overwhelmed with the thought that this is what they think of me. It was a sobering thought to know that if I had stood up and announced myself as a ‘Christian’ to the customers assembled in Starbucks that day, they would have associated me with every one of the negative perceptions described in this book.[vii]
And that was before the term ‘Christian’ began to fit quite comfortably between the terms ‘white’ and ‘nationalism.’ What can we do about that, you and I?
When Jesus asked the two, “What are you looking for?” they didn’t give an answer. Perhaps they didn’t have one yet, perhaps they had too many to even begin. Instead they asked, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Now you can read that as them asking for his address. I think they were curious about where his life was rooted; where he found courage and hope for the road ahead; where his heart and soul were at home. “Faith,” says Susan Andrews, “begins with curiosity. It is rooted in companionship. It often leads to commitment and conviction, but it all begins with curiosity. Jesus is not only the Word become flesh. Jesus is the Way become flesh. Jesus is a journey.”[viii]
I believe it’s always good to go back to the beginning, back to our initial curiosity, back to Jesus’ opening question, “What are you looking for?” What are you really looking for? It is a powerful question to ask ourselves, to ask one another, and to seek to answer as truthfully as we can. I am looking for a community where love becomes real, a community that embodies grace and solidarity. I am looking for a community where you are accepted for who you are. I am looking for an economy whose currency is gratitude, not greed. I am looking for hope for our tortured planet. I am looking for deep and lasting conversion. I am looking for who I am. And I keep hearing Jesus say, “Come and see.”
Faith begins with curiosity, and it is rooted in companionship. I trust the testimony of those who discovered grace and truth in the company of Jesus, and a taste of life’s fullness. And I believe when he says, “Come and see,” he actually means it quite literally, as in, Get up from the couch and meet the others who are on the journey with me. Talk with them. Work with them. Sing with them. Eat with them. Sometimes they will rub you the wrong way, and that’s actually a good thing. Because we’re never safe against the temptation of claiming God too simply as the sanctifier of whatever we most fervently desire. That’s how we end up with people proclaiming ‘white Christian nationalism,’ convinced they are talking about the kingdom of God.
We need one another, for “we must always seek the truth in our opponents’ error and the error in our own truth.”[ix] We need one another to learn courage and practice humility in the company of Jesus, to have life and have it abundantly.
[i] Mt 3:15
[ii] Mk 1:15
[iii] Lk 2:49
[iv] Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2007), 21-22.
[v] Richard Lischer, The Preacher King: Martin Luther King Jr. and The Word That Moved America (New York: Oxford, 1995), 269. I changed “Mike” to “Martin” to avoid confusion about introducing another character. I don’t think “Mike” is a typo, but “Martin” works just as well.
[vi] David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007); back cover
[vii] unChristian, 222.
[viii] Susan Andrews, Lectionary Homiletics Vol. 16, No. 1, 65.
[ix] See Obama’s Favorite Theologian? A Short Course on Reinhold Niebuhr | Pew Research Center