What Are You Looking For?

The first words out of Jesus’ mouth that are recorded in the Gospel of John are, “What are you looking for?” (John 1:38).  It occurs in the story where John is soon to baptize Jesus.  As Jesus approaches, John calls out, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”  Two who had been following John for a while start to follow Jesus, and he turns and asks them this question.

The Gospel of John is one of the masterful works of theology in all of the Bible.  It does not take long to see this.  The book begins with the theological work in the prologue talking about Word, Light, Life, Flesh, and more.  It is a magnificent piece of theological work that names Jesus as the Word of God present at Creation and now here in the flesh!  The Gospel of John is also known for its creative writing as well.  Simple words and phrases are infused with deep and powerful meaning and imagery.

So, when we read something as simple as Jesus first words spoken in the book, we hear the simple words of a man wondering why two people have started following him, but we also hear a deeply profound word about the purpose for the rest of the book.  It almost serves as a clue to those reading John’s testimony that, in reading this story, you will see and encounter Jesus, the word made flesh, the lamb of God, the savior of the world!  What are we looking for when we read the Gospel of John?  We are looking for none other than Jesus!

In some ways, I think that this is how we ought to read all of the Bible, not just the Gospel of John.  When we read, we ought to be looking for Jesus.  That seems pretty obvious, but let me try to explain a little more.  It seems logical that when we are confronted with a moral or ethical dilemma, as people of faith who believe the Bible to be the word of God, we would go to the text to look for answers. It seems to make sense as well that we would try to find the places where the Bible may address this topic specifically, and we would allow those texts to be the core of our quest to understand the Biblical teaching on the matter. There is some strength and merit to that approach and it is a common method amongst people of faith, but I think we need to be careful about it as well. What I mean is, what does the Bible reveal? Is at an ethical guideline and a moral code or is it a lens through which we see Jesus? That is a simple, either/ or question, and I understand it is more complex than that, but I think that question, “What does the Bible reveal and how does it do so?” is a critical question for all of us who seek to take the Bible seriously as a source for faith. When we read the Bible looking for a moral code, it seems to be that we are practicing a form of fundamentalism where following God means knowing and following a set of rules and dogmatic statements. That can be done without any sense of a living breathing relationship with God through Jesus, and that, as we know, is not what faith is about.

No, just as faith is not about following a moral code, reading the Bible is not about deciphering a set of rules either.  The Bible reveals to us who God is, who we are, and how God redeems that broken relationship through Jesus.  The reality is that much conflict that exists among people of faith today can, in some ways, be boiled down to differences in how we read the Bible.  They are differences of what it means for the book to be a living and inspired word.  Some want it to be like a legal code parsing each letter and phrase seeking the minutiae of each word trying to find the hidden meaning behind it all.  Some want it to be nothing more than an ancient artifact giving us insight into the history, culture, and spirituality of another time that has had a deep impact on modern life and culture.  I would like to suggest that the inspiration, the life, and the perfection of the Bible is that it shows us who Jesus is.  It points us to the son of God, the savior of the world, and it shows us that there is a better life, a new life, that comes when we follow him.

The next words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John?  After the two have responded to his question of what they were looking for by asking him where he is staying, Jesus says, “Come and see.”  Yes, indeed, come and see.  Read these words of life, and you will see the lamb of God, the Word made flesh, Jesus.