John 1:35 - 42
I was speaking with a grandson recently about logic. His point, if I can condense it, was that simple arguments work better than complicated ones. In other words, it’s easier to argue against murder than that God is trinitarian. But I got to thinking, we have a lot of arguments going on all the time, simple and complex; right now there is a great divide in our country over how the government should run. In our church we have people who have all kinds of reasons to feel that Pope Francis is a heretic, and others who think he is finally a breath of fresh air for our church. After all, he wants to take care of the planet and has proclaimed “Who am I to judge?” And of course if you go to facebook or twitter you can find raging arguments that sometimes go on for weeks or months. And I think arguments by themselves never change anyone’s mind.
In the Old Testament our heroes, the patriarchs, the good kings, the prophets, are described as living in expectation, waiting on what God plans to do next. And when Israel falls away, or when her rulers apostatize, it’s because they stopped waiting, their thinking became fossilized. They wanted a predictable god, not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who was always surprising -- and if you wanted that God, you had to, like Saint Joseph, be ready to change, be ready to wake up and do what you were told to do in a dream. And in a sense, that’s what is happening in this gospel story.
You see, John has been preaching and has attracted several disciples. A disciple is not just a member of a fan club; he is someone who has decided that for a time, he will allow another person to change him. He has stepped out of his comfort zone and although he doesn’t know where he will end up, he has concluded that something is missing in his life and he will disciple himself to someone who seems to have answers. Being a disciple means being willing to change because of faith in the person to whom you are discipled, not because of carefully reasoned arguments.
Andrew and the other disciple have sought out John because they want to change, and John is responsible for their deciding to follow Jesus. And when Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” their answer is “where are you staying?” That never made much sense to me until I thought, they are asking to be his disciples, because a disciple lived with his master, looking after his needs while they sat at his feet and learned from him. And Jesus’ answer makes sense in this context as well -- he invites them to become disciples. “Come and see,” he says. Now imagine this conversation is modern times. Jesus would say, “What do you want?” and they would say, “We would like to get a degree in theology”. And he would reply, “Here’s an application, and I will need ten percent of the tuition up front.” In other words, the conversation is all in the head, not in the heart, and I doubt that Andrew and his friend would be much different after they got the degree.
In our time, though, we seem to have lost what Andrew and his friend had -- the recognition that there is something lacking in our lives and more importantly, doing something about it becomes our highest priority. Because what we usually do when we feel something is lacking is we go to our old favorites -- getting stuff, doing things that feel good, making ourselves the center of attention, or doing something that makes us feel in control -- our old friends, possession, pleasure, popularity and power. Because these are all cleverly designed to quench that feeling that something is lacking in our lives.
When you read about Jesus’ first disciples, especially in the gospel of Mark, you are struck by how they keep misunderstanding Jesus. But they don’t leave, they keep coming back, because they trust that only he has the answers to that inner hunger, that inner sense that there must be more to life. Contrast that attitude with our society today, where despite all the noise, people are never moved to change themselves because of logic, clever arguments, or even screaming; in fact this behavior usually results in both sides becoming less able to change, and each retreating into a silo where there circle becomes smaller and smaller, and more and more thinking the same thoughts.
Jesus seems to be telling Andrew and his friend that he doesn’t have answers; he is the answer. And it’s interesting that the same day Andrew decides to become a disciple of Jesus, he goes to his brother and says, “We have found the Messiah” -- and then brings him to Jesus. Andrew is speaking from his commitment, not from experience, logic, or divine revelation. He has decided that being Jesus’ disciple is his priority, and has put his faith in the person, not the words, not the miracles, not his own personal experience.
Jesus is still inviting you and I to “come and see”. But if we want to be his disciples we have to be willing to let him change us. Are we really up for that?
