OT Reading: Isaiah 49: 1- 6
NT reading: John 1:29-42
Do you ever envy those folks who always
seem to know exactly what they are doing and why? I’m thinking about the people
who seem to be on a mission and things always seem to work out for them. And
there are the other people we may envy, the ones who always seem to know what
and how to say something. Never nonplussed, shy or nervous talking to someone, they
always say the right thing.
It can leave you wondering if you are
thinking or working hard enough. Most of us at one time or another wonder what are
we supposed to do with our life. We may fret over where we are going, and are we
going to leave a mark on the world.
Haven’t we watched friends or young
family members approaching graduation from high school struggling to figure out
the answer to that question. Because we love them and worry about them, we
might even try to help them along to a solution by asking them the question,
“What are you looking for?” Who among us has ever been a little restless with
the uncertainty or indecision at some point in our life, struggling with the same question,
“What am I looking for?” We call it the quest for self actualization, it seems
to be the mark of our age. People pay a lot of money for help with the answer
when it is already under our nose.
The Revelation of Jesus by John the
Baptist
The Gospel of John is preoccupied with two
questions, “What am I looking for?” and “How do I talk or testify about my
faith?” The first 18 verses laid out the
shape of the whole Christian landscape. The evangelist says the essence of
Jesus is the Word, the sound and signs of speaking. He introduces John the
Baptist who is looking for and proclaiming the coming of the Light of the
Messiah. He was effective because the religious leaders of the Temple sent
emissaries to him with the question, “Who are you?” They wondered is he a
prophet, perhaps Elijah himself, or even the Messiah? John the Baptist could
have said, “Yes, I’m Elijah,” to bring more attention to him like some
broadcast evangelists do today.
The temple leaders’ question, “Who are you?”
shows how easily people confused the proclaimer with the one proclaimed. He was
in a difficult spot. The evangelist who wrote John’s Gospel goes out of the way
to discourage thinking of John the Baptist in any role other than messenger of
the coming Good News. That might be why he omits any account of the baptism of Jesus.
The evangelist makes sure everyone hears this message from John the Baptist,
“Someone greater than I is coming and I am not worthy even to untie his
sandals.”
But, when Jesus does appear at the
Jordan River (v29), John recognizes him. When we dig into the actual Greek we realize
John the Baptist speaks in prophetic language of revelation to the crowds, “Look!
Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I saw the Spirit
of God descend upon him like a dove. And the one who sent me to baptize (we
know he means the Lord) told me the one on whom that dove rests brings the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, this is the Son of God.”
The Call of Ministry
The next day, Jesus returns again,
walking toward John by the Jordan River. John repeats his prophetic cry to two
of his own disciples that are standing with him (v36), “Look!” Here is the
lamb of God.” Does Jesus stop and embrace John, or acknowledge him? No he walks on, ignoring John. But John’s two
disciples, Andrew and the unnamed (beloved?) disciple, follow Jesus who turns
around and asks them, “What are you looking for?”
Let’s use our imagination here. John
the Baptist is standing with two of his more trusted or reliable disciples (they
are the only ones mentioned). Jesus walks by and recruits them! The Baptist might
naturally be a little miffed at Jesus for recruiting his disciples but we find
out in 3:29-30, that John understands the situation with humility, “My joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease.”
The Ministry Begins
This exchange with John’s disciples
describes the actual beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Let’s take it apart to
see how it unfolds because it is a model for effective ministry. First we hear John
the Baptist proclaim the identity of Jesus to his disciples. Next, the listeners
respond to Jesus by following him and he asked them the question, “What are you
looking for?” How do they reply? “Where are you staying ?” What is the response
of Jesus? “Come and see.”
Right here is a short and sweet lesson
on effective ministry. It consists of a proclamation, or testimony that compels
a response to follow and learn more. We hear the question of Jesus, “What are
you looking for?” and a response, “Where are you staying (or tell us more)?” Finally
we hear an invitation to “Come and see!”
This is a truly the example of Christian
vocation and attitude. There is no fire and brimstone preaching, no loud
sermons, just the testimony of John the Baptist to his disciples about the Word.
We can substitute “us” for John the Baptist and “our friends” for “disciples.” We
testify about the Word to our friends and invite the interested ones to “come
and see.”
What would you say are the most important
things that happened in this ministry narrative? The first is a proclamation of
the identity of Jesus, and the second is the invitation of hospitality to the
people who responded to the proclamation. We can overlook a third thing of
importance, the reaction by John the Baptist over the loss of his disciples. He
did not object that Jesus was stealing his disciples, nor did he try to out-preach Jesus to win them back, rather he adopted a humble attitude that
acknowledged that he must diminish as Jesus increases in stature and his
ministry increases.
This narrative is the prototype of effective
ministry but I’ve left out the last step of ministry. After Andrew spent time and
discovered who Jesus is, immediately he goes to his brother, Simon Peter, tells
him, “We have found the Messiah,” and brings him to meet Jesus. Now, two
thousand years after starting with Andrew and the other disciple, here we are
with 3 billion or so Christians…
All started by a simple question , …“What
are you looking for?”
That ought to be the question on the
tip of every Christians’ tongue if we believe our Christian vocation is to
follow that model of ministry proclaiming the Good News and teaching those who
hear to do the same. Our vocation is to proclaim the Good News.
Of course, the challenge we all face is
not “What are you looking for?” but “How do I do it?” We face barriers. Some
say, “I’m not comfortable ‘preaching’ or publically proclaiming my faith. I
don’t know what to say.”
We get all tangled up in those words, “testimony”
and “preaching.” We think testimony literally must be standing up and telling
people how you came to understand your Christian faith. But that idea of testimony has two pitfalls. The
first trap comes when we believe giving the testimony is more important that
having the testimony heard. This is my main complaint with our street
preachers. The other pitfall is to think testimony always means giving a sermon
or speech.
Isn’t the most powerful testimony no
more than sharing one’s experiences of simply living one’s life with a
Christian focus? This is why I regularly return to the lesson Jesus taught the
temple lawyer who sought to entrap Jesus. When asked what is the greatest
commandment Jesus responded “To love the Lord with all your heart, mind soul
and strength and the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Jesus really acknowledged those two
commandments define his and our vocation. When we live in conformity to them we
are giving the world the most powerful testimony about the Good News. No fancy
speech is necessary.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew,
in the Sermon on the Plain in Luke, Jesus has a single message, “My life is a testimony
to the glory of God and I invite you to live the same way that I do.”
Christian life really is the best testimony of faith that we have. When we walk out the front door of this
sanctuary we carry a sign that says, “Look at me, I’m a Christian. I
invite you to live the same way I do.”
It isn’t always easy at first. We are
not perfect. We get mad and say hurtful things. We argue when we should forgive.
We are hesitant to help someone we think might be freeloading. We value our
possessions and our status. No one likes to be embarrassed or humiliated. We
all do it. When we stumble we ask for forgiveness knowing that too is part of
the actual act of proclaiming what we believe. Being a Christian is the hard
work of practice, practice, practice remembering that a Christian is always in
the testifying mode.
John the Evangelist tells us there is another
part of ministry after testimony, the first commandment. It is that second
commandment: hospitality.
Hospitality has always been something
special to Christians. Jesus was criticized for his hospitality. He entertained
thieves, the physical and spiritual unclean, prostitutes, tax collectors and
the like. In the first centuries hospitality practiced the way Jesus understood
it set Christians apart.
In the Roman era, power was the great
virtue. One way to power is through those you know. Such hospitality is a
strategy of discrimination. Only invite to your home those that you can curry
favor and help you get power. You’ve heard the expression, “It is all in who
you know.”
Hospitality is more challenging than testimony.
Jesus said it is easiest to love your friends. We may not be as discriminating as
Roman, but how many of us turn down an opportunity or contact to help us get something
done?
Often we rely on our contacts for the
noblest of reasons and depth of compassion. That is what friendship is about. We
find the child’s indiscriminant hospitality inside that second commandment to
love others as we love our self. Children usually invite a new-found friend
over to play at their house just to play. They usually don’t go through all the
scheming and thinking about is this a good person to know or not, they simply
invite someone over because the like them. We do need to teach our children to be careful with hospitality
so they do not endanger themselves, but how careful are we to display Christ’s
hospitality as adults?
Many Christian writers say the modern
church is losing the habit of hospitality because we are too uncomfortable with
the religious invitation, not to our Christian friends attending church somewhere
else but to others. I’m thinking about people who have stopped attending church
because they were bored or had their feelings hurt, who are alienated against
the church because we have excluded them, who feel an emptiness and hunger and
are looking at our smiling faces wondering, “Where are you going?”
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