"Come And See"

 

“Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God! The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

 

“And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, What do you seek? They said to Him, Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are you staying? He said to them, Come, and you will see. So they came and saw where Jesus was staying…” John 1:35 – 39a.

 

Ought not our message to eternally be, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”? What would the professing church look like if this were our message? This message, that of the glorious Lamb, is the only message than saves sinners, heals the brokenhearted, sets prisoners free, and transforms men and women into the fulness of the image of God. This is the only message that is relevant to every headline, every need of mankind, every sorrow, every trouble, every conflict, and every fear.

 

How could there be room for dissension within a congregation that hears such preaching and teaching, and that finds its koinonia in the Lamb? How could there be division within the professing church were we to look to the Lamb, proclaim the Lamb, and follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:1 – 5)? How could we not be overcomers were we to live out of our identity in the Lamb, with the Lamb living in us – individually and as His People? How could there be inequity in the Catholic Body of Christ on earth, were we to follow the Lamb wherever He goes?

 

O dear friends, what a great gulf exists between marketing ourselves, our churches, our ministries – and the Gospel of “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” What a deep chasm it is between a therapeutic “gospel” in which our needs are the center of gravity, and the eternal proclamation of “Behold the Lamb!”

 

Is there a more important question to ask Jesus Christ, the Lamb, than “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Ought not our desire every morning to be to follow Jesus? To seek where Jesus is to be found when we awake, and as we live every moment of every day? Ought not we to be continually “Looking unto Jesus” (Heb. 12:2)?

 

O but how distracted we are in this distracted world! We are distracted by the 24/7 news. We are distracted by the false idea that we must have a relevant response to whatever the world thinks is important, no matter how eternally irrelevant it may be. We are distracted by faddish “Christian” teaching which changes colors like a chameleon. We are distracted by our insatiable curiosity. We are distracted by “success,” by money, by materialism, by self-glory, by pleasure and affluence. We are distracted by political power.

 

Who is there who will behold the Lamb and call others to behold Him? Dear, dear friends, when the Lamb is in our midst we will be on our faces, and as the song says, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

 

The man or woman or child who learns to live in the New Jerusalem now, will feel quite at home when that City comes in its fulness. May the Lamb ever be our Light, our radiant Light, by which we see all things.

 

Jesus bids us to “Come and see” where He is (John 17:24) – may this be our Way of Life.