Also John 18:4, 20:15
“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?” 1:38
I have wished, in the past that some evangelistic Christian would sit down and have a long talk with Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel fame.
I don’t know; perhaps someone has. I do not presume to know what is really going on in Simon’s heart or anything about his private life.
But the lyrics of many of his songs over the years have led me to feel that he is not far from the Kingdom of Heaven if he would only hear the gospel and come to Christ in faith to fill the void he sings about; from the tortured soul of The Boxer to the deep loneliness of the traveling entertainer in Homeward Bound to the despairing wanderer confessing, “Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping. “I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why”. America P. Simon
But their combined singing talent, which is unique and appealing, aside, I think their prolonged success is largely attributable to the endearing quality that keeps their music alive; that being, the fact that most people identify with those feelings of emptiness and lostness.
As he goes on to say in America, “…countin’ the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, they’ve all come to look for America”.
Well, whatever they’re looking for it is just in the heart and soul of mankind to be searching for something; reaching for something; wanting something to fill a void in them that they do not understand and therefore do not know what it is that is really needed to fill it.
This is not by any means an endorsement of the movie, “Bruce Almighty”, but in that motion picture the musical group, “Plumb” has a song titled, “God-Shaped Hole”, and the lyrics go like this:
“Every point of view has another angle
And every angle has its merit
But it all comes down to faith
That’s the way I see it.
You can say that love is not divine and
You can say that life is not eternal
“All we have is now”
But I don’t believe it
There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us
And the restless soul is searching
There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us
And it’s a void only he can fill
Does the world seem gray with empty longing
Wearing every shade of cynical
And do you ever feel that
There is something missing?
That’s my point of view…”
Well it should go without saying that Jesus is well aware of that God-shaped hole in the human heart because His very coming was to fix that problem; fill that void.
In Luke’s gospel we’re introduced to a man named Simeon who, according to chapter 2 verse 25, was ‘…righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel…” In other words, he like all devout Jews, was looking for the coming of the Messiah. In verse 38 of that same chapter we’re told that a woman named Anna of the tribe of Asher who recognized Him when she saw him there in the temple with His parents, from that moment on went about speaking of Him to “…all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem”.
In light of all that I’ve been saying to this point, it is very significant that Jesus would ask on numerous occasions, “What do you seek?”
NEW DISCIPLES
In the first chapter of John’s gospel is the account of two disciples of John the Baptist who are sent by him to follow Jesus by the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God”.
We’re told in verse 40 that one of the two was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. It is assumed by many that the other one might have been John, the gospel writer himself. We’re not told that in the narrative.
In any case they follow after Jesus and when He sees them following He turns and asks them this penetrating question. “What do you seek?”
Now in hind sight and with the scriptures in our hands we realize something that they, at this point, would not have been thinking about.
He knew their hearts and He knew their thoughts. He knew precisely what they were seeking, even though they almost certainly did not; at least not clearly.
So His question was designed to make them think about their own motives and intent.
Their response does not seem to answer His question and yet it does to some degree. “Rabbi, where are you staying?”
They weren’t just looking for an address. It was an expression of a desire to be with Him and to find out more about Him.
The Baptist had just told them this was the Lamb of God and they would have understood that to imply a sacrifice. The text doesn’t say they were confused about that designation and it doesn’t say they asked John to clarify himself. It says they heard his words and began to follow Jesus.
Again, we have the benefit of knowing the rest of the story. The gospels demonstrate clearly that they did not understand Jesus much of the time and were misled as to what His mission in the world was until after the fact.
So if they had stopped to ponder His question to them they might have each come up with a different response. One might have said, ‘I’m seeking the one who will deliver our nation from Roman rule’. Another might have said ‘I’m seeking to understand the scriptures better and I want to sit under your teaching’. A third might have responded with some confusion; ‘Well, I’m a disciple of John and he just indicated that it was time to follow you instead, so here I am’.
What do you seek? What are you looking for that Jesus has to give, that makes you follow Him?
Just like those two new disciples, when anyone comes to Jesus for the first time he doesn’t really know Jesus and understands very little about Him at all.
But Jesus asks, ‘what do you seek?’ and it is a question that we ought to spend a lifetime considering. If we are His, then as in any relationship there should never be an end to the pursuit of a deeper knowledge and a deeper love of the object of our affections.
Ok, so you saw Jesus and began to follow. Where He leads you aren’t quite certain of. So you need to ask His question of yourself. “What do I seek?” Because implied in that question are other questions.
“Am I prepared to follow no matter where His path takes me?”
“Will I be consistent or will I tire and turn back?”
“What will be required of me as a follower and am I prepared to give it?”
“Are ye able”, said the Master, “to be crucified with Me?” Earl S. Marlatt, 1926
What do you seek?
OLD ENEMIES
“So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” (18:4)
Before we go on to look at this next instance in which Jesus posed this poignant question, let’s just pause to be amazed once more at the divine courage.
Here comes this very large crowd that some have calculated to be numbered in the hundreds, ironically coming with torches and lanterns to find the Light of the world.
And here we remember His words in chapter 10 when He declared: “No one has taken it away from Me” (speaking of His life) “but I lay it down on My own initiative.”
And in our text it says ‘knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth, and said to them’
No wonder the elder said to John in his vision, ‘behold, the Lion from the tribe of Judah’! Rev 5:5
Has any mere man ever had such character, such nobility, such courage, to have full knowledge of the tortures of the hours to come, and though innocent, not only did not wait until He was arrested, but stepped forward to surrender? Truly, He laid His life down on His own initiative.
But look once more at the question. “Whom do you seek?”
And their response, “Jesus the Nazarene”.
The new disciples addressed Him respectfully as Rabbi, meaning Teacher. The world shows no such respect; no acknowledgement whatsoever that He is in any position to be a help to them at all.
When the people of the world, driven by the spirit of the world, go looking for Jesus, it is only that they might crucify Him again.
Every two or three years around either Christmas or Easter or both, the secular periodicals copy an artist’s rendering of a pathetic, foppish Jesus on the front of their magazine and repeat the worn out questions asking, “Who is Jesus?” “The Search for the Historical Jesus”. “Who Was Mary’s Son?”
In the end they neither acknowledge the efficacy of His atonement or His divine authority, but leave the reader with a silly, twisted picture of someone they call a ‘great teacher’, who had the charisma to draw such a large following that He still has faithful followers of His teachings even today; and in many cases before they are done they are simply setting Christ next to the demon gods of other religions as though He is just one choice among the many and saying in brief, ‘isn’t His tale just phenomenal?’
They believe they are rendering some level of honor to a great man in the same manner in which they might issue new articles about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. around the middle of January or John Fitzgerald Kennedy in late November. It is a time of year when people are thinking about the man and they need to get an issue on the stands that will sell. That is the shallow extent of their interest, and when they fail to declare Him fully they deny Him thoroughly.
Think of the Biblical accounts of those who sought Jesus for the wrong reasons.
Herod only wanted to see Him do some magic tricks.
Pilate only wanted to be certain He wasn’t a political threat to the Caesar, asking ‘What is truth?’ then foolishly walking away from Truth incarnate without an answer.
Friend, if your encounter with Jesus does not end with you worshipping Him as Lord and God; if it does not involve repentance and belief in His death and resurrection and a commitment to follow where He goes, then you are His enemy still.
When the world looks for Jesus, it is only to crucify Him anew. Therefore He asks, “Whom do you seek?” and once more they have an opportunity to ponder their motives and their intent, but belonging to the ruler of this world they once more murder Him in their hearts. And by their response to His question they only condemn themselves again.
So His children should not be surprised, when the world sees His likeness in them, to receive the same murderous treatment.
FAITHFUL FRIENDS
“Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” 20:15a
There is a gentle rebuke in this final record of Jesus asking this same question. In fact, this time it is a two-part question and it is really the first part that might have caused chagrin in Mary.
“Woman, why are you weeping?” Hadn’t she been told along with the others that He would rise on the third day and that He would meet them in Galilee?
Even the enemies of Jesus knew of this utterance and that is why they posted a guard on His tomb. Wait, wasn’t it because they thought His followers would steal the body?
No. Listen to Matthew 27:62-65
“Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.”
Then when the soldiers came and reported the missing body they made up a story about the body being stolen, bribing the guards with money and telling them to go back to their barracks and get some rest (Matt 28:11-15).
So Jesus, in asking Mary why she was weeping, was as good as reminding her she had no cause for crying when what she was witnessing was the joyful fulfillment of His declaration that after laying His life down He would take it up again.
Crying? At the empty tomb? Who was she looking for anyway? A dead man?
But let’s not be too critical of Mary. She was there looking. Even in her ignorance; her failure to understand, she was there out of love. And let’s not miss the fact that the men who had been with Him for so long were cowering in a locked room and she, a lone woman, had gone there fully expecting to be confronted by no less than six Roman soldiers.
She was a faithful friend. She was seeking her Lord. Only she was not expecting to find Him alive.
Aren’t we committing the same error when we pray, or worse yet, fail to pray, in undo distress over things the living Christ has promised He would take care of?
Who are we seeking then? A dead Messiah? Or the Lion of Judah who has overcome?
In His book, “Jesus Among Other Gods”, Ravi Zacharias recounts a story told by author Ken Gire which goes as follows.
“A little girl who lived at the edge of a forest wandered off one day into the woods and thought she would explore all the dark secrets of the forest. The farther she wandered, the denser it became, till she lost her bearings and could not find her way back. As darkness descended, fear gripped her, and all her screams and sobs only wearied her till she fell asleep in the woods. Friends, family, and volunteers combed the area and gave up in the thick of night. Early the next morning, as her father began his search afresh, he suddenly caught a glimpse of his little girl lying on a rock and, calling her by name, ran as fast as he could. She was startled awake and threw her arms out to him. Wrapped in his tight embrace, she repeated over and over, ‘Daddy, I found you!’”
Zacharias goes on; “Mary discovered the most startling truth of all when she came looking for the body of Jesus. She did not realize that the person she had found was the One who had risen and that He had come looking for her.” Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias, W. Publishing group, 2000 pg 187-188
Finally, let us take deliberate note of the irony of Jesus repeatedly asking this question of people, when in fact they don’t seek Him by their own desire at all.
In each case, with the new students, those who had been plotting His death, and even with His friends, the question was designed to make them see that they weren’t getting it.
In fact, it is He who from the beginning has done the searching and the finding and revealing Himself for all who will see.
“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” Jn 1:9-11
The scripture record shows over and over again that it has always been God looking for us when we were not looking at all and did not want to be found.
“The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.” Ps 14:2-3
Yet He came. As the anonymous poet said,
“Then came a certain time when I
Loosened my hold and fell thereby;
Down to the lowest step my fall,
As if I had not climbed at all.
Now when I lay despairing there,
Listen…a footfall on the stair,
On that same stair where I afraid,
Faltered and fell and lay dismayed.
And lo, when hope had ceased to be,
My God came down the stairs to me.”
A blending of the gospel accounts shows that it was not on the day of His baptism that John pointed Jesus out to the young disciples. It was upon Jesus’ return from His temptation in the wilderness. So apparently the only reason He showed up that day was to be seen of them so that they might follow.
When His enemies came to the garden to arrest Him it was He who walked out to them.
At the tomb as Mary stood weeping it was He who approached her.
When the disciples were locked in a room hiding from the Jews it was He who suddenly stood in their midst.
When Peter and a few others were back to their fishing it was He who stood on the shore preparing breakfast for them and calling them to come and eat.
It is He who has promised that He will return for His own to take them to the place He has prepared.
Yet, Christian, He still asks, “What do you seek?” “Who do you seek?”
Do you really ‘get it’ as much as you think you do? Are you worshiping the One who came down the stairs to us and not some idol of your own making who you want to entertain you or answer your silly questions?
His question is designed to make you think and see and understand who He really is. But for you who are His it is also an invitation to come closer and ask what you will in His name, for He longs to bring to you Himself and all that is His to give.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the World.” Jn 17:24
