What are we looking for?

When a car skidded on wet pavement and struck a light pole, several bystanders ran over to help the driver. A woman was the first to reach the victim, but a man rushed in and pushed her aside. “Step aside, lady,” he barked! “I’ve taken a course in first aid!” The woman watched him for a few minutes, then tapped his shoulder. “Pardon me,” she said. “When you get to the part about calling a doctor, I’m right here!”
Christ is in our midst and we can “behold” him in the most hidden acts of compassion, the most uncomplicated acts of justice, the most humble acts of reconciliation. “Come and you will see” is both an invitation and a challenge. Jesus dares us to COME – to abandon the things that deter us from the things of God; and to SEE – to focus our attention, not on our own needs and the things that the world exalts as important, but on the presence of God in the goodness and generosity all around us! It may surprise us that the first words of Jesus in the Gospel of John are a rather brusque question: “What are you looking for?” Even more surprising, maybe, is the response of the would-be disciples. We might have expected them to ask Jesus about the meaning of life, or at the very least to request some snippet of teaching from this man that the Baptist had commended to them. But instead they ask a question in return: "Where are you staying?" Perhaps that question is actually the right response for any aspiring disciple. They are not looking for answers to deep theological questions. They are not interested in philosophical speculation. They just want to be with Jesus, to stay with him, to learn from him. In short, they want to know him for who he really is. That, when you stop and think about it, is the task of anyone who wants to be a disciple! What are we looking for? If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we need to get to know him for who he really is. We may need others who know him, other witnesses, to help us. And we also need to recognize that we are witnesses too, like Andrew, whose first action as a disciple was to tell his brother!