During these weeks between Epiphany and the start of Lent, we are exploring the gifts of God that keep on giving. Gifts that may not seem like gifts at first glance. Gifts that only God can give. And this week it is the gift of curiosity.
My mother liked to talk about how I would drive her crazy when I was young, by always asking, “Why?” I guess, like a lot of children, I just wanted answers.
I was very curious. Not terribly adventurous – I was cautious about where I went and what I did. But, you find out, curiosity will sometimes lead you right into great adventures.
Think of Moses. Out in the wilderness with the sheep when he sees something unusual in his peripheral vision. It’s a bush that seems to be in flames. Moses was curious; he wanted to know why this was happening, and so he went near to examine this strange thing. That was the beginning of the end of Moses’ normal, boring life and the start of a great new adventure. Not only for him, but all of Israel.
But what if Moses had lacked the curiosity to take a closer look at the bush? How sad.
It’s actually a common tale in the scriptures – a tale of curiosity. Consider all the people who did not run away and hide when the angels appeared. The shepherds in the fields who took up the invitation to go see the newborn child in the manger. Mary, who listened calmly to the angel, asked a question for clarification, then said, “Okay. Let it be.”
Curiosity is a very good thing to have. Curiosity is what led these two disciples of John to break off and start following Jesus. It was John who drew their attention to Jesus in the first place. “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” John said to them, and these guys were off.
I think it is unlikely that either of these men were expecting such a turn of events that day. They had neither planned nor prepared for it, but their curiosity led them.
It is a strange series of events we hear about in this text. Something surprising happened when John’s disciples heard him say, “Behold, here is the Lamb of God.”
Now, Lamb of God was not a title. There was no reason why John’s disciples would have recognized the term and known what it meant. It’s actually an odd name for John to call Jesus. A lamb is meek, mild. Maybe not too smart or too strong. We don’t think of lambs as leaders, do we? We don’t envision ourselves following a lamb.
There is really only one thing they would have associated with the phrase Lamb of God.
This goes back to the book of Exodus, when Israel was enslaved in Egypt. The story says that God visited ten plagues on the Egyptians to compel the Pharaoh to release the Israelites from their slavery. Frogs, locusts, boils, and so on. The final plague being the death of the firstborn sons of Egypt. And so, the story goes, the Israelites were instructed to sacrifice a lamb, and then smear the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses. When the angel of death saw the blood he would pass over that house, sparing them. This is remembered every year in the celebration of the Passover.
Because of this, all of Israel knows what a lamb represents – sacrifice.
Nonetheless, these two men, disciples of John, followed Jesus. They didn’t know anything about him and, I suppose, they didn’t really know why they were following him. They could not have understood then just what the phrase Lamb of God could have meant about Jesus. Nonetheless, they followed.
When he noticed them he asked, “What are you looking for?” That was a really good question, but they didn’t have a good answer. The truth was, most likely, they didn’t know what they were looking for. How many of us do know what we are looking for? In fact, someone said to me, “I really need some guidance to be able to answer that question.” Most of us don’t know enough to know what we are looking for. So these two men answered his question with their own question – “Where are you staying?”
Which sounds like a non sequitur. And not a very smart question. But let’s give them credit for fumbling through it, staying in the conversation, staying open to whatever might happen next. “Where are you staying,” they asked Jesus.
And it might actually be a better question than it sounds, because in that question, we might hear –
May I go with you?
Can I know who you are?
Will you be my teacher?
Jesus answered them, “Come and see,” which is another way of saying, “Yes.” Come and learn about me, come and work with me, come and begin a new life with me. And they did. One of these two was Andrew, the brother of Simon. The first thing he did after spending some time with Jesus was to go find his brother Simon and say to him, “Come – we have found the Messiah.” And Simon went with him.
And when they arrived, Jesus said to Simon, “You will be called Cephas,” which is translated Peter.
Peter, the rock on whom Christ would build his church. This church.
You don’t know, when you say yes to the call, where it will lead you. When I joined the Presbyterian Church, I certainly didn’t know that I would, within a couple of years, be called to serve as a Director of Christian Education for the congregation. And I sure did not know when I said yes to that call that God would soon be calling me to pastoral ministry.
You know, one thing leads to another. But God always knows the plans God has for us. Sometimes it involves some pretty tall orders – ask any of the Hebrew prophets, they knew all about that.
Another person who knew all about how hard the call of God could be was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. It is his life we remember this weekend with gratitude. King was a person who had to stay curious. No matter what happened to him, no matter how much cruelty others threw at him, he kept his heart open, he practiced compassion. There were so many who regarded him with hate, but he responded with love. I don’t think there is any possible way to do that without curiosity about people and a desire to understand them, to know their heart.
God simply asks us to come and see, to be curious … to trust … to take the next step with Jesus.
From that first step, each day is another yes, another step in the life of discipleship. We don’t know where that life will take us, but the only way we will stay on the path is to greet each day with a heart and mind that are open. Curious. Willing to be formed into the shape of Christ.
What about you? Would you call yourself curious? Are you willing to learn and be changed by what you learn?
When Jesus asks you, “What are you looking for,” will you be bold enough to try and tell him?
When Jesus invites you to, “Come and see,” will you trust enough to go, taking that next step?
No matter what else your call entails, at its most basic, the call of Jesus is about following this particular way that he will show you. And you will see this is a way that leads with love.
May you stay curious. May you stay on the Way. And may you always lead with love.
No comments:
Post a Comment