January 18, 2026
Isaiah 49:1-7
John 1:29-42
Last week I got very excited because the Gospel text for last week included Jesus’ very first words in the Gospel of Matthew. First impressions, you know, make a big difference. I’m sure Matthew knew that as well. Which made Jesus’ first words in the Gospel somewhat, maybe not disappointing, but puzzling. “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Those words reveal somebody who thinks it’s important to do things properly, but also left me with a lot of questions.
This week I’m excited again, because now we’ve got Jesus’ first words in the Gospel of John. I was pretty sure I knew what they were, because I knew this passage included one of my favorite Jesus quotes. Wouldn’t it be great if this favorite was also the first thing Jesus said in the book?
It would have to be. Come on, then. Bring it: “Come and see.” Something that really resonates with me.
It’s a pity that he said something else before he said that.
What did Jesus say first? “What are you looking for?”
That is kind of disappointing. It seems like such a mundane, every day, meaningless question. “What are you looking for?” I ask that all the time when I see people looking lost. “The office is that way. The Building of Faith kitchen is over there. The women’s room is, for some mysterious reason, on the other side of the building.”
Audrey West writes at Working Preacher, “English translations obscure the meaning of the Greek, which is better translated, ‘What are you seeking?’ Jesus’ ministry begins not with a mighty command to silence a demon, as in Mark; nor with a sermon to the crowds who have gathered on a mountain, as in Matthew; and not with a quotation from Isaiah to proclaim his anointing for the year of God’s favor, as in Luke, but it begins with a question: ‘What are you seeking?’ What are you looking for? What do you need?“
Jesus asked a deeper, more probing, more inviting question than most of the ones asked of me, or, I suspect, of you.
It is an important question, isn’t it? If you’re going to be of any real use to someone who needs help or support, you’ve got to have some idea of what they need, don’t you? If I assume that you’re looking for the office and direct you to the Building of Faith kitchen, I haven’t helped you very much. Personally, I tend to lead with the question, “Can I help you with something?” when I see someone and I don’t know why they’re where they are, or why they’re looking about with a puzzled look on their face, or if they’re looking down at their phone and back up again at signs. Sometimes I can’t help them with anything. Sometimes they don’t need any help at all. Sometimes I get them pointed in the direction they want to go.
The direction they want to go.
Jesus asked those first two potential disciples, in essence, where did they want to go? When I think about it, it’s an odd question for, well, the Incarnation of God. Shouldn’t the personification of Divine Wisdom instead say something like, “I know which direction you should be going”? Heaven knows plenty of people who aren’t the Messiah will happily tell you exactly what to do, where to go, and how to get there, and I suspect that I’m one of those people. Come to think of it, I’m employed to be one of those people.
But if Jesus didn’t approach things that way, maybe we shouldn’t, either. What if those two followers of John weren’t really interested in the things Jesus could teach them or show them? What if they really wanted to find a ruthless military leader who would overthrow the Romans and, as often happens with ruthless military leaders, replace a callous foreign empire with a callous domestic ruler? These days, of course, we’re seeing callous local rulers being replaced by callous foreign Presidents, but the result isn’t much different.
Alternatively, those disciples might have sought a guide for a solitary, individual spiritual life. Jesus wasn’t the rebel general. He also wasn’t the model for hermits. Those two men could have told Jesus something that might have had him shake his head, point off in another direction, and say, “You need to bring that question over there.”
They didn’t really have a great answer, did they? “Where are you staying?” If this weren’t the first conversation they had with Jesus I’d think they had learned from Jesus how to answer a question with a question. “Where are you staying?” is the kind of thing you say when somebody has popped up with a question you hadn’t thought about, aren’t prepared to answer, and aren’t quite honest enough to say, “You know, I really hadn’t thought of that.”
Jesus seemed to take it to mean, “We heard what John said, and we’re curious enough to learn more.” As far as Andrew was concerned, at least, Jesus was right.
Then, at last, Jesus spoke the words that sing in my spirit: “Come and see.” Some of my favorite words in the Gospels.
As Audrey West writes at Working Preacher, “Indeed, this answer captures a primary message of John’s Gospel: If you want to know the word made flesh, come and see Jesus. If you want to know what love is like, come and see Jesus. If you want to experience God’s glory, to be filled with bread that never perishes, to quench your thirst with living water, to be born again, to abide in love, to behold the light of the world, to experience the way, the truth, and the life, to enter into life everlasting, . . . if you want to know God, come and see Jesus.”
John made sure to repeat those words. We stopped our reading this morning at verse 42. In verse 46 Philip said to Nathaniel, “Come and see.” In chapter four the Samaritan woman Jesus spoke with at the well invited her neighbors to “Come and see.” And in chapter eleven Jesus asked where Lazarus had been buried, and they told him, “Come and see.”
John knew how powerful those words can be.
“Come and see” is what you say when you’ve already had some experience and you know the value of what’s there – maybe not fully (do we ever know the full value of anything, let alone Jesus?), but enough. “Come and see” is what you say when somebody doubts that what you’ve described can be as wonderful as you say. “Come and see” is what you say when you know that words aren’t sufficient. “Come and see” is what you say when you believe someone can benefit from something but they’ve got to take part in it for it to happen.
Come and see the flower that’s just blossomed. Come and see Tutu Pele dance. Come and see the baby that’s just joined our family. Come and see this new sport I’m enjoying (which is probably pickleball). Come and see this experience of the spirit I’ve found in the worship of God. Come and see… Jesus.
When it comes to inviting people into the community of Jesus Christ, there’s no substitute for the words, “Come and see.” I can (and do) describe the blessings of Christian faith outside these walls. But how will anyone know whether those blessings will fill the hollows in their souls unless they come and see?
They’ve got to come and see.
Jesus was right (which shouldn’t surprise me much) to lead with the question, “What are you looking for?” There’s no point in saying, “Come and see” Christian faith to someone looking for a place that sells hamburgers. What are you seeking? Ah. You’re hungry for something deeper than fast food. Now: Come and see.
As Debie Thomas points out at JourneyWithJesus.net, the question “What are you looking for?” and the invitation “Come and see” are for everyone, including those of us who’ve lived and worked in this faith for years. She writes, “Looking. Seeing. Finding. These are the things we are called to do, not once, but over and over again as Christians. This is the heart of discipleship – not to hasten the end our search, but to pursue it ever more deeply and intentionally. To cultivate a willingness to look. A willingness to see and be seen. A willingness to tell the truth about what we have found. A willingness to venture forth again, even when we don’t know where ‘home’ is.”
There’s our invitation. An invitation to ask others what they need, what they seek, what they want to find. An invitation to extend an invitation so that they can come and see for themselves. And an invitation that’s renewed not just from us but to us, to look, to seek, and to find each day.
To look, to seek, and to find our Savior, Jesus.
Amen.
by Eric Anderson
Watch the Recorded Sermon
Pastor Eric makes changes while preaching, so what he said does not precisely match the text he prepared.
The image is from Chronicles of the Holy Scriptures by W. G. V. D. Hulst (1960) – Koleksi Wikimedia Indonesia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133886029.
