The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
January 16, 2005

Come, See, and Abide
John 1:29-41

What are you looking for? Have you found it yet?  

We can spend a lot of our lives chasing after something just out of reach. The next move, the next job, the next relationship. Always just ahead. Or perhaps just behind. Trying to recreate the passion you used to have for your job, for your spouse, for getting up in the morning. Hoping the future measures up to the past.  

Episcopal churches are supposed to be good at introducing their congregations to the best in culture and so, I think it only appropriate to share a poem. For, I think Jack Prelutsky captures this sense of looking to recapture a perfect past well in his poem, “We moved about a week ago.” 

We moved about a week ago,
It’s nice here, I suppose,
The trouble is, I miss my friends,
Like Beth, who bopped my nose,
And Jess, who liked to wrestle
And dump me in the dirt,
And Liz, who found a garter snake
And put it down my shirt.

I miss my friend Fernando,
He sometimes pulled my hair,
I miss my sister Sarah,
She shaved my teddy bear,
I miss the Trumble Triplets
Who dyed my sneakers blue,
And Gus, who broke my glider,
I guess I miss him too.

I really miss Melissa
Who chased me up a tree,
I even miss “Gorilla” Brown
Who used to sit on me,
The more I think about them,
The more it makes me sad,
I hope I make some friends here
As great as those I had.

—Jack Prelutsky from Something Big Has Been Here

Life is never as good as it was, or will be. We can’t be present sometimes because we are chasing that elusive perfect life. In this morning’s reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus encounters two men searching for something more. They are disciples of John the Baptist, but when Jesus comes along, they have to follow after him. Maybe this new teacher will be the one. Perhaps we’ll be able to stay with this one. 

Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” He knows these two are chasing after something. They ask, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus replies, “Come and See.”  

But what exactly did the two find? They went to see where Jesus was staying, but what about the visit caused Andrew to go and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. What sort of house did Jesus have to so amaze Andrew? Was it the mailbox that said “Messiah” over the house number? Perhaps he and his friend were stirred by the words “Lamb of God” engraved into the doorknocker at Jesus’ house. Of course not.  

The two men wanted to see where Jesus is staying. The next time we here from these two, they are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. Something more happened, but what? First, they did have the testimony of their leader John the Baptist who proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God. That’s what got them to follow Jesus to start with. They were clearly impressed as they refer to Jesus as “Rabbi,” teacher. This might be the teacher with whom they can remain.

The means to digging deeper is the Gospel’s use of some charged language. Five times in four verses, John uses the same verb. It is the Greek verb meno, which means to abide, remain, stay, live, dwell, endure, tarry, sojourn, and continue to be present.

Abide is a very important word in the Gospel of John. John uses this verb 69 times and the noun twice. John is very careful in his use of the verb abide as the word seems to carry a lot of meaning for him. I want to now show a couple of examples of how John uses the word to abide elsewhere in writings and then we’ll return to our reading for today to see what this understanding of abide shows us.

In the 15^th chapter of John’s Gospel we read:

“Abide in me as I abide in you.” —John 15:4

“If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” —John 15:7

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”
—John 15:9

In the letters from John, the same use of this word occurs.

“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” —I John 4:15-16

It should be noted that abiding is an active verb for John. When one abides, certain actions will flow out of that. John wrote “Whoever says, ‘I abide in him,’ ought to walk just as he walked.”—I John 2:6 To abide in Jesus will result in a life more and more conformed to Jesus’ life.

Now let’s return for our reading for today. By translating the word meno consistently as abide, the passage reads like this:

And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abided on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and abide is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”—John 1:32-32

When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you abiding?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was abiding, and they abided with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.—John 1:38-39

John the Baptist’s disciples wanted to see where Jesus abides. Here is what Jesus will tell them later in this same Gospel about his abode:

“In my Father's house there are many abodes. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”—John 14:2

“Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our abode with them.”—John 14:23

Asking to see where Jesus abides may have been a simple question to the two who asked it, but Jesus called them into something more. Jesus did not want to show them where he laid his head to rest; Jesus shows them how they can rest in God as he rests in God.

There is one more clue to examine. The Gospel of John does not casually refer to time. John uses references to time to teach. When you read our passage in its full context you find a date stamp for our passage that is interesting. The day after he leaves the two disciples Jesus calls Philip and then Nathanael. Three days later, Jesus is at a wedding in Cana and performs his first miracle. Weddings traditionally took place on Wednesdays at that time. Just as today few people are married today on any day but Saturday, so in Jesus’ time saying that a wedding took place, usually ties the day to Wednesday.[1]

Backtrack the four days and you find that it should have been Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. when Andrew and a friend asked Jesus where he was abiding. Israel is close enough to the equator that the sun sets very close to 6 p.m. year round. This tells us that the two men were likely hinting about spending the Sabbath with this new teacher. For if they found themselves at his house at sundown, they could not travel more than a short walk from there until the next day at sundown.

 As the text does suggest that the disciples ask to see Jesus’ abode close to sundown on the Sabbath, it is no stretch to suggest that Jesus invitation to “Come and See” comes with an implied invitation to come away to rest and pray with Jesus on the Sabbath. The two want to know where Jesus abides and where Jesus abides is exemplified in the Jewish Sabbath, a Holy time of rest and renewal in God’s presence. It is in spending that Sabbath time with Jesus that the disciples of John the Baptist come to truly be disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. No longer does Andrew have John the Baptist’s testimony alone. Andrew tells Simon Peter that he has found the Messiah.

Now if we pull together the various threads we see that this passage is about “Come and See, Go and Tell,” but the passage also says something deeper. Sure we could come and glimpse Jesus’ presence and then go on with our lives. But Jesus’ call to come and see is a call to come, see, and abide. The two disciples asked for a quick visit while hinting at something more. Jesus invited them in for Sabbath time. Jesus showed the two where he truly abides, in the Father.

The image Jesus gave his disciples of abiding was “I am the vine, you are the branches” and then to go on to describe how we are to abide in him. So abiding in Jesus is life-giving the way a vine nourishes the branches. If a branch does not remain connected to the vine, it dies. So too we require that connection to God. We need to abide in Jesus. Before we allow the rest of our lives to so demand time that we have nothing left over to give to God, we need to abide. For our spiritual rest and refreshment, we need to abide.

This is not an easy lesson for our hectic lives. It’s easier for us to chase after the next thing, or to look back to a more perfect time. But Jesus challenges us settle our restlessness and to abide in him. To abide in Jesus, we need to spend some time in scripture reading and prayer. We need to spend our busy lives aware that Jesus is with us even in the frenzied pace of life.

Most of us have movement down; we can look to the future and the past. We can keep moving. But Jesus calls us to abide, to remain, to sojourn, and to continue to be present. Jesus is already present in your heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He abides in you and he calls you to abide in him. Rest in that love God has for you.

Amen.