What, Why, What, What?

John 1: 35-39, Luke 2:46-49, Mark 10:35, 36, 49-51

 

 

          Questions. Who, what, where, when and why. These are the questions any good journalist seeks to answer in order to write a story. This is the method to find answers. If you’re good at it, you get the who, the what, the where and the when and that tells you the why. Many of us spend most of our lives trying to get such answers. Why am I here? What am I looking for? What’s the point of it all?

          The first words of Jesus in the gospel of John are in the form of a question. The day after Jesus is baptized by John, he walks by John, who is standing with two of his disciples. John says: Look, it’s the Lamb of God. The two disciples start to follow Jesus. We are told that one of them is Andrew. The other is speculated to be John, but we really don’t know that. Jesus turns around to see them following him and asks them: “What are you seeking.”

          Turn to Luke’s gospel. Jesus is a twelve year old with his family in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Feast of the Passover. They are probably traveling in a caravan of pilgrims and many would have had their own families with them. So it would not have been uncommon for the older children to congregate away from their parents. In this way, Jesus goes missing, but his absence is only discovered after a day’s journey. At that point, his parents turn back to find him. After another day to get back and three days in Jerusalem, they find Jesus in the Temple. They are astonished and amazed. But they are also parents of a twelve year old boy who has been missing for five days. When they confront Jesus, he has this to say by way of explanation: “Why were you looking for me?”

          Mark’s gospel offers the question that in many ways is the intersection of the first two questions. What are you seeking and Why were you looking for me merge into “What do you want me to do for you?” And at the end of Chapter 10 of Mark, we hear Jesus ask the question not only of his disciples, but of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.

          First, James and John approach Jesus with a request. They frame it generically, but Jesus dodges the open ended approach. He asks the question: “What do you want me to do for you?” Later, a blind man asks for mercy. Jesus calls him and asks the same question. The man is healed because of his faith.

          What’s it all about? This life we lead, where does it go? Is there supposed to be meaning? What is my job? Am I sent here and if I am, for what purpose? The journalist asks who, what, where, when. When she gets all the answers, she puts it all together to answer why. Why do people do the things they do? Why don’t we do the things we mean to do? Why? “What are you seeking? Why were you looking for me? What do you want me to do for you?”

          In the passage from John, the evangelist who is famous for using double entendres has Jesus asking two would-be disciples: What are you seeking? These two seek their teacher. In the Jewish tradition of that time, they seek to bind themselves to one who speaks the truth. What are you seeking? asks Jesus. John is stirring the pot. He’s not just talking about Andrew and his friend. He wants us to ask not only what we are seeking, but whom. He wants us to look for the why that will send us on a journey for life. John is not just talking about spending quality time with Jesus. He’s talking about apprenticing ourselves to the Master.

          Perhaps these two men have been looking for their reason to be. They are young; working in their family’s fishing business. Maybe they have other aspirations. Maybe they yearn for money or power. Whatever their motivation, chances are that it is selfish. But they look for leadership, a role model, a hero, someone to whose star they might attach. So these would-be disciples answer his question with one of their own: “where are you staying?” The implication is that they want more than an interview. They want the full baptism. They want to follow him in all its implications. And as they will find out only too well, the implications are considerable. He is about to take these young men on a journey not toward wealth and fame, but toward God. What are you seeking? asks Jesus.

          Luke gives us the story of the twelve year old Jesus in the temple, sitting among the teachers. It is a foreshadowing of things to come. His concerned parents chastise their son for what looks like carelessness or disobedience. Jesus responds with a question that strikes to the essence of their search. Why were you looking for me? On one level, it seems impudent to ask such a question of his parents. But Jesus is not on that level. He has gone to another plane. The emphasis has shifted. For the first time in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is the subject of the action. When the scene opens, Jesus accompanies his parents. By the time it closes, Luke tells us that they accompanied him back to Nazareth.

          What did you expect? he might have said. I am only your son physically. And what are you looking for? Are you looking for me because you think I’m lost? Do you really want to find me? Look more closely and you will see me as I really am and what I mean to you.

          This is the son of God, looking at a crossroads in his life. While he will remain obedient to his earthly family, he has already left the building. Robert Ismon Brown puts it this way: “This Jesus who asks ‘Why are you looking for me?’ actually wants to know the answer from us in precisely the place we find ourselves, even if  responding to him feels embarrassing, as perhaps it might have felt to Mary and Joseph in the Temple that day.” Do you hear Jesus talking to you? What are you looking for?               

          When we look more closely at the first passage from Mark, it’s not hard to see ourselves. James and John, young and cocky, so much so that they are called the “sons of thunder”, come to Jesus and say: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” It’s like asking for a blank check. It’s no surprise that Jesus countered, wanting to know what they really wanted. They have found Jesus, but having found him, they are at a loss as to what they really want from him. How familiar is that! The task of our lives is not so much to find Jesus, as many of us have accomplished that. It is, rather, what we want from him. Do we want something to which we have affixed our dreams and aspirations? Or do we aspire to kingdom things? What does being with Jesus really mean? There is a cross in Jesus’ future. There is a cost to discipleship.

          Bartimaeus dares to say what he means and dares further to believe that Jesus is quite possibly who he says he is. Bartimaeus, an outsider, has better vision without sight than do the disciples, the insiders, with sight. Think back to our text from John where Jesus invites Andrew and his companion to “come and see.” The vision to which Jesus is referring does not require eyes.

          Discipleship. The two disciples had faith and acted on it by following and responding to Jesus’ invitation. Bartimaeus had faith and acted on it. His faith made him well. Neither acted knowing the outcome. They just acted on faith. James and John, insiders without perception, had to wait and watch to find out about faith. Jesus’ own parents did not understand. Jesus challenged them to take a real look not only at him, but also at themselves. Sometimes you have to take a step back to see what is right in front of you.

          Bartimaeus had an answer for Jesus. “Rabbi, I want to see” He understood the question and he was ready with the answer. Mark tells us that he recovered his sight and he followed Jesus on the way.   

          Jesus asks us: “What do you want me to do for you” Are you ready? Do you have an answer for him? “What are you seeking? Why were you looking for me? What do you want me to do for you?” In all the questions from Jesus, he is giving us an invitation. He wants us to follow on the way.  Jesus asks what are you seeking, why were you looking, what do you want from him. He asks us these questions and he is standing right there in front of us.

          There he is. Jesus is both the question and the answer. Do you have the vision, not of Joseph and Mary, not of James and John, but of blind Bartimaeus? Can you see?

          What do you want him to do for you?