Happy Easter!
Whom are you Looking For?
“What/Whom are you looking for?” This is a question Jesus asks at 3 major places in John’s gospel. I thought it would be neat to highlight each of the 3 episodes, and invite you to see how that might speak to us this Easter Season.
“What/Whom are you looking for?” are the first words spoken by Jesus in John’s gospel. John the Baptist is standing with two of his disciples, and hollers at Jesus when he walks by: “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” John’s two disciples begin walking behind Jesus. Jesus turns and asks, “What/Whom are you looking for?” Jesus engages the conversation, and it turns into an invitation to Discipleship. Jesus says, “come and see.” And oh, what marvelous things they saw!
“Whom are you looking for?” is a question Jesus asks in a garden across the Kidron Valley. The Lamb of God had come, but this was the garden of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. He asks it to the soldiers who came to detain him. How amazing it is that these words can be offered in the context of both faithful discipleship and dishonorable betrayal. Yet in both instances, Jesus engages. Jesus takes the initiative. There is something powerful about that.
“Whom are you looking for?” gets posed from the lips of Jesus in another garden. John 20 is the garden of Easter morning! Mary wanders back into the garden, and one can only imagine what’s going on in her heart: sadness and grief, anger and disappointment, worry and fear, uncertainty and disillusionment. Jesus asks this question, “Whom are you looking for?” Again, Jesus takes the initiate and engages her in her perplexities. He then calls her by name, and she sees! The fulfillment of the “come and see” promise of Discipleship made so early on.
‘Whom/What are you looking for?’ is a poignant question. It seems to me to be one that Jesus asks often to engage us within all of life’s varied circumstances. In this season of renewed faith and hope in the abundant and eternal life Christ calls us to, perhaps we should take notice of our gaze? Pay attention to what get’s our attention. What are we looking for, and where are we expecting to find it? ‘Whom’ are we seeking and searching for? Who do we expect to find us where we are, and love us to where we need to be?
This Easter Season, may you find what/whom you are looking for. Better yet, trust he’s already found you, and is inviting you to ‘come and see’ the new world of possibilities laid fresh with new life.