John
1:43-51
Did you
notice how the Gospel reading begins? It says, “The next day.” Don’t you wonder
what happened the day before? … What happened the day before is: John the Baptist
pointed to Jesus and identified him as the Lamb of God. Jesus then recruited
Andrew and his brother Simon Peter. Jesus said to them, “Come and see
what I am doing.” And they spent the afternoon with him.
In
today’s reading, Jesus recruits more followers: Philip and Nathanael. Philip is
easy; he is excited about Jesus. Nathanael is another story altogether. “Can
anything good come from Nazareth?” It seems there is some skepticism in his
voice. If this happened today, we might suggest Nathanael was from Missouri,
the Show Me State. “Yeah, right,” he says.
Rather
than being offended by this remark, Jesus chuckles and says, “Here is someone
who speaks his mind!” Now, Nathanael is curious. “You’ve never met me before.
How do you know anything about me?” And Jesus tells him. “I saw you over
there, sitting under the fig tree.”
Jesus
has Nathanael’s full attention and Nathanael confesses, “You are the Son of
God. You are the one we have all been waiting for.” Jesus continues, “Follow me
and you will see some amazing things. Come
and see.”
“I saw
you.” “Come and see.” Aren’t these the words we want to hear from God? Don’t we
all want to know that God sees us and knows what is happening in our lives? And
don’t we want to know that if we follow Jesus, we will see amazing things
happen?
I’ve
been following Jesus for a long time, and I haven’t seen thousands of people
fed with a few loaves of bread. I haven’t seen instantaneous healings. I
haven’t seen anyone walk on water or make a storm stop. If we are looking for
these miraculous things to happen, we will probably be waiting a long time.
But, if
we pay attention, we can see little miraculous things happening all the time.
It involves opening our eyes and seeing what is to be seen. Let’s watch this
video, and talk when it is over.
What
kind of miracles did the young man see? …
He feeds a dog, helps a poor girl
go to school, helps a woman with her heavy cart, gives bananas to a neighbor,
he gives up his seat on the and waters a plant. And he spends time in prayer.
He tells them with his actions,
“I see you.” The merchants who see what he is doing are as skeptical as
Nathanael, shaking their heads at this “foolishness”. But the young man
persists, and soon everyone is smiling and happier.
The
young man sees the needs of people in his community and does what he can to
make their lives better. At Our Saviour Lutheran Church, we work hard to see
those in need. The food pantry, the various collections of stuff and money, the
intentional effort to send our youth to camp, the lively conversations over
small and large topics, the serious effort to make everyone who walks in the
door welcome – these are all ways in which we – the people of Our Saviour – see
people.
We
learned to see this way from Jesus, who spent his ministry years seeing
people. He saw Andrew and Simon and Philip and Nathanael and called them
to follow him. He saw hungry people and fed them. He saw the fear
of the disciples and stilled the storm. He saw the wrong-headedness of
the Jewish leaders and challenged them to change. He saw the needs of
people weighed down by the pain of sin and forgave them. He saw the belief
that death was the end of our relationship with God and changed everything by
being raised from the tomb.
While we
wish that Jesus would speak one word and heal our illnesses, and end war,
poverty, and climate change, he is not going to do that. Instead, he leads us
to follow him so we can be his hands and feet and arms and mouth in our world.
He leads us to see what needs to be seen, so together we can change the
world.
Jesus sends
prophets to help us see when we grow too used to the way things are. In
recent decades, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Cesar
Chavez, and Rosa Parks, Princess Diana, and a bunch of brave women in the
#metoo movement, have all taught us to see the various needs of people of our
time and place. Jesus sees us, and calls us to follow him in seeing through his
eyes those people and situations that are in need of healing.
… Jesus is
present with us in our worst times. Through Jesus’ Spirit, we know that Jesus
sees us, really sees us. Jesus sees when we are happy, when we are in love,
when we are being bullied or ridiculed, when we are ill, when we are on our
knees in pain.
Today,
and for the last few weeks, Spirit has been with us as we have grieved Paul’s
death. We still expect to see him here among us, and are stunned to remember
once again that he is gone.
Before
that, Jesus saw Paul’s pain that he so carefully hid. I believe that as Paul
transferred from this world to the next, he saw Jesus reach out to
welcome him and comfort him. In Jesus’ arms, Paul could find the healing he
needed.
Know,
today, that Jesus sees us. He sees our pain and confusion and grief. He
sees the empty chair where Paul used to sit. He wants to wipe away our tears
and tell us that he loves us, and that everything is going to be different, but
it will be ok.
… The
psalmist assures us that there is nowhere we can go that God doesn’t go with
us. God knows us and has known us, sees us and has seen us, from before we were
born until after we die. God will continue to know us and see us no matter what
happens, no matter where we go, no matter what we do.
In
response, let’s try to see the people around us through God’s eyes, noticing
those little things Jesus would have us see. Let’s see the hungry, sad, “other”
person. Let’s follow the model expressed by the young man in the video, who saw
lots of little things and worked to make a difference in the lives he
encountered each day. Let’s be as excited as Philip to tell others to “Come and
see” Jesus, the Son of God, by sharing with them that Jesus sees them, too.
Amen
