March 5, 2026

Lenten Reflections 2

In John 1:35-42, two of John the Baptist’s disciples step aside from John in order to see what Jesus is up to.  When Jesus notices that they are following Him, He turns and asks, “What are you looking for?”  And they respond by saying, “Teacher, where are you staying?”

            And Jesus, not hiding anything, says, “Come and see,” in other words, come and judge for yourselves.  And they do come and see, and John tells us that they remained with Him that day.  “It was about four o’clock in the afternoon,” the text says, meaning, I think, that they probably spent the night there with Him.

            So, I am led to believe that what they were looking for wasn’t the place itself, but an indication of the character of the person they were trying to decide to follow or not.

            Now, it turns out that one of the two men is Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, who then goes and gets Simon, and Jesus here names him Peter.  And when Andrew goes to get Simon Peter, he announces that they have found the Messiah.  Presumably, it is not just because of where Jesus was staying, but also because of everything that they talked about that day, that Andrew comes to the conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah.

            And I think that Jesus’ initial question to the two men is also a question He asks of us  -  “What are you looking for?”  People have spent the last 2000 years trying to define who Jesus is, starting of course with Paul and the gospel writers, but continuing across the centuries as well.  Even today, there are many people still asking, “Who is Jesus?”

            And I think that Jesus’ question  -  “What are you looking for?”  -  is poignant, because sometimes we are looking for who we want Jesus to be, and Jesus may indeed be trying to show us the reality of just who He is. 

            Yes, Jesus is a friend, but he is the friend who calls you out when you aren’t being honest with yourself.  Yes, he is a brother, but the brother who pushes you to see how you can be even better than you are right now.  Yes, he is a teacher, offering teachings that he expects us to take seriously and to go about applying to our lives.

            So, what are you looking for?  I hope that this Lenten journey will be one of discovery and new-found depth in your relationship with Jesus.