Scripture Reading

John 1: 35-42

Sermon Text

I’m going to talk about life in general and also life of disciples, discipleship. Those two are related. What kind of life is a meaningful life? Desirable life? But at the same time, as Christians, we are following Jesus and discipleship in life is connected. It can’t be separate. They are all related to each other. So I’m going to talk about that today. What kind of life is meaningful life, maybe a life with a purpose? If you have a goal for your life, and if you have worked so hard towards that goal, can we call that life a meaningful life and wonderful life? I think so. Such life is better than having no goal at all. My question is: it doesn’t matter what kind of goal you have for your life? What kind of goal do you have for your life? If our goal for life is nothing but money, can we call that life meaningful and desirable?

What is a meaningful life? 
It will be too pathetic to measure the worth of one’s life, the precious life, by how much money he or she has made. Not only that in terms of a life goal, I’ve seen many people who’s live’s goal was set by others, set by others expectations, not by their own seeking. For example, we follow the goals set by our parents or our close friends, not by our own searching and own discovery. In order to reach that goal., even though it is set by others, we work hard and all that. But in the end, we will realize that we have lived someone else’s life.

What is meaningful life to you? When we look at the two disciples of John, the Baptist in today’s text, we will say they had a clear sense of their life’s goal. What was their life goal? Their life’s goal was to meet,the Messiah and be part of the new world that the messiah will bring about. When John the Baptist saw Jesus was passing by, he said, look, here’s the lamb of God. The title “lamb of God” is for Jesus as Messiah, who will offer himself as a perfect sacrifice in obedience to his divine father. So lamb of God is a title that signifies Jesus, as Messiah. As soon as the two disciples heard him saying that they followed Jesus. Today’s scripture is short, but the questions and answers are a little strange. So let’s go through that. As soon as the two disciples heard him saying that, they followed Jesus. What we can see from this is that the two disciples of John the Baptist had a clear sense of what they wanted to follow in their life. That is to follow the Messiah. Once they found the Messiah, without hesitance, they left John the Baptist and followed Jesus.

Jesus as the purpose for our lives 

When Jesus saw them following him, he asked this question: what are you looking for? Don’t you find Jesus’s question a bit strange. Jesus, didn’t say welcome, Welcome to me. Or where have you been? He didn’t say that, Jesus asked what they were looking for.  Can’t he see that they were following him already? But when I looked into the original meaning of the word “look” I realized that the reason why Jesus asked that question, the original meaning of the word look has a deeper meaning: to seek and to desire. Jesus was not merely asking, what do you want from me? But asking for their purpose. In other words, Jesus was asking them, what is your reason? What is your purpose of following me? Then the two said to Jesus: Rabbi, where are you staying? So strange, right? It’s not logical. It is so hard to understand these conversations. So again, I had to look into the original of meaning of the word “stay”. And I realized the two did not ask for the physical address of Jesus, per se, but wanted to know where Jesus was so that they could be with him. The word stay in original languages called “mano” means to stay and to dwell. But it has deeper meanings – like the presence of Jesus or the life itself of Jesus. So what they wanted to say to Jesus was: I want to know where you are so I can want to be with you, and I want to learn from you. That’s already there in the question.  In other words, they are saying: Jesus, you are the sole purpose of my life. When Jesus knew about their desire to truly follow him. He said to this, to them: come and see. Come and stay with me and see for yourself, feel for yourself, understand for yourself and live an authentic life for yourself.

Henri Nouwen also talks about discipleship in this way. Following Jesus means to give our own unique form, our own unique incarnation to God’s love to follow Jesus means to live our lives. As authentically as he lived his. It means to give away our ego and follow the God of love as Jesus showed us how. So “come and see” was Jesus’s invitation to those who want to follow Jesus and live their life authentically. If you want to live your life authentically, we need to find Jesus. We need to find Jesus. Jesus is saying, if your goal is to follow me, come to me and learn from me. We find a similar invitation in the gospel of Matthew: come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light.

Following Jesus transforms us 
Just meeting Jesus, finding Jesus will not guarantee zero pain, zero troubles in our lives, but there’s something we can learn from him. As he lived his life authentically, we will adapt that, we will learn that and it will become our attitude towards our life. Jesus will never force anybody to follow him. He will never do that, he will only extend a simple invitation to follow him. If we want to truly follow Jesus invitation of “come and see” there must be a movement, spiritual movement, psychological or physical movement. From one point to the other, such movement has many implications – leaving one’s world and entering into another world. Leaving the world I know, and entering into the world I do not know. Leaving behind the past and moving into the future. Leaving behind the failures and regrets and entering into a new future with new hope. Historian, Arnold Toynbee, uses the terms detachment and transfiguration to describe this same process. Just like last Sunday’s message. We need to go into the wilderness to be changed and to be renewed.

The movement is leaving me, myself, behind and coming to Jesus. When we say”I come to Jesus and I want to follow Jesus, but live only for myself”, we haven’t truly followed through the invitation of come and see. Without departure, there’ll be no arrival. In this sense, life of discipleship is constantly leaving myself behind and constantly arriving at Jesus. Once we have come to Jesus, then we can see for ourselves, experience for ourselves.

Jesus was totally different than John The Baptist. Jesus did not shout like John the Baptist. John the Baptist is used to shout: “repent, repent you brood of Vipers!” Jesus did not provide fixed answers to those who followed him. Jesus lived with them and showed them how to live life authentically. And that’s why Jesus said simply: come and see. Only when we follow Jesus and only when Jesus is our sole purpose for life, we’ll be able to live our life authentically. One can find oneself only in Jesus, and that’s one meaningful life.

Our unique invitation to follow Jesus 

I was born and raised in a Christian family. However, I used to be a Sunday believer. I did not take my faith seriously as I grew up. However, I never denied the existence of God since God should be somewhere out there. But God that God was a conceptual God, an unmovable and untouchable God. I was just a churchgoer on Sundays. When I went to university in Korea, the same pattern continued. But when I was in the third year, joining this officer cadet program, I met a friend who was such a devoted Christian. I did not want to reveal my identity as Christian to him, I would feel really embarrassed back then. I had this wrong understanding of being a Christian. Anyways, he discovered that I was Christian and he kept inviting me to this Christian meeting at campus.  He was so persistent, but not aggressive, so, I finally decided to drop by at this campus Christian meeting one night. That very night when I attended the student meeting, people there welcomed me and treated me like a prodigal son. The friend who invited me and cared for me while I was in university, his name is Sung Hyun Cho, and I will not forget him. Since I came to Canada, as soon as I was discharged from the military service, I heard tragic news about him. A few years later, he lost his life during helicopter training in the army. The helicopter went down and he died from that accident – It was March 17th, 1992. He was married at the time and his wife was pregnant. The boy, who was born in the same year, is now turning 24 years old. I totally forgot about him and his death altogether by living this busy immigrant life but when I decided to study in seminary in 1999, all of a sudden his memory came back to me. Hey, just come and see. Only once is enough. His voice is still ringing in my heart.

What is meaningful life? Upon hearing the invitation of Jesus “Come and see”, if we actually walk towards Jesus every day and live an authentic life as Jesus did – I think this is a meaningful life. I’m not saying that everybody should be a minister or something else, but living an authentic life is only possible when Jesus becomes our life, go and walk towards him. Walk with him day by day, no matter what kind of job or profession we may have, we can live our life authentically when Jesus is our goal and when we walk with him daily. Henry Nouwen talks about the same thing here, following Jesus does not mean imitating Jesus, copying his way of doing things. If we imitate someone, we are not developing an intimate relationship with that person because so often we follow into this misunderstanding, just trying to copy, not trying to live my life authentically. My friends, those who follow Jesus invitation will experience amazing things in life. Andrew, who was one of the two disciples who followed Jesus, said to his brother, Peter, that “we have found the Messiah”. He discovered, he met his own Messiah and Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. Today’s Scripture doesn’t say it, but he must have said come and see just once. We can see that those who found Jesus will introduce Jesus to others.

Share God with others 
When we are arriving at Jesus, we will realize that God is not just for me. We cannot possess God. God, is much, much bigger than me and we want to share that God with others. That is the spiritual flow of the people who have met Jesus and have Jesus as their life’s goal. What did Jesus say to Peter in today’s text? Jesus said to Peter: you are Simon son of John, You are to be called Peter. There’s a similar story in Matthew, Jesus said to Peter: blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church. And the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be lost in heaven. Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Because of Andrew’s seeking and desire to be with Jesus, Peter was invited to Jesus and Peter received great blessings from Jesus.

This year, we are sending a team to South Africa in August. We have three weeks to go. The purpose of this short term mission is the same. Our purpose for the mission is not exercising any power or authority over the vulnerable people of South Africa, but witnessing the love of God to the people of South Africa. They don’t have this sense of hope, that’s why they are always talking about past stories. We want be witnesses for them that Jesus is our hope. We will invite them with the same attitude, Come and see, and let them meet with Jesus and walk with Jesus and have their life authentic life with Jesus.

When we truthfully share our testimonies and witness Jesus, whom we met, I believe the Holy spirit will touch their hearts and heal their hearts. I remind our team members constantly that being who you are in front of God is way more important than what you can do or what you can say. It doesn’t really matter how much you can say or do, but who you are before God is much more important. This is what it means not to copy Jesus; to live authentically and to give our own unique incarnation to God’s love. When we can say to others “Come and see”, that will be a true blessing and we would be living a meaningful life.

Invite other to “come and see” 
We are living not just for oneself, but for others; that’s one true, meaningful life. Simple but enough phrase: come and see. when people listen to us, listen to this simple invitation and follows Jesus, we will never know what kind of things will happen to them. God is much, much greater than we think. My friends, how are you? Where is your life heading to? I hope that all of us can begin this journey to Jesus and be able to say “come and see” to the people around us. When we say earnestly “come and see” to others, I pray that may God touch their hearts and lead them to the Lord. Such life is a blessed life and a meaningful life. What more can we ask for? We have six months left this year before it is all gone. Let’s try one thing together, just one thing. Let us invite just one person this year to the church by saying “come and see”.

Let us pray for that person and simply see for that moment to say. And witness “come and see”. This year’s slogan is” Pressing on to know God. I love that expression of pressing on, pressing on to do something should not be extravagant. Pressing on to do something means to do just one thing more, one simple thing more – that is to invite a person by saying, “”come and see”. When we truly seek Jesus as our goal will be changed and will be renewed and we can share Jesus’s love with others by saying: “come and see”. That life is meaningful life and wonderful life.

Think about this. What is your goal for this life? How can we live this life authentically? Only through Jesus we’ll be able to live that. So focus your lives on Jesus, give yourself to Jesus. Just pause for a moment and reflect where you are heading. Ask yourself: What is my goal for this life? Invite Jesus into your heart. Let it be your sole purpose to follow Jesus so that you will be changed. You will be used by God as a channel of his blessings.