Come and See
Seeing is believing, or so they say. And that which can’t be seen (Shall we extend this to include that which can’t be proven in some logical or scientific manner?) shouldn’t be believed. Right? It’s the motto that many people live by. It’s safe, practical, no nonsense. But I’m not so sure; what does it mean to see anyway? Certainly those who wear glasses know that their vision is quite limited. And human vision is extremely limited in comparison to the vision of many other species. And then there’s what we refer to as “selective vision.” How else can we explain the fact that multiple witnesses can see the scene of a crime differently? It’s a matter of perspective. What if there is, due to limitations in physical ability and perspective, much more to this world than that which we see? For example, we see the world in three dimensions, and we are aware of a fourth dimension of time (Although, of course, we can’t physically see time, only the effects of its passing.) But what if there was another dimension about which we are currently completely unaware? It’s food for thought.
I was reading chapter one of the Gospel of John the other day, and my attention was drawn to the many references to sight; I started underlining these references in an effort to see what I could discover. This is the chapter in which John proclaims Jesus as the Son of God and Jesus calls his first disciples. First of all, isn’t it amazing that as recorded in verse 29, John sees Jesus walking down the road toward him and knows that he is the Messiah. It’s shocking really. Just imagine what the people must have thought: a normal looking man comes walking down the road and John cries out with utter conviction, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” What could John possibly have seen in Jesus? This is not the kind of statement that one makes lightly, so how did John really know? He must have been seeing with a different kind of vision.
Moving on to verses 35-42, Jesus is once again passing by and John cries out, “Look, the Lamb of God!” Well, hearing this, two men begin to follow Jesus. Verse 38 says that “turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’” First question: In what sense did Jesus see these men who became his disciples? I mean, yes, he saw them physically with his eyes, but is there more to it than that? I just have this feeling that when Jesus sees people, it’s different than when I see people. The Gospels frequently recount stories of Jesus seeing people and having compassion on them. I think it’s because he sees individuals as they really are and not as they want to be seen or as others want to see them. He sees the sinfulness but he also sees the image of his Father; and that is more than enough to make them beautiful and valuable. Second question: Why did Jesus ask the men what they wanted? I think that he wanted to give them what they wanted. And what did they want? To know where he was staying, to hang out with him. Consider the importance of this short exchange between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus sees them; he asks them what they want; and they essentially say, “We want to know where to find you.”
And then comes Jesus’ reply: “Come, and you will see.”
They’ve just received the invitation of their lives—and if they choose to accept it, they will never see the world the same again. Later in the chapter, Jesus promises Nathanael that he shall “see greater things” than those which have already been revealed to him; he will see “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (verse 51). This is a transformed vision; this is not “sight” in the way that we typically define the term.
Come and see. Jesus does see us through and through, and, amazing grace, he loves us still. He asks, “What do you want?” Now that’s a question to consider, “What do we want from Jesus?” Do we have interest in knowing where to find him, interest in spending time with him, interest in dropping everything else to follow him? If so, the invitation is before us, “Come and you will see.”
What if we had Jesus’ vision for the world? His eyes for needy and hurting people? His ability to see what really is and not merely what appears to be, to see that which could and should and will one day be even while currently living in the midst of a fallen world? It would be completely transforming, not only in our lives, but in the lives of those whom we have new eyes to see. And why not see in such a way? For “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17) Come and see.
--postscript: a poem I ran across recently:
I was reading chapter one of the Gospel of John the other day, and my attention was drawn to the many references to sight; I started underlining these references in an effort to see what I could discover. This is the chapter in which John proclaims Jesus as the Son of God and Jesus calls his first disciples. First of all, isn’t it amazing that as recorded in verse 29, John sees Jesus walking down the road toward him and knows that he is the Messiah. It’s shocking really. Just imagine what the people must have thought: a normal looking man comes walking down the road and John cries out with utter conviction, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” What could John possibly have seen in Jesus? This is not the kind of statement that one makes lightly, so how did John really know? He must have been seeing with a different kind of vision.
Moving on to verses 35-42, Jesus is once again passing by and John cries out, “Look, the Lamb of God!” Well, hearing this, two men begin to follow Jesus. Verse 38 says that “turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’” First question: In what sense did Jesus see these men who became his disciples? I mean, yes, he saw them physically with his eyes, but is there more to it than that? I just have this feeling that when Jesus sees people, it’s different than when I see people. The Gospels frequently recount stories of Jesus seeing people and having compassion on them. I think it’s because he sees individuals as they really are and not as they want to be seen or as others want to see them. He sees the sinfulness but he also sees the image of his Father; and that is more than enough to make them beautiful and valuable. Second question: Why did Jesus ask the men what they wanted? I think that he wanted to give them what they wanted. And what did they want? To know where he was staying, to hang out with him. Consider the importance of this short exchange between Jesus and the disciples. Jesus sees them; he asks them what they want; and they essentially say, “We want to know where to find you.”
And then comes Jesus’ reply: “Come, and you will see.”
They’ve just received the invitation of their lives—and if they choose to accept it, they will never see the world the same again. Later in the chapter, Jesus promises Nathanael that he shall “see greater things” than those which have already been revealed to him; he will see “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (verse 51). This is a transformed vision; this is not “sight” in the way that we typically define the term.
Come and see. Jesus does see us through and through, and, amazing grace, he loves us still. He asks, “What do you want?” Now that’s a question to consider, “What do we want from Jesus?” Do we have interest in knowing where to find him, interest in spending time with him, interest in dropping everything else to follow him? If so, the invitation is before us, “Come and you will see.”
What if we had Jesus’ vision for the world? His eyes for needy and hurting people? His ability to see what really is and not merely what appears to be, to see that which could and should and will one day be even while currently living in the midst of a fallen world? It would be completely transforming, not only in our lives, but in the lives of those whom we have new eyes to see. And why not see in such a way? For “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17) Come and see.
--postscript: a poem I ran across recently:
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning
--post-postscript: another relevant quote from Mother Teresa:
People are hungry for God. People are hungry for love. Are you aware of that? do you know that? Do you see that? Do you have eyes to see? Quite often we look, but we don't see. We are all passing through this world. We need to open our eyes and see."
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