The same words uttered by different voices can mean drastically different things.
As I have been working my way through Andrew Osenga’s The Quiet Hours Lectionary this month, I have been reading through John’s Gospel again. I don’t know how many times I have read it at this point. We worked through it as a family with the help of The Word One To One. I studied it at Cornhill. I have been using it as described, meeting with a guy who has been to the church a handful of times. I’ve preached portions of it.
Unsurprisingly, God’s word always has something new to be discovered.
They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” (John 1:38b-39a, NKJV)
And so St. Andrew went and he saw. He spent the day with Jesus. In the verses that followed, he found Simon, his brother, and told him he had found the Messiah.
A day with Jesus was all it took for Andrew to realise that God was visiting his people. This was before Jesus had done any of the signs recorded in John. Over the course of the rest of the book, people struggle to understand who Jesus is or what he has done. This is characteristic of all the gospel accounts.
But as the narrative moves toward its climax when Christ would be lifted up, there is the story of Lazarus in John 11.
Lazarus was sick. He and his sisters were friends of Jesus, familiar to him and to his followers. John even records the sisters referring to Lazarus as the one Jesus loves. The disciples are worried that Jesus might actually go back to Judea to do something with this news because the Pharisees were actively seeking to kill Jesus at this point.
We know the story. Lazarus does indeed die, and Jesus waits until that fact to go to Bethany. The ensuing scene is truly heartbreaking. Two sisters, bereft of their brother, both confess that Jesus is the Christ, but they also know that he could have prevented Lazarus’ death if he had been there.
The mourners are gathered around. Jesus is moved and troubled by Mary’s weeping. And so he says…
“Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (John 11:34-35, ESV)
When Jesus says, “Come and see”, it is a call to believe and so have eternal life. When Jesus says, “Come and see”, it is the voice which brought all creation into existence calling his lost sheep home from the wilderness. When Jesus says, “Come and see”, he is pointing toward the cross upon which he hung.
But when the mourners say, “Come and see”, all they can show Jesus is the consequence of sin. The grave. Our legacy is one of death. Come and see what humanity has wrought in its rebellion. Come and see the fruit of free will and liberty. Come and see, and it is a grave.
It is no wonder that Jesus weeps. But, of course, the story does not end there.
For, with a word, Jesus calls Lazarus to life from death. From darkness to the light. He shows that even the worst outcome, death, is no match for the words of the one who has life in himself even as the Father has life in himself.
There is a richness to God’s word that you can only begin to experience after repeated readings and time meditating. The Bible isn’t an information book or a rule book. It isn’t a magic book or a talisman. But it is powerful.