Come and You Will See

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

COME AND YOU WILL SEE

John 1:35-39

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

NIV

He will never turn us away. But first these two who were following John the Baptist had to turn from their current path of life and follow after Jesus. It is not that they changed who they were, or what they did, but they were following someone else. Of course John knew that once he announced or introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God, his task, his calling was complete and he could retire, sit back and chill out. Well, not exactly because we know he was not about to do that and because he did not quite proclaiming the truth, he ended up without his head. But while he was here, he was going to point people to Jesus. When these two heard what John said about Jesus, they left him and took out to follow Jesus. Did they know what the name, “Lamb of God” meant? Certainly that might have meant he was the sacrifice for sin. John had been preaching about this truth and we would have to believe his disciples were aware John meant this is the long awaited Messiah, the one who will restore Israel, the one who will be their salvation. Nevertheless, upon hearing who he was, they immediately began to follow him. This is the way it is supposed to be. When people hear Jesus is the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for their sin, they should immediately follow him. And, we see the first words Jesus speaks to them is to ask them what they want. Isn’t that just like Jesus? “What do you want?” we have heard those words and we responded just as those men did. We wanted to know all about him. We wanted to follow him, to know where he is staying. Jesus simply tells them, “Come and you will see”. Is that not a great word? Follow me and you will see. Once we were blind, but now we can see. Jesus did not turn them away, he invited them to see. He invited us to see. Now we can see Jesus, we can see the truth, we know he is at the right hand of the Father and that he has invited us to come and stay with him. He has invited us to see the Father. First we can see the Father through first seeing Jesus. As we learn all about his ministry, his character, his personality, his love for his people, and the image he displayed so that when Thomas asked to show them the Father, Jesus was able to say that if they saw him they saw the Father. This is the same with us. We have seen Jesus, every time we read the word, we see Jesus and thus we know what the Father is like. We have been invited to follow Jesus, not just in this life, the way we live, as he lived, but in his death and resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. He has invited us to “Come and you will see”. We will see the truth, he will show us the way, and he will light our path through this life, and give us the direction we need. We will see the Father, once we follow him in death and resurrection, we will see the Father. Jesus will call us home. To see where he is staying. For those disciples it happened about the tenth hour, but we will not know the hour, or the day, when we will hear those words for the last time, “Come and you will see”.