John 1:35-42
About 30 years ago, the group U2 recorded a song called, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Some of the words go like this:
I have climbed highest mountains, I have run through the fields
Only to be with you, only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls
These city walls, only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I have spoken with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night, I was cold as stone
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I believe in the kingdom come, then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one, but yes I’m still running
And you loosed the chains, carried the cross
Of my shame, of my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
“What are you looking for?”
It’s a question that we ask ourselves at various points in our lives. Like when we go into the kitchen and can’t remember why. “What am I looking for?” But seriously, this is a question that we can’t escape. Sooner or later we have to answer it. “What are you looking for?”
If we allow it, the world will give us all sorts of answers to that question. What are you looking for? What do you need in your life? Maybe it’s a big salary and the corner office. Or the dream house in the perfect neighborhood. Or maybe it’s more of the right clothes. Or the right car. Or the right partner or spouse. “What are you looking for?”
The gospel of John records an interesting conversation between Jesus and some of the followers of John the Baptist. John saw Jesus passing by and remarked, “Look, the Lamb of God!” And two of John’s followers go after Jesus. Jesus turns around and asks them, “What are you looking for?” Troy A. Miller, professor at Crichton College in Memphis, says that this is both an invitation and an examination. “As with all persons who would be followers of Jesus, it is not simply if they wish to follow, but what and whom are they looking for?”
As followers of John, these two men had come to him to be baptized for the repentance of their sins and to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah. So the most basic answer to the question is, they were looking for the Messiah. But the next question might be, what did they want from the Messiah?
Joseph J. Clifford, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dallas, provides a few suggestions. Maybe they were looking for some adventure, some new experiences in the world beyond their hometown. Or perhaps they hoped to make a difference, perhaps be a part of a movement to resist the Roman occupation and the corrupt leadership of Judea. Or maybe they were hoping to find a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives.
Clifford goes on to say that perhaps these two followers were looking for some of the same things that 21st-century churchgoers are looking for. He writes, “People come to church looking for something … Some are looking for community, for a place to belong, to connect with other people, and connect more with God in the process. Some are looking for a foundation upon which to build their lives; others for a connection with the Divine; others for a connection with the past, with what life was like when they were growing up. Some are looking for the healing of body or soul or both. Some seek redemption, new life or the other side of mistakes made or opportunities missed. People come to church looking for many things.”
But no matter what, everybody is looking for something. People want a sense of identity, some sense of purpose or meaning. They are looking for redemption or healing or love. And deep down, what they are all looking for is a relationship with God. Even some science is coming to that conclusion.
There are those who talk about how our brains are hardwired for God, and they have linked religious feelings and experiences to particular regions of the brain. There is even a new discipline in science known as neurotheology. Neurotheologians argue that the structure and function of the human brain predisposes us to believe in God. And they have identified the site of God’s activity in the limbic system deep within the brain, which has long been understood as the biological center of emotion.
Then there is the work of Dean Hamer, a behavioral geneticist who has taken things to another level. He has proposed that God is embedded in our genes. He isn’t so much interested in proving the existence of God; his concern is to show that spirituality is a real phenomenon that can be described and measured. He published a book titled, The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes.
But centuries ago, another man stated our desire to be in a relationship with God very simply. St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, wrote that our hearts are “restless until [they] rest in [God].” We are meant to be connected to God in an intimate relationship with God. That was why God created human beings in the first place. We were intended to be close to God. And when we try to replace the place in our hearts reserved for God with anything else, we will not be satisfied. That place was not designed for money or power or possessions or anything else that this world might offer. That place was designed for God, and only God will fit there, and only God will satisfy that longing.
Interestingly, when Jesus asked the two men, “What are you looking for?”, they never answered his questions. Instead, they asked a question of their own: “Where are you staying?” Joseph Clifford suggests, “Perhaps they do not exactly know what they are looking for, but they know they have found something of it in this Lamb of God. Perhaps they know wherever he is going, they just might find what they are looking for.”
“What are you looking for?” Have you found it? Will you know it when you see it? If your answer is anything but “God,” then you still haven’t found what you’re looking for.
