When I first read this passage from John 1, I was left feeling kind of dry. Meh. What is there here to pique our interest in this time? But after several times through I started hearing some repeated words and phrases, unusual details, and we might call them “inconsistencies.” I became intrigued.

During advent, we heard the familiar passages from Luke’s gospel about Elizabeth and Mary and their soon-to-be-born baby boys. The mothers of John and Jesus bring comfort and joy to each other. Presumably their children are raised together, know each other, play together. 

As usual, the writer of John’s gospel tells it differently. The writer of John has a very different agenda. John’s birth narrative is In the beginning was the Word. While in Luke, John and Jesus are cousins, in John’s gospel, John the baptizer says he doesn’t know Jesus. Twice John says, “I myself did not know him.”  In verses 31 and 33 John says “Even I didn’t recognize him.” But John does know that Jesus is the Lamb of God, he says that twice also. “Here is the Lamb of God.” (v. 29 and 36)

Another strange “inconsistency” between John and the other gospels: In John’s gospel, John the baptizer has a mystical experience when he baptizes Jesus. John sees the Spirit descend upon Jesus like a dove. John hears a voice that tells him about the dove and what it means: the one who has a Spirit descend on him is the one who will baptize with the spirit. This is unlike Matthew’s account, which we heard last week, that seems to indicate that Jesus heard a voice from heaven calling him “the Beloved, the Chosen.” In John, the experience that the baptizer has of baptizing Jesus is so impactful that John the baptizer tells this to whoever will listen, that Jesus is the chosen one.

The next day (there are three “next days” in the first chapter of John) as John is talking with his disciples Jesus comes walking by. Again, John says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God.” John’s own disciples must be taken with their leader’s description of this stranger because they leave John – and follow after Jesus. And John is not threatened by this. After all, he had said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’  (Is this John’s way of saying the last shall be first and the first shall be last?)

Then there is the conversation, that seems so simple but a lot can be made of it, has been made of it. When John’s two disciples leave John and start to follow Jesus, Jesus asks them “What are you looking for?” Does Jesus observe that they didn’t find what they were looking for with John so now they are trying Jesus? These two would-be disciples answer Jesus’ question with a question of their own. “Where are you staying?” 

It seems such a pedestrian question, “Where are you staying?” – and maybe that is because they are pedestrians. When you travel by foot, you need to know these details. If they are going to be following Jesus around the countryside, it is only fair that they know where to meet up.

Commentators note that there are practical and spiritual layers to this question, to both of these questions: What are you looking for? and Where are you staying? But Jesus doesn’t give them directions or take time with the layers of the questions. He just says, “Come and See.” Come and see. As new disciples of Jesus, they follow him – to the place where he is staying. And they “remained with him that day. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon.”  

This mention of the time, 4 o’clock, is curious to me. Does this mean they stayed almost til dinner? Does it mean they arrived at 4 and stayed all night? Does it indicate that it is almost dark and Jesus takes time for them anyway? Maybe this reference to time is so obvious to the first listeners and readers that it needs no explanation. But a deeper meaning eludes me. (And I didn’t find commentators that address it.) 

The names of these two former disciples of John the Baptist are Andrew and his brother Peter. One more inconsistency: All four of the gospels name Andrew and Peter as the first to follow Jesus but in Matthew, Mark and Luke’s gospels Andrew and Peter are by the lake, fishing, when they meet Jesus. Only in John’s gospel are they hanging out with John the Baptist. (Maybe I shouldn’t call these differences ‘inconsistencies.’ Each gospel has their own way of sharing the story. They just don’t always agree on the details.)

Jesus says, “Come and See.” Jesus doesn’t yet know these two men who will become followers and close friends of his. But he invites them to come and see. It is such a simple instruction, yet there is risk involved – for Jesus and the would-be disciples. It reminds me a little bit of the way community organizing works. 

In organizing (for change and justice) you invite someone to an event so they see what all the fuss is about – and then you arrange a “one on one.” A “One on One” is just a personal conversation to get to know each other, to find out more about the new person and what they care about. And for the organizer to tell the new person about the community that is working together for justice. As you get to know the new person you have the opportunity to invite them to join in the work.

Jesus must be good at this organizing work because “the next day” when Jesus calls Philip to be a disciple, Philip turns around and uses the same phrase on Nathanael, “Come and See.” Nathanael is pretty sure that Jesus, being from Nazareth, can’t have anything good to offer. But Philip says to Nathanael, “Come and see.” 

When I first started rolling this phrase around in my mind and on my tongue, Come and See, I got caught up in the “see.” These days it is hard to know if what we are “seeing” is real. Videos and photos can be altered by AI (like was done in some photos of Renee Good and the ICE agent in Minneapolis.) What we see might be invented or from a different time, a different place than what it claims. What we see might be false advertising or propaganda. And – not everyone can see. Some people are visually impaired or blind. So should we stop using this phrase? Is this simple invitation from Jesus outdated and inappropriate for our time?

What if instead we focus on the first word, Come. That is the invitation, come, show up, be there. That is the community organizer part, the invitation to show up and be present. Once we arrive, we can experience with our own bodies what is happening. We might see, we might hear, we might sense; there are many ways to experience something. And many of us need to experience, actively engage and enter the process first hand, to truly understand.

This phrase “Come and See” appears a number of times in John’s gospel. Jesus says, “Come and see” to Andrew and Peter. (v 39) Philip invites Nathanael to Come and See. (v 46) In John 4, the Samaritan woman at the well has an experience with Jesus and she tells the townspeople to “come and see this man who told me everything I have ever done.” (4:29) In John’s gospel, Come and See is a phrase of witness, of sharing joy, of sharing surprise, of spreading good news and friendship.

But “Come and See” also shows up in John 11, in the story about the death of Jesus’ good friend Lazarus. Jesus asks where they have laid Lazarus and the people say “Come and See.” At this Jesus wept. This time Come and See is not a joyful invitation; it is an invitation to join in witnessing grief and death.

An email from Cole Parke-West, who works with Christians for a Free Palestine, appeared in my inbox this week. Cole wrote:

I started sharing pictures and videos from my time (in Palestine) on social media, including a short clip of Israeli soldiers in full combat gear, training their guns on me and other unarmed civilians. Multiple friends have commented that their initial assumption upon seeing the footage was that it was of ICE agents in the U.S.  Indeed, both (ICE and Israeli soldiers) are functioning as U.S.-funded, government sponsored militias, acting with impunity to advance the violent agenda of white supremacy and religious nationalism.

It’s difficult to know how to talk about any of this, but the mandate from everyone I met in Palestine was, “Come and see; go and tell!”

(Peter and Dan have answered that call to Come and See what is going on in Palestine. They leave Feb 1. I hope they will tell us what they see when they return.)

This simple phrase from Jesus, Come and See, is an invitation used by people of faith, by people organizing for change and justice. Dr King invited people from the North to come and witness what was happening in the South. This was an invitation to witness injustice – and experience community in the midst of terror. It was life-changing for those who answered the call, and it was life ending for a few of them. 

My own connection with Congregation Action Network, CAN, began with an invitation from David Conrad to “Come and See” (though I don’t know if he used those exact words.) When I showed up to that meeting at St Camillus Catholic church in the summer of 2017, I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing but it seemed important. I felt drawn in by what I saw. So I kept coming, I kept showing up. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do but I kept showing up – because someone had a one-on-one with me.

While I still wonder sometimes what good an older white woman who doesn’t speak Spanish can do in the movement, I know that showing up means I am building relationships with people that I otherwise would not meet. Knowing that fascism has taken hold with new ferocity in this country is one thing. Knowing some of the people who are most affected is a whole other level of “seeing.” Showing up for each other is a way of seeing.

And in this information age, we “see” a lot. We wonder if what we are seeing is real, true, and accurate. A constant stream of breaking news, and fluff, bombards us; sometimes we “see” too much. We can get so overwhelmed with “seeing” that we stop caring. We protect ourselves, we shield our hearts and minds (and pocketbooks.) Compassion fatigue is real. 

So while Jesus invites us to Come and See, let’s not overload ourselves. Let’s take breaks when we can, when we need to. Let’s pay attention to what we see and how much we see, so that we can continue to open our hearts in love, open our eyes in compassion and keep showing up. Let’s keep grounding ourselves in love, and rooting ourselves in community. 

It takes deliberate effort and courage to Come and See, and – we will meet some interesting people, maybe even the Holy. It might change our life.