We are all familiar with Christian swindlers who overpromise about the immediate rewards of faith in Christ. Televangelists promise health and wealth to those who have faith, but “faith” turns out to be sending in money or buying some “anointed trinket” that would have made John Tetzel blush. These men and women raise their listeners’ expectations to unrealistic, unbiblical heights.
The televangelist types are not the only ones who do this. The well-meaning average Christian sharing his faith using the presentation he learned in a personal evangelism class may do the same. There are promises of peace and joy that are easily misinterpreted by the evangelized as a life free from suffering and pain in the present. Everything will be puffy clouds and fluffy bunnies. Not many evangelism classes teach a presentation that includes promising the evangelized a life that involves suffering. Peace and joy are real in this life, but they are in the midst of persecution and suffering, not their absence.
Expectations must be managed when calling people to follow Jesus.
Jesus has an interesting exchange with Andrew and (presumably) John (the Apostle) in John 1:37-39. Andrew and John were disciples of John the Baptizer (Jn 1:35, 40). When the Baptizer sees Jesus coming, he proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Andrew and John follow Jesus. Jesus turns, sees them following, and asks, “What are you seeking?” They respond by asking, “Where are you staying/abiding?” Jesus then tells them, “Come and see.”
This is an odd exchange to record if Jesus is acting like he is being followed by gawkers in the local market and asking them, “What do you want?!” No, there is more to it than that. There always is with the Apostle John.
“What are you seeking?” is a question about Andrew and John’s expectations. What do you want in this relationship? What do you expect this relationship to be? What do you think I will teach you, and where do you believe I will lead you? Along with these questions is the implied question, “Are you ready to go where I’m leading?”
The disciples want to know where Jesus “abides.” Again, this is deeper than wanting to know Jesus’ present address. “Abiding” is a theme in John’s Gospel. Jesus calls his disciples to abide in him as a branch abides in the vine in John 15. Abiding denotes this intimate communion of peace. The answer to the disciples’ question is given later in John. Where does Jesus abide? He abides in the Father (Jn 17:21), a truth revealed in his baptism when the Spirit of the Father descends from heaven to rest upon Jesus.
At this point, knowledge of Jesus’ abode in the Father is, at best, fuzzy for the disciples. Jesus bids them to “come and see,” a call to faith to follow him. (“Come and see” is used in various contexts in John to describe faith; Jn 3:21; 5:40; 6:35, 37, 45; 7:37.) If they follow Jesus, they will abide where he abides. Jesus later prays, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us…” (Jn 17:21). They will discover along the way that to abide where Jesus abides is a wonderful place, but you don’t get there on an easy road.
Jesus still asks anyone interested in following him the same question: What are you seeking? Recently, I saw a video of a man who left the Faith after sixty years because Jesus never answered his prayers about health, job, or marriage. What was he expecting? What are you expecting when you follow Jesus? Are you expecting Jesus to make everything easygoing? Are you expecting triumph after triumph until you have your foot on the necks of your enemies without a battle or a battle with no casualties? Are you expecting immediate glory? Are you committing to Jesus because he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man abides with the Father except in Christ, or are you looking to gain some immediate advantage?
Why are you following Jesus?
The disciples had to confront this question continually. On one occasion recorded in John 6, the question came to a sharp point. Jesus was forsaken by the crowds he fed after he proclaimed to them that he was the bread of life and there was no life for them except they eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus turned to his disciples and asked them if they also wanted to go away. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:67-69). That is the reason to follow Jesus.
