“Where are you staying?”

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

“Where are you staying?” This is the question asked by Jesus’ first disciples. It’s an odd question, not least because it’s a response to another odd question posed to them by Jesus who asks them, “What are you looking for?” This is the first time Jesus speaks in John’s gospel. Unlike the synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke), where Jesus seeks out and calls the disciples, these young men pursue Jesus. These first disciples listen to John the Baptist’s declaration that Jesus is the Lamb of God (Jn. 1:29, 36) and Son of God (Jn. 1:34) and decide that Jesus is a person worth hanging out with.

The question “where are you staying?” makes sense when we consider the desire of these young men to discover more about this man that John the Baptist has identified with such rich and Old Testament laden titles. But as we’ll discover as we proceed further into this gospel, John often expects us to look at bit deeper. The story of the first disciples is the second of a series of quest stories in John’s gospel. In these stories people or individuals come to Jesus to either find out more about him and what he is up to, or to hinder him, prevent him from accomplishing his task. That is, these quest stories serve to show Jesus’ identity and purpose. Our text from last week was the first quest story and the first people who seek to hinder Jesus by throwing suspicion on John the Baptist, the herald of the Messiah. While the conversation in that story was between John the Baptist and the Jerusalem Jews, the point was to tell us about who Jesus is and what he is about.

Taken in the context of the prologue in John 1:1-18 where the Word dwells with God and then become flesh and dwells with us, the question “where are you staying (dwelling)?” takes on a greater significance than merely the physical place where Jesus will be laying his head for the night. The question is about an alternative reality, one in which Jesus has been dwelling with God, and one which is now interrupting the current reality by the Word made flesh. This alternative reality is described in the synoptics as the kingdom of God. John doesn’t use the phrase “kingdom of God”. Instead he speaks of eternal life (Jn. 3:16). Thus the question “where are you staying?” is really asking what is eternal life, and how will Jesus demonstrate it. Jesus’ answer, “Come and see”, invites these new disciples, and us to experience this eternal life by following Jesus.

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