"What do you want?"
"Rabbi, where are you staying?"
"Come and see."
What drives both his followers and his haters crazy about Jesus is that he is often so very enigmatic, cryptic--especially in the book of John, Jesus can be hard to pin down.
But Jesus is almost never explanational when there is opportunity to be invitational. Throughout his ministry (again, especially as John describes it), there are invitations and signs. Jesus doesn't want us to be satisfied with answers, he wants us to enter into a holy dissatisfaction with facts so that we might be with him.
Most of us want answers more than we want God. What should I do with my life? Will my kids be okay? Who should I marry? What about this situation with my family? To all of these great and valid questions, Jesus responds: "Come and see."
That we are seldom satisfied with this answer says less about Jesus and more about our own maturity. It is the difference between being handed a map and having someone riding with you that knows the way. If he gave us all the answers to our questions, we would assiduously study the map and ignore the one who gives it; instead, he has offered to spend every day of our lives with us. This is the greater gift, though we seldom welcome it as such.
"Come and see." It is the thesis statement to his ministry. It is how he works with us. These men take him up on this small invitation and end up spending three years with Jesus. Those three years catapult them to participating in the launching of the most controversial movement in the history of the world.
And still he invites anyone who would ask him-- where are you staying? who are you? are you for real? "Come and see."
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