[ Today's Readings ]
Looking at Jesus changes us. We expect that it is a largely passive process. We sit, look, and hear, 'Behold, the Lamb of God.' But just to look at Jesus means, eventually, to see him inviting us to follow him.
"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher),
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."
We look. We desire to see more. That desire is always met with the invitation of Jesus to come and see. As we respond to that invitation we come to understand more deeply who Jesus is. We grow in relationship with him.
"We have found the Messiah," which is translated Christ.
By it's nature, this growth in relationship helps us to bring others to Jesus. It makes us want to do so.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
We know that "[w]hoever sins belongs to the Devil". And we know that Jesus is the Messiah, the "Son of God" who "was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil." Wherever we see sin we recognize the slavery and fear that always underlies it. Since we know that Jesus is the one who can destroy the works of the Devil compassion demands that we introduce others to him.
No one who is begotten by God commits sin,
because God's seed remains in him;
he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.
None of us is completely without sin. That means there is still room to grow. There is still room to look at Jesus and more deeply respond to his invitation to follow after him. There is room to more deeply experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the Fatherhood of God. There is grace of which we have not yet availed ourselves waiting to be unleashed. Where? Come and see.
Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands,
the mountains shout with them for joy before the LORD.
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