Searching

 John 3:14-21

This comes from the much larger narrative of Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus. It is important to remember this much larger story because it gives us the framework for this response. Nicodemus comes at night searching for Jesus because he has questions for this person who has been going around the land and teaching and healing people. He comes to Jesus wanting to know his connection to the God of Israel. How can Jesus do and say the things he does without a divine connection? 

Jesus responds and then more questions asked until we go into the third author of John, which is the Spirit. Now there are three authors in John. One is the author themself, two is the editor of John who likes to add in commentary regarding events or definitions to what this means to a good Jew, and the third is the Holy Spirit. Not in the defined way we know the Spirit today, but in a developing knowledge. A searching out for who and what the Spirit was. Another connection for our story today.

Somewhere along the line we have forgotten what it means to search, to be curious about God and Jesus. We have stumbled into thinking we know, even if we profess we are more open to new ideas about God and the Bible. To become a disciple of Jesus means we wander in this world of searching in the dark. 

Think of when you have questioned God. A time when you were really searching for answers. Wasn't it in the darkest places: A lost job which made your life unstable, A diagnosis which was frightening, A loss of faith when you questioned everything. Then you come out the other side and you find a new way of seeing your faith or you loose it because you know it should be different. This is all a part of the search.

In the series "The Chosen," Nicodemus is portrayed as searching. He is trying to find answers for an unexplained healing. He is searching to know more about the God he follows. It is an apt portrayal.

If you could ask questions of this story today, what might you ask? Would you dare to ask? Write them down. Dare to ask them. Then ask, what are you searching for in the questions you've asked? What is the connection you desire? 

In the Psalms the writer says God has searched them out and known them. The desire and question is from when does God know us? The answer is from before we were born. All our lives is a striving to search and know Jesus.

So, how does the Spirit respond to this searching? For God so loved the world. God loves this world, so much so that anyone who is searching, anyone who is asking a question has eternal life. So search, follow after Jesus in study, in word, in deed and find the treasure which gives life.