Invited to be with Jesus

Together with the story of the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), this is my favorite passage in the Bible, perhaps because both refer to intimate conversations between Jesus and his disciples. The scene tugs at us, because we would all love to have been there.

The first words of Jesus in this Gospel are, “What do you want?” Here we catch John in his art of telling the story on multiple levels. Why would he bother to include such mundane details as we have in verses 37-39? (We hear Jesus ask the same question of the blind man in Mark 10:51.) Didn’t Jesus know what they wanted? He is, after all, about to indicate that he can see into Peter’s heart. John records the question because it’s the question that Jesus asks every one of us, and it’s where our relationship with him begins. It’s not because he doesn’t know but because it makes us articulate our need. Perhaps this is the clue to their answer: “Where are you staying?” They want time to be with him. They can’t see it now, but three years later they will realize what they have let themselves in for.

He continues evocatively with his next words: “Come, and you will see” (39). Could any reply be more hospitable? Isn’t this what we want more than anything, to be with him in a close relationship, with time to ask our questions and to hear what he has to say to us? His hospitality goes further. He looks on us, as he looked on Peter, with eyes that see not what we are now so much as what we can become under his lordship. Yes, we would have loved to be there–but we are there, because the risen Christ is with us now.

Action needs to be balanced by regular times of reflection and quiet worship. Reflect on the pattern of your days. How do you spend time with Jesus?