One day John the Baptist was with two of his disciples, and he saw Jesus walk by. He exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God!” I can imagine Jesus saying under his breath, “Give me a break, John. Will you stop saying these things?!” Anyway John’s two disciples follow Jesus down the road. Jesus turns around and says, “What do you want?” They answer, “Rabbi ,where are you staying?” Jesus responds “Come and see.”
That response “Come and see” is more than just an offhand comment. It is his approach to the spiritual quest, not only in the Gospel of John but in the other gospels as well. When it comes to the question of his identity, Jesus simply says, “Come and see.” This is direct inquiry.
Nonduality talks a lot about self-inquiry – knowing who we are. We certainly have that in the Gospel of John. John the Baptist goes into self-inquiry big time. But here it is more about Christ inquiry or God inquiry. The gospel of nonduality is not about accepting what other people say about God or Jesus. That is secondhand faith. It is about coming and seeing for oneself.
One day John the Baptist was with two of his disciples, and he saw Jesus walk by. He exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God!” I can imagine Jesus saying under his breath, “Give me a break, John. Will you stop saying these things?!” Anyway John’s two disciples follow Jesus down the road. Jesus turns around and says, “What do you want?” They answer, “Rabbi ,where are you staying?” Jesus responds “Come and see.”
That response “Come and see” is more than just an offhand comment. It is his approach to the spiritual quest, not only in the Gospel of John but in the other gospels as well. When it comes to the question of his identity, Jesus simply says, “Come and see.” This is direct inquiry.
Nonduality talks a lot about self-inquiry – knowing who we are. We certainly have that in the Gospel of John. John the Baptist goes into self-inquiry big time. But here it is more about Christ inquiry or God inquiry. The gospel of nonduality is not about accepting what other people say about God or Jesus. That is secondhand faith. It is about coming and seeing for oneself.
Come and See: The Path of Direct Inquiry
We are looking at the Gospel of John as proclaiming the Gospel of Nonduality. In the first chapter there is a lot of emphasis on who Jesus is. In the opening words of the Gospel Jesus is described as the Word and as God and Life and Light. That is followed by the testimony of John the Baptist who calls Jesus the Lamb of God and the Son of God. These are statements that others make about Jesus. Jesus does not claim any such titles for himself. Instead Jesus encourages what we might call direct inquiry or a direct path of spiritual inquiry into his nature and our nature. He encouraged people to see for themselves.
One day John the Baptist was with two of his disciples, and he saw Jesus walk by. He exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God!” I can imagine Jesus saying under his breath, “Give me a break, John. Will you stop saying these things?!” Anyway John’s two disciples follow Jesus down the road. Jesus turns around and says, “What do you want?” They answer, “Rabbi (yet another title, which means Teacher) where are you staying?” Jesus responds “Come and see.”
That response “Come and see” is more than just an offhand comment. It is his approach to the spiritual quest, not only in the Gospel of John but in the other gospels as well. In those gospels Jesus refuses to tell them who he is. Biblical scholars refer to this pattern in the Gospel of Mark as the Messianic secret. The disciples have to figure that out for themselves.
Here in this story in John’s gospel it says that these two disciples – one of whom is identified as Andrew - follow Jesus to where he was staying and they spend the rest of the day and probably the night with him. It says they abided with me. It even tells us what time it was when they entered the house – about 4 pm.
Things develop pretty quickly from there. Andrew goes to get his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus. Jesus takes a look at him and promptly gives him a nickname Cephas or Peter, which means Rock or Rocky. You wonder what it was about him that prompted this nickname. I picture him as the character played by Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movies. He seems to be the same type of guy to me, not the smartest guy in the world but sincere.
The next day Jesus invites Philip to be his disciple with the simple words “Follow me.” Philip goes off to find one of his friends named Nathanael, saying to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” The same words Jesus uses. So Philip comes and sees. Let me read this short encounter for you. It is easier than trying to explain it in my own words:
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” [more titles!] Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
That last statement is a reference to a story about Jacob in the Book of Genesis, who had an awakening experience. Jacob had a vision of a stairway to heaven with angels going up and down. The story says that Jacob woke up and explained, “God is surely in this place and I did not know it. This is the house of God. This is the Gate of Heaven.” Jesus was saying that such an awakening experience lay ahead for Nathanael. The fact that Nathanael is under a tree is the symbolism of the axis mundi and the Tree of Life and Bodhi tree and the Cross – all symbols of spiritual awakening.
Back to the titles. Jesus was not into titles. He avoided titles and would not admit to them. Even when on trial for his life he avoided answering direct questions about who he claimed to be. But Christians get all caught up in titles for Jesus. Christians go so far as to say that you have to believe certain titles for Jesus. You have to call him Son of God, and God the Son, Christ and Lord and Savior even Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In our story Jesus is called Master and Teacher and Rabbi and Anointed One and King of Israel.
Jesus does not call himself any of those terms. Titles and names and labels and theology do not bring us any closer knowing the identity of Jesus. In fact they are distractions and can stand in the way of seeing who Jesus is. We think we might know Jesus just because we use the theologically correct titles.
When it comes to the question of his identity, Jesus simply says, “Come and see.” This is direct inquiry. Nonduality talks a lot about self-inquiry – knowing who we are. We certainly have that in the Gospel of John. John the Baptist goes into self-inquiry big time. But here it is more about Christ inquiry or God inquiry. The gospel of nonduality is not about accepting what other people say about God or Jesus. That is secondhand faith. It is about coming and seeing for oneself.
It is significant that the original two disciples “come and see,” and it says that they abided with him. We find the same language of “abiding” in the wonderful story of two disciples – perhaps the same two – who met Christ on the Emmaus Road on Easter day but did not recognize him. They came to their house and because it was becoming late, they invited the Stranger to abide with them as was the custom in the Middle East. He did, and in the abiding with him they recognized him. There is a wonderful Christian hymn about this.
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens Lord, with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away
Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not, abide with me
Abiding with Christ or abiding in Christ is the Christian way of talking about abiding with the One who changest not. . Abiding in the Eternal. Abiding in Awareness. Right beneath the surface of the Gospel of John there are repeated references to what we know as unitive awareness. There seem to be something about simply abiding in Christ’s presence which communicates or imparts the grace of divine awareness. It is this experience of grace that prompted people to give Jesus all these titles.
But it is not about the titles. It is about the Kingdom of God, which is better translated the Divine Realm. It is about the Presence of God that was experienced in Jesus’ presence. Jesus imparts this unitive awareness to those who follow him. I have an icon of Christ Pantocrator that was made for me and given to me as a gift by an Eastern Orthodox iconographer I know. She made it for me as a way of thanking me for my spiritual leadership in this community. I was blessed to receive this gift and it has a place of honor in my living room.
Like all icons the background is layered with gold leaf that shines whenever I look at it. The image is of Jesus but what grabs my attention is the gold background behind Jesus. It communicates to me the divine spaciousness which is the True Nature of Christ. It is not about the image of Jesus as much as it is about the spacious divine presence from which the image emerges. The icon is a reminder that this divine spaciousness can be seen all the time in all things. There is the divine Reality from which all things come. This is our True Nature. This is what the person of Jesus Christ points to.
In the spiritual search people come looking for something or someone. When we see, it is not something or someone. It simply is. I AM. The Ground of Being. Being Itself. We look to Jesus to lead us to this. Along the way we can get caught up in the titles and names for Jesus and ideas about who Jesus that the Church gives him. Don’t get caught up in that or distracted by that. It is about abiding in Christ. If you want to know Eternal Life, if you want to know Christ, if you want to know yourself, then come and see. When one inquires directly, then Divine Reality – what Jesus calls the Kingdom of God - is revealed.