The first words Jesus ever spoke to anyone who sought to follow Him are found at the beginning of the Gospel of John. It was the simple question:

“What do you seek?”
— John 1:38

As mentioned in the previous Note, this is the same question Jesus asks of all those who seek to follow Him today (See “What Do You Seek?” • 2). Are we truly seeking Christ Himself? Or are we merely looking for some benefit from Him?

It is quite significant that, at the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus asks Mary this very same question:

Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? What are you seeking?
— John 20:15

Of course, this was after the crucifixion; it was the beginning of Mary’s discovery of His resurrection:

She, thinking Him to be the gardener, said to Him, Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him up.
Jesus said to her, Mary!
She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni! which is to say, Teacher!
— John 20:15-16

After death had done everything it possibly could to destroy Christ, He still met Mary in resurrection; praise the Lord!

This shows us that, when we seek Christ Himself, we can have the assurance will we not be disappointed in the end, for there is no power in heaven or on earth, not even death itself, that can keep Christ from giving Himself to us. There may surely be tears, sometimes even many tears, along the way, as things we treasure are taken from us fall or away, but in the end we will be satisfied with Christ in resurrection.

No doubt, we must still live in the world, and as the believers in Christ we can and should partake of and enjoy what the Lord provides for us here, even as we are “not of the world” (John 17:16).

Still, we must also be clear that, in the end, all these things will pass away. Quite often, we will be disappointed in not receiving something we had hoped for, and even if we do gain what we want, in the end it will not fully satisfy us. And before long, this world itself will pass away completely, to be replaced by the new heavens and the new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-14, Rev. 21:1).

But if we deal with the Lord and allow Him to bring us through the process of death and resurrection, we will not be disappointed when these things happen. Because our focus is on Christ Himself, we will pass through that process, just as He did, and then, on the other side of the cross, we will enter into the experience of the resurrected Christ in glory, both in this present age and, so much more fully, in the next.

This is the Lord’s desire for us, and we can have the full assurance that, in the end, He will bring it to pass (Rom. 8:28-30). Thus, we should give ourselves to the Lord and tell Him we are pursuing this as our unique goal—to know Him, the resurrected and glorified Christ—for we will never be disappointed in our seeking after that!

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—  18 December 2024 —