We’re all familiar with the saying, “It’s not the destination that matters; it’s the journey,” right? It’s a reminder to slow down, to notice what’s going on around you as you work towards an objective. It insists that there’s value in the experiences you have along the way to your goal. It’s a good lesson, but unfortunately, not one that our culture values much. In a society that measures success by what you’ve managed to accomplish - education, homeownership, skill mastery, financial security - we’re collectively very much not interested in the journey it takes to get there. The journey is just a necessary evil standing in the way of personal achievement.
This attitude is so prevalent in our culture that it’s not confined to the secular realm - it’s seeped into the practice of Christianity, too. Our faith tends to be oriented around two major destinations - Christmas and Easter. Advent and Lent become mere countdowns to the big day instead of being times of intentional reflection and preparation for their own sake. Many Christian communities don’t bother observing them at all, and some haven’t ever even heard of them. For better or for worse, when it comes to appreciating the journey, the patterns of our faith life reflect the values of our culture in this respect.
But while this tends to be the way that humans operate, it’s *NOT* the way that Jesus works. If the end goal was all that mattered, he would have just laid low until Holy Week; the gospels would all start at Palm Sunday. Instead, Jesus spends three full years healing, performing miracles, and teaching. The destination is crucial, of course, but the journey itself also has value that can’t be ignored or disregarded. When it comes to Jesus, you can’t separate the journey from the destination - both are equally important to God.
Today’s reading reinforces this idea. This is Jesus’ first public appearance in John’s gospel, his very first opportunity to let people know what he’s all about. We open with John the Baptist emphasizing Jesus' role as the sacrificial Lamb of God - Jesus’ final earthly act and arguably the ultimate goal of God’s incarnation. Jesus himself, however, doesn’t choose to focus on this future destination during his debut. His first public words aren’t any sort of declaration or instruction pointing towards the divine goal. He doesn’t describe who he is or what he came to do. Instead, his very first words are much more immediate, concerned only with what’s on the minds of the two people following him at that moment: he asks them, “What are you looking for?”
In this moment, the disciples could have told Jesus exactly what they expected from him as the Messiah, establishing a goal that would define their relationship for the next three years - and yet, they don’t focus on the destination, either. Following Jesus’ lead, they instead keep the conversation open ended by responding to his question with another question, one that defers back to him: “Rabbi - teacher - where are you staying?” In other words, we’re not exactly sure what we’re looking for - but we’re ready to follow you wherever you go next. And just like that, Jesus’ disciples embark on a three-year journey of faith without any real idea where it would end.
John’s gospel isn’t shy about describing Jesus’ divine nature or his cosmic purpose, and yet in this critical moment, when the disciples first decide to follow him, there’s very little emphasis on the ultimate objective of Jesus’ life. Instead, Jesus focuses on the journey that they would take together with a refrain that Philip picks up a few verses later: “Come and see.” Come and see where I’m staying. Come and see if anything good can come from Nazareth. Come and see what there is to learn. These words aren’t concerned at all with a destination; they’re an invitation to share the journey, wherever it might lead.
This emphasis of journey over destination may seem strange to us, but the truth is that the journey often winds up being more important in the long run. Think about a particular goal that you’ve pursued in your life - higher education, for example. Although earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree is certainly impressive, the accomplishment itself is meaningless without the education that leads up to it. And it’s the education itself that gives your life direction and momentum after you’ve achieved the goal: a degree may get you a job, but the skills and knowledge you learned along the way are what enable you to keep it.
God didn’t take on flesh just to achieve a solitary objective; Jesus wasn’t born for the sake of a single moment in history. The reason he spends three full years teaching and ministering is because the journey has an important purpose of its own. It’s what prepares and equips us for what comes after we reach the destination. It’s what keeps us moving forward with purpose once we no longer have that objective as motivation. It’s because of the journey leading up to Easter morning that the disciples knew exactly what to do even after Christ’s victory over death had been accomplished. They didn’t even skip a beat, picking up right where he’d left off: building community, loving their neighbors, and spreading audacious hope everywhere they went. The destination is what made this life possible, but the journey is what ensured that it happened.
But even as we set these goals and work to accomplish them, we also have to pay attention to the journey we take to get there. The connections and communities that we build along the way. New voices that we hear. Strategies that work and strategies that fail. Hard conversations we engage in and the impact that they have. We need to pay attention to every single step we take along the way. Because one day - maybe not especially soon, maybe not even this year, but eventually - I have faith that we will reach our goal. And inevitably, when we get there, the question will arise: what happens now? If our destination is the only thing that we’ve ever focused on, we may not have an answer. But if we’ve been observing and learning and discovering new things all along the way, we may find that the journey itself has been preparing us for a new life together this whole time.
As much as we may focus on Christmas and Easter, Jesus has never been a single-minded kinda guy. He always knew that as important as these goals are, there’s more to God’s plan than the manger, the cross and the tomb. Much more. And as true as that was 2000 years ago, it’s even more true today. So when God asks you, “What are you looking for?” take your cue from the first disciples. Don’t be so quick to focus on your destination. Instead, try looking around to see what Jesus might want you to notice in the moment. What seemingly small thing might be worth remembering for later? What can you learn right now, just by taking the next step? The answers to these questions don’t lie in the destination; they can only be found along the journey. So in the words of our Lord, Savior, and greatest Teacher - come and see. Amen.
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