Homily, January 18, 2026, Rev. Holly Cardone
Stay with Me
2nd Sunday After Epiphany
January 18, 2026
After the baptism of Jesus, according to John’s gospel, John sees Jesus walking toward him and starts telling anyone who will listen what he experienced the day before. Jesus and John were cousins, and as John’s gospel says this morning, John didn’t know that Jesus was the Messiah. We don’t really know if Jesus himself knew. And if he did know, how comfortable was he with the Messiah thing. That would be a heady responsibility. Especially the way the Jewish people thought their Messiah would enter the world. On a white horse, with swords, and an army, ready to fight Rome for power and control of what the Jewish people once dominated. But in front of John, to be baptized, was Jesus of Nazareth. A man from the same family, the same backwater town, a laborer and craftsman. No army. No horses. No swords. Just a dove, the sign sent by God, descended on the one whom God sent to save the world from its sins.
The next day, as Jesus walks by, John wants everyone to see Jesus, to know that Jesus is the Lamb of God. In the first century lambs meant sacrifice, blood and cost. Lambs were sacrificed at the temple altar every day. But Jesus isn’t a lamb we offer to God, he is the lamb of God. God is doing the offering. This is an image that the people walking by, hearing John shout out Jesus as the lamb of God, would have associated with the Passover. They would have known the lamb of God refers to the blood on the doors of all the Israelites whom God passed over and saved. This is God acting on the side of the oppressed and liberating God’s people from slavery. For the people who followed the crazy, wild-eyed preacher to the Jordan to be baptized, who witnessed the baptism of Jesus, who would save up every cent they had to bring the appropriate offering to the Temple, and longing for freedom, they would have heard this declaration of Jesus as the Lamb of God as strange, scary and intriguing. And the Baptist is saying that Jesus, is the one who will deal with the sin of the world. Not just personal sin. God is doing something big, very big, if he sent Jesus, the Son of God, to deal with the sins of the world. Sins like war, violence, domination, oppression, brokenness, murder, hunger, pain.
No wonder John’s disciples started to follow Jesus. We can all imagine John’s disciples intrigued by this Rabbi. Wondering, what does he have to offer us? What can he teach us? There are no introductions, they didn’t stop Jesus to talk, they just walk behind him. Jesus, finally noticing, turns around asks them a question.
Jesus asks approximately 307 questions in the Bible. He is asked around 183 and he answers fewer than 10.
“What are you looking for?”
“What are you looking for?”
I know what I was looking for when I started my spiritually journey as a teenager. The emotional pain I was in was greater than any solution I had to manage the pain. Sometimes we know what we’re looking for like relief, belonging, sobriety, healing, meaning, God. Or just a little less pain than we felt yesterday. But sometimes we don’t. Sometimes the motivation can be hidden. Either way, we all answer this question from our own lived truth.
John’s disciples seem to be caught off guard with the question. It’s almost like they skip right over the question. So, they ask another question. “Rabbi… where are you staying?” It’s a funny answer really. They don’t know what they’re looking for because they don’t know yet. But what they do know, is they want to follow Jesus. They want to be where Jesus is.
The text tells us: “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.” Four o’clock. John is oddly specific. Because we remember moments like that. We have amazing recall when it comes to remembering when there was a shift, movement, awareness, opening, when something changes. The Greek word used here is meno, meaning to remain, to stay, to abide. John’s disciples stayed with Jesus in a deep, continuous and intimate sense. Abide is signifying a secure, lasting connection, as these first disciples had with Jesus that day. And then Andrew goes to get his brother Simon, to bring him into relationship with this new teacher, so that Simon, whom Jesus calls Peter, can also abide with him.
Again, no answers, only the invitation to hang out with Jesus. To abide with God doesn’t mean having answers. It means staying when it’s uncomfortable. Staying when you don’t know what God is doing. Staying when your faith feels thin or your heart feels tired. These first three disciples have no idea what is ahead of them, but we do. We know the story of what it means for them to abide with Jesus. It means hard work, pain, suffering, fear, challenges, great joy, lots of food and wine, a wedding, some dancing, miracles, lots of stories, conflict, confusion, betrayal and death. And then being witnesses to the resurrection.
Buddhist Nun and teacher Pema Chodron says it this way,
“To stay with that shakiness—to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic—this is the spiritual path.”
As Christians we can read this profound spiritual principle of staying, abiding in Jesus like this: To stay with Jesus in the pain of a broken heart, hunger, hopelessness, wanting to get revenge, that is the true awakening. Sticking with uncertainty, experiencing peace in the midst of the storm, learning not to panic, control, or run, this is what it means to abide with Jesus.
“What are you looking for?”
“Come and see.”
Amen.