"What Do You Want?" and other simply complex questions

The above image is a shout out to all the Halloween candy I ate this week from my kids candy stash. Sorry ladies! :()


This week at Crossroads I get to preach on the first words Jesus utters in John's Gospel. They are not what you'd expect (something like "peace" or "repent" or "hey, look at me!" is what I was looking for). Instead, what Jesus says to a couple of guys who are following him at a distance is, "What do you want?"

What do you want? What I love about his question is that it is not a statement of personal transcendence, or a show of power, or even a bit of heady, complex theology. Instead, he chooses to ask the most basic question you can ask (and one that I ask my 6 month old regularly even if she can't answer me yet). In essence, it is a question that strikes at the core of what God wants to do and be for us.

What do you want?

It seems to me that more often than not, Jesus chooses not to wax eloquent on the profound (although he does that from time to time) but to ask and answer core questions.

What do you want?
Do you want to be healed?
Which one was the true neighbor?
Who do you say that I am?


It is these sorts of simply-complex questions that make me admire Jesus more and more. I could stand to ponder each of them in my own walk.