I was talking to a friend of mine about how I wanted to go to the local indoor sports complex to watch people play soccer because I miss playing soccer so much. He looked at me with a puzzled look on his face and said: if you miss playing soccer so much, why don’t you just sign up to be on a team?
I started naming off a list of reasons why that was not an option. For starters, I said to him, I am too busy. On top of that I don’t have the money to pay for registration, I am not in physical shape to keep up with people and I don’t even know where all of my gear is. There is no way I could play soccer right now, but I can definitely watch.
Once again, he looked at me with a puzzled look on his face and said: so you don’t really miss playing soccer, do you?
To be honest, I guess he was right. I was searching to fill that desire of playing soccer, but both you and I know that watching people play soccer will never fulfill that desire living in me. It might temporarily, but never permanently.
I think the same applies to finding life and purpose.
In John 5:39-40 Jesus says this: You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
The reality is that we can take out the word scripture and put anything in its place, and it would probably be true for us.
You search for a promotion or a raise because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
You search for relationships because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
You search for sex, drugs, and alcohol because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
You search for hobbies because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Maybe even this one:
You search Disney+ because you think that in it you have eternal life; and it is Disney+ that testifies on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
We all know that finding life and purpose does not work like these examples. All of these things might make us feel good for a short while but they will never help us find life the way it is meant to be lived. And while they all might testify about Jesus in some way, shape or form, they are not Jesus, therefore they will never give us the type of life Jesus can.
In our text, Jesus was warning people that they would never find what they were searching for in the“stuff”, even if the “stuff” was reading their bible. If they were truly looking for life, they needed to stop searching for it in stuff and begin searching for it in Jesus.
And I think that that challenge was as true then as it is for us today.
My guess is that there are days when you wake up and you feel empty and unfulfilled. Maybe your job has been sucking the life out of you. Maybe your relationship is going through a rough patch and you dread going home. Maybe you haven’t found a relationship and that is getting harder and harder. Maybe you don’t enjoy the things you used to enjoy. Maybe you feel stuck. Maybe you feel like you are not getting the most out of this life.
If that is you, stop searching in the wrong places and instead search for Jesus. Deep down you know that these things will only give you temporary life. But if you go after Jesus, Jesus promises us that we will find what we are searching for.
Maybe it is time for all of us to stop wanting to watch people soccer and instead go play ourselves. My prayer today is that we may stop searching in the wrong places, and pursue Jesus instead.
Together on the journey,
Pastor Fernie
