Come & See - Grandparents Day

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

First, I want to say welcome to all of those grandparents who are gathered here to spend time with their grandkids, to see and experience Bethany - what their grandkids experience on normal school day. Thank you so much for your support and care in these student lives. Thank you for the countless hours that you invest in these kids lives - showing them the love of Jesus!

Grandparents, who here loves telling stories to their grandkids? Do you have any fun stories that you love to share with them. Maybe it’s that story that you have told over and over again. Maybe its the story of how you served in the military serving our country. Maybe it’s the story of how you caught the biggest fish that you have ever seen. But as you tell these stories to your grandkids - do the fish in the story get bigger every time? Does the hill that you climbed both ways to school - get taller every time? I remember sitting down and hearing stories from my grandpa - who is now called home with Jesus. And he had this habit of stretching the details of the story every time he told it to us. He would tell stories of his childhood, he would give my cousins and me funny details where we thought there is no way that they could actually be true. But then after telling the story, maybe he could sense our unbelief, our doubt, and he would go to the other room and say, “Come & See”. And he would pull out this photo album to show us exactly what he was talking about, or he open the photo album and point out other people in the pictures with him, or he would place the object he was talking about in our hands where we could touch and see and experience it.

Today, in our text from the Gospel of John. Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus was drawing a crowd, He was drawing attraction from other people. And it says in our text, that some of John’s followers saw Jesus - wanted to hear more, and followed Jesus. Jesus sees these two new people follow Him and He said to them, “What are you seeking?” and the responded to Jesus - “Rabbi, where are you staying?” In other words they wanted to see more, they wanted to know more about this person that they had heard so much about. And Jesus simply invites them, “Come and you will see.” He is inviting these strangers close to Him to interact with the love of God incarnate. He invites them to come and see with their own eyes what everyone else is talking about.

Now, while we may not have the luxury to walk about with Jesus physically - like the early disciples did. Jesus today is inviting you to come and to see the grace and love that He has poured out for you! He is inviting you to Come and See the victory that He freely gives you - a victory greater than death! He is inviting you to come and see - the forgiveness that He freely gives you through His work on the cross! He invites you come, with your doubts, with your struggles, with your challenges, with your fears. He invites you to Come and See the love of God for you!

As people you know the love of God in Jesus, we are encouraged to share that love with others inviting others to see the power and love of Jesus for them. Grandparents, I hope today is a day filled with joy - a time spent with your grandkids, a day where maybe you can share stories of your time in second grade or what art project that you did when you were in middle school. But may the stories not end there. May you continue to share and introduce Jesus to your grandkids. May you continue to talk about the love of Jesus and how truly powerful that is. May you continue to reveal the power of God’s Word in your life to your grandkids.

And students of Bethany - this day when you are taking your grandparents around, I hope you have fun showing them your classroom where you learn all the different things. I hope you have fun showing them the new decorations on your locker and how neat that locker is. I hope you enjoy today creating memories, with your family, but may you continue to show Jesus. May you continue to invite your grandparents to Come and See - Jesus and His love for you.

Today, Jesus is inviting you to hear, to see, to know the love of God that He has revealed to you through the cross and the empty tomb on Easter morning. He invites you to take comfort in His power and life that He has won for you. Jesus today invites you to Come and See.

Now may the peace of God the grace of God which surpasses all understanding may it guard your hearts and minds in Christ our Lord. Amen.