Resonance on Display

Imagine having a voice made for American Idol. The passion of a song in your heart. Lungs filled with air. Words smoothly and elegantly leaving your lips. Reaching the microphone. Echoing throughout the auditorium. Giving the audience chills. Tears. Smiles. And a standing ovation after hitting that final note. 

That performance would resemble a confident conclusion that you’ve successfully created a deep, abiding connection with your listening audience. A stirring of the affections and emotions. Your performance of art has resonated with the people.

Could you imagine speaking a word and the crowds hanging on every word? 

In John 1, these words were spoken loud and clear, “Look, the Lamb of God!” (1:36). And what happens next was better than a standing ovation. “When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus” (John 1:37). 

John was the emcee for the arrival of the next best act. And when his words fell on the ears of several in the crowd they immediately turned their attention to Christ.

As the conversation with Andrew continued about where He was going, Jesus said, “Come and see!” Jesus invited Andrew. And he accepted. Then Andrew went to find Peter.

Jesus then found Philip. Philip found Nathaneal. And just like that, momentum was building and Jesus’s following was growing. His words were resonating with the hearts of the people around Him.

The unfolding of this story exclaims the deep and wide effect of Jesus’s words falling on the ears of His newly found followers. 

Jesus was more than a one hit wonder. The wonder of Christ was prophesied hundreds of years before His arrival and still resonates with people nearly two thousand years after His ascension.

How do we know His words landed weightily on His followers? When arrested for disrupting the religious and social order of their day, John and Peter both exclaimed, “we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

So what do Jesus’s words mean for us?

When we hear the words of Jesus it requires us to walk. We will either walk closer to Jesus or we will walk away. We will be like these disciples or like the rich young ruler. We’ll bury ourselves in the security of His words or we’ll bury ourselves in the grief of our own possessions. Either way, we cannot remain neutral. We can’t stand still. We can’t stay where we are. 

When the words of Christ resonate with our hearts it spurs us to action. His words encourage us to share with others our own personal experience with the intent that they may also experience the words of hope for themselves.