Ecclesiastes in John
Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. John 6:26
Seek – Have you ever misplaced your keys? You know they’re around somewhere, so you go hunting. Pretty soon, you find them just where you left them, inside the refrigerator when you were putting away groceries. Now reflect on that experience. There was a brief moment of panic when you first realized they were lost. But the search did not involve anxiety and fervent effort. Sure, they were lost, but you knew you would find them soon. This is not the same experience as discovering your child is missing, or your purse has been stolen. We use the same word, “seek”, for all these conditions, but the intensity is determined by the object we desire. That’s exactly what Jesus has in mind in this comment.
Jesus, of course, did not speak Greek. He probably used the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew word biqqesh. You can see the word in Isaiah 41:17 in its common use. What you may not see is that biqqesh is a word that is often coupled with another verb to indicate the intensity of the search. It is always about a personal effort to find something that is not close at hand but is earnestly desired. When John writes this saying of Jesus, he uses the Greek zeteo. Both words are determined by their context. Both words imply a definite personal resolve to find something. Jesus focuses on our motivation for the search. When we make a concerted effort to find Jesus, we must be sure it is not motivated by His ability to satisfy our temporal needs. Why does He make this point? Because He remembers Ecclesiastes 3:6, another instance of biqqesh.
Jesus knows that if our motives are based on the perspective of a full belly, a secure life and satisfying relationships, we will soon discover that all human activities are transitory. Wealth slips into poverty. Health turns to sickness. Life moves toward death. Laughing turns to crying. Building up becomes tearing down. To seek God in order to sustain something that will pass is foolishness. Today God may feed me, but I will be hungry again tomorrow. The determining factor of life is not chronos time (the passing of one thing into another) but kairos time! What really matters is God’s interruption and intervention into the routine cycle. If I don’t operate in that dimension, I have not understood who Jesus is.
Jesus could have said this another way. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Seek – great personal intensity aimed at gaining something of significance – seek first – ahead of all the chronos temptations and distractions – the Kingdom – God’s reign and rule. We mouth the words, but does it line up with our personal searching?
Today you can seek a chronos solution, or you can seek a kairos dimension. It’s up to you. One will leave you at the same place tomorrow. The other will take you someplace you have never been.
