WHAT DO YOU WANT? 

WHOM DO YOU WANT? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Easter Tuesday  is, “What Do You Want? Whom Do You Want?”

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

As you know we get a lot of the Gospel of John at Easter time.

Last Saturday when I was putting together a homily for Easter Sunday I noticed something without looking for it. That happens. I noticed sort of accidentally that the Easter Sunday Gospel from John, Chapter 20: 1-9, has a similar scene in Chapter 1: 35-39 of John - the scene where Andrew - a disciple of John the Baptist has Jesus pointed out to him - and Andrew goes right up to Jesus who says to him, “What do you want?” It’s translated that way and a few other various ways in English from the Greek - but that’s the basic meaning. “What do you want? What are seeking? What are you looking for?”

Last night as I was preparing a homily for this morning I noticed that today’s gospel text is a continuation of Sunday’s gospel - John 20: 11-18. Having more time than last Saturday I did some further research on the text.

My first question was whether the Greek had the same word for “wanting” or “seeking” in both those texts: chapter 1 and chapter 20.

It does: the Greek verb is “ZETEO”.

Then I wondered if the Greek was different for “What” and “Whom”. It is. The difference is, “TI” and “TINA”. In John 1:38 we read, “TI ZETETE” “What do you want?” and in John 20: 15 we read, “TINA ZETEIS” “Whom are you seek?”

I checked commentaries on the Gospel of John. Nobody comments on the nuance I just mentioned. That makes me nervous, because I neither a Greek scholar nor a Biblical scholar.

However, I dabble and babble in both.

I have no clue if anyone of you is interested in these tiny tidbits.

Next I did notice that several commentaries did compare both texts - John 1 and John 20 when in both scenes we spot the word “Rabbi”. However, it’s more intimate or friendlier here in John 20 when Jesus is called “Rabbouni”.

So that was a nice discovery for me. We were taught to read the scriptures and look for parallels. I finally spotted this one after all these years. What else is in the scriptures that I haven’t noticed yet?

WHAT OR WHOM?

So I noticed that Chapter One has the question: “What are you looking for?” - the question of Jesus to Andrew and Chapter 20 has the question Jesus asks Mary, “Whom” are you looking for?”

Now I began wondering if the author of John is making a point here: that some people ask what and some ask whom.

Is it true that some people are searching for a what and some people spend their life searching for a whom - a person?

Is it the “Subject vs. Object” topic or the “It vs. The Thou” question that Martin Buber was off on.?

I don’t know. It’s something that hit me last Saturday and again last night - so I have to keep reflecting upon all this.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “What Do You Want? Whom Do You Want?”

In this homily, I’m asking several questions: “Is everyone a wanter? Do some people want a what and do some people want a whom? Do men want a what and women want a whom?

Do men want a religion, a system, a plan, a blueprint and women want a person?

Do some people want a person who will give them a what?

I don’t know. I’m throwing these questions out to you as well. Maybe one of these questions will hook you - which the question mark is crafted into: a hook?

Maybe some of you are thinking these are all “What” questions and “What comments”.

Maybe some of you are thinking about what you are going to do today; maybe some of you are thinking about whom you are going to meet or be with today.

Maybe one of you is thinking: “What is he talking about today?”

Maybe one of you is thinking, “Whom is he talking about today?”