|
One of our favorite reading activities with our children was engaging in the pursuit of “Where’s Waldo?” Waldo was this wonderful, zany character who was hidden in a variety of crowd scenes in those books. The task was to find him peeking out from the oddest places or tucked in out-of-the-way venues. I, along with my children, found that search to be intriguing and fun.
The resurrection story found in the Gospel of Mark has similar elements in its telling. Three women, Mary Magdelene, Mary, mother of James, and Salome came to the tomb of Jesus looking to care for his body. They were told by a young man at the tomb, “Don’t be alarmed, he said. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him as he told you. (Mark 16:6-8, NIV).
Where is Jesus to be found? That was the question on the lips of the three witnesses. Even the answer, “He has gone ahead of you into Galilee,” did not provide the kind of detail that one could expect. Mark’s account contains a kind of mystery and ambiguity. Jesus is always just ahead of us, inviting us to come join him. Come to Galilee and see.
We live in a time and place where many voices speak with certainty of where Jesus can be found. Voices are demanding and loudly telling us where and how we can meet this Christ. Our political parties and other institutions of power speak to us in a religious language that tells us how our shared cultural life should be shaped. I find it increasingly difficult to sort through the myriad and often contradictory claims to answer that question of the early witnesses.
Where is Jesus?
That question, for me, is not philosophical, nor is it a gesture of despair. My deepest longing comes from a heartfelt desire to align my life with the one who beckons us to come to Galilee. Where do I look for the risen Christ?
The stories of Jesus’ relationships and the accounts of the early church in scripture provide us with a tapestry of clues to answer that question. On this Easter weekend, I would like to share two biblical stories that speak to me about the location of the risen Christ.
The first story occurs in Acts 10. It is the story of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, his encounter with Peter, and his resulting conversion. The interpretation generally focuses on Cornelius’s being a Gentile and the Gospel’s resulting entry into the Gentile world. This is true enough.
But in another sense, Cornelius was not only a Gentile but the enemy. He was a member of the Roman occupying force of Palestine and, as such, was part of the military rule and periodic persecution of the Jewish people. The background to Jesus’ teaching regarding loving your enemy and going two miles instead of one (Matthew 5: 38-43) was written in part with the Roman military in mind. Yet Peter and the early disciples responded to the power and command of the risen Christ to see Christ at work in Cornelius.
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines an enemy as “one that is antagonistic to another.” There are more complex definitions, but for our purpose, this serves us well. In an election year, in a time of overt polarization edging into hostility, what does the story of Cornelius have to say to us?
How about adopting the attitude of Peter and the early disciples? “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.’” (Acts 10:34-35 NIV). The risen Christ is present in our antagonists.
The second account comes from Matthew 19:14: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” This is in response to his disciple’s attempts to prevent Jesus from praying for the children brought to him.
I can scarcely imagine anyone, in principle, disagreeing that the risen Christ is with the most vulnerable and innocent, our children. “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world”….
It is with a kind of urgency that I ask us to consider the presence of Christ in the faces of the youngest among us. The horrific images of war and suffering in Gaza, Israel, Nigeria and Sudan, and images of neglect and violence in our own country produce untold suffering for our children.
Jesus is present with all the children of the world. Let that sense of Christ’s presence with the innocents be the foundation of our responses to conflict and human need. Finally, it is about “the kingdom of heaven belonging to such as these.”
For the sisters and brothers of the Shenandoah District, where do you see evidence of the risen Christ? I pray for each of you that the power of the Spirit of God may renew and rekindle your relationships with God and with each other.
Serving Christ Together,
John Jantzi
District Executive Minister
Shenandoah District
| 
