Jesus may have thought he could go off for a time of quiet prayer and refreshment after a long day and night of ministry, but already his time was not his own. We read that:
Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”
“Everybody is searching for you.” All his earthly life, people were looking for Jesus. When he was twelve, he went missing on a trip to Jerusalem. When his anxious parents found him, they said, “Didn’t you know we would be looking for you?” When Lazarus was ill, and Jesus came days too late, Mary and Martha said, “Where were you?” When chief priests and scribes wanted to arrest him, they went looking for him in Gethsemane, though he’d been “hiding in plain sight” all over Jerusalem for weeks. “Why didn’t you just arrest me at the temple?” he asked.
And on Easter morning, we find Mary Magdalene weeping in another garden, lamenting, “They have taken my Lord and I don’t know where they have put him!” And there he is, again hiding in plain sight, risen from the dead, mistaken for a gardener.
Is Jesus still “hiding in plain sight?” I don’t believe he hides from us, and yet he can be remarkably hard to spot, even when we're looking. Maybe that’s because the faculties with which we perceive spiritual reality are different than our organs for discerning the material. And in many of us, especially in Western cultures, those spiritual senses are under-developed. Jesus told Nicodemus that the Kingdom cannot be perceived with human senses, saying, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again,” which he later defines as being “born of water and the Spirit.”
Even those of us who have been born of water and Spirit in baptism may not have developed our spiritual perception if no one told us we needed to. Paul prays for the Ephesians and Colossians that “the eyes of their heart will be enlightened,” their “inner vision” sharpened as they come to recognize the Life of God around them. That's for us too.
If we want to see and experience Jesus more fully, we may need to do some spiritual exercise. Sure, sometimes we get a glimpse or an encounter with Jesus unbidden, unexpected. I think God gives us those experiences to draw us closer, to get us on the path, the way falling in love gets us to the place where we're willing to work at a relationship. We will see and experience more as we cultivate the intimacy Jesus promises us. “Spiritual disciplines” are practices that help us expand our ability to perceive and receive, just as we expand our mental capacities or our physical strength and stamina. We wouldn’t expect to run 10 miles our first time out; we gradually increase our capacity. In the same way, our spiritual muscles must also be exercised.
What spiritual practices are you drawn to? More reading of the Bible? A more consistent life of prayer and meditation? Getting more involved in ministries with the sick, the poor, the marginalized, where Jesus also promised he could be found? Lent is approaching – why not ask the Spirit to lead you to a spiritual practice that will help you grow your inner vision. Ask a pastor or a spiritual director for help (or me).
Long ago, God made a promise through the prophet Jeremiah: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” It can be hard for us to do anything with our whole heart. Wherever we start, I believe Jesus is not hiding from us, and will honor our desire to find him as we seek with the eyes of our hearts.
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