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.”
“Everyone is searching for you.” All his earthly life, people were looking for Jesus. When he was twelve, his parents searched for him after he went missing on a trip to Jerusalem. When they found him, they said, “Didn’t you know we would be looking for you?” When Lazarus was ill, and Jesus came days later, 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 in another garden, lamenting, “They have taken my Lord and I don’t know where they have put him!” And there he is, once again hiding in plain sight, risen from the dead, mistaken for a gardener.
Is Jesus still “hiding in plain sight?” I don’t believe Jesus hides from us. Yet he can be hard to find, even when we're looking. Maybe that’s because the faculties with which we perceive spiritual reality are different than the organs that sense physical realities. And in many of us, especially in Western cultures, those faculties are underdeveloped. 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 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 hearts will be enlightened,” their “inner vision” sharpened as they come to recognize the Life of God around them.
If we want to see and experience Jesus more fully, we may need spiritual exercise, just as we expand our mental capacities or our physical strength and stamina. What we call spiritual disciplines are practices that help us to expand our ability to perceive and receive God. We wouldn’t expect to run ten miles our first time out; we gradually increase our capacity. In the same way, our spiritual “muscles” must be exercised. Sure, sometimes we have a glimpse or an encounter with Jesus unexpectedly, unbidden. Perhaps 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.
What spiritual practices are you drawn to? Increasing your reading of the Bible? Developing a more consistent life of prayer and contemplation? 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 might help you grow your inner vision. Ask your pastor or a spiritual director for help (you're welcome to ask 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.” (Jeremiah 29:13) It can be hard for us to do anything with our whole heart. Wherever we start, know that Jesus is not hiding from us, and will honor our desire to find him, as we seek him with the eyes of our hearts.
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