Jesus Meeting Us

I was taken aback when I looked at last week’s blog and saw that it was about Maundy Thursday and foot washing. It definitely feels as though more than a week has gone by. It’s such an emotional progression of events that we need time to digest it all. Good Friday and Easter were definitely highlights for me this year.

Easter Sunday I was struck in our reading from Matthew 28 that in verse 9 Jesus chose to meet the Marys as they were running to tell the disciples about His resurrection. They had believed the angel who rolled away the stone from the tomb, had investigated to make sure Jesus’ body was gone and the graveclothes still there, and they were doing what had been asked of them - going to tell the men who might or might not believe them. Jesus chose to meet them on route and to offer His peace and to reassure them.

He could have easily left them to it and moved on to more important things or people. We know He had a lot of encounters He felt led to that day. Maybe it was because He knew the women wouldn’t be trusted as reliable witnesses because of their gender. They fell into the same ranks as the shepherds at His birth who also weren’t allowed to testify at a trial because they were considered untrustworthy. I mused in my sermon that Jesus wanted to see their joy and excitement after witnessing their grief and tears, the last ones at the cross and the first at the tomb. He loved them so much and I think was genuinely thrilled to be with them again.

This coming Sunday I’m talking about another meeting on the road. This time it’s on the way to Emmaus with disciples who are slow to understand. The joy here doesn’t come for quite a while as they grieve and Jesus walks them through the whole story of why Good Friday was needed. Only in the breaking of bread at their destination do the two disciples recognize Him, and it is in that instant that He vanishes from their sight. He has just a moment of experiencing their joy and wonder before being transported somewhere else, leaving them to retrace their steps to Jerusalem to see the others and tell the amazing news.

Tonight I’m getting ready to work again on my income taxes. I’ve had a long, not so fabulous work day, and then a visit with my best friend whose cat is dying, and then a brisk walk in an unseasonably balmy evening. All pretty normal stuff, I suppose, and seemingly far removed from Easter daffodils and empty tombs and chocolate gifts and Hallelujahs. But we are still in the season and reality of Easter.

I wonder if this week we are more like the women, full of joy and readily able to recognize Jesus walking with us, or the two disciples who, also in intense grief, just can’t see Who is with them. The amount of bad news locally and around the world right now is numbing. There is lots to grieve these days, within and outside the church. There is fear and frustration, hate and despair.

It would be easy to keep walking and complaining and feeling lost and let down because what we had hoped for hasn’t happened. It would be easy to commiserate and be oblivious to companions on the road with us who might have something to offer of faith or perspective or Jesus Himself.

Are we coming to see what has happened to Jesus and what new form He is visiting us in as His beloved disciples? Are we ready to anoint what He gave us, His body the church and teaching and promises, so that the perfume of His goodness lasts and is all around us? Or are we more ready to pack it in, trudge home in disappointment, and miss the fact that our hearts were burning within us because He was with us?

My prayer for this beginning of the season of Easter is that we are looking for the new life of Christ among us and for the companions He has sent to walk with us in a time of bewilderment and emergence and new ways of being church. I pray that we trust that He is beside us, through the community He has drawn to Himself and also by the Spirit. I pray that we realize that He takes joy in us and being with us and knowing our pain and triumphs. He continues to meet us where we are in so many different ways. May we have eyes to see it.