Am I Looking For Jesus at the Right Place?

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

Matthew 28:5-7

We have this same story of Jesus in all four gospels.  The gospels tell us that Jesus came proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God, calling people to repent, meaning to change their thinking, and to live, risking everything on the God who is the world’s true king.

All four gospels agree that the powerful people who wanted to maintain the illusion that they were running the world felt threatened enough by Jesus and his kingdom message to get him killed.  The local aristocracy that ran the economy of Jerusalem, including the high priestly families who ran the temple, as well as the authorities that represented the Roman Empire, found in Jesus’ message a common enemy.  So together they conspired to have him killed.  All four gospels agree.

Neither death nor the empire is a match for what God is doing here. But overpowering people with fear is not the point, merely the effect.  So the angel speaks peace to the women.

     “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”

Seeing Jesus is important, so looking for him in the right place is crucial.  Do not look for him among the dead, in tombs.  He is not to be found there.

The next line is crucial.  These women have a role to play.  They have a task to accomplish.  They have a mission.  It is to bear a message.  The divine messenger says:

    “Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”

Jesus is alive, not dead in a tomb.  Neither is Jesus to be seen on Herod’s throne, in Pilate’s Palace, nor in the gilded temple in Jerusalem.  You will not see him at any of the power centers of this world.  He has gone to Galilee, the marginal place where poor peasants and blue-collar fishermen live; the place where it all started.

St. Matthew records that the women left with two emotions: fear and joy.  The reason for joy is obvious – hope is possible.  But after what they witnessed on Friday, women who take a practical view of life, know that nothing is certain; fear remains. But they accept their commission and immediately ran to tell the men disciples who still think that tombs are permanent.

On the way, they see Jesus, alive.  He says, “Hello.”  They fall at his feet in worship.  He renews their missional mandate, telling them:

     “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Matthew tells us that the eleven disciples go to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus directed them to, and Matthew says, “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” (Matthew 28:17) This is one of the most amazing lines in the bible.  On the one hand, it says that the eleven actually saw the risen Jesus.  On the other hand, seeing him was not enough for some of them.

There is no way to read all of this on merely a surface level.  Seeing Jesus risen seems to make a difference only to those who are willing to embrace the fact that he is risen and to see him with faith.

Now few questions that makes me wonder why. Why was it important to Jesus to be seen in Galilee instead of Jerusalem, and why on a mountain?

Well, we know that mountains are where God-things happen all the time in the bible, and in Matthew’s gospel too.  And Galilee is where the common folks live.

So what kind of God-thing is going on in Galilee?  Just a few chapters earlier, before his arrest, Jesus told his disciples where to look for him and find him. He told them a story, a parable, about a king at the end of time who will separate people as one separates sheep from goats. (Matthew 25:31ff)   The sheep go on the right, the goats on the left.  The sheep are the blessed ones who get it.  The goats are the ones who don’t get it. What is the difference?  He tells the ones who get it:

    “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

They reply that they never saw Jesus in those circumstances.  He replies:

    “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me.”

 

If we are willing to go to Galilee among the commoners and sufferers and start looking for the Jesus, we will find him, just where he said he would be, among “the least of these.”

Dear Friends It is a new day.  We have a mission; a role to play. We are to announce the good news that domination systems do not have the last word.  We have the mandate to go to our Galilee and find Jesus there.

He may not look pretty.  He will have scars; he will have evidence of suffering and pain, of course, but he will be there to be seen and found.

Dear Friends we today end this series of Cross in Jesus’ Style. Thank you for your encouragement, motivation and above all your prayers which helped me to write the devotions. Thanking Mr. Abraham Zachariah (fondly called Babuchayan the choir master of St. Thomas MTC, Pattoor, Trivandrum for taking the pain in recording these devotions. Above all thanking Almighty that I could be an instrument in spreading his word.

Happy Easter dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

May God Bless us all.