Where is Jesus?
Three days after he was executed, women went to the tomb to serve the torn, beaten, dead body of Jesus, but it was not there.
Where was Jesus?
Peter and John ran to the tomb and saw for themselves. The tomb was empty.
Where was Jesus?
Then Jesus started showing up.
Mary Magdalene saw him in the garden outside the tomb. Then he was gone.
That afternoon, Jesus joined two disciples walking to Emmaus. He stopped and had dinner with them. Then he was gone.
Later that evening, the disciples got together in a locked room. Suddenly, Jesus was there. “Peace, be with you!” he said. Then he was gone.
A week later, the disciples were back in that same room, only this time with Thomas, who had been absent the first time. And Jesus came and stood among them and had a conversation with Thomas. Then he was gone.
Later, he met them while they were fishing in Galilee. Another time he appeared to a gathering of 500 disciples. And he had a one-on-one talk with his half-brother, James.
Finally, he showed up one last time, took some disciples with him to the Mount of Olives, and then was lifted up into the sky.
Again, he was gone.
How about now? Where is Jesus now?
Philip Yancey wrote, “Easter means he must be loose out there somewhere. Like the disciples, I never know where Jesus might turn up, how he might speak to me, what he might ask of me. As Frederick Buechner says, Easter means, “We can never nail him down, not even if the nails we use are real and the thing we nail him to is a cross” (Philip Yancy, The Jesus I Never Knew, 225).
Where is Jesus?
There is a sense in which Jesus has left and will not return until the end of time. He ascended on the fortieth day after his resurrection and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He will not be back until he comes in all his glory at the Second Coming.
But there is another sense in which, through the Spirit, he turns up in many places in this world, but maybe not in the places we expect of him. Where is Jesus? Where can we find him? Jesus told us in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats one answer of where we can find him.
Yancey wrote, “The parable refers to the meantime, the centuries-long interval we live in now, the [after the ascension and before the Second Coming] when God seems absent. The answer to that most modern question, [where is God?], is at once profound and shocking. God has not absconded at all. Rather, he has taken on a disguise, a most unlikely disguise of the stranger, the poor, the hungry, the prisoner, the sick, the ragged ones of the earth: ‘I tell you the truth, [Jesus said], whatever you did for the one of the least of these my brothers of mine, you did it for me.’ If we cannot detect God’s presence in the world, it may be that we have been looking for him in the wrong places” (232).
In case it’s been a while since you have done so, go ahead and read that parable now:
The Sheep and the Goats
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
When he ascended, Jesus knew he was leaving behind a badly broken world. According to Yancey, Jesus has both a long-range and a short-range plan for addressing that brokenness. The long-range plan is that one day, he will be back in power and glory to right every wrong, wipe away every tear, and make all things new. The short-range plan is for Christians to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome strangers, clothe the needy, and visit the sick and those in prison (233).
And here is something really profound: when we do those things, when we take part in Jesus' short-range plan for addressing brokenness in the world, we meet Jesus there.
Yancey quoted Mother Teresa as saying once to a visitor, “We are a contemplative order. First, we meditate on Jesus, and then we go out and look for him in disguise” (233).
Where is Jesus?
He is all around us disguised as people who are hungry and thirsty and alien and poor and sick and incarcerated.
In our Metanoia and Seminary-in-Prison ministries, our volunteers get to meet Jesus. We get to go behind fences and razor wire and, while we are serving our incarcerated brothers, in some way, get to spend time with Jesus disguised as a prisoner.
Next month, I will have been serving prisoners for eight years. This has been the most rewarding ministry I’ve been privileged to do. I am thankful that the Lord has considered me worthy to do so. And I am so thankful for the hundreds of men and women who have joined us in visiting Jesus by serving “the least of these his brothers.”
Much Love, Barry
Please pray for our Prison Ministries. Click here to see our March Newsletter: March Newsletter (mailchi.mp)