Looking for Jesus

A police officer sees a drunken man intently searching the ground near a lamppost and asks him the goal of his quest. The inebriate replies that he is looking for his car keys, and the officer helps for a few minutes without success then he asks whether the man is certain that he dropped the keys near the lamppost.

“No,” is the reply, “I lost the keys somewhere across the street.” “Why look here?” asks the surprised and irritated officer. “The light is much better here,” the intoxicated man responds with aplomb.

Have you ever spent time looking for something where you thought you left it only to realize you were looking in the wrong place?

Matthew 28:1–7 NIV84

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

Where they looking

The women had been present when Jesus was crucified. They saw the spear go into His side, they saw Him taken down and wrapped in cloth, they saw Him laid in the tomb and a large stone rolled in front of the entrance. Now they want to honor Him by completing the burial ritual which had been done hurriedly on the Friday. They come to the tomb expecting to find Jesus’ body still lying there.

Instead they find the tomb is empty and there’s an angel sitting on the stone. In Luke 24:5 he asks them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” He reminds them that Jesus told them that He would rise. He tells them that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and that they will see Jesus there.

We can understand why the women, and in fact all of the disciples, had a hard time understanding and believing that Jesus was not dead. They were simply looking for Him where they expected Him to be.

I think we do the same thing sometimes. We expect to find Jesus in church, but do we look for Him at work, on the highway, in our day to day activities? We see Jesus in the Bible, in our worship, maybe even in one another hopefully. Do we see Him in the homeless person on the corner? Do we see Him in the single parent struggling to provide for their children? Do we see Him in the refugee desperately fleeing from poverty, terror and violence?

We believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that He is alive. That’s what Easter is all about. But do we look for Him where He is today, or are we looking for our Lord in all the wrong places?

Why they were looking

They were looking to honor Jesus, but it was a dead Jesus they thought they were honoring. They came to anoint the body for burial. They came to grieve, perhaps to find some comfort in the ritual.

Do we only look for Jesus to meet our own needs, to meet our expectations? Or do we look for Jesus to learn what His expectations of us may be, where He wants us to go?