Not Looking

Luke 24:13-35

Nobody is really looking for Jesus.

Not in this story we just heard.

The two travelers, making their way out of Jerusalem that long ago Sunday afternoon, might be looking for answers. They might be looking for security, or a return to normal. Or they might be looking for nothing at all.

But they are definitely not looking for Jesus. 

After all, all the news and evidence and common sense they’ve got suggests that they will never see him again. 

The way Luke tells the story of the resurrection, Jesus’ friends discover that he’s gone from his tomb, and heavenly messengers say that Jesus is “risen” as he’d told them.  But there’s no suggestion that they’ll meet him again. No promise of reunion, or invitation to a rendezvous. And no Jesus showing up right outside the tomb to change everything.  

Jesus is risen, and it’s a miracle, but there’s no suggestion he’s coming back. 

So no, they aren’t looking for Jesus. Even though they are talking about him.

Which is not so different from how it is for you and me today, is it?

We’re talking about Jesus (at least, I am). And we’ve got no reason to expect Jesus, in person, to show up here, or wherever else we’re going today.
(I mean, we expect the presence of Christ, somehow, in church, but I suspect most of us are not looking for Jesus-in-person to stroll down the aisle and sit next to you in the pew when we came to church today. Or Jesus be in the pulpit to personally explain all the scriptures.)  

Unlike our two friends in Luke’s story, we have had a promise that Jesus is going to come back. But when it’s been nearly two thousand years, we’re mostly not looking for him to show up, physically and dramatically, today.

 

And I wouldn’t be surprised at myself, or at us jointly, if you and I didn’t really recognize Jesus as Jesus if he did turn up among us right now. 

So this story about Jesus turning up unexpectedly might be meant to help prompt us to look. To put us on notice that Jesus really and vividly turns up in random places, and we should be watching for him. Especially in places we would not expect to see Jesus.

On the road home from work or worship, maybe.

And I think, yes, you and I should, anywhere, every day, be looking for Jesus to turn up. He did tell us – via several scriptural writers – that he is coming back, eventually.

But I think there’s more to this story.

Maybe you noticed, as you listened this morning, that Luke mentions that the two travelers’ “eyes were kept from recognizing” Jesus.

That passive voice construction is often a gospel writer’s way of saying “It was God who did that thing”. So maybe…

Maybe there’s something important – at least sometimes – about being with Jesus, about having Jesus with us – without our noticing, recognizing, or knowing that Jesus is there. 

Maybe because of the way things suddenly, freshly fall into place for the two travelers when – with hindsight and insight – they suddenly know that this extraordinary stranger was – all along – their own friend and teacher risen from the dead.
There’s a special and extraordinary power in that kind of reflective recognition, that “oh, that explains it” moment, that can make those insights more poignant, more memorable, more meaningful to our hearts.

And if that’s what this story is about, then maybe the way you and I should respond is not so much to look for Jesus everywhere, anytime, but instead to keep checking our rearview mirrors.  To make it a habit to ask ourselves “where was Jesus present today, even if I wasn’t looking at the time? Where did God surprise us?”

There are a number of different time-honored spiritual and prayer practices designed to give some structure to that hindsight; to help us make a pattern of looking back at what just happened, and finding where Jesus was with us. The Ignatian daily “examen” is one of them, but there are other ways to get into that habit of retrospective recognizing. I learned one of the simplest from the kids when I was helping lead a Vacation Bible School many years ago. Each day we’d ask about “God-sightings”. Where did you see God yesterday? This morning?

I’m pretty sure that none of the kids who told us about the presence of God in their day had been looking for Jesus when they scraped their knee on the playground, were struggling to share their floating toys at the community pool, or in most of the other stories I heard. But I noticed a real sense of recognition, and comfort or joy, in many cases when a child mentioned “sighting God” when a bandaid and kiss were applied to that skinned knee, or they’d made a new friend at the pool.

So I still ask myself, many days, “well, Emily, where were your God-sightings yesterday?” And over and over again I find that heart-warming (sometimes heart-burning) recognition “oh, there was Jesus in the grocery store. Oh, there, at that lunch table, I was in the presence of God.”

Sometimes I feel quite foolish about not spotting those things in the moment. I can’t imagine why I wasn’t looking for, expecting Jesus, when I visited with our preschool students to write the prayers we are praying today – but when I look back, Jesus was so very vividly there!

I have a lot of empathy with the two travelers whose story we heard today if they were kicking themselves for not noticing how very Jesus-y that stranger was on the road. And a lot of empathy for the joy I think they felt in their belated recognition, anyway.

I know – I’ve read this story many times – I know that looking for Jesus every day is important.
I know from experience that looking back to discover where Jesus has been with me is a gift.

But this week, I couldn’t resist speculating about one other thing. 

I wonder if sometimes the reason we might be “kept from recognizing” Jesus is that there are times when it’s simpler, easier, or just better to listen and learn about God’s work, to puzzle out the miracles and meaning of our days, without the overwhelming awe and wonder of knowing we’re face to face with God in that moment.  I know some of our teachers in the preschool work lovingly every day to help our kids learn about God’s love for them – especially in those moments when no one feels like Jesus is watching. 

Or – maybe – just every so often – there are times when Jesus just wants to be with us, to spend time with you or me, without any fanfare.  

I wonder about that, every once in a while, when I stand on the sidewalk outside the open chapel window and listen and pray along while our Preschool friends pray and sing and tell stories, and I soak up the joy and holiness without letting anyone see me. 

I’ve been doing a lot of noticing God around Trinity Preschool this week because we’ve been preparing to celebrate Preschool Sunday today – and because, well, one of the reasons I like to celebrate Preschool Sunday is because it’s easy – if sometimes only in hindsight! – to find the love and joy of God in our preschool.

But I suspect Jesus shows up with us – without you and me quite recognizing the moment – often. At work or on the way home; at school or on the lacrosse field, at the grocery or the gym.. In any place in our lives.

And that – recognized and unrecognized – God delights in spending that time with us. And that, just as he did on that road outside Jerusalem, looked for or not, Jesus comes to us, to make sure we know that we’ve been blessed, and loved, and fed.

And to be honest, that’s what I was looking for when I came to church today.

And so, I hope, are you.