Mary Magdalene thought the resurrected Jesus was a gardener,
because that’s who she was accustomed to seeing in a garden. The travelers on
the road to Emmaus thought the resurrected Jesus was a pilgrim because that is
who they expected to see on the road. Jesus has not stopped appearing to us in
ordinary places now that he has risen from the dead—it is we who fail to
recognize him because of our limited vision.
Well, who would expect
to see a dead man return in the flesh, you might ask? Actually, we who say we
believe in the words of Jesus should expect it, for didn’t he say, “I will be
with you always”? The problem is, even after he came to live among us as a
human, we still expect Christ to prefer the miraculous instead of the
mundane—even though it is in the mundane where we live out most of our lives.
Many of us would probably say we had our best heart to heart
talks with our parents, siblings, spouses, or friends while cooking a meal, loading
the dishwasher, changing the oil in the car, or doing yard work. The Jesus who enjoyed
visiting his friends at Bethany was surely likely to pick up a hammer to fix a
loose table leg if the need arose; why should we expect him to behave
differently now? He is with us in our daily lives because that is where we are
in need of his presence, his mercy, his hope, and his consolation. When we see
that, we are indeed an alleluia people!
No comments:
Post a Comment