Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Our hearts have to go out to Mary as she stands at the empty tomb. She has endured the unfathomable loss of Jesus on the Cross. He was taken violently from her and from this world by death. And it is only getting worse. Now his body has been taken too. It is just too much.
In her distress, she sees a gardener who asks her why she is crying. Thinking this man might have moved the body of her Lord, she pleads with him to tell her where the body may be so that she can tend to it.
The gardener that she sees is Jesus, of course, but she doesn’t know that. How often in our distress or busyness or distraction do we fail to see Jesus even when he is right there with us?
Most Friday afternoons, I make a trip some distance north on Interstate 75. By the time I get back to Dayton, I am hungry for dinner, a bit tired, and very anxious to embrace the weekend. As I come down the exit ramp off 75 and approach the intersection at Main Street I often see a man or a woman standing at the curb holding a sign. The sign is always simple. It says something like, “Homeless. Anything can help.” For months, I approached that intersection with much unease. Should I roll down my window? Should I extend my hand with a bit of cash? Is that the right thing to do? Will the money be used to good purpose? For months, I kept my window shut and proceeded right through the intersection.
But during those months, Jesus’ words from Matthew 25 tugged at me: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these . . ., you did it to me” (MT 25:40). Jesus was right in front of me all those Friday afternoons, and I didn’t see him.
One day for reasons that I can’t fully explain, that all changed. And whereas once I approached that intersection with considerable unease, now I actually look forward to getting my wallet out. I like to pull up to the curb with my window down and my hand outstretched. In that moment, I make contact by way of eyes and hand and a bit of cash with another human being who, like all of us, is in need of some help.
Each day God gives us opportunities to see Jesus—in the least of these (and in many others). But we have to be paying attention. And we may have to work a bit on any given day to find the focus (if we are distracted) or the courage (if we are uneasy) or the compassion (if we think certain people are undeserving). But if we can do that work in ourselves and stretch out our hand then perhaps we can say often, as Mary did that day next to the empty tomb, “I have seen the Lord.”
Amen.
- Sue Trollinger