Do You See Him? (Reflections on Easter 3, Year A 2026)

 

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22)

Back in 1990 (I think it was) I took a long road trip from LA to Chicago to attend a buddy’s wedding. Since this is a pretty long drive, another LA friend offered that her mom in Tulsa would gladly put me up for a night (rent free) if I wanted to rest during the long journey. I was only too happy to accept the hospitality—and hospitable it certainly was.

My friend’s mom, like all nice Oklahomans, believed in introducing an out-of-town guest to all her family members and just about everyone she’s ever met. This nice lady happened to be the church secretary of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. She invited me to her place of employment to meet her boss, the pastor. She also gave me a tour of the facilities at Prince of Peace, a congregation located in a predominantly African American neighborhood. In the church parish hall, I stood awestruck in front of a gorgeous painted mural depicting Our Lord’s ascension into Heaven. The painting covered an entire wall, and the figure of Jesus was life-sized.

And he was Black.

I, of course, being a white Lutheran boy, had always grown up with Sunday School pictures of a blond, blue-eyed, European-looking Savior. It was quite an eye-opener to me to realize Jesus could appear to others as someone relatable to their experience. I stood looking at the mural for a few minutes and went away thinking, “That’s pretty cool.”

Just how does Jesus appear to us? In the gospel reading for Easter 3, Year A in the RCL (Luke 24:13-35), Jesus is unrecognizable. He is stranger on the road. The two disciples walk with him but have no idea who he is. It’s only when they extend Christian charity and offer him a place to stay the night and something to eat that his identity becomes real to them. Jesus told us:

“…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’… ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)

Jesus can appear to us in the stranger or the one in need, but Jesus also appears to us through the Word. I think I had a vison of the Lord once during my seminary days during a chapel service led by our professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, a visiting academic from the Church of South India, the Rev. Dr. James Vejayakumar. Vejay, as we called him, was standing in the chancel after having just consecrated the Host. He held the loaf of bread in his hands. He was a small man, shorter than myself, with curly black hair, deep black eyes, and a coffee-and-cream complexion. He wore the vestments of his denomination which looked strange and Oriental. I thought this was what the historical Jesus might have looked like.

As I made my way up the aisle to receive the sacrament, I thought of the words of Luke’s gospel:

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

Vejay had, indeed, opened the scriptures to me and my classmates, and we experienced the Bible as we had not experienced it before. Truly, this must’ve been the way people felt when Jesus taught them. Jesus came to us in this foreign gentleman and came alive in the Word.

But we needn’t do missionary work among the needy or take seminary classes to encounter Jesus. For Cleopas and his companion, Jesus is made known to them in the breaking of the bread. We share the meal weekly of Christ’s body and blood, made tangible to us in the bread and wine of the sacrament, but we are also experiencing Christ in the very act of eating together. Jesus told us

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20)

Every Sunday during the consecration of the elements, we pronounce the Memorial Acclamation: Christ ahs died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. How does Christ come to you? Where have you found Jesus? Where do you expect to find Jesus? You may not recognize the Lord at first but keep looking all the same.

Christ be with you, my friend.