Have you Seen Jesus?
Luke 24:31-35 (NIV): Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
I remember singing “Have you seen Jesus, my Lord? He’s here in plain view. Take a look open your eyes, He’ll show life to you….” (John Fischer, 1970) at Young Life meetings in High School. But I remember seeing Jesus for the first time much earlier in my childhood, in Jane who would become and still is, my best friend.
My family moved from Wichita, Kansas to Kenosha, Wisconsin when I was six. We arrived in Kenosha when it was springtime in Kansas, but “snow mountains” taller than me lined Kenosha’s sidewalks. When my older brothers did not show up to walk me home for lunch on my first day of school, I stood at the school entrance and cried. My red rubber boots had no lining and my feet were COLD. When Jane showed up and saw me crying, she invited me to her house for lunch. As we walked the 10 blocks to her house, we discovered that my dad was her new family’s new pastor. This was the beginning of a friendship that continues to this day. When we arrived a Jane’s house, 30 minutes late, her mother was furious and told Jane she would need to share her lunch. Jane vigorously defended my need for comfort and care, and willingly shared her grilled cheese sandwich and barley soup. To this day, I remember her offering me that half-grilled cheese sandwich. In six-year-old Jane, I saw Jesus breaking bread-(filled with cheese- this is Wisconsin after all) to share what she had to sustain me.
Jesus continues to rise in the hearts of people old and young, breaking bread, sacrificing and sharing and preferencing relationships built on love over all else. We can recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, even when it is grilled cheese or a kind word. We are together the body of Christ. Have you seen Jesus, my Lord? He is here in plain view.