Seeking For Jesus (John 11:56)

 

Thursday, August 7, 2025

Psalm 90

2 Samuel 15:24-16:4

John 11:55-12:11

Seeking For Jesus (John 11:56)

They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”

I need to make a confession: I love Holy Communion. But then again, who doesn’t? It is the great feast of the Lord, a token of his love for us, a seal on our souls of his possession of us. The people of God gather to receive the gifts of God, the sweet sacrament of peace. When we gather weekly to celebrate this feast, how often do we stop and think about who we expect to be there with us?

In John’s Gospel we are almost at Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The Passover to end all Passovers is about to begin. And the Jews were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?”

Do we ever have that worry as we make our way to church every Sunday? Do we ask ourselves “will Jesus be there?” Because sometimes we come away from Sunday worship wondering if God was even there at all, for any number of reasons.

Jesus did show up to the feast which the crowds were wondering about in the Gospel, but he showed up in an unexpected way: he was the Passover meal; in fact, the Passover itself was a sign pointing towards Christ’s atoning death on the cross, and the deliverance from death it brings us.

In the same way Jesus often shows up in unexpected ways at church on Sundays. Or he makes his presence known later in the week, when we need him most and don’t even realise. Jesus does his own thing, in his own time. But his main concern is the souls of his people, and he backs that up by feeding us with himself.

When was the last time you had real sense that Jesus was at the Eucharistic feast? Has he ever waited to let his presence known until later in the week, that made you glad you went on Sunday?