Where’s Jesus?
Sermon by Pr. Michelle Sevig on the Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Sunday + April 20, 2025.
Does anyone recognize this book? Where’s Waldo?
It's a very popular book for early readers and non-readers alike. So popular in fact that there were none available at my neighborhood library this week–all of them were checked out, and they always are, the librarian told me. She joked, “You’re literally searching for Waldo in the library and can’t find him!”
Where’s Waldo, has delighted readers young and old with its whimsical and chaotic scenes for nearly four decades.The series has been popular enough to inspire video games, multiple cartoon adaptations, and a large number of other activity books starring Waldo and his friends. Waldo’s red and white striped apparel have become iconic and his name synonymous with searching and finding.
If you’re completely unfamiliar with Where’s Waldo the concept is extremely simple. Each two-page search is filled with bright and vibrant characters and backgrounds. The reader scans the scene, knowing and trusting that Waldo is in there somewhere; you just need to be diligent, attentive to the details and keep looking until you find Waldo.
This Easter morning, I find myself asking “Where’s Jesus?” He’s not even in the gospel text we read from Luke. The resurrection stories in Matthew, Mark and John that we read on Easter Eve or in other years (as our lectionary dictates), have Jesus front and center–even though the people don’t usually recognize him right away. But in the reading from Luke this Easter morning we can’t help asking: Where’s Jesus? We have to turn the page to the next story in Luke, when he is walking on the road to Emmaus, to find him. And even when the disciples are walking right next to him, they are grieving and wondering “‘Where’s Jesus?” saying, “the women in our group astounded us, because they were at the tomb early this morning and did not find his body there. They came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
Where’s Jesus? It’s what the women were likely asking when they arrived to anoint the body and it was gone. They had expected to find him wrapped in linen clothes. They had expected him to be dead. They had expected to do what women have always done to lovingly care for the bodies of the deceased. But when they arrived early on that sabbath morning, hearts full of grief and sorrow, they encountered the unexpected. An empty tomb. Two beings in dazzling white clothes appeared to them and reminded them of what to expect. “Remember how he told you that he must suffer and die and three days later rise again? Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is Risen.”
“Where’s Jesus?” is not as easy to discern in these resurrection days as it is to find Waldo in a picture book. There’s no brightly colored, red and white striped hat and sweater to identify Jesus in our midst. But Jesus is here, with us and in us in a very mysterious, post resurrection way. Remember that the disciples who actually do encounter the physical, risen Jesus, do not always recognize him right away. Not until they remember. Remember what he said. Remember what he did. Remember what he promised.
So, where is Jesus? Open your eyes and search diligently like a young reader searching for a cartoon character. Look in the hidden places and people and situations that surround you. Look toward the unexpected and you will find the Risen One. In these frightening and uncertain times we remember what Jesus did, and said, and promised to find our resurrection hope.
When the disciples asked, “how will we know you, see you, find you, Jesus, in the kingdom to come?” Jesus said (Matthew 25), “When you did it to the least of these you did it to me. 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.” ‘When did we do these things Jesus? Where were you? We didn’t see you?’ And he said, “when you did it to the least of these you did it to me.”
Where’s Jesus? In the last, and least and lost of this world.
In the hungry and unhoused who live in makeshift tents near the underpass of Lawrence ave–We see Jesus in Jacob, and Reginald and Samanatha and George who not only receive the food lovingly prepared for them by the members of this church, but they also receive compassion, story sharing and dignity, as we recognize the face of Jesus in each person.
In the sick and vulnerable who are longing for healing, we see Jesus. And we pray for them, provide meals, knit prayer shawls, visit and lovingly offer signs of hope and new life.
In those who are wrongly imprisoned in death camps without due process, we see Jesus. And we demand our elected leaders to care for them, to not forget that they are human beings created in the image of God and we pray for them and their families during this terrifying time.
In those who are labeled strangers, outcasts, unwanted, dangerous, we see Jesus. And we are called to open our hearts and lives to those who are suffering and oppressed–trans siblings, the disabled, the migrants, and anyone else labeled as other.
Where’s Jesus? Jesus is manifest in you as you share the joy of the resurrection, becoming the light that dispels the darkness–at any time and in every place where we find someone hurting and in need of kindness. You are the body of Christ, the presence of Christ, when you shine a light into the depths of despair for co-workers, friends, and family experiencing abandonment in the midst of cancer treatment, the death of a marriage, or being downsized from a job. Jesus lives in and through you.
And when you can’t remember that resurrection promise for yourself, or fully lean into that call, come to the table where we can taste, feel, see, and touch God, who is who is fully present with us in this meal. We remember that Jesus dined with friends and foes at the table and promised to be with us always. He is present for you, at this table, in your suffering and in your joys, for now and for always.
Where’s Jesus? He is risen, risen indeed. Amen.
