We Wish to See Jesus

The Lenten season encourages us to take stock of how we are doing on our faith journey. As we examine ourselves, we may find we are sticking close to the Way of Jesus, or we may not. It’s very hard to resist temptations to do what feels good or safe but not necessarily the best choices. We need help, often. St. Patrick knew this very well and created a prayer to help him. More on that later.

Today’s Collect acknowledges our need for God’s help to set right intentions and to follow through with holy decisions and actions. To follow God’s will and way is to obey the Ten Commandments. To do this we need to center ourselves in Christ. This is not always easy. We are often tempted otherwise, and so we turn to Jesus, again and again, praying as David did: ”Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me … give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful spirit.” Psalm 51: 11, 13. Each time we pray and respond according to God’s will, even amid the “swift and varied changes of the world” we find stability and peace.

The closer we get to following Jesus, the more we find his love healing us, uplifting us, giving us new energy, new hope, and new life. This was the witness of Jesus’ followers that drew the attention of the Greek unbelievers. When one said to Philip, “We wish to see Jesus” – he was speaking for the group who were curious and drawn to Jesus’ intangible yet palpable power of love beyond their experience. They, like many others, expressed their longing: to see him, to touch him, to know him in their hearts and souls.

Jesus was not interested in attracting fans. He wanted followers who would bear the joy and the cost of following him. Those who did not recognize him in his life paid attention in his death as he was lifted up on the cross. It became apparent that he was the embodiment of innocence and dignity as he suffered torture for the sake of sinners and saints alike. His faith in God the Father, and his forgiveness of his persecutors and all who failed him, while in that state of extreme suffering, was profound proof that he was not an ordinary criminal or angry rebel. 

The image of that bloodied then empty cross would lead to the shocking revelation that Jesus was right:  He would be lifted up as the Resurrected Christ, forever proving that nothing, not death, not suffering, not evil, can stop the love of God. Praying David’s prayer for a clean heart and right spirit gets us in the right frame of mind. Praying St. Patrick’s Breastplate guides and protects us to live our faith in thought, word, and deed.  

  I bind to myself today

  God’s power to guide me, God’s might to protect me, God’s wisdom to teach me, 

  God’s eye to watch over me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to give me speech,

  God’s hand to guide me, God’s way to live before me,

  God’s shield to shelter me, God’s Host to secure me.

Amen.