Year B Christmas 1 WED 2024 Sees Through Me

 Year B 1st Sunday after Christmas WEDNESDAY, 3 January 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Sees Through Me”

Collect: Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

John 6:15-27

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the lake saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’

When I was a kid, I, like so many boys in the 70s and 80s, bought comic books. On the backs of them were often cheesy ads for Sea Monkeys or other cheaply made things that caught my childish eye.

The one that always made me wonder was the X-Ray Specs. They appeared to be glasses, but, according to the ad, you could see through the skin and see people’s skeletons in their body with these highly scientific glasses. Thankfully, whenever curiosity had the best of me I did not have the money pulled together to waste it on something that obviously could not be true. There was no way it could be. And now I am sure that it was not. But hope springs eternal in a child.

We cannot see through other people, but Jesus could. He was not worried about their skeleton, but about their hearts and the motivations therein. He could see right through the crowd when they wanted to make him king, and he immediately departed to get away from it. He knew when others found him exclaiming, “Well! Look who is here! Jesus, what a shock to bump into you here in here across the Lake!” He saw through that, too.

“Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Jesus saw through them, and he sees through me, too. He sees when I am happy. He sees when I am sad. He sees when I do the right thing. He sees when I am bad. I know it is starting to sound like Santa Claus in here, but that is definitely NOT what I am going after. Jesus knows my heart, and what makes it tick. And like a delicate surgeon, he must make the most intricate of open heart surgeries. He needs to go in, find what makes me tick, get rid of all that, and replace it with what he wants to make me tick. His heart, his soul hungry to love a hurting world.

As we kick off this year, I am not doing resolutions or promises to be better. I am praying though. I am praying for Jesus to see right through me. I need him to do that surgery, and for that to happen I need to open my heart. 

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

2024. A Leap Year. An Election Year. But might it be more? Jesus is not worried about kings or the making of kings. He is not worried about the state of our bellies. He sees through us.

Might as well start there, if we mean what we say. They will be done, in me as it is in heaven. Amen