When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”  He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.”
–Mark 1:37-38

Did anybody else notice?

Jesus didn’t show up for church this past Sunday.

I mean, the turnout was good, the music was great. The Holy Spirit was definitely present.

But not Jesus.

This isn’t the first week I’ve noticed this. It seems to happen from time to time. I’d be worried but he left me a note, right there on the communion table:

“Hey, have a great service. I can’t make it, got a lot to do today.” -Jesus

I thought I knew what Jesus was hinting at. It’s something called the “preferential option for the poor”. It’s this idea from liberation theology that if you want to know where Jesus is look for the people who are suffering.

After all, where else would Jesus be?

So I looked. Online, mostly. And I found him.

There he was, unmistakable. He was in the background behind a journalist on camera, helping to lift some rubble off the site of the girl’s school in Iran, where more than a hundred children were killed.

I watched him wipe sweat off his brow. He looked tired but determined.

I saw him again. This was a picture taken by a trans woman in Kansas. The state had told her she could no longer be considered a woman, and she had to change her driver’s license.

She was sitting in a restaurant somewhere, looking despondent. I noticed Jesus was sitting across from her, drinking coffee.

I think it was him in a photograph from Minnesota. He was helping a young man who was limping. He looked like he was crying. Might have been teargas.

I wondered if Jesus might be nearby, too. I drove around town after church. Sure enough, I turned a corner and there he was outside a food bank, loading groceries into somebody’s car.

Once I started looking, I saw him everywhere. Always with the downtrodden, the hurting, the scared.

I wondered. Was I wrong to have spent my Sunday morning at church?

Jesus made it very clear in the verse above. He came into the world to proclaim the Good News, not in one place, but in all the neighboring towns. He did so by his words and his actions.

This week was pretty bad. Jesus had to prioritize his time, and he chose the people who needed him most.

Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of bad weeks lately.

I’ll keep looking for signs of Jesus, both in and outside the church. And if some Sunday morning I don’t show up for worship…

I hope I’m doing something more

than just sleeping in.

Have a great week,

Mitch