Where Jesus lives today

In yesterday's Gospel Jesus is asked Where do you live? and invites his first disciples to Come and see... (John 1: 35-42) Two thousand years ago this meant being invited to a physical space, to a house or lodging. But how would he answer, were we to ask him where he lives today? Where would he invite us to come; what would he invite us to see?

Initially, I imagine he'd invite us into our deepest selves, to that place where he chooses to make his home in us, as he invites us to make ours in him. Some might find his choice of residence hard to believe, imagining that he'd prefer the human equivalent of a palace: but as the Magi discovered, those who seek Jesus in palaces end up finding him in a stable. Whatever the state of our inmost selves, whether a shed or stately home, Jesus wants us to know, as Caryll Houselander wrote, that he asks for a home in your soul, where He can be at rest with you, where He can talk easily to you, where you and He, alone together, can laugh and be silent and be delighted with one another....

But I also imagine that, having taken us deep within, Jesus would also open his arms, gesture outwards, and invite us to look around us. Where do you live? we can ask, and he will point... to horizons and galaxies, mountain ranges, snowdrops and stubborn weeds... to beauty, yes, but also to pain and ugliness, brokenness and injustice; to all those places where he can seem most hidden and hardest to find.

 

And he will point especially to people: to those who are wounded, discarded, marginalised, in need of healing... and to those who seek to bind wounds and to include, to bring healing and consolation, joy and justice and hope. Jesus most surely lives in all those who are serving others with generosity, commitment and love, especially now, during this pandemic - just as he lives in those who are frail, vulnerable and in need of the greatest care. 

Today, and this week, how would it be to begin the day with Jesus asking Where do you live?... and then going wherever he gestures us to Come and see...?