Mosaiek Church Lent 2025: Jesus' Questions in Sufferingනියැදිය

Week 3: Who are you looking for?

"Step by Step"

The saints, they know this truth so well:

The soul's long journey cannot be

A race that rushes, clear to see,

But slow, like steps on stones we dwell.

Though vision may be bright and wide,

Each foot must tread its patient way.

Through rocky paths, we learn to stay,

Advancing slow, with His as guide.

Inspired by “Nie”, written by Sheila Cussons

After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees. Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples. The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove. Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) As Jesus said, “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again, they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” “I told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” He did this to fulfil his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.” Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” So, the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up.

-John 18:1-12 (NLT)

NT Wright writes that the story of God and man begins in a garden: where God and man walk in the evening breeze, and the people live in harmony with each other and nature. And it is here that He comes to find them, where they have always been, where they spent time together. God searches for them, but there is no answer. Man hides because something has happened. Friendship is shattered, there is evil in the air. Love, the most beautiful and fragile of all plants in the garden, has been trampled. It would take thousands of years to grow again.

And in this garden, we find that the roles have been reversed. People, filled with disappointment and violence in their hearts, come to a garden in the evening, looking for Someone. Like all of us, they are looking for God, but they do not know what He looks like.

Jesus does not hide. He is ready for the cup that His Father has given Him and He is ready to drink it. The new Adam steps forward to meet the old Adam. The Light of the world stands before them with their lamps and torches. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot extinguish it.

Jesus asks: Who are you looking for? They answer, Jesus of Nazareth. To them, He is an ordinary man, a threat to who they think God is and for whom God stands for. Their distorted image of who God is drives them to deceive, betray, and ultimately crucify Him.

Your image of what God is like, and of how God “should” act, can take you on a path of disappointment, disillusionment, and of running away. Can we let go of our preconceived ideas so that we can get to know and experience Him who is the “I Am”, anew?

Jesus says that if you see Him, you have seen the Father. He is the bread of life, the light of the world, the resurrection, the way, the truth, and the life.

Prayer: I ask for the grace to seek You above all else and to follow You with trust and surrender.