Jesus Cannot be Caged

Country Parson

A group of us were discussing the resurrection when my friend Dorothy said, “The problem with Jesus is that he would not stay in his cage.” I hadn’t heard it put quite that way before, but she was right. He was dead—truly dead—and his body was sealed in a cave, blocked by a large stone and guarded by soldiers. But Jesus simply refused to stay in his cage.

It was his lifelong practice. He would not stay in Bethlehem. He would not stay in Egypt. He would not stay in Nazareth. He would not stay in Galilee or Judea. He would not stay dead. And, perhaps most surprising of all, he would not stay here—at least not in the form of God incarnate in Jesus.

He was always going where he was not supposed to go, among people he was not supposed to be with. His time was spent on the road, walking from village to village. He ventured into the land of the Phoenicians, into the territory of Hellenistic pagans, into the region of the detested Samaritans. He attended to the needs of the poor, the broken, and the sick. He restored them to wholeness, gave them new life, and set them again in right relationship with God—often ignoring the demands of the temple and its rituals because his authority was greater..

He could not be contained in any box nor constrained in any cage. The problem with Jesus is that he would not stay in his cage. It is as true today as it was then. We are inclined, each of us, to put Jesus in a box or lock him in a cage that satisfies our need to keep him where we can find him, to limit him to our expectations of who he should be. But he cannot be contained.

We do not come to Jesus. He comes to us. When we reach up to touch him, he is not there, because he is near at hand already reaching out to save us from ourselves. Beware of anyone who tells you exactly who Jesus is, exactly what he demands, or exactly what it means to follow him. He will not stay in the box or cage they have constructed. It is a wondrous and glorious mystery we are called to live into, not solve.

The incarnate Jesus is no longer with us. He is risen. But Jesus, the risen Christ, is with us as surely as if he were standing beside us, guiding and empowering the continuing work of healing and reconciliation—a work in which we who follow him are invited to participate, with whatever gifts we have to offer, however small they may seem.