21 April 2023
Friday of the Second Week of Easter
“A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.” This past Sunday we reflected on believing in spite of not seeing, that Jesus does not desire the conversion of our eyes, but our hearts. It must have been an impressive sight to see the large crowd—five thousand, and that was merely the men!—who had begun following Jesus. Yet after they witness the miraculous feeding, Jesus sees that they, in fact, have seen nothing: “Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.” All they saw was a man with miraculous powers, a potential king who could usher in a new age of prosperity for an oppressed people: they did not see the Son of God, and so He hid the Son of David, withdrawing to the mountain alone, so they might look for Him. When they do find Him, will they finally see?