It all depends on your approach. You can come at him in an angry mob, or you can welcome him in a hungry crowd. You can come to him like a humble child, or like an ambitious adult. Approach him from a wrong angle, with a certain energy, or with a selfish agenda, and he can slip away from you like a wild and free animal in the woods.
Jesus’ opponents, those who wanted to arrest him, were not the only ones who had tried to seize him. Ever since Constantine (and probably earlier) there have been those who have tried to seize Jesus not because they see him as a threat, but because they see him as an asset to their platform. Warmongers have emblazoned him on banners. Politicians have slipped him into their speeches. Pastors have even seen his popularity as a boost to their online followership. Business owners have put him in their logos. Drivers have put him on their bumpers. And millions of us average folk have invoked his name as a mantra that we hope will seal the deal on a prayer we just prayed.
I’m not throwing shade. I’ve done half of those myself. And not all of it is exactly sinful, I don’t think. This is simply human.
But Jesus came to make us into a new kind of humanity—the kinds of people who find Jesus far less elusive because they have learned to welcome him rather than seize him.
You can try to seize Jesus for your own purposes, or you can allow him to seize you for his. You can try to force your way into his presence, or you can listen for his invitation. You can try to lay hold of him in all your anxious fervor, or you can wait patiently for him. You can be in the town that he is escaping from, or you can be in the town that he is slipping quietly into.
