Jesus Lets Himself Be Found Where You Don't Expect Him

Introduction

This Christmas Sunday, at Tokyo Christ Church, the preacher began with a small English word: with. We use it when we walk alongside someone, I am with my son (when we invite someone to follow), come with me (or when we take someone's side), I am with you. Coffee and milk are two separate things; poured together, they become a single drink: the line between them disappears. That's what "with" means: crossing the line that separates, so as to become one.

For the whole coming year, the church wants to live out this word around Jesus: being with him, walking with him, experiencing his presence. And this sermon from December 14 lays the first stone of the Christmas series with a very simple theme: Jesus is with those who seek him. The text is the account of the magi, in Matthew 2:1-12. You'll see: these men who traveled from far away only found Jesus by refusing two traps, giving up the search, and searching with preconceived ideas.

Outline of the message

1. Jesus is found in an unexpected place: but very close

Read Matthew 2:1-6. The magi from the East arrive in Jerusalem and ask the most logical question in the world: "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?" Where should a great king be born? In a palace. Where power, the sword, and wealth are concentrated. So they go to Herod. And Jesus isn't there.

The true king is in Bethlehem, in a small village, in the middle of an ordinary family. Jesus doesn't let himself be found where the world looks for him. He chooses the margins. He comes down to us. He is, at the same time, the eternal king and the neighbor next door. The almighty and the one who comes to settle into a modest home.

2. Keep seeking: God answers those who search

The preacher shares something deeply personal. She was baptized in July 2010, fifteen years ago. An actress at the time, she encountered the Bible in 2009, during a musical in Fukuoka. She started reading, without believing yet, but her thinking and her life gradually changed. She remained, however, the ruler of her own life: it was she who was making use of the Bible.

In May 2010, her theater troupe abruptly let her go. Six and a half years of effort collapsed. "It was an immense shock. I was living for the fulfillment of a dream, and suddenly that dream disappeared. I felt like a hole had opened up beneath my feet and I was falling into it." She looks back on that experience with clarity today: "I was halfway into depression."

What carried her through were the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." She clung to it. "A bit boldly, maybe: I told myself, Lord, I really am seeking, so give me an answer! If you don't give me one, then you're not God." And God, gentle with her, did answer, not by giving back her dream of acting, but by giving her an entirely different path: to live for Jesus, to serve him, to make him known around her. A path with no more holes and no hope that fades away. Fifteen years later, she testifies: "The hope of Jesus Christ has never left me."

And you, what are you seeking right now? A life that no longer falls apart? The strength to undo a past mistake? Peace, courage, meaning? We are all, in a sense, travelers who are searching. The magi saw the star because they looked up; a star can only be seen at night. God always sends a sign to the one who truly seeks him. Open the Bible during this Christmas season. Seek. "Jesus is not in some distant palace: he is very close to you."

3. Let go of your preconceived ideas and keep searching

Now read Matthew 2:7-12. The magi enter the house, bow down, open their treasure chests, and offer three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. At the time, each of these three gifts was extremely costly, the kind of thing you'd only offer to a king.

• Gold symbolizes royalty: a shine that never tarnishes.
• Frankincense is a white resin harvested from the wounds of a tree; it's burned as an offering, releasing a calming fragrance. It is the scent of worship.
• Myrrh is another resin, with a bitter, strong smell. It was used to embalm bodies (notably in Egypt, for mummies), and as a painkiller. It already hints, in the background, at the death of Christ for our sufferings.

Three heavy gifts, carried nearly 1,500 kilometers. What this journey reveals isn't just their wealth: it's the posture of their hearts. They believed enough to walk.

By contrast, Matthew writes that when they arrived, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him (v. 3). In Greek, the word for "troubled" evokes water being stirred up: a heart shaken, confused, fearful. Herod hides his true intentions: "Tell me, so that I too may come and worship him," while preparing to murder the child. He doesn't want another king who might shake his position. And what's most striking: all of Jerusalem, the city that knows the Scriptures, is troubled at the same moment. Deep down, it too doesn't really want the promised Messiah to arrive.

They are the ones who know the Bible best, and they are the ones who miss Jesus. The Messiah is eight kilometers away, and they don't see him. Why? Because they are locked into their certainties: "a great king can't be born in Bethlehem, not into an ordinary family, not like that."

The preacher compares this scene to a game of hide and seek. "When we can't find something, it's often because we told ourselves: it can't possibly be hidden there. Our preconceived ideas keep us from seeing." She continues with great humility: "I was like Herod. Studying the Bible without truly seeking Jesus. He was right in front of me, and I didn't see him."

What sets the magi apart is the opposite. For them, the king of the Jews is a foreign king, one who doesn't even shake up their own country. They have nothing at stake to protect. They are free to follow the star, even if it leads them to a baby in a village.

4. What needs to be let go: our certainties

"The older I get (I'm 42 this year), the more I realize how much I cling to my own knowledge, my experiences, to what I think is right." We don't set out to avoid seeing Jesus, she warns. No one wakes up one morning and says, "today, I'm going to avoid Christ." But in practice, when we fail to find him, it's almost always because we ourselves, through our preconceived ideas, make him invisible. He's right in front of us; we're looking elsewhere.

2025 was, for the preacher, a year when God showed her just how strong her own certainties had become. She had turned them into idols. "I had to repent, painfully. But thanks to that, I was able to renew my confession of Jesus and start over." The conclusion comes without hesitation: what needs to be let go in order to find Jesus is, first of all, yourself.

She also senses that her church, Tokyo Christ Church, is entering a season where God is shaking each person, and the community as a whole, so that it becomes truly centered on Christ again, in a genuine disciple relationship. And it's in this season that the Jubilee's word for the year emerged: with. Being with Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, living in Japan, if we let ourselves be carried by the current, we're quickly pulled along by something other than Jesus. That's exactly why we, as disciples, need, more than ever, to be with, glued to Jesus, every single day.

Key takeaways

• Jesus lets himself be found, but he isn't where the world looks: not in the palace, not in prestige, but very close to you, in the ordinary.
• Seeking Jesus begins by looking up into the night: an open Bible, sustained prayer, confident waiting.
• Matthew 7:7 still holds true: God answers those who truly seek, but his answer is often unexpected.
• The great times we miss God are almost always caused by our certainties: "he can't be there, he can't look like that."
• The hardest thing to let go of in order to find Jesus is not a hidden sin: it's yourself, your preconceived ideas, your need to be right.
• Being with Jesus (every day, without compromise) is the disciple's first calling.

Personal application

1. What are you truly searching for today: a dream to save, a wound to heal, a meaning to find? Do you bring that search before Jesus, or do you look elsewhere first?
2. Is there a door in your life you no longer dare knock on because "it never led anywhere"? Matthew 7:7 invites you to start again.
3. What preconceived idea about God do you carry that might, right now, be keeping you from seeing him at work ("God can't work through this person... through this path... through this failure")?
4. Name one thing 2025 has shown you about yourself (a certainty, an attachment) that you want to lay before the Lord this week.
5. Concretely, how will you live out "with" this week? A daily moment with Jesus, a step of obedience, a conversation to open?

Verses cited

• Matthew 2:1-12 · The coming of the magi, Herod troubled, the three gifts.
• Matthew 7:7 · "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

Frequently asked questions

Why did the magi find Jesus while Herod and Jerusalem missed him?

Because the magi set out without preconceived ideas. They didn't look for a king in a palace but wherever the star led them. Herod and the people of Jerusalem, on the other hand, were locked into their certainties and their fear: the true king couldn't possibly look like a small village child. The result: Jesus was eight kilometers away, and they never saw him.

What does it concretely mean to seek Jesus today?

Seeking Jesus means opening the Bible seriously, praying by speaking to him as to a present person, and staying open to answers that don't look like what you expected. It also means accepting that the true answer sometimes touches what you least want to let go of: your plans, your way of seeing things, your need for control.

What do the gold, frankincense, and myrrh offered by the magi mean?

The three gifts, extremely costly at the time, speak of Jesus' royalty. Gold symbolizes royal power, its value never fades. Frankincense is a white resin harvested from the wounds of a tree: a scent of worship. Myrrh, a bitter resin used to embalm bodies and ease pain, already points to the suffering and death of Christ. Together, they recognize in Jesus the king, the priest, and the savior.