Do We Have Jesus Vision?

John 8: 4-5, 7, 10-11 (NLT): Are we Seeing with the Eye’s of Christ?

“Teacher,” [the religious leaders] said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”Jesus stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” When the accusers heard this, they slipped away.“Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”“No, Lord,” she said.And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Human tendency leads us to judge others, especially those seen as a menace, threat, and burden to society. But Jesus teaches differently. His love is a forgiving love, a love that penetrates beneath the surface of every human being’s experience. No matter a person’s sin, Jesus loves each of us with the love of the Father. And he invites us to do the same.

When I was fourteen, I knew a person who was a drug addict and criminal. Throughout his young life, he served time in jail for various drug offenses. When he was out of jail, he lived a nomadic existence, sometimes sleeping in a tent but more often in his car. Being around him always kept me on edge, making me feel uneasy and scared; he drew trouble wherever he went. Despite this, I continued to make his acquaintance, often cruising around in the car he called home. Spending time with him, I observed violent outbursts of behavior, mostly toward inanimate objects. He often was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. I was both scared and fascinated by him. And in my young mind, I saw him as society’s discarded, as an outsider to the laws of normality. There were others like him, too; they saw no value in school, nor did they profess any hope to contribute to the world. They lived angry, disturbed lives -- lives of self-medicated numbness. But what were they seeking to escape? Why did this person seek to anesthetize himself from the world?

On a hot July day that same year, I sat in a municipal courtroom audience. My acquaintance was being indicted on a serious drug charge. This was one more crime added to the many in his past. I did not realize it then, but what the public defender said in that hearing branded my heart and mind. Here are the details I remember:

• He was given up by his parents at a very young age and lived in various foster homes until he was 12. 
• He was abused. 
• He was adopted at 12 but couldn’t adapt and made poor choices throughout his life. 
• He struggled with substance abuse and dropped out of school. 
• His extensive arrest record showed a pattern of violence, disregard for authority, and drug use.

I witnessed something in that courtroom that enkindled in me human sympathy and understanding; it would take years and the grace of God, however, for me to process this. As human beings, we are more than the ugliness our sins; we are made in the image and likeness of God, created to know and love him, even when we are desperately lost. And it is in the desperately lost that we often find God. 

The Pharisees lead the adulterous woman to Jesus for the “just” punishment of stoning (see Deuteronomy 22:22). What Jesus does, however, ends up convicting those who are quick to convict others. He points out that all are sinners, for no one is able to throw the first stone. Jesus expresses sympathy toward the woman because he sees into her heart and past the exterior of her sin. The eyes of Christ do not judge in the way that humans judge. Instead, Jesus expresses understanding and mercy, inviting the broken into communion with him.

As a teacher, I am faced with this choice every day: Do I see my students, especially those who act out and repeatedly make poor choices, as subjects of the “law”? Or do I accompany, forgive, and hope for their improvement? Do I love them through their pain and poor choices? Jesus sees with the eyes of love, hope, forgiveness, and accompaniment. Exemplifying the way we are to love others, Jesus says, “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).

Loving God, we pray that in our daily life we can stop and see others with your eyes, the eyes that see through the ugliness of sin to the heart of our human potential. In Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

Have a blessed Week!

Stan

Knowing is Believing

John 4:49-50 (NLT): Knowing is Believing

The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.

True faith is a gift of God’s grace; there is no other explanation. We don’t deserve it, and there is no criteria for who gets it and who doesn’t. God loves us all without limit. This man is an official of the corrupt king Herod. The official is not one of the “pure” religious leaders or some pious local. He is, however, a father who has faith that Jesus will heal his son. 

Faith cannot be manufactured; it is God’s gift to willing recipients. In the verse prior to this passage, Jesus says to the skeptical Galilean crowd, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” (4:48). A “seeing is believing” type of faith is false, and it is this type of faith that Jesus warns against in John 20:29 when Jesus confronts Thomas who refuses to believe in the resurrection until he sees and touches Christ’s wounds: “Then Jesus told [Thomas], ‘You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.’” In contrast, the official stands as an example of true faith. For the official believes Jesus at his word: “And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.” The official’s faith, moreover, does not begin at seeing “miraculous signs and wonders.” He believes and starts home to hear the good news of his son’s healing. 

This text forces me to look at my own faith life. Am I a disciple of true faith, knowing that God’s will be done, not mine? Is my faith a willing offer to trust in God’s word? Or am I like the many skeptics of Galilee who scoff at Jesus, demanding he provide signs and wonders in order for me to believe? 

I pray that we all listen intently to the love of God in our lives and have faith that he will provide the healing and strength that we need. 

Have a blessed week!

Stan

God’s Creative Kiss

John 1:14 (GNT): God’s Creative Kiss

The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

My niece had her birthday party at Build-a-Bear Workshop. And as I escorted my seven-year-old daughter through the different stages of building her new stuffed dog, I was moved at the “heart ceremony.” 

In the “heart ceremony,” the child has an opportunity to “create” the loving heart of their stuffed companion, and I could not help but parallel this to what God has done to each of us in our creation. As my daughter held the small plastic heart, the staff member directed her to kiss it so that her new creation would always know of her love. 

We, too, as God’s creation have been kissed. For God loved us into being so that we would always know and be drawn to his love. But because of sin, we too often forget that kiss. And in order to remind us of his heart’s kiss, God himself became one of us, gave up his divine dwelling and tabernacled among humanity. Jesus Christ lived among the apostles, taught, loved, welcomed, forgave, and gave himself up as reminder of his heart’s kiss. Then, Jesus was raised from the dead to remind us of his love and our own eternal life in him. Let us always remember that the heart we have was kissed by our Creator so that we would always love him, serve him, and be with him in eternity. 

I pray that we all experience the loving kiss of God and radiate that love to all we encounter. 

Have a blessed week!

Stan

Knowing our Mission for Christ

John 13:34-35 (GNT): Knowing our Mission for Christ

And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.

Navigating the Christian life can be baffling. We are all called to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to others, but in a secular culture this can seem impossible.

Over the weekend, I had a conversation with a neighbor about this same topic: How do we witness to others in a world that disallows it in most contexts? We can’t, for instance, just open the New Testament at our job site and start preaching. Instead, Jesus provides clear instructions on how we, as his disciples, should always witness to others. The answer is simple: Our love is Jesus’ best witness. For Jesus reminds his disciples of this in the above passage: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” But the expression of such is problematic.

As humans, we struggle loving those who pose difficulty in our lives. Think of the times when someone poses a threat to our community, family, or person. What about the criminals of the world or our own personal “enemies”? More practically, consider that family member who rigidly opposes everything we say or do and gives us offense every time we offer peace. Our lives are full of instances where loving the other is problematic. And left to our own strength and will, we often fail. But there is a better way.

Love is a gift of grace from God. However, we have to be willing to channel his grace, to pray for his guidance, to put aside our will for his. Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35 address a hard-headed group of disciples who often fail. Peter, for instance, denies Jesus three times. We are no different. Love is complicated, never easy, and requires our cooperation with grace. In our attempts to love, we will succeed and fail. But our failures are always ours, not God’s. God, however, picks us up every time, forgives, and never stops loving us.

Our Christian witness to the world is to love others, even when it seems impossible. We do the best we can and God provides the rest. And remember what Jesus says to his disciples when they doubt if anyone can be saved: “Jesus looked straight at them and answered, ‘This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible’” (Matthew 19:26).

I pray that our love be the convicting evidence of our Christian faith.

Have a blessed week!

Stan

The Humility of the Manger

Luke 2:16-19 (NRSV): The Humility of the Manger

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

The manger scene always brings the mystery of awe and wonder. It is a reminder that the second person of the blessed Trinity became human out of love for us. But Jesus did not choose a palace or the cultural center of the world, and he did not reveal himself to rulers and men of high standing. Jesus, instead, came in the flesh of a poor Hebrew child born in a drafty barn. He came in to an insignificant town on the outskirts of nowhere. He was born to a poor Hebrew girl. He appeared first to ostracized, poor shepherds. And it is these lowly shepherds, those rejected by “proper” Jewish society, who became the first heralds of Christ’s arrival. The manger reminds us that God is with us in the most unexpected places and in the least likely people.

Let us begin this year by looking for Christ in the person we least expect. The humble, the poor, the needy, the suffering, the ostracized -- these are all God among us. Let us reach out with love and welcoming.

Happy New Year and have a blessed week!

Stan