A New Way To See

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The last few months we have been walking through what we’ve been calling the kingdom story—the underlying thread of the biblical story from Genesis on—that ultimately points to Jesus. We concluded our series last time by looking at the resurrection of Jesus and what it meant to his first-century followers, as well as what it means for us today. At its core, the resurrection of Jesus means that God’s new creation kingdom has been inaugurated “on earth as it is in heaven”; sown as a seed now, and nurtured, cultivated, and spread by him through his Spirit-empowered people until the time when he will bring it to its full fruition. The gospel—the good news about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—is God’s invitation to all people everywhere to come and be a part of this new creation kingdom. But what exactly, are we invited into? That’s the question we want to look at for the next few weeks. If we decide to put our trust in Jesus and accept his invitation to be a part of the new life of his kingdom, what might it look like in our own lives? How might it challenge us? How might it transform us and the world around us? These are big questions and to get our minds around them, we’ll need to keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus and on what he shows us and tells us about his kingdom as recorded in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospels are where we find the clearest picture of what this new creation kingdom looks like and how we can walk in it because it is Jesus himself who shows us the way and invites us to follow. So, let’s jump into this new series we’re calling, “Invitation.”

First and foremost, when we decide to put our trust in Jesus and to participate with him in his kingdom, we are invited into a new way of “seeing”. In fact, Jesus says unless we begin to “see” in a new way, we won’t be able to understand his kingdom. And he says the only way we’ll be able to “see” anew, is by being reconnected to our Creator through his Spirit. (John 3:3). That sounds a bit confusing. What does Jesus mean?

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said that in addition to bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to captives, and setting the oppressed free, he had also come to bring recovery of sight to the blind. Now indeed, in the gospels, Jesus healed many physically blind people, but could he mean something more? When Jesus, speaking of the Pharisees in Matthew 15 said, “Leave them alone; they are blind guides of blind people…And if a person who is blind guides another who is blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14 NASB), he was not speaking only of those who were literally blind. He was implying that the religious leaders were unable to see, and that all those who had been listening to them were blind as well. Then later, in John’s gospel, Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world…For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you…the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going” (John 8:12, 12:35 NASB). In other words, the one who walks in the darkness cannot see because he is blinded by the darkness. Jesus then tells his disciples, “But blessed are your eyes because they see…”. Jesus is saying that until he came and brought the revelation of the Creator’s light and truth, until he “opened our eyes”, humanity had been blind and walking in darkness.

We’ve looked at this theme before, starting way back in Genesis 3. There is great irony in that symbolic Genesis story of humanity’s choice to put their trust in someone or something other than God. The story says that after the image-bearing humans trusted the serpent (symbolically, the “darkness”) and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, then “the eyes of both of them were opened” and they hid from each other and from their Creator God. Their eyes were opened but actually, that was the moment when they became blind. They hid in fear and shame from their Father who had only ever showed them love, blessing, and provision. Why were they afraid? Yes, they had disobeyed, but what made them think their Father could not or would not forgive them? What caused them to fear him? Perhaps, it was because they could no longer see the pure love, forgiveness, and compassion of their Creator. Their vision had become obscured by the darkness in their minds and hearts and instead of seeing their Father clearly, they became blind to who he really is. They no longer knew him.

We see this theme of blindness carried on throughout the rest of the Old Testament story. It is particularly prominent in the book of Isaiah, the prophet Jesus quoted from frequently. Isaiah, speaking from God’s perspective wrote, “A bull knows its master, and a donkey knows where its owner feeds it. But Israel does not know me. My people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:3 ERV). Later, Isaiah lamented, “We grope for the wall like people who are blind, We grope like people who have no eyes…” (Isaiah 59:10 NASB). But he also promised that when God came to rescue his people, “…the eyes of those who are blind will be opened…” and “…those who are blind will see…” (Isaiah 29:18, 35:5 NASB). This makes Jesus’ words about being the Light, and his mission to open blind eyes, all the more powerful. Jesus had come to reconnect humanity to their Creator God through his Spirit so they would once again be able to “see” and “know”.

But what does he want us to “see” differently? Short answer? Everything. Jesus invites us into a new way of seeing our Creator God, which then leads us to see ourselves, our fellow image-bearers, and even the creation itself in a new way as well. Let’s take a look at how this happens.

First, Jesus invites us to see our Creator God in a new way. This is foundational because how we see our Father impacts how we see everything else. We’ve talked in previous episodes about Jesus being the revelation of his Father—the “image of the invisible God”. He insisted that seeing and knowing him was seeing and knowing his Father (John 14:7); that his Father was in him, and he was in his Father (John 10:38); that he and his Father were one (John 10:30). Can you imagine how mind-blowing and blasphemous these statements must have been at the time? Remember, Jesus’ listeners had come to see God as holy—set apart and separate—but they interpreted that to mean dangerous and unapproachable. His fiery presence was thought to reside in the Holy of Holies—the space separated and hidden behind a curtain in the Temple—preventing anyone (except a select priest once a year) from coming near God or hearing his voice and thereby dying as a consequence. Make no mistake, there were many instances in the Old Testament where the love and compassion of God was made known through the obscurity, where his voice could be heard through the distortion, but even so, the people continued to see God as someone to be feared, someone who required sacrifices in exchange for granting forgiveness and acceptance, someone who punished or cursed those who disobeyed, and because of his holy perfection, someone who could not tolerate being in the presence of imperfection or sin.

It’s fascinating to consider that while Jesus’ listeners thought God was behind the veil in the Temple, unapproachable because he couldn’t be in the presence of sin, he was actually walking through the streets teaching, healing, forgiving, and loving “sinners” right in the midst of it. This new way of seeing God was so radical, it wasn’t until after Jesus had been resurrected and appeared to many of his followers, that they were able to begin to make sense of it all. It was only after the resurrection that the Apostle John could write, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory…” (John 1:14 NASB).

Even though it took a while for his followers to understand, Jesus exemplified this new way of seeing God wherever he went through his words and actions. One of his parables that best illustrates this, is found in the Gospel of Luke. It’s a story about a man who had two sons, the youngest of whom, disrespected and dishonored his father by asking for his share of the inheritance while his father was still alive (dishonoring a parent in those days was a sin punishable by exile or stoning under the Law of Moses). Even though the request was profoundly inappropriate and disrespectful, the father generously and self-sacrificially gave the son his share, after which, the son promptly left for a distant country where he wasted his entire inheritance and became destitute and in need. We’ll talk more about this son and his brother next time, but for now, let’s focus on what Jesus shows us about this father.

We’re not sure how long the son was gone, but the parable tells us that the father did not go out and force him to come home. He honored the son’s choice to leave, as well as the consequences that resulted from that choice. This father values love as something that must be freely given and received—something which cannot be forced or manipulated. We can also infer from the parable that the father did not harbor anger, resentment, or unforgiveness against his son for his wrongdoing, because we are told that the father saw his son coming home while he was still “a long way off” and ran to embrace and kiss him before the son had spoken any words of repentance. There is a sense of longing implied here. It seems this father had been waiting and watching for his son, in the hope that he might choose to return home. The parable continues with the father lavishing his love on this wayward son, welcoming him home, and even joyously throwing a party to celebrate his return without uttering a word of condemnation, doling out any punishment, or demanding repayment of any kind. This father forgives freely and shows unlimited compassion and mercy, not because the son “deserves” it or has “earned” it, but simply because he loves his child with an unending, unbreakable love, and he desires nothing more than for his son to return to him. He wants more than anything else, to reconcile and restore their relationship. This father longs for his lost child to be found, and clearly, when he is, there is great joy in the finding.

Think about how incredible this must have sounded to Jesus’ listeners. What kind of a father would behave that way? And yet, this kind of love was exactly what Jesus himself was revealing as he welcomed, accepted, healed, forgave, and loved everyone who came to him, “sinners and tax collectors” alike, with no sacrifice, punishment, or payment required. Jesus said this kind of love is who our Creator God is.

This new way of seeing God transformed Jesus’ followers to such a degree that those who had once believed he was unapproachable behind the veil and who were afraid to come near, would eventually write, “…God is love” and “…everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7-8 NASB). “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear…” (1 John 4:18 NASB), “Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence…” (Hebrews 4:16 NASB). The followers of Jesus had been given a new way to see their Creator God, and it not only radically affected their own lives, but it impacted the world around them in a profound way.

Jesus invited his listeners in the first century to see God in this new way, but what about today? Unfortunately, there are still many who see God as that unapproachable, perfectionistic, judge. They see him as one who is to be feared; one who is constantly angry or disappointed with them; one who will punish them for their mistakes or demand sacrifice or payment before he will forgive or accept them; one who turns his face from them in his anger; or rejects them for who they are or what they’ve done. There are also those who see God in this way but direct it away from themselves and toward others instead. They see God as being angry and disappointed not with them, but with those who are not like them. They want God to condemn, punish and demand payment from those they deem unworthy. And they feel confident and justified in their certainty that God has rejected those who are different, or those who do not meet their expectations of “righteousness”.

In either case, Jesus calls us to let go of these distorted views of God and fix our eyes on him instead. Jesus is the only one who shows us who God is, and he compels us to see his Father in light of that truth. He invites us to see God as that Father in his parable; waiting to welcome all his children home, no matter who they are or what they’ve done; longing to embrace them without condemnation or punishment; running to meet them the minute they choose to turn their face toward home, even if they’re still “a long way off”; and desiring nothing more than to lavish his love and grace on them so that they can be healed, made whole, and restored back to their image-bearing place in his family.

How do you see God? There are many today, well-meaning Christians included, who want to try and tell us who God is. Some will tell us that he is indeed that fearful, angry, perfectionistic, judge. Others will portray him as violent, militaristic, and patriarchal. Still others will say we can’t know God at all. Interestingly enough, they will all quote biblical verses to justify their views. It is at this point that we are presented with a choice. We can believe those other voices and interpretations, or we can choose to take Jesus at his word, and trust that he alone shows us the true nature and character of our Creator God, no matter what others may say. We can choose to see though the distorted views and accept Jesus’ invitation to see God in his new way instead. What would it look like in our lives, if we truly believed that the nature and character of our Creator God could be seen and known in Jesus?