Seeing Jesus

The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling, Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

             A few weeks ago, I had my annual optometrist’s appointment. Since the 8th grade I’ve needed glasses in order to see things in the distance; and recently I’ve discovered that there is a benefit to aging. My vision is actually improving.

I am a visual person. I like to see people. I like to read. I like to watch movies and observe nature. How, then, did the people of Nazareth not see Jesus? If they were there, and He was up close and personal, how could they miss Him?

 Matthew Arnold, in a daily meditation entitled Today’s Gift, wrote, “The endeavor, in all branches of knowledge, is to see the object as it really is. Often we can look right at something and not see it. Sometimes we see what we expect to see, sometimes we see what we want to see, and sometimes we just plain miss what’s right there in front of us. If the brain and heart aren’t involved, an eyewitness account may be little better than a guess. We need more than our eyes to get the picture; for things are not always what they appear to be.” (Days of Healing, Days of Joy: Daily Meditations for Adult Children, 01/03/2022)

Over time, my eyesight has changed along with my mind, my heart, my body and my soul. “When I was a child. I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child.” I used to think that love came in pretty packages and fairy tale romances. With every passing decade, with every wedding and funeral that I have attended, and every anniversary that I have celebrated, when I hear this passage from Corinthians, and measure my own ability to love, I often feel like a failure. 

Truth be told, St. Paul was chastising the Christians in Corinth for their failure to love. Writing his letter from a distant city, St. Paul could see what was going on in Corinth, and he didn't like what he saw. Some people thought they were better than others because of their wealth or intelligence. They thought they understood all the mysteries of religion; for they could speak in tongues, and had prophetic powers. Indeed, they even had faith; but they didn’t have love.

Consider the context and the culture of Corinth at that time. The city was built at a strategic location in Greece, on a crossroads between the Middle East and Rome, like the United States between Europe and Asia. Internally, the city connected the northern and southern parts of its country, like Washington D.C. between Boston and Miami. At the time of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians the city was ethnically, culturally, socio-economically, politically and religiously diverse, just like the United States. 

Understandably, the Christians in Corinth were confused about Jesus and, despite their arrogance, they were still immature in their faith. Some people thought that Jesus was coming again very soon, and so they indulged in every kind of extreme behavior. Some people had become tired of waiting; and so eat, drink, and be merry was their credo. Or they didn’t believe in Jesus at all. In essence, socio-economic differences, pagan rituals, multiple religious faiths, civic and religious laws, as well as cultural customs and family traditions, pulled the people in Corinth in many and various directions.

In effect, St. Paul thought that the Christians in Corinth were being too tolerant of some behaviors while being too rigid in others. They were acting like immature children, fighting with one another, and taking each other to civil courts instead of working it out among themselves. They aligned themselves with certain religious leaders, like Apollos and St. Paul, rather than with Jesus. They were divided and quarrelsome. 

According to St. Paul, they were envious, irritable, resentful, impatient, and unkind to one another. This church in Corinth was not a model of a faithful Christian community. Nor were they exhibiting idyllic human behavior. “Look in the mirror,” St. Paul wrote to them. Think again about what you are doing and saying. It doesn’t matter how good it is, or how generous you are, if you do not have love, you gain nothing.

Look and see what Love looks like, wrote St. Paul. Love is patient and kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Love doesn’t allow for certain kinds of behavior. It speaks the truth without being a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. It treats every person with dignity and respect. And yes, it involves changes in our brains and our behaviors because we begin to see things differently. We look at things from a divine perspective, or even from our opponents or enemies. When we see our human natures more clearly we can also begin to understand our faith more fully.

Lanta Davis, an associate professor of humanities and literature at Indiana Wesleyan University, wrote an article entitled “A Vandalized Imagination” suggesting that our current Christian culture has hijacked or distorted our faith. We see Jesus in our own image and not in God’s. Rather than seeing Jesus as a white male of European descent, or the leader of a certain political or religious organization or country, we can see Jesus more realistically by using early Christian icons and cultivating our imagination as a spiritual practice.

With Ignatian contemplative prayer we can imagine ourselves back in Corinth, even back in Nazareth. We enter into the scripture stories as if we were there in Greece or Israel. So why is it that the people of Nazareth didn’t see Jesus? Maybe their expectations of Jesus were wrong. They wanted him to heal them and not the foreigners; they thought they were privileged because he was their hometown boy; and so they were blinded by their rage when he didn’t do what they wanted.

 Perhaps they were distracted by many things.They had demands upon their own lives, like caring for their families and putting food on the table; they were working hard and didn’t have time for changes and challenges. Perhaps overly dependent upon their brains and their religious traditions, their hearts weren’t fully engaged; and so their vision of Jesus remained superficial. He’s only a man and not our messiah. He’s only a child and not a grown man; he’s only the son of Mary and not the Son of God. 

When our faith is seeking understanding, we must engage all parts of our bodies. We must use both our heads and our hearts. Using the imagination of our minds, our vision improves. With prayer, we exercise our souls and remember that God loves everyone. We can ask God to “Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us.” Then, with improved spiritual eyesight, we can look for Jesus everywhere, and begin to understand with our minds, hearts, bodies and souls that by “his blood he reconciled us and by his wounds we are healed.” 

St. Paul holds up a mirror for us to see ourselves. We see how we have failed in the Way of Love; and we know that we can do better. We admit that love is messy - in our families, our churches, our nation and the world. Through prayer and imagination, with renewed spiritual insights, we can see that Perfect Love is humanly impossible. Both then, in Corinth and Nazareth, as well as now in Chestnut Hill. We can see Jesus, God’s perfect love made manifest in his words and deeds.

Our human vision will always be partial; our knowledge will always be incomplete, our hearts will never be fully healed, and our souls will always be restless until they find their rest in God; for “now we see in a mirror only dimly.” In the meantime, we can bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things until “we finally see Jesus, face to face.” 

Today, imagine yourself with Jesus. Pray that God will help you become not only a better Christian but also a better human being. Pray, and ask God to open your eyes to see Jesus. Know Him. Love Him. And then love others as He loves us. In living that way, surely, we will gain everything. Amen.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Luke 4:21-30