In His Eyes

Do you have a vision problem?

Amblyopia – is known as a ‘lazy eye’

Color blindness – the inability to distinguish between some colors

Dry eye syndrome – the inability to produce tears

Hyperopia (farsightedness) – the inability to see near objects clearly

Myopia (nearsightedness) – the inability to to see distant objects clearly

what about spiritual vision issues…

spiritual lazy eye – the ability to see a problem and feel no compelling interest to do something about it

spiritual color blindness – the ability to not pay as much attention to the plight of those who are suffering in different parts of the world

spiritual dry eye – the lack of compassion, inability to cry for people who are hurting

spiritual farsightedness – the ability to respond to missions overseas but an unwillingness to personally get involved here

spiritual nearsightedness – the exact opposite…we are good here, but for the rest of the world in impoverished countries, out of sight, out of mind.

I pretty much squinted all through Junior High because I couldn’t stand the sight of wearing glasses. I can remember putting them on very infrequently and when I did I felt the weight of everyone looking upon me. In today’s video the main character feels the weight of seeing for the first time an inside look into the world of those around him.

Today I want us to discover an inside look through the eyes of Jesus.

Although not our text, let’s first look at Mark 8:22-25

It is an unusual passage as Jesus first spits on the man’s eyes and then touches him. He asks him if he sees and he responds by saying, “I see people, they look like trees walking around’. He could see, but he couldn’t see clearly. He couldn’t distinguish between people and trees except for movement so Jesus touches him once again and his sight was restored completely.

And really, we are like this man. Most of us have met Jesus and he has opened our eyes, but we still don’t see people clearly. We all have lens through which we see others. It is a lens that makes assumptions, responses, judgment and influences the degree of our response.

How did Jesus see people? Matthew 9:36

I Samuel 16:7 The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

OK, let’s go to today’s text – Luke 4:14.

Now you will notice that this event follows Jesus baptism here, but in reality if you had a chronological Bible or even lined up the gospels together you would see that Jesus already began showing miracles and had been healing people so that is why we see the statement about His fame spreading.

Imagine the scene. The synagogue is filled with people, the place is packed with men, women and children. In the front of the room there is a group of elders. One of them stands up, speaks briefly and then asks Yeshua Ben Yusef, Jesus, son of Joseph, to read the Scriptures.

He gets up in the middle of the room where there is a raised desk and people are excited to hear him. He is the hometown boy. Jesus unrolls the large scroll and reads from Isaiah 61:1,2

He reads it is an affirmation of self proclamation.

When he said that the today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing was a slam dunk statement. When he said that, he sent people buzzing. This passage was about the Messiah and this passage was about Jesus’ mission statement!

1. Jesus’ mission is to preach good news to the poor. The mindset back then was if you were poor that was a sign of God’s judgment and if you were rich, well then, that was God’s favor. Jesus was basically saying absolutely not! He turned the tables and said the poor were favored by God.
2. His mission is to proclaim freedom for the prisoner whether it was a literal prison or a spiritual prison, Jesus has come to set you free.
3. Jesus’ mission was to give sight to the blind. The blind were thought to be blind because of their own sin or the sin of their parents. The attitude of the religious leaders was if you are blind, you deserved to be blind. Jesus came to show mercy to those who were physically handicapped and spiritually condemned.
4. Jesus mission is to release the oppressed. He came to set wrongs right. He came to help the helpless.
5. Jesus mission is to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. It is a reference to the OT principle of the year of Jubilee which took place every 50 years and debts on the land were forgiven and slaves were freed.

Jesus mission was people focused, it was outward focused and it was driven by mercy and compassion. It was the secret to His vision. Jesus’ mission guided His vision His mission was the way that He saw everybody. People were Jesus’ mission. His lens was and is compassion.

The word for compassion is only applied to two people, the fictional ‘Good Samaritan’ and the real Jesus. We see how in Scripture that Jesus felt compassion when he encountered the sick (Matt. 14:14), the blind (Matt 20:34), the demon possessed (Mk. 9:22) those who lost loved ones (Luke 7:13), the hungry (Matt. 15:32), the lonely (Mk. 1:41)

It guided His actions, His reaction and interaction with everyone He met.

Let’s look at another example in Luke 7:36-48 – the story of the woman who wiped Jesus feet with her very own tears and poured expensive perfume on them.

The religious bystanders just stood in judgment and thought 'if he really was a prophet He would know what time of woman she was…' Jesus knew their thoughts and challenged them on the real expression of love.

We all have lens through which we look at people. How often are we guilty of looking at people through the lens of judgment as the Pharisees did as opposed to the lens of compassion that Jesus showed us?

For example, if you were to bump into Stacey and Clinton off ‘What Not To Wear’ – how would they judge you?

If you were to bump into Prime Minister Stephen Harper how would he judge you. I know because in April as I was pushed aside into a hall to make way for his entourage, he took the time to acknowledge me.

If someone were to bump into the back of your car?

What question would cross your mind when you saw them?

What we believe about our mission in the world affects how we see our world? When you look at your world, do you see a world in need?...a world worth saving? A world worth serving?

When you see people, ask the same questions that Jesus would ask, “How can I help you? How can I show you God’s love? How can I touch you with God’s grace? How can I right a wrong in your life? How can I bring healing to your world?

Ask Jesus to touch your eyes so that you see people the way He did

-with insight, mercy and compassion

Let’s first start with INSIGHT

If the Earth’s population was shrunk to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the

existing human ratios remaining the same:

• six people would possess 59 percent of the entire world’s wealth and all six would be

from America

• 80 people would live in substandard housing

• 70 would be unable to read

• one person would own a computer

• If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to

sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world.

• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your back pocket, you are among the top eight percent of the world’s wealthy.

Basic education for all would cost $6 billion a year

• $8 billion is spent annually on cosmetics in the US alone

• Installation of water and sanitation for all would cost $9 billion

• $11 billion is spent annually on ice-cream in Europe

• Basic healthcare and nutrition worldwide would cost $13 billion

• $35 billion is spent each year on business entertainment in Japan

• The total cost of eradicating poverty worldwide is estimated at around $80 billion

• The world spends $800 billion a year on military alone. That’s 10 times the needed

Coffee is produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa. The main

producer is Brazil, which supplies about a quarter of the world’s coffee.

Since the early 1950s, these countries have been persuaded by buyers to give up farming

traditional crops in favour of producing more coffee.

This has led to over-production, plummeting market prices, and sweatshop working conditions.

Coffee prices last year were at an all time low.

Buy fair trade!

As a consumer, you have a choice. You can either buy free trade coffee, which contributes,

or you can pay a little more and buy fair trade coffee.

Fair trade coffee allows farmers to receive enough money from their crops to survive and

not fall into poverty.

So next time you decide to grab a quick coffee, think of those poverty-stricken farmers and buy fair trade coffee!

MERCY

The richest 20 percent of the world’s population now consume 86 percent of its resources. For the vast majority of people, however, even the most basic necessities of life – clean water, food, shelter – are scarce. And this uneven spread of wealth is growing. But poverty is not inevitable. It CAN be overcome. The question is, what are YOU prepared to do?

Understand their world this week

COMPASSION

We are just as much ‘church’ when we are sent as when we gather together. Jesus made us more about being than doing church - Luke 10:17…the joy

The Diet challenge - For this upcoming week, I will be asking all of us to live on a diet consisting of rice, beans, flour tortilla shells. It has often been said that unless you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes that you really don’t understand what they go through.

It is a challenge to live like most of the world that is in poverty and what they have to survive on. It is a challenge for us to abstain from discretionary purchases this upcoming week. The money that you would normally spend on going out what groceries for a normal week would consist of, the money spent on going out to dinner, clothes, buying a coffee, …we are asking you to give sacrificially above and beyond your tithe on November 30^th towards a Partners gift of shelter, water and health that I will share more on Sunday about.

We understand that some of you do have health related issues and no, we don’t expect your kids to live on the same diet although they may decide to do one meal like that with you.