The Lens of Jesus
The other day I went for a run and had both a wonderful and terrible time. It was a beautiful place, covered by trees, right next to the ocean. It was also really humid and my sweat was running in my eyes quite a bit. About 20 minutes into the run, I found that the combination of sunscreen and sweat had now become a hindrance to me seeing where I was running. At first I tried slowing down, but I finally had to come to a complete stop and clear out my eyes.
I don’t know about you but the last year has felt like a sprint. Some moments have been filled with beauty, covering, and joy. Other moments I feel like I’m out of breath, I’m working very hard, and like I couldn’t see anything.
More often than not, I have experienced for myself and seen for many others the activity of reaching for another lens rather than slowing down or stopping to correct our vision altogether.
This last year I’ve seen people looking at a global pandemic, an election, dialogues on race and other topics, and the variety of issues in our world through various lenses. Some have been looking through the lens of social media. After 30 seconds of a TikTok video, we have experts in masks and disease. After one Facebook post or video, we now have fully informed folks who have a lens from others’ opinions. Let’s be honest, the lens of social media is incomplete and has led to a war of words more than anything.
I’ve seen others look through the lens of politically-biased news sources. If CNN says it, it must be true. If it’s not from Fox News, can we really trust it? The lens through which people view contemporary issues has now become what sources want to portray from a biased view rather than a full perspective.
There have been so many other sources and lenses that people have looked through and I believe we are missing the ultimate lens available: Jesus.
After Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospel accounts, there are some intriguing stories when He encounters His disciples but they don’t recognize Him. He meets Cleopas and an unnamed disciple on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, but they don’t recognize Jesus until He explains how the Scriptures find fulfillment in Himself, breaks bread with them, and then gives them further instruction. In John 20, Mary goes to the tomb and mistakes Jesus for a gardener. The next verses reveal that she recognizes Him when He calls her by name. We also see in John 20 that the disciples had hid away in fear and doubt. In both instances, Jesus appears among them, breathes His Spirit upon them, and shows them the nail marks in His body. Upon these encounters, the disciples recognize Jesus and are empowered by His Presence for their call to carry on His commandments and commission.
Following these accounts John tells us in chapter 21 that Peter and some other disciples go fishing. This isn’t an “I’m bored, let’s go fishing” thing either. It’s a return to their old lives. And in their old lives, they catch nothing. But Jesus shows us, tells them to throw the net on the right of the boat and they catch a remarkable 153 fish! John recognizes this is the Lord and then Peter jumps in the water to swim to Him. When all the disciples arrive, Jesus has bread and a fire going and invites them to breakfast.
A few things stand out to me from these stories that I think can encourage us all to look through the lens of Jesus in this season.
We must be a people who look for a living God in our midst. Cleopas, Mary, and many others missed the resurrected Savior at first because they weren’t looking for alive King, but a dead one. When we look for the Living Lord, we are constantly opening our eyes to see how God is resurrecting things, making the impossible possible, and bringing hope to hopeless situations and people.
We must live in the newness Jesus offers us. It’s so easy to point our fingers at the disciples and say, “I can’t believe they went back to their old lives.” Yet, in the midst of many things in our world and lives, we—who have experienced the Resurrected King—throw back on our dead and old lives as well. We look through the lens of the old person we were or we practice things that lead to death. In the midst of this last year, I know it was so easy for us all to return to old patterns, but the Lord is making all things new and calling us forward. In fact, our hope is not a return to normal. Our hope is in Christ Jesus, who does the supernatural. Let’s look to the One who calls us into new life and lifts our eyes to see the newness He offers in every season.
We must be a people who look through the Word. When Cleopas and his buddy respond to Jesus, they have their words. But when Jesus responds to them, they are awakened and empowered by His Word. Mary hears her name from the Words of Jesus and is stirred to life. The disciples’ fear and doubts are shifted by the Word and Presence of Jesus. Finally, Peter and his buddies don’t catch anything until they follow the Word of God. We have the temptation everyday to look through the words of people, organizations, and others, or to look through the Words and Presence of our Living Lord. God’s Word awakens, informs, transforms, changes, and will catch things we have been striving to catch all of our lives.
Lastly, we must be a people who live in communion with Jesus. In multiple accounts after Jesus’ resurrection He invites His disciples to share a meal with Him involving bread. He is telling them to come have breakfast and when they see that broken bread and the open table, their eyes are opened. This last year, we had the opportunity to commune in new ways and with many things. I saw many people looking through communion with things that don’t lead to life, me included. I also know that each day, Jesus was welcoming us to have breakfast with Him. Each day, our living God was inviting us to commune at His table together. What could have happened if instead of our arguments and divisions, we could have brought ourselves together in the meal of unity, peace, grace, and love, prayed together, remembered our need together, and then moved forward in action from that place? Revival. Resurrection. Life. We would have looked through the lens of Jesus and experienced all of these things.
Today is a new day. We are given the gift of looking through the lens of Jesus. We can look for His life in our lives, or we can mistake Him for a dead god. We can look for His newness and live in it, or we can return to our old ways, patterns, and sins. We can look for and through His Word, or we can be persuaded and informed by many others’ words. We can look for communion moments with our Living Lord, or we can simply partake of meals that lead to nothing.
I believe we can slow down, stop, and clear our vision as we keep pressing forward with our Savior. The Good News today is that even if we are running hard, He is with us, and He’s not only showing us the way, but He is the Way. Let’s wipe off our eyes, throw away the other lenses, and look through the lens of Jesus together. Amen.
