1. Eyes Wide Open

1. Eyes Wide Open.

“At the Last Judgment, it is our eyes that will be judged first. For in Matt. 25:44, the accused reply, ‘When did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked or sick?’ The first commandment of brotherly love is eye control.” (Rev. Helmut Thielicke).

Head on a Swivel. “Cmon, Larson, you’ve got to keep your head on a swivel!” I heard those words from every basketball coach I had, because that was my job as the point guard… to be aware of where everybody was on the court, teammates as well as opponents, at all times. My eyes had to remain wide open at a high level of mental alertness, with constant awareness of how best to run the offense or read the defense. And so goes the life of all Christ-followers.

Learn to See. When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us, one of His first orders of business is to transform our eyes, our vision, how to truly see. As believers acquiring the mind of Christ, the Spirit is intent on giving us the eyes of Jesus, who didn’t miss a thing. He had what trained trackers call wide-angle view, or the “relaxed vision,” and literally saw the big picture of what was around Him at all times. He also was able to zero in and focus on the individuals and their needs. Nothing escaped the notice of the Messiah during His ministry, or now, for that matter, as He sits at the right hand of the Father. And the Son shares the same eyesight as the Father, who doesn’t miss a thing either. God has His head on a swivel every second of the day and night. Our God is a God who sees.

Behold! When the writers of Scripture wanted the reader to stop everything and see something important, to strain to understand it at all costs, to perceive what is about to be said, the word used most often is “Behold!” The word Behold! is one of those significant words in the Word, an exclamation intended to get our attention. Listen, people, this is something you need to hear! Behold says to the audience… Look at this and take note! This is a time to focus! Pay heed to this! You would be wise to remember these words and think about them! Careful now, don’t be blind to what I am about to say! Stop what you’re doing, listen up and concentrate! As the Eastern Orthodox Christians say before they read the Gospel in the liturgy… Attend!

Two Ways to See. In the Bible, there seem to be two ways to see: to physically see with one’s eyesight; and to spiritually see, to understand, to perceive. To spiritually see is to notice, focus, think about, discern, and understand. It appears that God created us with physical eyes that have straight lines north to the brain and south to the heart. They’re all connected. When we truly see something, it kicks our minds into gear to think about it, and it jolts our hearts to respond to what it is that we see. The Gospel writers went into great detail about how Jesus became deeply moved after seeing something that went directly to his heart. What Jesus saw greatly affected Him: from getting a gut punch after seeing a need and being filled with a compassion that was literally felt in the pit of His  stomach; to a visceral emotional response that resulted in overwhelming anguish, being thoroughly terrified and suffering through an anxiety attack; to literally jumping with joy over what He has witnessed, filled with great gladness, ecstatically rejoicing with what He has seen.

Open Eyes that Lead to Bearing Burdens.  “Continue bearing each other’s heavy burdens. In this way you will be fulfilling the Torah’s true meaning, which is upheld by the Messiah Christ. Keep carrying one another’s overwhelming loads, and you will be truly obeying Christ’s Royal Law of Love. By your ongoing offer to stoop down and help shoulder one another’s crushing burdens, you will be completely submitting to the way Christ expects us to live.” (Galatians 6:2). The first step in bearing each other’s burdens is to be aware of them in the first place. Believers in Christ are expected to pay attention to those around them, eyes wide open, fully noting the well-being of those in their orbit. The important ministry of burden-bearing doesn’t even get off the ground until believers have gained the habit of awareness, possessing attention spans adequate to caring for others. The Christians who are most effective in burden-bearing are those who desire to showcase Christ’s compassion by developing the eyesight of Jesus.

Eyes that are Open but Blind: Those who are blissfully unaware of the needs of others; those who choose to ignore the needy around them; those who are intentionally blindfolded; those who are thoughtless of others and negligent in their care for others; those who are apathetic and self-centered; those with a one-track mind who carelessly overlook others; those who think they are above it all, with a haughty or arrogant look instead of a humble and merciful look; those who choose to live in a small world; those who claim to be compassionate but are too busy or distracted to demonstrate it.

Eyes that are Faithless. There were plenty of stories in Scripture that revealed eyes that were wide open but who were not wearing the glasses of faith. Yes, they saw something, but without the advantage of trusting in God, and what they saw proved to be a faithless sight that was catastrophic. Eve, Adam, and the Hebrew spies, we’re looking at you.

1. The Faithless Eyes of Eve. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Genesis 3:6). Adam and Eve had it all, until they didn’t. They were made in innocence. They were not guilty of anything. They were innocent, but not perfect. They had the profound gift of free will, able to choose the right way or the wrong way, the good way or the bad way. Adam and Eve had no excuse for their moral failure. They should have seen the temptation coming a mile away. Maybe they had never had a conversation with a snake before, and were foolishly mesmerized by the interaction with the animal world. Maybe they were unaware that a truly evil fallen angel was disguised in this snake, and didn’t realize this being had the cunning of a genuine genius con man. And there was the snake, slithering in the very tree that was declared out of bounds for them by the Creator. Did Adam and Eve know they were talking with a demonic master who was the source of evil and death? Or did they blissfully walk right into this trap unawares? But there was no excuse. Our first parents knowingly broke communion with God, they were naively lured into disobedience. Satan lied, and Adam and Eve didn’t see through the deceit. They chose to believe Satan’s lie that “they will not surely die.” (Gen 3:4), even with their loving God’s words still ringing in their ears, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat; for on the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” (2:17). Sure enough, Adam and Eve died a spiritual death as they chewed the forbidden fruit. They separated themselves from their source of life.

Satan’s Three Deceptions.  The three areas of temptations noted in 1 John 2:16 are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. John here is echoing those three temptations in the Fall: the forbidden fruit was good for eating (the lust of the flesh), a delight to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and they would become wiser (the pride of life). The devil deceived Adam and Eve through their fleshly appetite, through their love of beauty, and through the promise of wisdom. Satan was fiendishly tricky and brilliantly dishonest. He knew how to appeal to the weak spots of humanity, of Adam and Eve, and he used these weak spots to his full advantage.

2. The Faithless Eyes of Ten Hebrew Spies. “The people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great, and moreover we saw the children of giants there. And all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. There we saw the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:28-33). The Israelites are knocking on the door of the Promised Land. They need to discover the best place to enter this land of Canaan in order to take it over. So they decide, with Moses’ approval, to send twelve scouts to spy out the land. The scouts were to report back to Moses and the people on the best entry point. Before this mission, it was assumed they would enter the land somewhere. But the spies returned with mixed reviews, and heavily negative. Ten of those scouts were demoralized, claiming some of the Canaanites were giants, and had built impregnable walls around their cities. These ten scouts convinced the people to reject any attempts to  enter the Promised Land. Only two scouts, Joshua and Caleb, were convinced the Israelites could take this fertile land with God on their side. The Israelites, though, committed the grievous sin of unbelief. Their fears overcame them, and they didn’t believe that God was enough. Moses did his best to encourage the people and exhort them to meet this challenge. He tried very hard  to help the people gather their courage and occupy the land. But the people stubbornly refused to trust in God. In His anger and disgust, God sentenced the Israelites to forty years of wandering the wilderness, one year for every day of the spy mission. This was time enough for the younger generation to grow up and take over the challenge. And too, this would provide the time necessary for the fearful generation to age out. After forty years, the children of these Israelites did indeed conquer and occupy the Promised Land. Despite God’s constant care for them up to that earlier moment of truth, though, the fearful Israelites proved unfaithful. And they paid dearly for their lack of courage and trust. Those ten fearful scouts paid the ultimate price. All of them were struck by a plague and died.

Eyes that are Spiritually Blind. We all need to have eyes that see:

“You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? (Mark 8:18);

 “He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Yes, you hear, but you don’t understand. You certainly see, but you don’t get the point!’ (Isaiah 6:9);

 “Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear. For they are a rebellious people.” (Ezekiel 12:2);

“Listen to this, you scatterbrains, you foolish people without understanding, you who have eyes that see but don’t really look, and ears that hear but don’t really listen.” (Jeremiah 5:21);

“So ignore those Pharisees who accuse me! Forget about them! They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another blind person, they will both fall into a ditch.”  (Matthew 15:14);

 “Because you have sinned against the LORD, I will make you grope around like the blind. Your blood will be poured into the dust, and your bodies will lie rotting on the ground.” (Zephaniah 1:17)’

“Get the blind and deaf out here and ready – the blind (though there’s nothing wrong with their eyes) and the deaf (though there’s nothing wrong with their ears). Summon the nations to come to the trial. Which of their gods can predict the future? Which of them foretold what is happening now? Let these gods bring in their witnesses to prove that they are right, to testify to the truth of their words. (Isaiah 43:8

Eyes that are Spiritually Blessed with Understanding.

“The teachings of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes.” (Psalm 19:8).

“For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. But you, how blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear!” (Matthew 13:15-16).

“To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. Because of our faith, we know that the world was made at God’s command. We also know that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, 3).

“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”  (2 Corinthians 4:18).

“I pray that He will give light to the eyes of your hearts, so that you will understand the hope to which He has called you, what rich glories there are in the inheritance He has promised his people, to grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians. Oh, the utter extravagance of His work in us who trust Him – endless energy, boundless strength! (Ephesians 1:17-19).