LOOK AT JESUS!
Matthew 20:25-33
But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.“
As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind. Two blind men were sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
“Be quiet!” the crowd yelled at them.
But they only shouted louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
When Jesus heard them, he stopped and called, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord,” they said, “we want to see!” Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed him.
Look at Jesus. Not just someone else’s interpretation of Him, no matter how anointed and wise that person may be. Even the Word of God itself is to lead us to know the One who became the Word, living in the flesh. If we stop short of knowing Him, worshiping Him, walking in Him (though we learn about Him, sing about Him and walk in the shadow of another man’s vision of Him), we stop short of eternity by holding to what we can reason and grasp in our own minds.
If the Bible teaches us anything, it is man’s seemingly inevitable response to God’s personal revelation of Himself. From the moment Adam and Eve established that response till now, we always receive the revelation of God in a cloud of misunderstanding. Then we proceed to build philosophies, social systems and organizations upon our expanded conclusions – which are based on faulty and incomplete understanding in the first place!
Thus the endless cycle –
••God speaks new life
•Man responds in obedience
•followed by Revelation
•that produces Pride
•which invites Delusion
•which ends in Despair
•and Death//
••God speaks new life
•Man responds in obedience
•followed by Revelation
•etc, etc…
As long as we are not born of the Spirit, given entry into Jesus, we stand outside Him and our views are hopelessly skewed and sure to repeat the cycle.
I’m not talking about the World here. This story is the history of “God’s people.” God has chosen to shine the spotlight on a group of people down through history to be the illustration of the desperate straights the human race is stuck in. The incredible thing to me is that He keeps perpetuating the cycle, invading the darkness of what Man’s design creates by suddenly, from out of the blue, speaking. It is a good thing He’s not constrained by time. If He were, He would have gotten really tired of this by now.
At certain strategic stages it seems He does get tired or frustrated with the process and just about wipes every human off the face of the earth. Clearly, that is not because He is at the end of His wits and suddenly flies off the handle but it is to show us that WE DO NOT have an infinite quantity of time. He is showing us that we are expected to receive, apply and mature to the point of being new creatures IN HIM – transformed and fruitful,.
It is the first step of that expectation that is solely at the command of our will. We can receive His salvation or we can reject it. Every other part, even the drawing us to that point, wholly issues from Him. The drawing is done by His Spirit. Even the faith it takes to believe in preparation to receive, is a gift from Him. Of course, what happens from that point through an eternity of growing usefulness and pleasure to Him, is a product of our personal, intimate oneness with Him and harmony with His Spirit.
Our generation, in sync with every other generation, has decided to add another option. The clear options are, receive or reject. We have added another option – designer religion. I mean: Man’s reasoned religion and the systems we build to market and maintain a following for our design. Most of which is a far cry from James’ definition of “true religion” or any other function of God’s people described in His Book.
We have slipped into the stage of despair just before death, in what continues to be the inevitable cycle for “religion” and therefore the human race. We’ve been deluded and diluted by compromise with the world’s ways. We have looked away from Jesus and allowed our wondering eyes to lust after the world’s definition of success.
From every mountain top, every housetop, every radio and every TV set, in every interaction with other people, we must begin to be the heralds of God’s call, “Look at Jesus!” Just keep looking at Him and let Him do what He does best – save and heal, reconcile and restore, touch and transform. Don’t try to be Jesus. Don’t try to be the Holy Spirit. You invite delusion when that self-effort begins to follow the natural enthusiasm of your own mind. Jesus is real and alive. He is completely able to complete what He has begun. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need as much help from us as we think. The more we “help”, the more we get in the way and distract from His supernatural work in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls.
Just keep looking at Jesus. Know Him in the intimacy He wants with you, not what you can conjure up. He’s right there. Love and long for Him enough to call to Him. Ask Him to make Himself real to you and fill every dark corner of your heart and imagination with the light and refreshing oil of His Spirit; His Spirit of love and purpose and hope, His nature of patience and kindness and courage.
It is good to learn what God is saying through His Word and His Prophets and Apostles. But it is not given to us just to learn the words and demand that others interpret them as we do. We must go on to where God is calling us. We must be the genuine worshipers He is looking for – now – filled with His Spirit – loving like He loves, walking in the joy of our salvation which is: TO BE WITH HIM. In spite of every trial or attempted delusion. In the face of every distraction and surprise detour.
Those trials, distractions & detours are not “the enemy” but the test of our faith and the qualifiers for our place with Him in eternity. Our enemy is not the demons or infidels “out there.” The enemy, the infidel, is our own heart. A heart that will take the easy way or the popular way or the devious way and shrink from the Doorway into eternity with Him – to be God’s child, His man, His woman.
Jesus is the Key! Look at Him. Don’t focus on the wrath of God illustrated simply to clarify our desperate situation. If you’ve placed your hope in the Law of Moses or the demands of Mohamed or the escape of Buda or the forces of nature, Jesus is the Key! The Key that opens God’s love and redemption to His beloved creation. We’ve lived too long, held in the grip of laws and demands.
The Key has been there in plain sight all along. Take the Key. Pick it up. Yes, I know it is dirty and blood spattered. That is because He is one of us, flesh and blood, and that dirt and blood is the inevitable effect of the law of sin and death on flesh and blood. Pick it up and put it in the lock on your heart. Allow Him to fill you with the love that conquers all the darkness, simply because it heals our infidel heart.
Tho’ He slay me, yet will I serve Him.
For the joy set before Him?
You are that joy.
Look at Jesus.
Get passed the cloud of Man’s devices
and see Him, face to face.
That is the only reality you need.
He is the only reality.
He that seeks, will find.
To him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Look at Jesus and ask, seek and knock, till?