Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' He said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' " Mark 10:21..."Has Jesus ever looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes." Oswald Chambers
"The look." Children know of that in relation to their parents. Husbands with their wives. All of us with someone. We know that "the look" means that the one gazing at us is seeing something displeasing, questionable, or wrong. We recognize the look and most often, adjust our behavior so that we're no longer objects of "the look." We're familiar with the looks of these, yet we miss the gaze of Jesus upon us. And we miss what He wishes to do in relation to beholding us.
Chambers says that when Christ looks at us in such a way, it's because He is looking at some aspect of our character, our walk, that He seeks to bring to our attention. He looks at where our hearts are hard, or where we're prone to compromise. He looks upon that which is self-destructive or causes harm to another. In short, He looks upon all those things that we ourselves don't care to look at, because if we did, we'd do so with a great deal of self loathing. The difference is that He can look upon those ugly parts of our being and do so in love. As He looks He sees clearly what we are, but just as clearly, what we can become as a result of His transforming power. Hard hearts replaced by fleshly ones. A lack of love replaced by a fervent passion for Him and all those He loves. His look can hurt, indeed will hurt. Chambers says that where Christ's words and ways offend and hurt, we can be sure that He means to "hurt it to death." A death that results in life. His life.
This is what was happening in Mark 10. The rich young ruler had come to Him professing a desire to follow Him. Jesus looked at Him, in love, and then proceeded to point out all that would keep the young man from living out His desire. His riches, his attachments, his being held by what could be counted and accumulated. And it brought him deep pain. The Scripture tells us that the young ruler "went away grieved." Christ's gaze had exposed for him all that would prevent him from really being His and living for Him. In this gaze, the look of Jesus did not cause the young man to release his hold on his "stuff" that he might lay hold of Jesus. For you and me, as Christ fixes His gaze upon us, what might He be exposing in our hearts and lives that is preventing us from giving Him all of our heart and life? Where are we "turning away grieved" from Him after His look has revealed all? Where are we not allowing Him to transform and transfix us?
Some reading this may have never really experienced what I'm writing about. They've never been able to be still in His presence long enough to allow His gaze to fall upon and search them. It doesn't prevent Him from knowing what's present within. It prevents us from acknowledging it, or should I say, having to acknowledge it. Where in our lives might we be avoiding being still enough for His look to captivate and hold us? Where are we "dodging Jesus?"
He is constantly beholding us, but we so rarely behold Him. Someone said that to behold Him is to be changed, because we cannot "see" Him and ever remain the same. His eyes, His look, are always upon us. We need not fear it, for in it is the power to give us transformed lives. Let Him bring the impurities, the dross, yes, even the sewage out into the open air. In that is freedom if we will give it all, surrender it all, and as He urged the young ruler, the ability to follow Him, fully in all things. Someone said that our churches are filled with "rich young rulers." Those to anchored in this world to ever fully enter His. Is there some degree in which we are among them? His look will reveal it. Will we receive it?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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