The Look

 "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 it in relation to their parents. Husbands surely know it in relation to their wives. Do we know it in relation to our Lord?

Mark 10 tells the story of Jesus and the "rich, young ruler." The young man had come to Jesus and asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him of that which he likely expected to hear, that He should keep the commandments of God. The man said that he'd been doing so all his life. At this point, the young man likely felt totally approved, but Christ saw something more, and something deeper. Something that kept his heart from Him.

With a look of love, He told him that he lacked one thing, and the remedy for it was that he should take and give all that he owned to the poor, and after doing so, "come and follow Me."

We miss the point if we think this was about money, or that money is what He most wants of and from us. In looking at him, Jesus saw into his heart and saw that beneath the profession of devotion was a swath of his life not devoted to Him at all; his wealth and possessions. Nothing, not even his love for his God could come between his love for them. Jesus offered him what he said he wanted, but to have it, he needed to surrender that which kept him from fully realizing that life. At the words of Jesus, Scripture says that the young man "went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions." I wonder, where in my life, and in yours, do we also walk away, too often without sorrow, because there is something of greater value to us than Christ? Something that we cannot yield, that we can't surrender to Him. Something, that when it comes to giving Him all of our heart, we can't, and so, in that part of our life, we walk away from Him, and never allow Him to "transform and transfix" our hearts and lives in that place.

In writing of this passage of Scripture, Oswald Chambers asks, "Has Jesus ever looked at you?" Looked at you, at me, in the manner that He looked at the rich young ruler? Has He looked at us in such a way as to reveal that aspect of our lives, our character, that has remained untouched and unyielded to Him? It need not be wealth or possessions. It can be literally anything; attitudes, beliefs, relationships, behaviors, hardness of heart, yet soft in our devotion. When He looks at us there, He seeks to transfix us with His eyes and then, if we yield up what His look has revealed, transform us there as well. We all have those places. If He hasn't yet, He surely will "look at us" there. He will expose the "one thing (or things) we lack." How do we respond when He does?

Where in our lives can we not bear the look of Jesus? Where, as He looks at us, do we look away? What is it that comes between He and us? Where are we His in most things, but not the one thing? There have been several instances in my life where the one thing seemed to me to be everything. I loved Him, followed Him, but in that one thing, could not turn it fully over to Him. In that one thing, I continued to walk away until I came to the place where I couldn't walk away again. His look, His gaze undid me. The pain of the giving up was great...for a moment. The joy of giving it up to Him goes on. His look transfixed me, and then transformed me. I give Him glory for "the look" that will not cease searching me out....and you as well. As He looks at you today, are you looking away, seeking to hide, or, will you be undone, and then as a result, remade. We hear no more of the rich young ruler in Scripture. Did he eventually surrender all to Him? Eternity will reveal the answer. Meanwhile, what is our answer to "the look" of Jesus?

Blessings,

Pastor O