Seeing Through Another’s Eyes
(First in a series entitled “seeing”)
Matthew 2: 1-2
January 7, 1990
Many years ago I attended a lecture on the Christmas Story from a Jewish perspective. A local rabbi gave the talk and it was a fascinating experience . it stood as a good corrective to those of uswho tend to be too sentimental about the manger scene. I can’t remember many details of the lecture, but these lines have stuck with me. Near the end, the rabbi said with what seemed a certain wistfulness,” in this birth, you have seen your Messiah. We are still waiting for ours to come.
“In this birth, you have seen your Messiah.” During the next few weeks, I intend to concentrate on what it is that we have seen, for I am convinced that in the act of seeing, we form our perspective on life. To put it another way, “Tell me what you see, and I will tell you what is there for you.
Let me give you an example of what I mean by recounting a version of the birth story from a somewhat different perspective. This comes from the Pastoral Counseling Center in Boston. it’s a report on the birth of Jesus as it might have been written from the viewpoint of a social worker after making a call. it goes like this: “On January 7, your case worker went to visit the Ben Jacobs family. These people were reported to be living in the inn’s barn by the innkeeper’s wife. Some of the neighbors suggested to this worker that these people were vagrants and would not be living that way unless they preferred to. But this worker thought she would visit as most women do not prefer to have children in barns. It was later explained that they were victims of the housing shortage. Mr & Mrs Ben Jacobs seemed rather dazed, but they had fixed up quarters very nicely, although the barn was cold. He is a carpenter in Nazareth and apparently quite handy. His wife is much younger, almost a child, but her baby seems healthy and well cared for.
They were uncommunicative about the story of a visit to them by some shepherds the night the child was born. Apparently the shepherds were friendly as they left some food for them. Ben Jacobs was quite vague, or possibly secretive, regarding his plans for the future. He seemed fearful of staying in Bethlehem too long and mentioned seeking a job in Egypt. This worker explained there were strong feelings in Egypt about refugee Jews. Egypt felt that rich Jews bid too high for housing,’ and the poor ones worked for wages that were below minimum. This worker also explained that it might be a bad environment for the child’s formative years with so much }>raj udice around. At this, Hrs, Ben Jacobs seemed close to hysteria, so this worker changed the subject.
When asked if they had enough money, they said they did. They showed the worker a considerable amount of gold, as well as some curious foreign packages which they said they believed were valuable. They reported these objects had been brought by some important gentlemen from a long way away. A tactful inquiry concerning the foreign gentlemen brought tot light that they had come to town and left almost immediately after. it appears that one vf them was black, and in spite of his wealth and the fact that he had been entertained in Jerusalem by King Herod, no one in the village would accommodate him or his servants. Mr Ben Jacobs was quite agitated about this. This worker, in order to soothe him, suggested that the child might someday do something about these things. The mother brightened at this. Hr. Ben Jacobs said he hoped he would, but it took a long time to change people’s hearts.
” The family seems to have a good value system and a clear handle on reality. They don’t need our assistance. Case closed.”
Case closed from the perspective of the Case Worker. What she had seen and heard was no different than a thousand stories in the daily paper, or in some dead file in a charitable agency. ” What you see is what is there for you. But who knows? Maybe we have the ability to see beyond the hard “facts”.
Ralph Sockman, one of the great Methodist preachers of our century one preached a sermon where he declared we human beings have been given three mechanisms for perception. First, he said, we see through the eyes of the body, those intricate organs through which we perceive the shape and outer surfaces of reality. With our eyes we see form and color, and depending on how good those eyes are, we may even be able to see words on a page.
in addition to the eyes of the body, we have been equipped with the eyes of the mind. This capacity organizes all the data that flows in through our other senses into patterns of meaning and understanding. The eyes of the mind link past and present experiences so that we see things far beyond what our organs tell us. The eyes of the mind help us to collate, understand, and analyze much of the data we are faced with. I would even go so far as to say that the eyes of the mind distinguish us from the rest of the animal world.
Sockman says these two mechanisms do not exhaust our giftedness. Sockman also identifies what he calls the eyes of the heart. The eyes of the heart are what we use to search beyond what appears in front of us. The eyes of the heart see things in some final understanding of our ultimate perspective. With the eyes of the heart, we begin to look at things through God’s eyes. We begin to find purpose behind events; the hand of God beyond facts, the divine touch in back of sordid details. The message for this Sunday is, if you really want to see the Messiah, if you really want to understand the birth narrative, see it from the perspective of the eyes of the heart, see it from God’s eyes; and if you dare to look: from this vantage point, nothing surrounding these stories will ever appear the same.
I once knew a very wise old man at seminary who suggested to a group of us that we could look at a window and see a window, or we could see through a window and see the stars.
This Epiphany- this New Year- you are being asked to look at a new perspective, to find the stars with the eyes of your heart. The central part of the birth story is not a baby, not a visit by some unknown gentleman. The central act is the loving purpose of God, which crashes into the world like an earthquake, erupts like a volcano, and hits us like a hurricane.
This Epiphany, this new year, you can look at a baby and see a baby, or look through a baby and see God. Which will it be?
Amen