Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene's first encounter with the risen Jesus is a truly remarkable event (John 20:11-18). Although she had been a devoted follower of the Lord for years, when she encounters him in the garden at the tomb, she looks right at him yet doesn't recognize him (v.14).
Many theories have been offered as to why Mary was unable to identify Jesus. In my opinion, it seems clear that upon his resurrection, Jesus' appearance had changed. He looked somehow different. Yet the moment Jesus calls her by name--"Mary"-- her spiritual eyes are opened, a new creation is born, and she experiences what it is like to see someone with the "eyes of her heart" for the first time.
The apostles share a similar experience when the risen Jesus "reveals" himself to them (John 21:1). He calls to them from the beach while they were fishing just offshore. As they join him for breakfast, we get one of the most intriguiging verses in all of Scripture: ... none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord (John 21:12 ESV).
I propose that when the disciples beheld Jesus with the eyes in their heads, he looked different, unrecognizable, but their hearts were able to see beyond his outward appearance. With the eyes of their hearts, they saw God.
The Eyes of Your Heart
As Christians, we should see other people in a different way than the world sees them. We, too, should see beyond the outward appearance. We should see others with the "eyes of our hearts".
Paul writes, "[I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you... " (Ephesians 1:17-18 ESV).
Even though being indwelt with the Holy Spirit should provide sufficient enablement to begin to see people with the eyes of our hearts--that is, the way God sees them--it seems that we constantly have to struggle against the "old self" in us--that is, the part of us that wants to see others from a "worldly point of view."
But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV)
Paul describes this new way of looking at others in his letter to the Corinthian church:
The love of Christ controls us... so from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (2 Corinthians 5:14,16 NIV)
Controlled by the "love of Christ", the apostles began to see others in a new way, and so should we.
The Heart-blinding Effects of Pride
I believe that there is one condition of the heart that most likely prevents us from being controlled by the love of Christ and seeing others the way we should - pride. I once heard this very unflattering and convicting definition of pride (something detestable in the Scriptures): Pride is the pleasure we feel when we’re better than someone else. Ouch!
Pride is always comparative. It always pits one person against another. It makes us compare our station with someone else. As long as pride has a foothold in our hearts, we will never be able to see others the way we ought.
Jesus warns against the love-preventing, heart-blinding effects of pride when he tells his disciples not to be like the arrogant Pharisee who looked with disdain upon the lowly tax collector (Luke 18:10). The apostle Paul admonishes the elect in the church in Rome not to think of themselves more highly than they ought (Romans 12:3), and he cautions the people of the church in Corinth not to be “puffed up in favor of one over another” (1 Corinthians 4:6). This type of comparative and prideful mindset is exactly what C.S. Lewis refers to as “the complete anti-God state of mind.”
There Are No Mere Mortals
The reason that we should strive to see others differently, came as a stunning realization to the former atheist, C.S. Lewis.
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. . . . There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals who we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
Final Thoughts
When we truly understand that we are no better, no more special, no more favored than anyone else, when we humbly realize and accept that everyone we encounter is an image-bearer of our Creator, it should help us to put off the old self that wants to judge by outward appearance, and put on the Spirit-guided new self that sees others with the eyes of our hearts.
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