Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Learning to See
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The following is from a small publication called "Explorations: Becoming Like Jesus - Part Four - The Compassionate Life" (by Christopher Webb). He describes a year that he spent working at an inner-city church in England, primarily with people who were homeless and poor. He says,
"And Jesus showed up - just where I'd least expected him. Id on't know how much of Jesus they found in me - something of him, I hope. But every time I sat over coffee with that community, Jesus revealed himself to me in them. After a few months I re-read the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, and noticed something obvious that had never struck me before. Those who reach out to the poor, the hungry, the naked, the prisoners, find they are not congratulated for being Christlike. Instead they are rewarded by meeting Jesus in the very people they seek to serve. In the end, I went to that church not to be Jesus, but to meet Jesus. The experience changed my life."
This is a crucially important lesson for us to consider as we prepare to leave for a short-term mission trip. We cannot head into the country of Guatemala with the attitude that we are Jesus - our heads held high, our Bibles in hand, our tongues ready to bless and proclaim peace to the people we meet. This type of attitude is insensitive, offensive, and very dangerous.
Rather, we enter the country - and eventually we enter the homes of real people - with the hopes of seeing Jesus in the Other. Like Webb says, as we serve, we are not being Christlike, rather we are meeting Jesus in the people we are serving.
We meet Jesus at the construction site.
We meet Jesus in a home with dirt floors, no electricity, and no running water.
We meet Jesus in the family of life-long missionaries.
We meet Jesus in the face of a local pastor, serving a poor community.
We meet Jesus in the faces of the children.
Webb concludes, "The compassionate life is, first and foremost, personal. It must be rooted in genuine, direct relationships, not nebulous issues. We cannot love causes. We can only love people - and this love is the root of all real, enduring justice and peace. As we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we need to learn to see."
May God give us the eyes to see Jesus in Guatemala.
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2 comments:
This is really beautiful. It strikes me that this concept of not "being Christlike" but rather "looking to meet Christ" is quite humbling. It is not the "spiritually superior" Americans who are bringing *something* (or someone?) to the "deficient" others. It is the missionaries who recognize their own deficiency. Love it! I pray you guys may continue in that attitude:)
Thanks Nic -
Your mention of being "spiritually superior" and "humility" makes me think about the whole act of giving/receiving. I've been learning that the actual act of giving is a position of power. One of the most amazing scenes in the Bible is when Peter refuses to have his feet washed. To receive is to be weak, to be humbled, to be passive. We want to be in control, and so we want to be the givers. This is a different twist on the ideas of "servant leadership" we talked about so much in PFC!
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