Jesus looked at him and loved him
When we speak of the word of God, we speak simultaneously of the scriptures and of Jesus the Word made flesh.
When we read the scriptures, they read us. If we allow it, they will pierce us to the heart, and the spirit of wisdom will set our minds and hearts right.
When Jesus looks at us, his gaze is sharper than any sword. It penetrates even between our soul and our spirit, our bones and our marrow. Nothing is concealed. Everything is naked and exposed to his eyes.
How do you feel about that?
How do you feel about being seen by Jesus?
Adam and Eve hid themselves.
Some philosophers and theologians think that perhaps Heaven and Hell are the same. For the righteous, being in the pure and penetrating light of God is heaven. For the unrighteous, that light is overwhelming, and burns.
For this young man, it says that “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…”
He wasn’t perfect, by a long shot.
He kept the commandments, but he loved his many possessions. Perhaps he wasn’t so bad, but simply loved being a rich young benefactor.
We don’t know if he sold everything, gave it to the poor, and came back again. I hope so, but we know that he went away sad.
But Jesus looked at him and loved him.
Jesus looked at him, saw his heart, saw how he was flawed, and loved him.
This would be impossible for us, wouldn’t it? If you could see me in my sin, and I could see you in yours, it would be impossible for us to love one another. It is impossible. And yet, nothing is impossible for God, even for us to know one another and yet love one another.
God looks at us, sees our brokenness, weakness, and sin, and loves us.
God gives us eyes of love, too, so that when we look on one another’s brokenness, weakness, and sin, we can love one another. We can love the sinner without loving or enabling their sin. Even, perhaps, love ourselves, by the grace of God.
Do not fear to stand naked and unashamed before God, like Adam and Eve in the Garden on the first day.
God will not despise us, but will cleanse us of all our guilt.
Do not fear to give your dark, hard, and heart of chipped stone to God.
God will not despise the gift of your heart, but rather, as he says through Ezekiel:
I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.
You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Jesus looking at him, loved him.
Jesus, looking at you, and seeing you clearly, loves you.
As his mother says, “Do whatever he tells you” – he will fill you with his love, and your joy will be full in this life, and in the next.
