Learning To See Others Series

Learning to See Others

Series: Building Better RELATIONSHIPS

October 3, 2021

Intro

My added welcome... to each of you here and online....It’s a gift to share this time together... growing together.

I want to begin by asking us to reflect for a moment.

Are you a safe person?

I don’t mean are you likely to become violent... I mean... are you safe for others to approach....and relate to? Do you relate to other people as a threat you need to defend against.... or as a gift to be opened?

What kind of space do you create for others?

As we continue in our focus and series on building better relationships... this may be one of the most important questions.

This series is about building better relationships in every point of relating. We are engaging the qualities that can help us develop better relationships with those we are just beginning to engage...as well as building better relationships with the family and friends who we have known for many years.

No matter what the state of our relational life is... we can all move further from isolation to intimacy.... we can all develop more meaningful connection.

It’s not easy. We don’t love others as naturally as we’d like.

So we are looking at the one who embodied the very nature of God...that is Christ...and how he loved in this world...how the love of God was reflected in the patterns of his life...which we can embrace as our own.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (MSG) ?Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. ....Observe how Christ loved us. ... Love like that.

And today... the pattern we are engaging is how to see others. Learning to see others as Jesus saw them.

Because the way we see people determines how we treat people.

Most of us may presume that we see people with respect and treat them well...but what about if they aren’t being kind to us? What if they are annoying... or offensive?

Or worse... if I don’t see what they can do or me...maybe I don’t see them at all.

So how does God see people? What did Jesus see? As the Biblical account of Matthew describes...

Matthew 9:36?When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew is telling us how Jesus saw the crowds. The crowds. Not the select. Not the special. But the crowds which represent the common nature of people like you and I...and everyone else in this world. We can assume such lives included the same offensive attitudes and behaviors that are common among human life.

There is no sense that they held much that Jesus could get from them... as he seemed to have already understood how the hearts of humanity would turn on him when any sense of transactional desires for power were deemed done with.

He sees these common lives with compassion. Compassion is not simply having pity for someone at a distance. It’s a word that speaks of actual connection. The word used here... translated as compassion... speaks of how another life is allowed to be taken in... and to affect us deep inside. It’s about bringing them in toward yourself.

It’s helpful to understand that it is not simply the opposite of seeing someone critically. It isn’t a matter of being blind to the problems in another person. Seeing with compassion is about seeing more that simply seeing with critical eyes. Seeing critically and seeing compassionately are not simply opposites but rather a matter of one being more fundamental than the other.

A parent may be critical of the child’s behavior...but they are more defined as a parent than a judge... more given to restore than to condemn.

And this is what we see in Jesus. [1] Jesus said...

“I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” – John 12:47

Jesus doesn’t dismiss the behavior of others... but he sees more than simply our behavior. He saw they were lost... they had wandered ...gone astray... like sheep without a shepherd... leaving themselves harassed and helpless.

He didn’t come to simply pronounce the judgment we face...but to provide the grace to come home.... and be who they were meant to be.

We have a great example of how Jesus saw someone...and related differently... which we can read an account of in the Gospel of Luke... 19:1-10

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2  A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3  He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4  So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5  When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." 6  So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7  All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.'" 8  But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." 9  Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."