To talk about Jesus is to hold in mind the one who predates the Creation for He is creator within the Communion of God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To talk about Jesus is to hold in mind the one who entered Creation as a participant with us in our common situation.
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
John 1:9-11, NIV
John holds that Jesus arrived in the world as the true light that gives light to everyone.
He was received like a superstar right? Like a long-lost son, right? Like a long-lost friend, right? Like a king?
No — in general folks missed Him. They missed the one who made them, the one who knows them best, the one who loves them. They missed Him.
They did not recognize the true worth, value, and weight of the who walked their streets.
I do not condemn them. Apart from God’s grace I would be in the same stupor — I would not have recognized the incredible glory, majesty, and beauty of Jesus.
Our Common Situation: seeing but not knowing
Jesus though, did not condemn them for not recognizing Him. Instead Jesus felt grief — many times he felt grief. (See Luke 19:41-44) He knows the full cost of our stupor, our blindness. We are already under a death sentence. His disciples were angry when Jesus was not recognized and welcomed. In their rage and indignation they wanted to call down fire from heaven. (See Luke 9:51-56) But Jesus, He rebuked His disciples.
The disciples give voice to what it’s like to be unrecognized, unappreciated, and unwelcomed. Jesus is familiar with the feeling and the pain of being under appreciated, unknown and rejected. Of course there were some who received him, whose hearts where opened by The Father and The Spirit to receive Him. (We will get to that in our Journey with John) But the pain of being the creator, the genius behind it all and not being recognized — Jesus knows.
It causes me to pause and recall C.S. Lewis’ insight about our human condition. We see with our eyes and then we don’t see. We too easily forget, ignore, or don’t even know about the unseen spiritual realities of this world and all our relationships. Too many folks live in a 3D world when they were made for a 4D world. You and I were created for a relationship with self, with people, with the stuff of earth AND for a relationship with God. All our relations are holy.
We all have blindspots when it comes to seeing people. Lewis writes:
It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.
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.
It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
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 whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn.
We must play.
But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, (HarperOne, 2001) pp. 45-46
Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.
Glorious Recognition
What would it have been like to have grown up with Jesus, watched his ministry, ignored His teaching, scorned him at his death as a felon, and then have to revaluate it all upon learning of His Resurrection?
O for the grace to say,
“Oh, look it! My neighbour Jesus, He was the holiest of all!”
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
I want to see Jesus. I want to see Jesus in all His glory: our Creator, Our Saviour, Our Lord, Your Beloved! Grant me the grace to see more. And in having recognized Jesus may I see all my neighbours with new eyes. May I long with Jesus for their full redemption and their glorious fellowship in your Communion. Oh come Lord Jesus — Shine on us.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
Such a true picture of our times as i myself am sometimes one of the unseen. So sad thats its easy for so many people to b blind to all thats atound them. Thanks again Craig. Im praying this gets to many & opens the eyes of many more.